How to set up dynamic pricing with Pricing Rules

Dynamic pricing lets Zuru adjust the price travellers pay automatically, based on when they book, how big their group is, or the time of year. You set the rules once, and Zuru applies them at checkout on the Marketplace — no manual price changes needed. Your base price is never overwritten; rules simply adjust the price shown to the traveller.

Written By Zuru Travel

Last updated 4 days ago

Before you start

  • Pricing Rules is a Standard and Premium feature. If you're on the free/basic plan.

  • You need at least one experience created, since rules are attached to a specific experience.

How it works

Every experience keeps its base price. On top of that, you can add one or more pricing rules. When a traveller views the experience or reaches checkout, Zuru works out the best applicable price and shows it to them, alongside the original price so the saving is clear.

There are four rule types:

  • Early Bird — reward customers who book well in advance with a discount (for example, 15% off when they book 60+ days ahead).

  • Last Minute — fill remaining capacity by discounting unsold spots close to departure (for example, 20% off within 48 hours).

  • Seasonal — raise or lower prices for peak or off-peak date ranges (for example, +25% over the festive season).

  • Group Pricing — set different per-person prices by group size, so the per-person rate drops as the group grows.

Steps

1. Open Pricing Rules

Go to Sales & Operations > Pricing Rules in your dashboard sidebar. You'll see a list of all your experiences. Each one shows whether it has any rules yet — either a badge like Early Bird or Group Pricing, or No pricing rules.

Zuru Pricing Rules

2. Choose an experience

Find the experience you want to price and click Manage Rules on its row. A Manage Pricing Rules panel opens on the right, showing any Available Rules already set up and an option to add a new one.

You can also use the search box or the All Experiences filter at the top to find an experience quickly.

3. Add a rule

  1. Under Add New Rule, click Select rule type.

  2. Choose one: Early Bird, Last Minute, Seasonal, or Group Pricing.

  3. Fill in the configuration for that rule type (see below).

The Add New Rule dropdown showing the four rule types

4. Configure the rule

What you set depends on the rule type:

  • Early Bird — set the lead time (how many days before departure the customer must book) and the discount (a percentage or fixed amount). You can add more than one tier, for example 60+ days at 15% off and 30–59 days at 8% off.

  • Last Minute — set the trigger window before departure (for example, 48 hours) and the discount. Set a minimum price floor so the discount never drops below a profitable level.

  • Seasonal — set a named date range (for example, "Festive Season 2026: 15 Dec – 5 Jan") and either a percentage change or a fixed price for that period. Seasonal ranges can't overlap; Zuru warns you if a new one clashes with an existing rule.

  • Group Pricing — build a tiered table of per-person prices by group size, for example 1–4 people at R1,000, 5–10 at R900, and 11+ at R800.

5. Save the rule

Save the rule. It now appears under Available Rules for that experience and starts applying automatically at checkout. Repeat from step 3 to add more rules to the same experience.

How prices combine

Zuru doesn't stack every discount on top of each other. For time-based and group discounts, it applies the single rule that gives the traveller the best price, so customers never see two discounts compounded unexpectedly.

Seasonal pricing takes priority on the dates it covers — during an active peak-season rule, Early Bird and Last Minute discounts don't apply, so you don't accidentally discount your busiest dates.

What travellers see

When a rule is active, the Marketplace makes the deal clear to travellers:

  • The standard price is shown with a line through it next to the new price, with the saving highlighted (for example, R1,000 R850 — you save R150).

  • Group Pricing updates the total live as the traveller changes the guest count, dropping the per-person rate when they cross a tier.

  • Last Minute and Early Bird deals carry labels and urgency messages, such as "Last Minute Deal — 20% off" or "Only 2 spots left at the Early Bird price."

Tips

  • Start with one rule per experience and check how it behaves before layering on more. It's easier to see the effect of each rule that way.

  • Always set a minimum price floor on Last Minute rules so a quiet departure doesn't get discounted below what's worthwhile.

  • Give Seasonal rules clear names and check the date ranges don't overlap — overlaps are the most common cause of a price not behaving as expected.