Integrations (OTA's + Apps)

Owned by David McAuley (Unlicensed)
Last updated: 16-07-2020
3 min read

Connecting Online Travel Agents to your RTBS Central Reservation System - Overview:

Online Travel Agent (OTA) Connections as at July 2020: Adrenalin, Backpacker Deals​, ​Bookeasy​, ​BookMe, ​Expedia​, Get Your Guide​, IBIS, Klook, LIVN Holidays, Must Do New Zealand, See and Do New Zealand, Viator/TripAdvisor Experiences, plus a number of Chinese Agents.

Each OTA platform is different as well as the connection with RTBS. However there are some common elements listed below that an Operator must understand in order to maintain a successful booking connection as well as notes on next steps when a booking has not come through as expected.

Preparing to work with an Online Travel AgentChecklist:

  1. First make sure your products setup in RTBS are going to map to OTA easily:

  2. Have Consistent Pricing between both platforms, whatever you have setup in RTBS needs to match exactly to what is in the OTA.

  3. Consistent Start Times throughout the week/month/season (where possible) so when the OTAs pull session times from RTBS they match the times on the OTA.

  4. Establish a commercial agreement with the Agent

  5. Set up products within the Agent account/website portal (product information, pricing, scheduled times, minimum pax requirements.

  6. Find the option in your OTA setup to connect your product availability to your reservation system -> select RTBS.

  7. Map products within the Agent account to RTBS (connection setup between the OTA and RTBS generally follows a mapping process of the activities on the OTA portal and on the RTBS Integrations menu

  8. Then, where applicable map your products and price types in RTBS to that OTA (Setup your Business -> Integrations). It may be that the mapping process is just done by the OTA support team after the requested connection settings are switched on so just notify RTBS Support that product setup and mapping is complete in the OTA portal.

  9. Once the Activity Products are linked through the connection between RTBS and the OTA, the availability of the chosen selection on the OTA is called through from RTBS.

  10. If new Activities, Price Types, Price Schedules or Master Schedules are added or changed in RTBS, these will not update automatically in the OTA site.

  11. The Operator will always need to update Activity names, Pricing, Schedules, Descriptions, and images on the OTA site if changed in RTBS and Vice-Versa.

  12. New capabilities, functionality and enhancements are being developed by the OTAs which will connect more product information however, by default an operator should login into their customer OTA portal and check/update the information where required so that the connection does not break. The OTA customer support should also be able to confirm the latest on what information needs to be updated on their website in tandem with the changes made in the operator's RTBS Central Reservation System.

  13. For More information about connecting with a particular OTA please contact RTBS Support.

IMPORTANT - Future changes to product or scheduled departures structure:

Prior to any changes to your product structure in RTBS, an operator should either contact their OTA Supplier Support contact directly or login to their OTA customer portal to make the changes. Changing your product structure in RTBS without also mirroring the changes on your OTA's platform could possibly break the mapping and cause bookings to fail. Changes include but not limited to:
Adding/Removing/Updating Price Types/Price Schedules (e.g. Adult, Child, Infant, etc.), Adding/Removing/Updating Master Schedules (e.g. 9am departure, 2pm departure, etc.).
Updating availability type between On Demand/Free sell & Scheduled Departures with Limited Capacity Adding/Removing/Updating Booking Conditions (e.g. min/max Price Types per Booking/Trip Booking period cutoff times ahead.

Troubleshooting connection issues - please do the following first:
Check your RTBS product configuration: Activity, Price Type/Price Schedule, Master Schedule settings are correct and Integration mapping screen (if applicable) is correctly mapped). Check Booking Cutoff periods correct and min/max settings?
Then check your configuration in your OTA client portal, to make sure the product is active, configuration is correct (as above) & products mapped.

 

Connecting Apps and enabling functionality for your RTBS Central Reservation System - Overview: As at July 2020: Google Calendar, Mailchimp, Wherewolf, IdealPOS​, SwiftPos, ​MYOB, XERO, Google Analytics / E-Commerce Tracking, Facebook Pixel Tracking, Facebook Booking link.

Please contact RTBS Support to discuss setup.