Why your Bolt Food promotion is not showing to customers

Bolt Food gives restaurant operators an answer no other delivery platform we have examined puts in writing: sometimes the promotion is working and a customer still cannot see it, on purpose. The merchant portal carries the disclaimer “For some campaigns, a small group of users might not see this promotion, as part of campaign testing.” Before you reach that explanation there are two harder ones. Bolt blocks promotion creation outright when merchant metrics are too low, and blocks it again for a set period after a significant price increase, naming the date the ban lifts.

We do not publish a downtime figure for Bolt Food. Our July 2026 measurements cover the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, and Bolt Food trades elsewhere, so there is no number of ours that belongs on this page. What is worth checking instead is whether the menu carrying the promotion was ever published, since Bolt warns separately that “Your menu was changed! To have these changes visible to your customers, please, don’t forget to publish the menu.”

Does Bolt Food deliberately hide your promotion from some customers?

Yes, and it says so at the point of publication. The disclaimer sits below the publish button on the promotion review step and reads: “For some campaigns, a small group of users might not see this promotion, as part of campaign testing.” Source: the merchant portal’s own interface dictionary at foodpartner.bolt.eu.

This changes how a single report of a missing promotion should be handled. On every other platform in this category, one customer saying the discount is not there is evidence worth chasing. On Bolt Food it may be the platform measuring the campaign against a holdout group, which is standard practice in advertising and unusual to admit in a merchant interface. It also means a coverage check has to be done at the branch level across many customers rather than trusted from a single phone, since one device can legitimately be in the holdout.

Why does Bolt Food say you are not eligible to create new promotions?

Because promotion access on Bolt is conditional on operational metrics, and the portal states the block without naming the numbers: “Unfortunately, you are not eligible to create new promotions until your metrics reach the minimum level.” Bolt’s help centre says the same thing more gently, warning that “If you do not have this option in your portal, please contact your account manager. Kindly note that there are qualifying criteria to gain access to the feature.”

There are two further access rules an operator can trip without realising. Bolt states that “A new promotion can be set up every two weeks”, so a chain that reacts weekly to competitors will find the tool refuses on the off week. And ending a campaign early carries a penalty on future access: “Please note that if you discard a before its end date, you won’t be eligible to create new promotions.” The missing word is in Bolt’s own text. Targeting the best customer segment is gated commercially rather than operationally, since Bolt states that to run it “you need to switch to the increased commission package with a trial period up to 30 days”.

Why does a recent price increase disable Bolt Food promotions?

Because Bolt links the two and imposes a dated ban. The portal message reads: “You are not eligible to create {fullMenu} and {selectedItems} promotions, because you recently had a significant price increase. We’ve temporarily disabled these promotions for you until {banDate}. Please check again on this date, unless you make any further major price changes.” A campaign already scheduled is not spared, since a second message states “This promotion will be canceled, because you are not eligible to run such promotions until {banDate}, due to recent significant price increase.”

That second string is the dangerous one for a chain, because it describes a campaign disappearing after it was approved and scheduled. A menu price update rolled out across an estate can therefore cancel a promotion that head office believes is booked, and the cancellation is reported inside the portal rather than to whoever planned the campaign. Bolt does not publish what counts as significant or how long the ban runs.

What are the minimum requirements for a Bolt Food promotion?

Bolt publishes three, and all three are refusal conditions rather than advice. Its help centre states: “The following criteria must be met in order for us to activate your promotion: Include at least 3 items from the menu on promotion; Minimum duration of one week and a maximum of 30 days.” The portal adds a value floor and a city specific item ceiling, refusing with “Total value of selected items for discount should be more than {minimumTotalPrice} {currency}” and “You can select at most {maximumItemsCount} items to be discounted in order to create this Promotion”, the latter governed by a per city limit.

Individual items can also be excluded for reasons outside the operator’s control. Bolt marks these with “This item is not eligible for promotion according to local legislation and/or Bolt guidelines”, and a whole mechanic can be withdrawn, which the portal reports when a past promotion is copied: “This type of promotion was disabled for usage by Bolt”. The promotion types Bolt names are “Menu discounts” and “Free Delivery” in the portal, and in its campaign article “2X1”, “Free item”, “Special Menus” and percentage discounts on specific items, split into manual and automatic campaigns.

What happens when two Bolt Food promotions overlap?

The larger discount wins, and Bolt says so plainly: “if more than one promotion is running at the same time, the promotion with the higher discount will apply.” The builder tries to prevent the situation first, refusing with “There is already a promotion with overlapping dates. Please select other start/end dates” and “There is already a scheduled promotion with the same discount. Please select other promotion type.”

For a chain running a national campaign and a local one, that rule decides which budget gets spent without either owner being told. It is worth pairing with a timing quirk Bolt documents on the other side: “if the customer started the order during the promotion period it will include promotion when completed after the promotion ends”, so spend can land slightly after the campaign window closes. Bolt’s promotions also run whole days rather than part days, with the start “at 00:00 AM” and the end “at 23:59 PM”.

Why is a Bolt Food promotion missing at one franchise outlet?

Because Bolt does not treat a brand as one thing here, and warns customers about it directly: “Promotions are only available for limited times and may not always apply to other franchise outlets.” That is a customer facing article rather than a merchant one, which makes it useful, since it is the explanation a customer is given when they find the deal at one branch and not the next.

Bolt charges commission on the discounted amount, stating that “Our commission, or the Agency Fee is applied to the net sales value (after the discount’s applied). Delivery fee is paid by the customer and is not included in menu discounts”, and its price transparency notice puts the responsibility for what is displayed on the restaurant: “Please be aware that you are fully and solely responsible for the information shown in your menu, including prices and promotions.” Between a documented holdout group, a metrics gate, a price change ban and a franchise caveat, the only reliable check on Bolt Food is the storefront itself, across branches and across days. Kitchain (kitchain.co) records what each Bolt Food store page is actually showing daily, which is how a chain tells a campaign that was cancelled by a price rise apart from a campaign a single customer happened not to be shown.

For Bolt Food itself, its markets and its store states, see our profile at kitchain.co/aggregators/bolt/.