Software house Rezgo has released a new feature it claims is unique for the tour and activity market, allowing suppliers to import the confirmation emails they receive from resell partners such as Expedia.
The feature, inspired in part by TripIt's itinerary importing capabilities, allows suppliers to set a unique @in.rezgo.com email address in their administration system and to forward emails that they receive from Expedia for bookings that have been made through the Expedia website or affiliates.
"We have a number of suppliers on the system that resell their tours and in-destination activities through partners such as Expedia, Viator, Isango, and others," says Stephen Joyce, Rezgo CEO.
"Since our primary goal is to help the supplier manage their inventory and provide a single source inventory solution, being able to account for bookings made by third party partners like Expedia is critical for suppliers. "
Joyce says there are no standards in place for tour and activity transaction messages, so directly integrating with partners like Expedia and Viator for the purposes of pushing or pulling reservations into a supplier reservation system is difficult.
"I was convinced there had to be a better way to manage the disconnected bookings that are received from these sources without requiring them to integrate. I've been a fan of the TripIt system for years and it occurred to me that if they can import and parse consumer emails, then we should be able to do something similar for businesses who receive confirmations."
Imported confirmation emails are linked directly to a product through an Expedia code that is stored with the tour or activity in Rezgo.
Once a confirmation is received and imported, Rezgo creates a booking for the tour or activity using the matched product.
Since Expedia sends multiple bookings in a single confirmation report, as shown in the image above, Rezgo also splits the confirmation into individual bookings if required.
The passenger manifest reports, revenue reports, and booking summaries are updated automatically allowing the supplier to see all of their bookings in a single view and to report on revenues from specific channels.
The Expedia confirmation email import is the first of about half a dozen channel partners that Rezgo is planning to support in the coming months.
NB: Disclosure - Stephen Joyce is also a Tnooz Node.