Overview
The TourCMS connection to Expedia:
- Gives Expedia access to your TourCMS availability
When you close in TourCMS and it closes on Expedia - Enables Expedia to ask TourCMS "Can we sell XYZ on this date"?
If TourCMS says no, Expedia won't sell it - Receives bookings and cancellations from Expedia into TourCMS
No more entering bookings yourself manually. This also immediately adjusts your remaining availability on that date
Tour descriptions, images, prices and contract terms are not handled by Expedia API at this time and so are not impacted by this TourCMS/Expedia capability. Please continue to liaise with your Expedia Destination Manager to manage those features.
Note: TourCMS works with Expedia using departures (in TourCMS), not freesale or hotel product types.
In more detail
Voucher redemption
The Expedia Ticket IDs are imported. Some TourCMS powered redemption services can use these ticket IDs to validate Expedia vouchers in live time.
Pickups
Expedia does not currently collect pickup information
Cancellation
TourCMS will cancel bookings on receipt of a cancellation notice from Expedia. (TourCMS will email / SMS staff setup to receive flag notifications for booking cancellations)
A booking canceled in TourCMS does NOT automatically cancel in Expedia. Please contact Expedia Supplier Support at lxhelp@expedia.com to initiate a customer refund.
Adding & removing dates
Expedia will check TourCMS system for closed dates several times in a day and updates the Expedia system with the latest availability. There can up to a 4-hour delay in the inventory being taken off the search results served to Expedia’s customer due to caching on Expedia’s website.
Closing date in TourCMS immediately stops new bookings coming in via Expedia.
Sub-system live availability
If you are connecting TourCMS upstream of your existing reservation system, TourCMS will check for live availability with your system at the "create sale" stage of the Expedia booking flow. i.e. not the "availability" stage
Expedia only tours
Tours set to Private in TourCMS can be mapped in Expedia as with any other tour, there is no difference. This means you can have a tour bookable on Expedia that is not in the TourCMS API
Importantly, this means that it is not possible to switch a tour off on Expedia simply by setting it to "Private" in TourCMS, instead you should contact Expedia and amend the mapping.
Tours set to private in this way will NOT appear on mapping/configuration tools that TourCMS has built for Expedia (however they are mappable manually)
Troubleshooting
To see more information on exactly what Expedia is sending go to the Audit trail on a booking in TourCMS, there you can see the full data that Expedia sent.
Setup
Project process
- You have a commercial deal with Expedia to distribute your products via them
- Set up your products in the Expedia Supplier Extranet
- Connect to the TourSift Agent in the TourCMS Marketplace (as a "Trusted travel agent")
- Connect to Expedia's Agent ID 35232 in the TourCMS Marketplace (as a "Trusted travel agent")
- Set up an API key for Expedia in Homepage -> Configuration -> Systsem & Setup -> Expedia logo ->Expedia API key
6. Send an email to your local Expedia managed and request mapping on their system with the tours you have made available via the TourCMS Marketplace
7.Conduct a test booking to check proper flow.
Important notes
Channel choice currently only impacts which channel a booking is assigned to.
Travel agent connection: The bulk of the connection will be configured by TourCMS support, however, you must ensure you leave the Expedia agent as a Trusted travel agent so bookings come in immediately confirmed.
- Tour operator notifications TourCMS can be configured to send you a notification when it stores an Expedia booking. You will also receive booking notifications via email from Expedia by default. You can contact your Expedia Destination Manager or log into the Local Expert Partner Central to turn off Expedia notifications
- Customer notifications (sent to your customers) - TourCMS has globally turned off the Expedia travel agent from sending new booking notification emails TO YOUR CUSTOMERS. This is because Expedia will send an email to your customers (sent via their own system), rather than you, and we don't want the customer to receive two emails at the same time.