Connecting to Despegar

Establishing connection

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

  2. Click the Find Services tab.

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

  4. Unfold the Despegar section by clicking the Down arrow button.

  5. Click the Get connected button.

  1. Your connection is now being validated in the background. If the validation is passed successfully, the Connection Wizard is launched and you can go to the next step. If you are not eligible to connect to Despegar, an error is displayed.

    Eligibility errors indicate violating initial channel requirements that need to be met before you establish the connection. You will not be able to go to the next step and finish the connection process unless the eligibility error is cleared away. In order to resolve it, follow the instructions displayed on the screen. Please, see an exemplary eligibility error below.

  2. You are presented with a brief description on how the Despegar works. Read it carefully and confirm that you agree with it by ticking the checkbox below. Do not worry, once all the steps of the Connection Wizard are completed, you will still be able to view the How it works content again. Click the Save & Next button on the bottom of the page to move to the next step.

    Tip: On the top of the page, you can view the progress of the Connection Wizard. Depending on the channel, the number of steps may differ. You can stop anywhere along the process. Upon next time you open the Connection Wizard, you will continue at the last completed step.

  3. Follow the next steps displayed in Rentals United.

Signing a contract

As a new client who does not have an active connection with Despegar, you need to sign a contract with them. You can easily do it via Rentals United and get your contract ready in a couple of minutes. Signing a contract is one of the steps in the Connection Wizard. It is only available during establishing the connection with Despegar for the first time.

Currently, Despegar accepts only new clients. If you already have an account in Despegar, you cannot connect to Despegar at the moment.

  1. While you are connecting to Despegar for the first time, you will see the contract form. Fill out the missing information.

  2. Provide your email address. This email will be your username in Despegar. It will be also used to email you the details of the contract.

  3. Fill out the company details. Note that a part of the information is taken directly from the Company Profile and My Profile in Rentals United.

  4. Provide the Tax Identification Type (TAT) and Tax Identifier. Information about required tax types and formats can be found here.

  5. Choose the payment method you would like to use to receive payments from Despegar.

    • Credit card - you will be provided with the VCC details that you need to charge yourself for each booking

    • Checking account - Despegar will transfer the booking amount to your banking account

  6. Check in the confirmation checkbox and click Save & Next.

  7. Despegar will now prepare the contract for you. Once the contract is ready, you can access it via this link. Additionally, you will receive an email with the link to the email address you have provided before. Click the Please review the contract and accept its terms and conditions here link to open the contract.

    The link to the contract will be available every time you visit the Despegar Property Settings in Rentals United until you actually sign it.

  8. You are redirected to the Despegar contracting website. Provide the same email address that you have used in Rentals United and accept the Terms and Conditions.

    If the contract is not available yet, you can proceed to the next step and choose the properties to add to the channel. Remember that these properties will not get live in Despegaruntil you sign the contract.

  9. Click Select properties to connect and follow the steps displayed in Rentals United. For instructions how to add properties to Despegar, see here.

  10. Once you complete adding properties to the channel, click I already accepted the terms and conditions presented by Despegar to confirm that you have signed the contract with Despegar.

    If you click the I already accepted the terms and conditions presented by button, but the contract has not been signed, you will receive an error. You need to sign the contract with Despegar first.

Add new properties

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

  2. Select the proper list to search for Despegar.

    • 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 Despegar name in the search box or scroll down through the list of available channels.

  4. Unfold the Despegar section by clicking the Down arrow button.

  5. Click the Property Settings button.

  1. Connect the property.

    Depending on whether you already have some properties connected to the Despegar 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.

  2. Provide the required information and click Next.

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

    • For Despegar it is the Provider ID.

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

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

  4. 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.

    5. Click Next to proceed.

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

  6. The summary of properties’ content is displayed.

    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. Correct the content indicated in the report in .

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

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

  8. Click the Publish properties button.

  9. The published properties enter the Pending status.

    Tip: Each property created this way in Despegar 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.

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.

If you have additional information saved in the channel, be aware that making changes in Rentals United and then triggering a full update will overwrite any additional information you have provided earlier in the channel dashboard! Effects of this action cannot be reversed. To avoid it, we suggest to use the partial update (select areas to be updated) or keep introducing changes in the channel dashboard only.

For Despegar, updates are possible only in the following configuration:

  • one hotel - one room - one rate

If you need to update the channel for properties in a different set-up, please contact the Rentals United Support Team and we will carry this on for you.

  1. You have changed content of your property. Find the cluster to which this property is assigned.

  2. Hover over the three-dot menu on the cluster level. Click the Update listing content option.

  3. Decide whether you want to update the entire property content or selected areas only. Click the Update selected button.

    Tip: If you do not want to update the entire listing, you can update specific areas only. It is possible to select multiple bullets at once. By doing this, you may avoid overriding areas that have been manually edited in the Despegar dashboard.

    Note that the actual areas to select may vary from what you can see in the above screenshot. Refer to what is displayed in Rentals United. You can also see in this article what exactly will be updated after selecting the checbkox.

  4. Confirm by clicking the OK button. Wait until the process is finished. You may preview the listing on the Despegar website after the indicated time is passed.

  5. The property status enters the Pending state. Once the operation is successful, the status updates to Active. You may preview these changes in the Despegar dashboard or already on the Despegar website.

Deactivating rates

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

  2. Select the proper list to search for Despegar.

    • 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 Despegar name in the search box or scroll down through the list of available channels.

  4. Unfold the Despegar section by clicking the Down arrow button.

  5. Click the Property Settings button.

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

  2. Click the Manage rates button.

  3. A property management page is opened.

  4. 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 Despegar, leaving the property open to new reservations on the Despegar channel. This means that new reservations can be made through Despegar, 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 Despegar, leaving the property open to new reservations on the Despegar channel, or to close the availability. If you close the availability, it means you will not receive reservations from Despegar 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.