Connecting to Trip.com in new design

Minimum requirements to connect

In order to connect the Property Manager’s (PM’s) property to the Trip.com, the following requirements must be met:

• Company profile in Rentals United needs to be filled in (phone number, email address and so on);

• Property name cannot contain the word test;

• Property size must be provided

• Address (Street name and number) and Location (Geo-coordinates) need to be complete;

• Photos: minimum 10 photos (1024 x 683) are uploaded;

• Number of beds must be carefully selected to match the maximum number of guests in Maximum number of guests;

• The property has at least one Bathroom;

• The property has a separate Kitchen;

• Licence number must be provided if applicable for the location of the property;

• Cancellation Policy: at least one Cancellation Policy is selected;

• Fee and Tax:

  • no Unknown or Other can be pushed to Trip.com;

  • if more taxes are mapped to a single Trip.com tax type, they all have to use the same calculation logic;

  • in case you are a PMS customer, all taxes must have properly defined names.

  For more information, please see full Tax.

• Payment methods: at least one Payment methods is selected;

• Arrival information and Normal check-in and check-out times are provided.

Add new properties

If you already have some properties created in Rentals United and you want to start advertising them on Trip.com.

1. In Rentals United platform, go to the Services tab.

   

2. Select the proper list to search for Trip.com.

   

   • Find Services lists the channels you are not yet connected to,

   • My Services lists the channels which you have already established connection with and channels that are in the process of being connected.

3. Type the Trip.com name in the search box or scroll down through the list of available channels.

4. Unfold the Trip.com section by clicking the Down arrow button.

5. Click the Property Settings button.

   

6. Connect the property.

   Depending on whether you already have some properties connected to the Trip.com or not, you are presented with two different options.

   • Click if it is the first property to be connected.

   • Click if you already have some properties connected.

7. Provide the required information and click Next.

   Note: Different channels require different information to successfully identify your account:

   • For Trip.com it is Code Context. For properties connected through Rentals United always use 1339.

   • For Despegar it is the Provider ID.

   If you cannot find this information in your agreement with the channel, please contact the channel directly.

8. Choose the properties to connect to the channel. You can read about the different ways of filtering and selecting properties here..

   

9. Click Next. You will see here the summary of all selected properties. Review the list and check if all properties that you wish to connect are included.

   

Click Next to proceed.

10. The content quality is analysed. The process should take up to a few minutes.

11. The summary of properties’ content is displayed.

    

    If some properties are not ready to publish, improve the content.

    1. Check the content quality by unfolding the section with warning.

       

       Verify if any data is missing or incorrect. It is possible to display the errors by unfolding the section. For more detailed summary of errors, download the XLSX report by clicking the Download Quality Check button.

    2. Click the Improve button. The Edit property page is opened in a new tab.

    3. Correct the content indicated in the report in the Edit property page.

    4. Go back to the Property List and click the Re-check button. If no further errors are displayed, the property is ready to publish.

       

12. If the properties are ready to publish, adjust the mark-up for each of your properties.

    

13. Click the Publish properties button.

14. The published properties enter the Pending status.

    Tip: Each property created this way in Trip.com will become a hotel with only one room type. If you want to have multiple properties under the same hotel, you can use the Change mapping option and add additional properties to this connection. Note that Despegar does not support multiple room types under the same hotel.

Mapping properties to existing listings (N/A)

Editing rates

The information in this chapter is useful when you already have properties connected, but you want to introduce changes to rates that will affect only Trip.com.

Quick editing data for single rates

With Advanced Settings, you can override the property data you have in the Edit property page. Before the property data is sent to Trip.com, it is modified with additional configuration you can apply now. Note that whatever you set right now will apply only to this channel.

1. Click the Manage rates button.

   

2. The Management page opens. At this point you can edit the mark-up value. Mark-up indicates the value that the prices in Rentals United should be adjusted by before sending to the channel.

   

3. Click the Advanced button to open Advanced settings.

   

   • Number of people in price - it refers to the Standard number of guests the price is calculated for. It is possible to overwrite the value set for this property in Standard number of guests in Step 5: Price and availability.

   • Minimal price per night - you can set up a minimum price for this property in Trip.com; then, in case this property's prices in Step 5: Price and availability are set below this level, they will be increased.

   • Additional amount per day - you can specify an additional amount that will be charged each day of the reservation. It may cover for additional services available at this rate

     Example: If you offer a breakfast service to your guests, you can create a rate for this purpose and cover it in the additional amount per day.

   • Overwrite minimum stay - it is possible to overwrite the property's minimum stay in this particular rate.

     Example: Minimum stay from Monday to Friday is 2 nights, from Saturday to Sunday is 4 nights.

     • If you set the overwrite minimum stay value to 1 or 2, nothing will happen.

     • If you set the overwrite minimum stay value to 3, only the Monday to Friday season will be overwritten.

     • If you set the overwrite minimum stay value to 5, the Monday to Sunday season will be overwritten.

4. Click the Save changes button.

   Note: Changes introduced here will not affect any other channel than Trip.com and will only apply to this rate.

Manual options for all rates in a group

With these settings, you can override the property data you have in the Edit property page.

1. Click the Manage rates button.

   

2. Scroll down to the Manual options section and click the Activate manual options button.

3. Adjust the available options.

   

   • You can verify the availability of a single rate, as well as the total availability of all rates in the Availability summary row.

   • You can verify and temporarily update total availability by typing the new value. If the field has been edited, it is highlighted in blue. To undo the manual settings, click the blue field, delete the value and click away. The field now contains the default value taken from Step 5: Price and availability.

     Example: You received a reservation from 26 May 2021 to 30 May 2021 for Property 15 from another channel. The availability is blocked. However, you already know that the reservation is cancelled, but the availability has not been updated yet. You may still want to rent the property at this time, hence you can temporarily update the availability and receive reservations for this time.
     Important: Bear in mind that once you change anything in manual options, the settings will be persisting until you manually undo them! For example, if you bump up the availability and a reservation comes in, the availability will not be automatically closed and overbookings are possible! You will have to reset the settings in manual options.

   • You can verify and temporarily update price and minimum stay by clicking the pencil icon next to the relevant rate and typing the new value. The field now contains the default value taken from Step 5: Price and availability. If the field has been edited, it is highlighted in blue. To undo the manual settings, click the blue field, delete the value and click away.

     

   • You can also update availability, price and minimum stay for one rate for multiple days.

     

     1. Click the Batch edit button.

     2. Select rate from the dropdown.

     3. Specify dates.

     4. Update availability, price and / or minimum stay.

     5. Click Save changes.

     Edited fields are highlighted in blue. It is not possible to undo manual settings in batch. To undo the manual settings, click the blue field, delete the value and click away. The field now contains the default value taken from Step 5: Price and availability.

Refreshing the synchronization settings (N/A)

Updating listings

If you make changes to your property's content, e.g. update descriptions or photos, you need to remember to update the listing, too. If you do not update the listing - your recent changes will not be visible on the sales channel and the listing will display outdated information.

Remember that price and availability (ARI) updates are handled automatically and there is no need to update the listing if you change e.g. prices. The details that require updating the listing are static data updates and these include descriptions, photos, property data, fees and taxes and more. For details, see here.

 

Deactivating rates

1. In Rentals United platform, go to the Services tab.

   

2. Select the proper list to search for Trip.com.

   

   • Find Services lists the channels you are not yet connected to,

   • My Services lists the channels which you have already established connection with and channels that are in the process of being connected.

3. Type the Trip.com name in the search box or scroll down through the list of available channels.

4. Unfold the Trip.com section by clicking the Down arrow button.

5. Click the Property Settings button.

   

6. Search for the property you want to deactivate rates for by scrolling down or filtering the property out.

7. Click the Manage rates button.

   

8. A property management page is opened.

9. Click the Deactivate button.

   

   Note: Deactivating rates

   • If there are multiple rates in a group and you deactivate one - you stop sending availability and prices to Trip.com, leaving the property open to new reservations on the Trip.com channel. This means that new reservations can be made through Trip.com, but the channel will not receive the updates in availability and pricing from Rentals United.

   • If there is only one rate in the group or you deactivate the last rate, you need to choose if you want to either stop sending availability and prices to Trip.com, leaving the property open to new reservations on the Trip.com channel, or to close the availability. If you close the availability, it means you will not receive reservations from Trip.com any more.

   Availability can be always re-opened by clicking the Activate button next to the rate.

   

Once the rate has been deactivated, it will still be visible in the Property Settings. If you want to remove it from display, you should follow the below steps. Note that rates can be deleted only if there are no existing reservations that use this rate.

1. From the three-dot menu, select the Confirm removal option.

2. The rate is removed. No additional confirmation is required.

Removing hotels and room types from Property Settings (N/A)

Handling notifications

Rentals United constantly validates and monitors the quality of your properties’ content in our system as well as in the connection between Rentals United and the channels. Hence, you can easily check the current status of your connection and take proper steps in case improvements are needed.

Notifications may be displayed on two levels: the property level and the rate level.

In order to learn more about the received notifications, click the Check notifications button. In most cases, you are prompted to see what can be done to clear the notification away. Depending on an notification type, you can either:

• Retry - Rentals United attempts to synchronize your property content again

• Clear all - you confirm you read the notifications, but intend no action

• Manage - you need to manually adjust the property’s content according to the prompt

Bulk actions

1. In Rentals United platform, go to the Services tab.

   

2. Select the proper list to search for Trip.com.

   

   • Find Services lists the channels you are not yet connected to,

   • My Services lists the channels which you have already established connection with and channels that are in the process of being connected.

3. Type the Trip.com name in the search box or scroll down through the list of available channels.

4. Unfold the Trip.com section by clicking the Down arrow button.

5. Click the Property Settings button.

   

6. Click the Bulk actions button on top of the page.

   

7. You entered the bulk flow and you can update all your listings at once. Bulk actions may vary across the channels. Bear in mind that some options that are available for Trip.com may not be available for other channels.

   You can read more about bulk actions:

   • Other bulk actions

   • Batch content update

   • Batch refresh synchronisation settings

8. Select the option and follow the steps displayed on the screen.

9. After the operation is finished, you will be prompted that it was successful. Click the OK button and you will be moved to the Property Settings.

   Note: If any process fails for some properties, you will be presented information which properties were not updated and you can try again.