Connecting to Expedia

Minimum requirements to connect

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

• Property name is provided.

• Property type is selected.

  Note: If the Property type is mapped to Aparthotel, Apartment, Condo or Cottage , then the property must have at least one bathroom!

• Maximum number of guests value is provided.

• Address and Geo-coordinates are provided.

• Kitchen is available at the property, see Kitchen.

• Number of beds equals the Maximum number of guests.

• Description has at least 700 characters.

• Photos: 
  • At least 10 photos are uploaded.
  • The minimum width is 1024 px; the minimum height is 768 px.
  • Main picture is selected.
• Prices and availability are provided for some seasons.
• Minimum stay value is between 1 and 28 days.

• Payment methods are provided.

• Cancellation Policy is set in a continuous way, which means there are no non-penalty periods between two periods with a penalty.

• Cancellation Policy: If there are multiple cancellation policies, the fee amount must increase (or at least remain on the same level) towards the check-in day. For example, the fee applied if a reservation is canceled within 10 to 7 days before the check-in should be lower than the fee applied if a reservation is canceled within 6 to 1 days before the check-in.

Setting Rentals United

In order to fully utilize the capabilities of Rentals United and make the linking of the two systems possible, you need to set Rentals United as the connectivity provider in Expedia. For example, this is required in order to enable mapping properties to the listings in the channel. Please, perform the following.

1. Log in to the Expedia dashboard.

2. Go to the Rooms and Rates section.

   

3. Select Expedia Connectivity Settings from the Setup section.

   

4. Select "Quick Connect" as the System Provider. Check both connectivity options available: Availability and rates as well as Booking retrieval.

5. Make sure that the changes are saved.

Once the connection with Quick Connect is activated, you can start the connection process in Rentals United.

Establishing connection

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

   

2. Click the Find Services tab.

   

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

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

5. Click the button.

6. Follow the steps displayed in the Rentals United platform.

7. At this point, your account is connected to Expedia.

   

• If you already have some properties created in Rentals United platform, you can start advertising them in the channel as described in Add new properties.

• If you have no properties in Rentals United or want to create more, you can do it manually in the All properties tab. If you already have some properties in the Airbnb system, you can save time and use the Mapping properties to existing listings procedure.

Add new properties

If you already have some properties connected or mapped to Expedia, but you want to connect additional ones.

1. Make sure that all the properties you want to push meet the conditions listed in Minimum requirements to connect.

2. Request Rentals United to connect properties to Expedia. To do so, contact the Rentals United Support Team and provide them with the list of properties you want to push.

3. Rentals United connects and activates the properties.

4. Rooms and rates are automatically created in Expedia and connected to Rentals United properties. It is recommended to check the content as well as rates and availability of the listing in Expedia Partner Central.

5. Please, contact Expedia Hotel Delivery with the Expedia IDs to be set live.

   • If any error occurs during this process, it shows in Rentals United.

   • If the process is successful, from this moment connection is active and the property is live in Expedia immediately. From now on, any changes in Rentals United ARI data get instantly pushed to Expedia.

     

Mapping properties to existing listings

If you already have properties in Expedia and only want Rentals United to manage prices and availability, you may map properties between the two systems. Make sure that you have already established initial connection to the Expedia channel - Setting Rentals United. Once the connection with Expedia is activated, you can start the mapping process in the Rentals United platform.

6. Enter the External ID of the Expedia hotel and provide the mark-up that should be added on top of the prices.

   

7. Click the Import properties button.

8. Hotel rooms and rates are retrieved from Expedia and presented in the Rentals United platform.

   Important: Anytime you add or change your rate plans in Expedia dashboard, you need to re-import it in Rentals United platform. Otherwise, you risk overbookings.

9. Assign the Rentals United properties (one or many) to each Expedia room by clicking the Edit room option. Save your changes.

   

10. Make sure that all your rates are in the Active status.

    Note: If your rates are not active, it means your properties can get out-of-sync. It may result in overbookings!

11. Click the Save button.

    From this moment on, Rentals United sends the prices and availability to the channel and Expedia passes correctly all the reservations.

    Note: Due to a strong Expedia policy to prevent duplicates, it is not possible to re-create the property's connection with the channel (archive and connect again). Archiving a property does not resolve this, as the connection between Rentals United and Expedia is still maintained in the background.

Editing rates

The information in this chapter is useful when you already have properties connected or mapped, but you want to organize them in a different way or introduce changes to rates that will affect only Expedia.

Editing data for all rates in the group

1. Click the edit group button.

   

2. Adjust the available options.

   

   • group name and location,

   • External ID and currency,

     Important: Do not change the External ID unless you are certain about it.
     Important: This is the currency in which Rentals United sends your properties' prices to Expedia. Do not change the currency unless you are certain about it and understand the consequences. Wrong settings may cause that Expedia receives your prices in wrong currencies, which results in huge financial loss.

   • mark-up,

   • currency,

   • add or delete the properties in the group.

     Tip: If you add more than one property to the group, please check the Moves algorithm in Step 5: Price and availability. You will find there some useful information on how Rentals United send your availability to Expedia.

3. Click the Save group button.

   Note: Changes introduced here will not affect any other channel than Expedia.

Quick editing data for single rates

With these settings, you can override the property data you have in the Edit property page for the reservations coming only from the Expedia channel.

1. Click the quick edit button.

   

2. Adjust the available options.

   • Mark-up - with this value, you can scale up the total price which is sent to Expedia on the basis of prices in Step 5: Price and availability.

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

   • Minimal price per night - in case the prices in Step 5: Price and availability set below this level, they will be updated in this particular rate.

   • 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.

3. Click the Save rate button.

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

Manual options for all rates in a group

1. Click the manual options button.

   

2. Adjust the available options.

   

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

   • You can verify and temporarily update total availability, price and minimum stay by selecting the relevant row and typing the new value. To undo and come back to the default value, click the red back-arrow icon. To copy the settings to other days, click the green arrows icon.

     

     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 canceled, 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, the availability will not be automatically closed and overbookings are possible! You will have to reset the settings in manual options.

3. Click the Send my changes button to update data in the Expedia channel.

   Note: Changes introduced here will not affect any other channel than Expedia.

Updating listings

This section includes instructions to be performed after the property descriptive content is updated in the Edit property page in Rentals United.

Once you are sure that you want to override the content in the channel dashboard, re-push should be done every time the property descriptive content was updated in order to stay up-to-date.

1. Make sure the updated content meets the Minimum requirements to connect.

2. Prepare the detailed list of properties and contact the Rentals United Support Team.

3. With these settings, you can override the property data you have in the Edit property page for the reservations coming only from the Expedia channel.

   1. Click the quick edit button.

      

   2. Adjust the available options.

      • Mark-up - with this value, you can scale up the total price which is sent to Expedia on the basis of prices in Step 5: Price and availability.

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

      • Minimal price per night - in case the prices in Step 5: Price and availability set below this level, they will be updated in this particular rate.

      • 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.

   3. Click the Save rate button.

      Note: Changes introduced here will not affect any other channel than Expedia and will only apply to this rate.
   Rentals United re-pushes the properties for you.

Deactivating properties

In this section, you can find more information on how to stop renting your properties on the Expedia channel or why your connection stopped syncing.

Deactivating rate

1. The Property list opens.

2. Click the deactivate button next to the rate.

   Important: Make sure that the rate has been deactivated first in the Expedia dashboard.

   

3. Confirm the operation.

   Note: 

   • If there are multiple rates in a group, you stop sending availability and prices to Expedia, leaving the property open to new reservations on the Expedia channel. This means that new reservations can be made through Expedia, but the channel will not receive the correct availability and pricing information.

     

   • If there is only one rate in the group or you deactivate the last rate, you need to choose if you want to stop sending availability and prices to Expedia, leaving the property open to new reservations on the Expedia channel or to close the availability. Closing availability means that you will not receive reservations from Expedia anymore.

     

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

Deactivating rates in a group

1. The Property list opens.

2. Click the deactivate button in the group.

   

3. Confirm the operation.

   Note: If there are multiple rates in a group, you stop sending availability and prices to Expedia, leaving the property open to new reservations on the Expedia channel. This means that new reservations can be made through Expedia, but the channel will not receive the correct availability and pricing information. Availability can be always re-opened by clicking the Activate button next to the rate.

Rates or group deleted

Deleting rates results in having the rates visible in the Expedia dashboard, but not in the Rentals United platform. This means there is no mapping between them and they are out of synchronization, which is not the desired state. If you really aim to delete the rate, make sure that it is first deleted in the Expedia dashboard.

Once the delete button is clicked, the property is removed from the rates.

You can filter archived rates out by the Inactive filter on top. Archived rates will be shown as greyed out.