Integrations
Travel and hospitality
How the agent sees and changes real reservations, including those made through online travel agencies, within your rate and fare rules.
On this page
Travel never closes, and most of what guests and passengers ask depends on a real reservation: can I change my dates, is breakfast included, what are my options now my flight is cancelled. Connecting the agent to your booking and reservation systems lets it see the actual reservation and change it within the rules that apply to it, at any hour, in the guest's language. Many of your reservations arrive through online travel agencies, so the agent works with those bookings too. Connections to booking and reservation systems are configured during implementation.
What connecting your reservation systems lets the agent do
| Ability | What it means for you | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Answer booking enquiries | Availability, rates and packages, from your systems | "A deluxe room is available for those dates on a flexible rate" |
| Change and cancel within the rules | The agent makes the change the rate or fare permits, from request to confirmation | Arrival moved from Thursday to Friday on a flexible rate |
| Rebook within fare rules | During delays and cancellations, the agent offers and completes only the options the fare permits | A passenger moved to the next departure their fare allows |
| Issue vouchers within policy | Meal or hotel vouchers within your limits; anything outside them goes to a person | A meal voucher for a passenger delayed overnight |
| Handle multi-leg itineraries | A trip with several parts is treated as one thing | A tour with three hotels and a transfer, changed as one itinerary |
| Pre-arrival requests | Transfers, early check-in and special requests added to the stay | An airport transfer added to a reservation |
Integrations in this category
| Integration | Type | What the connection covers |
|---|---|---|
| Booking.com | Online travel agency | Reservations made through Booking.com, read alongside your direct bookings |
| Expedia | Online travel agency | Reservations made through Expedia, read alongside your direct bookings |
Your own reservation, property management or airline booking system connects as a custom action, built for your configuration. See Custom actions.
How the connection works
The agent reads the reservation, its rate or fare, and the rules attached to it, then acts only within those rules. Whether a guest can change their dates depends on whether they booked a flexible or a non-refundable rate; whether a passenger can change a flight depends on the fare rules and on whether the change was their choice or yours. The agent applies those rules as limits during the conversation. See Policies as limits.
Reservations made through an online travel agency are also governed by that agency's terms. The agent reads them alongside your direct bookings, applies the rules that apply to each, and where a change has to be made through the agency, tells the guest how.
During delays and cancellations, an answer is only as good as the schedule behind it. The agent reads schedule and operations information from your systems at the moment of each answer. Refunds and compensation outside policy, goodwill gestures, and anything involving safety, health or a guest in distress stay with your team. See Decision boundaries.
The technical detail
Each system connects through its standard API (application programming interface: the documented way other software exchanges data with it), using a dedicated integration account your administrators control. Credentials are stored encrypted with AES-256 in your deployment, and calls travel over TLS (Transport Layer Security), version 1.2 or higher, from your deployment in your chosen region. Dates, amounts and booking references are inserted directly from the system record, and every change is logged with the rule that allowed it.
Permissions typical for this category
| Permission | Needed for | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Read reservations, rates, availability and rules | Answering and checking what is permitted | Granted |
| Change dates and add requests within the rules | Booking changes and pre-arrival requests | Granted where in scope |
| Rebook within fare rules | Delays and cancellations | Granted where in scope |
| Issue vouchers within policy limits | Looking after delayed passengers | Granted, with your limits, where in scope |
| Refunds outside policy, rate overrides | Not needed | Not granted |
The agent can only take actions your team has granted. Anything not granted cannot be invoked. See Permissions.
In practice
Qamar Stays, a hotel group, connects its reservation system, which receives bookings from its website, Booking.com and Expedia.
- Dana booked two nights through Booking.com on a flexible rate. At 11pm she messages to arrive a day later.
- The agent finds her reservation, confirms the rate permits the change and that the room is available, and moves her arrival.
- Another guest, on a non-refundable rate, asks to cancel. The agent explains what the rate allows and offers to pass a request for an exception to the reservations team, with a brief.
- In the morning, the reservations manager reviews the exception request and decides.
What your team controls
- Which reservations, rates and fares the agent can read and change.
- The rules and limits it applies, including voucher limits.
- Which requests go to a person.
Related
- Travel and hospitalityIndustry guides
- How integrations workIntegrations
- PermissionsIntegrations
- Policies as limitsAgents
- Decision boundariesGovernance and control
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