Selling gift vouchers for your B&B: direct commission-free revenue and cash flow in the low season

Picture this: it's mid-November, your calendar for December and January is half empty, and you could use some extra cash to get through the winter. There's one product that solves exactly that, and most B&B operators leave it on the table: the gift voucher.

A gift voucher is a special kind of sale. Someone pays you today for a stay that will only be taken months later — or sometimes never. No platform takes a commission on it. The money lands in your account straight away. And every voucher you sell brings someone new into your house that you might otherwise never have reached. This article explains why gift vouchers are worth their weight in gold, which types exist, how to price and account for them correctly, and how to sell them without much effort.

Why a gift voucher is worth its weight in gold

Four reasons make the gift voucher one of the most attractive sales a B&B can make:

• Zero commission. A booking through Booking.com quickly costs you 15 to 18% in commission. A gift voucher you sell yourself costs you nothing to any middleman. It's direct revenue in its purest form.
• Cash flow up front. You get paid before you have to wash a single set of sheets. For a seasonal business that's a huge advantage: you sell in December, and the stay itself falls in a quiet month you would have had to bridge anyway. That's exactly why gift vouchers fit so well into a low-season strategy.
• New guests. The buyer is rarely the guest. Someone gives your B&B as a present to a relative or friend — and that person probably didn't know you yet. So a gift voucher is word-of-mouth marketing you actually get paid for.
• Breakage. A share of the vouchers sold is never redeemed. That sounds harsh, but it's the reality of every gift-card business. Those unused vouchers are, once the validity has lapsed and provided you follow the rules correctly, pure margin.

Two types of voucher: choose deliberately

There are broadly two ways to shape a gift voucher, and they attract a different kind of buyer.

The value voucher. A voucher for a fixed amount — €100, €150, €250 — that the recipient can spend freely on a stay. Flexible, easy to sell, and the buyer doesn't need to know which room or date the recipient wants. This is the safest option to start with.

The experience voucher. A voucher for a specific package: "two nights with breakfast and a bottle of cava" or "a midweek in the low season for two". This voucher feels more personal and more luxurious, and lets you sell your upsells right away. The downside: it's less flexible, and you need to cost the package carefully.

Many operators offer both: a value voucher for the undecided, and one or two attractive experience packages for those looking for something special.

Price, validity and the fine print

A gift voucher needs a few clear agreements, otherwise it comes back to you as a boomerang later.

• Give a generous validity. At least one year is reasonable and common. A short expiry date feels stingy and leads to unhappy recipients who are just too late. Respect the consumer rules that apply in your country — have your accountant or business association brief you briefly on this.
• Be clear about the conditions. Does the voucher also apply in high season? On public holidays? Is it transferable? Can any remaining balance be used later? Put it in one short paragraph on the voucher itself, so there's no argument afterwards.
• Cost an experience voucher honestly. If you sell "two nights with breakfast" for a fixed price, factor in the daily rate of the date the recipient eventually picks. If you work with dynamic pricing, make it explicit that the voucher stands for the package, not for an amount.

Important: a sold voucher isn't revenue yet

This is where many operators go wrong. When you sell a gift voucher, you haven't delivered anything yet. In accounting terms that money is a prepayment — a liability to the guest — and only at the moment the voucher is redeemed for a stay does it become real revenue.

For VAT too, a gift voucher for an overnight stay is generally due only on redemption, not on sale. The exact treatment depends on the type of voucher and your situation, so have your accountant confirm it — it's precisely the kind of detail where a mistake only bites a year later. In any case, make sure your system distinguishes between "vouchers sold but not yet redeemed" and "real revenue from redeemed vouchers".

How to sell them without much effort

Gift vouchers don't sell themselves — you have to make them visible at the right moment:

1. Put them on your own website, next to your booking widget, with a "Give a stay as a gift" button.
2. Peak around the holidays. November and December are the months for gift vouchers. Mother's Day, Valentine's and birthdays are opportunities too.
3. Mention them in your guest communication. A happy departing guest is the perfect buyer of a voucher for someone else — a line in your departure email works surprisingly well.
4. Make the voucher beautiful. A polished PDF with your logo that the buyer can forward or print straight away feels like a real gift — a bare payment confirmation doesn't.

Where BedFlow PMS makes the difference

In BedFlow PMS you sell gift vouchers directly through your own commission-free channel, with a tidy voucher the buyer receives immediately. More importantly: the system keeps a sold voucher separate from your real revenue, so your figures and invoicing stay correct and you don't accidentally book an outstanding voucher as revenue. On redemption you link the voucher to a booking, and only then does the amount shift into revenue — exactly the way your accountant wants to see it.

Because everything sits in the same system as your calendar and your direct bookings, you can see at a glance how many vouchers are still outstanding, which ones expire soon, and how much prepaid revenue is in your pipeline. That turns a gift voucher from a nice extra into a steerable part of your cash flow.

In short

• A gift voucher is commission-free, prepaid revenue — ideal for bridging the low season.
• Choose between a flexible value voucher and a more personal experience voucher; many operators offer both.
• Give a generous validity (at least a year) and state the conditions clearly on the voucher.
• Remember: a sold voucher is a liability, not revenue — it only counts on redemption. Have the VAT treatment confirmed by your accountant.
• Sell them actively around the holidays and in your guest communication, with a nicely designed voucher.

Want to sell gift vouchers that stay neatly separate from your revenue and link automatically to a booking? Check the pricing, read the documentation or try BedFlow PMS free for 30 days — no credit card required.