How to Set Up Coupons in WP Travel Engine

Create discount coupons for your trips, restrict them by departure date or specific trips, cap redemptions, and promote them with a site-wide banner.

Coupons give your travelers a discount code to enter at checkout. You can use them for early booking offers, slow-season promotions, referral deals, or special rates for selected trips. For example, if you run a 5-day trek, you might offer EARLY10 to give travelers 10% off when they book a spring departure.

Prerequisites

Before you start, make sure WP Travel Engine is ready on your site.

WP Travel Engine is installed and activated on your WordPress site. WP Travel Engine is a plugin, which means it is a small add-on that adds travel booking features to WordPress.
You have updated WP Travel Engine to the latest version.
You can log in to your WordPress dashboard. This is the main admin area of your site. You will find WP Travel Engine in the left sidebar.

Once that is in place, you are ready to create your first coupon.

Adding a coupon

What you'll need before you start: log in to your WordPress dashboard and keep your offer details ready, such as the coupon code, discount amount, and the trips or dates you want to include.

Open the coupon creation screen

This is where you create and manage all your discount offers.

In your WordPress dashboard, go to WP Travel Engine > Coupons from the left sidebar. Then click Add New Coupon at the top of the page.

If you already have other coupons, you will see them listed here too. You are now in the right place to create a new one.

Set the coupon name

Give the coupon a name that makes sense to you later.

Enter an internal name such as "Summer 2026 Promo" or "Autumn Trek Discount." Travelers do not see this name. It is only for you and your team when you look at the coupon list.

This helps when you are running more than one offer at the same time. For example, you might have one coupon for a day hike and another for a multi-day trekking package.

Set the coupon code

This is the code your traveler will type during checkout.

Enter a code such as SUMMER25, EARLYBIRD, or GROUPSAVE. The code must be unique, which means you cannot reuse a code that already belongs to another coupon.

Pick something short and easy to read. A traveler is more likely to enter TREK10 correctly than a long code with many numbers.

The code is case-insensitive for travelers at checkout, but enter it here in the format you want it to appear.

Choose the discount type

This setting controls how the price is reduced. It is worth getting right before you publish the coupon.

Choose one of these options:

Fixed ($) - Takes off a set amount from the booking total. Enter that amount in Discount Amount.
Percentage (%) - Takes off a percentage of the booking total. Enter that percentage in Discount Amount.

Here is a real example. Say you run a 3-day trek that costs $500. A fixed $50 discount takes $50 off every booking. A 10% discount also takes $50 off at that price. But if you later raise the trip price to $600, the 10% discount becomes $60, while the fixed discount stays at $50.

Fixed discounts are useful when you want to control the exact amount you give away. Percentage discounts are useful when your trip prices vary.

Set the coupon start date and expiry date

These dates control when the coupon can be used.

Coupon Start Date is the day the coupon becomes active. If you leave it blank, WP Travel Engine uses the date you created the coupon.

Coupon Expiry Date is the day the coupon stops working. Leave it blank if you want the coupon to stay active until you turn it off yourself.

This is useful for seasonal promotions. For example, you might run a New Year offer that starts on January 1 and ends on January 15.

For time-limited promotions, always set an expiry date. Coupons without one stay active indefinitely unless you manually deactivate them.

Restrict the coupon to specific departure dates (optional)

Use this when you want the discount to apply only to trips leaving within a certain travel period.

Turn on Trip Date Restriction. Two date fields will appear:

Trip Starts After - The earliest departure date that can use the coupon.
Trip Starts Before - The latest departure date that can use the coupon.

For example, if you want to fill seats on February and March departures, set Trip Starts After to February 1 and Trip Starts Before to March 31. The traveler can book at any time, but the trip itself must depart inside that date range.

This works well for shoulder season offers, holiday departures, or off-peak group tours.

This restriction is based on the trip's departure date, not the date the traveler books. A traveler booking in January can still use the coupon if their trip departs in February.

Limit the coupon to specific trips (optional)

Use this if the offer should only apply to certain tours.

In Allow Coupon Use For, click the dropdown and choose one or more trips by name. Leave this blank if you want the coupon to work across all trips on your site.

For example, you might offer a discount only on your Everest Base Camp trek, but not on your private day tours or gear rental add-ons. This setting helps you keep each promotion focused.

Set a coupon usage limit (optional)

This helps you control how many times a deal can be used.

Enter a number in the usage limit field to cap total redemptions. Once that number is reached, the coupon stops working automatically.

For example, if you want to reward the first 20 bookings for a new departure, enter 20. Leave the field blank if you do not want to set a limit.

Promote it with a site-wide banner (optional)

This is useful if you want visitors to see the offer before they reach checkout.

Turn on Site-wide Banner to show the coupon in a promotional bar across your site. Then enter your message in Banner Message.

In the message, use code and value as placeholders by entering them as {code} and {value} inside the field. WP Travel Engine replaces them with the real coupon code and discount value when the banner appears.

For example, your message might read: Book your spring trek now and use SPRING15 to save 15%.

Choose a Background Color and Text Color that stand out from your header. If the colors blend in, visitors may miss the offer.

You must enter the Banner Message. The banner will not appear with the placeholder text left blank.

Publish the coupon

This is the step that makes the coupon live.

After you finish the settings you want, click Publish. Your coupon is now active and ready for travelers to use at checkout.

If you want to test it, open one of your trips and go through the booking process until checkout. Enter the code and confirm the discount appears as expected.

Editing a coupon

You can come back and update a coupon at any time.

Go to WP Travel Engine > Coupons in your WordPress dashboard. You will see a list of all existing coupons. The list shows the coupon code, discount value, usage count, expiration date, and current status.

To make changes, move your mouse over the coupon name and click Edit. This is useful if you want to change the discount, extend the end date, raise the usage limit, or turn a seasonal offer back on later.

Now that you know where to edit coupons, the next section covers the most common problems people run into.

Troubleshooting

The coupon code isn't working at checkout

Check that the coupon is Published and not expired. Then check the Coupon Start Date, Coupon Expiry Date, and usage limit. If the coupon has a date restriction, make sure the trip departure date falls inside that allowed range.

Make sure Site-wide Banner is turned on and that Banner Message is filled in. Then clear your site cache and refresh the page. A cache is a saved version of your page that helps it load faster, but it can also keep old content showing for a while.

My coupon is applying to trips I didn't want it to

Open the coupon and review Allow Coupon Use For. If that field is blank, the coupon can apply to all trips. Also check Trip Date Restriction in case the date settings are broader than you meant.

The discount amount looks wrong

Check whether the coupon is set to Fixed ($) or Percentage (%). Then confirm the number in Discount Amount matches what you intended. A fixed value of 10 means $10 off, while a percentage value of 10 means 10% off.

I set a usage limit and the coupon stopped working

The usage limit counts all successful uses of that coupon. Check the usage count on the WP Travel Engine > Coupons list page. If the limit has been reached, edit the coupon and raise the number or remove the limit.

The coupon works for some trips but not others

Check whether those trips were selected in Allow Coupon Use For. Then review the Trip Date Restriction settings. A traveler may be booking a valid trip, but the departure date may be outside the allowed date window.

FAQs

Can a traveler use more than one coupon on a single booking?

No. Only one coupon code can be applied per booking.

What happens when a coupon reaches its usage limit?

The coupon stops accepting new redemptions automatically. You can raise the limit or remove it later by editing the coupon.

Can I offer a coupon for a specific departure date rather than a date range?

Yes. Enter the same date in both Trip Starts After and Trip Starts Before. That limits the coupon to one specific departure date.

Will an expired coupon still show in the list?

Yes. Expired coupons stay on the list with an Inactive status. You can reactivate them later or delete them if you no longer need them.

Does the usage limit reset if I edit the coupon?

No. The usage count reflects real redemptions. Editing the coupon settings does not reset that count.

Can I offer different coupons for different trips at the same time?

Yes. Create a separate coupon for each offer and use Allow Coupon Use For to assign each coupon to specific trips. This works well if you want one promotion for a day tour and another for a longer trekking package.

How do I turn off a coupon without deleting it?

Edit the coupon and change its status to inactive, or set an expiry date that has already passed. This lets you stop the offer without removing the coupon record from your site.

Will coupons work with my payment gateway?

Yes. The coupon is applied before payment. The discounted total is calculated at checkout no matter which payment method the traveler chooses.

If you're still stuck or have a question we didn't cover, our support team is happy to help. Reach out at our support page and we'll get you sorted.

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