TripConnect by TripAdvisor
The new interface to TripAdvisor lets hotels get direct bookings from the biggest and most popular tourist website. Clock provides the new interface completely free of charge to all its clients using its web reservation system (WRS). The business model applied by TripAdvisor is similar to that of Google ads, i.e. pay per click. Detailed information about TripAdvisor prices can be found on their website. TripConnect is not a typical OTA interface. Rather, it is a direct link to the web booking engine of the hotel.
- Here is how the interface works:
- Clients looking for information about hotel X in TripAdvisor see its prices in large booking portals (Booking.com, Expedia.com, etc.)
- If the hotel uses TripConnect, clients will also see the prices listed in the hotel website (in its web reservation system).
- To do this, TripAdvisor asks the hotel WRS in real time for prices and availability for the period defined by the client.
- The hotel WRS sends back accommodation availability.
- Clients select a product (room type/rate)
- TripAdvisor redirects clients to the hotel WRS and sends the parameters defined by them (period, room type, rate, etc.).
- Clients see the same product they have selected in TripAdvisor and can complete their booing in the hotel WRS.
- Such bookings use the same guarantee and confirmation letters as standard WRS bookings.
- Required settings:
The settings required are very few and very simple.- In main menu Web select TripConnect by TripAdvisor.
- Fill in the details of your hotel as they are in TripAdvisor. TripAdvisor will use them to link its hotel listing with the hotel WRS.
- Save.
- To give more details about your rates (those used in your WRS), fill in the additional information form for each of them.
- Click 'Add rate' and fill in the form as required by TripAdvisor.
!!! The form does not define which rates are shown in TripAdvisor! TripAdvisor shows all rates used in your WRS. The form just gives more information about them! - When all steps have been have completed, click 'Activate'. To stop sending data to TripAdvisor, click 'Deactivate'.
- Information about TripConnect :
PMS
- Setting price manually (Fast Rate) The manual setting of prices (without using fixed rates) has been optimized in several aspects:
- Price can be set manually on booking creation. Click button Fast Rate (below Rate) and fill in the fields.
- The function can also be used in the following cases: creating bookings for more than one room, editing bookings, mass editing of more than one booking (multi-select) in all search screens (Arrivals, Departures, In hotel, etc.).
- Beside setting a price, you can now set automated charging of city tax. Specify if city tax should be charged and whether it is included in the price or must be added to it. The value of the city tax is calculated automatically depending on setting 'City tax' in Settings.
- Rate restrictions.Two new rate restrictions have been added: min adults and min children. They can be used in the WRS so that only rates that match exactly the adults/children combination are shown. Also, they can be used as a yield management tool. In busy seasons the required min occupancy can be raised to increase the revenue.
- ParityRate: city tax. The import from ParityRate can now charge city tax, too. The amount of the tax is defined by the Clock PMS rate to which the import refers.
- Registration cards: history search. Registration cards of booking holder profiles can now be copied from the booking preview screen.
- Electronic signature: full screen.
- For easier signing of registration cards or restaurant bills (in Clock POS) the e-signature is now shown in full screen. This is also convenient for graphic tablets (as periphery) when used for signing registration cards.
- Room Calendar. Two new additions to make the data in the calendar more detailed and useful:
- information about the number of bookings without assigned rooms for each date;
- the total number of free rooms, considering all bookings and blocks.
- Advanced search. Added filter for searching bookings without assigned room. OTA bookings are imported with a room type only and this is a problem for hotels preferring to work with assigned rooms. The new filter makes it easy to find booking for future periods which have no rooms assigned to them.
- Export folio to file. The new function allows custom exports of folios/invoices so they can be printed out on forms on dot matrix printers, for example.
- Confirmation letters: removed .pdf option. Clients reported confusing the .pdf file with a second confirmation. The problem was most apparent on iOS devices, where the .pdf was shown directly after the e-mail body.
- Default language. The automated e-mails (before arrival and after departure) use the language of the booking. If there is no special language set for it, they use the new default language setting. To set the default language, go to Settings – Languages and Texts and tick your preferred default language.
- Fixed bugs:
- Fixed bug in the localization of the hour vs. the account time zone. The problem affected some reports, among which the Payment Report, which used UTF time zone instead of the account one.
- Fixed bug in the WRS confirmations of bookings paid via WorldPay. If users closed the payment window in their browser too soon, they did not receive confirmation letters even though their payments were registered and their bookings were created.
- City tax (percentage) included in the price. The formula for calculating the city tax included in the price has been corrected.
- WRS: the rates in the rate selection screen in WRS are now sorted alphabetically.
- Registration cards: some of the fields could not be disabled for printing.
- Bookings: button Confirmation looked wrong if there were no languages defined.
- Available rooms list and auto assignment: in certain cases free rooms were not offered for assignment if the new arrival coincided with a departure from them.