A queue of printouts on a sunny Saturday
At the gate of your castle, a family hands over a printed 2-for-1 voucher from a rail offer. The next family show a code on their phone from a local hotel partnership. The couple behind have a newspaper voucher that expired last week, and the family after that have a loyalty scheme card.
Each needs a different check. The gate staff member glances at each, does her best and presses the same 'discount' button on the till. Two schemes want a copy of the voucher kept. They go in a box.
At the end of the season, the marketing manager is asked whether the rail offer is worth continuing. Nobody can say how many people used it.
Why partner offers are hard to manage
Each scheme has its own rules: which ticket types, which dates, whether a voucher must be printed, whether you must keep it and what, if anything, the partner pays you. They are agreed by marketing and forgotten by the time the season starts.
At the gate, speed matters more than checking. Staff cannot remember the rules for a dozen schemes, so vouchers are accepted on trust.
The till records a discount, not a scheme, so the data that would tell you what each scheme is worth never exists.
Online, the picture is often worse: one promo code field, shared codes that circulate on deal websites, and no link back to the original partner.
What unmanaged offers cost
| Gap | Consequence |
|---|---|
| Rules held in marketing | Vouchers accepted outside their terms |
| One discount button | No record of which scheme was used |
| Codes shared online | Discounts given far beyond the partnership |
| Paper vouchers in a box | Partner claims hard to make or check |
| No scheme reporting | Renewals decided on gut feeling |
Each scheme recognised, checked and counted
We add a partner offers layer to your till and online ticketing.
- Each scheme is set up with its rules: eligible tickets, valid dates, one-use or reusable codes and what evidence you must keep.
- At the gate, staff scan or type the voucher code, or pick the scheme and photograph a paper voucher on a tablet. The system checks the rules and applies the right discount.
- Online, each partner gets unique or limited-use codes, so a code shared on a deal site stops working once it has been used as agreed.
- Every use is recorded against the scheme, with date, tickets and discount given.
- Where a partner pays you per redemption, a statement is produced for them from the records.
- A report shows each scheme's redemptions, the discount given, the spend of those visitors where your till links it, and how many were first-time visitors.
Cases we plan for
- Schemes that exclude peak dates: the gate is told why a voucher is not valid today.
- Vouchers combined with other offers, which your rules allow or block.
- Partners who change terms mid-season, with new rules from a date.
- Visitors whose phone will not show the code: staff can look it up by name or email if the scheme allows.
The end of the season, afterwards
The marketing manager opens the scheme report. The rail offer brought steady weekday visitors. The newspaper offer was used mostly by existing pass holders. One partner code spread online and was capped. Decisions about next year are made from records, not memory.
- Every voucher checked against its scheme's rules
- Online codes that cannot run away
- Redemptions recorded per scheme
- Evidence for keeping or dropping each partnership
Do partner offers work like this for you?
- Gate staff check vouchers by eye.
- All discounts go through one till button.
- Paper vouchers are kept in a box.
- Promo codes appear on deal websites.
- You cannot say what each partnership brings in.