Expedia

A leading provider of global activities and destination experiences, Expedia offers expertise and assistance in booking events, activities, tours, attractions, ground transportation and other services to consumers in over a thousand destinations around the world. Drawing from a rich portfolio of thousands of tours and adventures across the globe, these services are available online, over the phone and face-to-face at one of our many concierge and activity desks in more than 100 hotels and other retail locations worldwide.

The clients will need to have an account on Expedia with a backend extranet to manage their activities such as creating new tours, uploading images and content, loading prices and applying them to rate calendar. To sign up on Expedia.com send the clients here. This partnership allows Expedia to pull live availability from FareHarbor, so the clients do not need to manage their availabilities manually on API extranet, and the bookings made on these partners will flow into their FareHarbor dashboard automatically.

Here is an example of what the booking will look like. You will see Expedia (Expedia .com) tagged as the affiliate. You will also see the booking was made using the Expedia.com API.

To see if a client is live on the API, check Close for the custom field “Connectivity-Live”. If the company is live on the API, Expedia will be selected.

• Expedia has the ability to collect transportation and additional customer information.

  • The transportation info will come through to the transportation custom field.

    

  • If the hotel does not match a hotel in FareHarbor exactly, it will come through in the Activity section at the bottom of the booking. The same as any other additional customer information.
  • This is not yet enabled for all suppliers. If you are unsure if a supplier has transportation enabled please ping @connectivity_team.
• Expedia.com does send through email and phone number, but only some emails are sent automatically:
  • Confirmation emails are sent, but they are sent from Expedia and not FareHarbor
  • Review Express emails are NOT sent because Expedia and TripAdvisor are competitors
  • Follow-up emails from FareHarbor are sent
  • Reminder emails are NOT sent
  • Cancellation emails are NOT sent to the charter from Expedia when cancellations are made through Expedia. However, the charter may subscribe to cancellation notification emails in FareHarbor, which will notify them when Expedia cancels a booking.
• Can cancel through the API according to the cancellation policy set up on Expedia supplier portal.
• Can book into unlisted items
• Can book into unlisted availabilities
• Can scan QR codes for individual customers (if QR code scanning is enabled)

We are very hands-off in connecting to the Expedia API. The Expedia Connectivity Team does the final connecting, but we do take an active role in creating mapping files for Expedia. If you have a question about the status of an integration, check the Connectivity Team’s Master AirTable, Zendesk or with @connectivity_team.

1. Check if the client has an account on Expedia with active products. If not, please send them this link to sign up on Expedia: https://join.localexpertpartnercentral.com/signup
2. If a company is signing up with Expedia, please ask them to let their Expedia representative know that they are working with FareHarbor and would like to get connected

If a client is inquiring about getting a new tour or new start time connected to the API, fill out the API Mapping Request Form.

How to disconnect the API connection or disconnect certain products

• Remember that Expedia is an all or nothing connection, so all tours that are built out in Expedia must be connected to the API. If someone doesn’t want to connect a tour it would have to be put on stop sell in Expedia.
• We can disconnect them from the API by removing permissions from the dashboard, but customers will still be able to book the activities through Expedia unless they are deactivated there.
• Submit an API Mapping Request Form if a client wants to get disconnected on Expedia.com.

• Adding or removing customer types (seasonal, API customer types etc)
• If there are changes made to a start time of an availability
• If the client deletes/closes an availability. This doesn’t “break” the connection, but does make the availability no longer available on TripAdvisor/Viator.
• Changing the bookability of availabilities or items (changing to private, call-to-book or closed and hidden) will also make these products unavailable to the API Partner. Note: Expedia.com can book into unlisted items and availabilities
• Combining items or creating a new item to replace the current one.

Submit and make sure to fill out every field, with as much detail as possible, in the API Mapping Request Form.

How much does a supplier have to pay for this integration?

The initial setup is free for the supplier. Expedia then takes a negotiated commission percentage on every sale made through the API.

How frequently does Expedia pull availabilities from FareHarbor?

Expedia.com does a general availability call once daily for the upcoming 330 days.

Can a supplier have multiple FareHarbor dashboards or multiple accounts on Expedia? How does it work?

Yes!

One Expedia account v.s. Multiple FareHarbor Dashboards

We can combine the dashboards by adding one as an external company in one Expedia mapping file.

One FareHarbor dashboard v.s. Multiple Expedia accounts

We can create separate mappings on the same dashboard for each individual Expedia account.

How do cancellations and refunds work?

Expedia bookings can be cancelled through API according to the cancellation policy set up on Expedia supplier portal to free up the availability on FareHarbor. However, bookings have to be cancelled on Expedia. Since all payments are collected by Expedia, any refunds will need to be issued by Expedia.com.

How do amendments to a booking work?

Amendments will come through the Expedia API; all changes made on Expedia bookings will be updated on FareHarbor.

Can a client have a different currency on Expedia on FareHarbor?

No, Expedia API does not allow the currency to be different.

I have different language options – does that work?

Specific language customer types or separate items with different languages need to be created on FareHarbor, and even language availabilities and all the same availabilities if it is applicable. Meanwhile, the clients will also need to build out separate language options for each individual language they would like to offer on Expedia.