+ Excursions

Self-operated excursions are created according to the common scheme. The process begins with choosing the necessary category and entering general information about the excursion.

Information

>> Added info Creating a New Excursion

To add information about a new excursion,

1. On the Self-operated products menu, click Excursions.

   

2. On the Excursions page, click Create. The New excursion window appears:

   

3. On the New excursion page, specify the following information:

   • Product: select the product type City Tour or Extreme tour.

   • Name: enter the name of the excursion.

   • Supplier: select the excursion service supplier.

   • Excursion type: select if the excursion is shared or private, walking or off-cite.

   • Transaction currency: select the currency to use for settlements with the service supplier. The selected currency will also be used for configuring tariffs, price-lists, etc.

   • Duration: specify the excursion duration - approximate time the excursion will take.

   • Departure and destination location:

     • Click Add to specify the departure and destination points for an excursion. Within the pop-up window either type or select from the list the required city name and then the location - a hotel or a place in the city. Note that both departure and destination points are mandatory:

       

       In case you pick up tourists at several different points (for example this is a hop on-hop off tour that collects passengers from several hotels), you can add another departure location.

     • To add another departure location, in the Departure location form, click Add. The Departure location window appears. However it contains minor changes:

       

       Fill in the required boxes the way it is described above. Locate mouse pointer into the Shift in time box and specify the time shift of the departure as compared to the departure time from the previous location. Assume you plan to get tourists at several locations. When you create an excursion the time shift for the first location is set to 0 by default, while the time shift for the second one should be specified. E.g. distance between the first and the second location is 10km and it takes 15 minutes to get to the second point. In case it should be set to +00:15 as shown in the figure above, that means that the coach brings tourists to the second location in 15 minutes after the first one. And after collecting tourists from both locations the coach will continue it’s route.

   • Short description: briefly describe the excursion service. The entered description will be displayed on Search Results page.

   • Description: enter the excursion description. The information entered in the field will be displayed for tourists in the Detailed information on the excursion window. Here we recommend to specify the details of meeting point, whether the additional services are available, etc.

   • Themes: select the themes of the excursion, e.g. city trip, family, adventure, beach, exclusive, wedding, wellness&active, winter.

4. After you have finished to fill in all the details click Save. Your excursion will be saved into the system.

Creating the Catalogue of Excursion Codes

The next step of configuring transfers is to specify excursion categories.
You can create a directory of your own regular excursions and avoid creating them every time (for example, if you offer daily city tours). All codes created here are added to the default list and are available for selection when you create an excursion schedule:

Creating Categories of Tourists

When you create shared excursions you can differentiate prices for different categories of tourists, for example set discounted price for children or seniors. In order to do that first of all you need to configure these categories. The Adult tourist category is created in the system by default.

To create a new tourist category,

1. Open the required self-operated excursion.

2. On the Information tab, in the Tourists group, click Create. The New tourist window appears:

   

3. In the New tourist window, specify the following information:

   • Name: type the name of the category.

   • Category: select the category type - whether it relates to adults or children.

   • Default: generally the Adult tourist category is created automatically and set as default. However you can change the default category selecting the Default check box.

   • Age: specify the age range acceptable for the current category.
     Please pay attention that in case you create several tourist categories (e.g. infant, child), the age ranges should not overlap. Thus, in case age range for Infant is 0 to 2, the age range for Child should start with 3 years old.

   • Description: describe the category you are creating.

4. Click Save.

5. Click Close. The new tourist category is added to the list of available categories.

Creating the List of Excursion Services

To specify the general parameters of the new excursion and set the excursion itinerary,

1. Open the required excursion.

2. On the Information tab, in the Services group, click Create. The New service window appears:

   

3. In the window, specify the following information:

   • Name: type the name of the excursion service.

   • Excursion code: from the drop-down, select the excursion code. Please note that in the list the previously created excursion codes are displayed. If you cannot find the required one, turn back to the Catalogue tab.

   • Start time: enter the excursion start time.

   • Escort language: from the drop-down, select the escort language. In case the excursion does not presuppose any escort, select Without escort.

   • Type: from the drop-down, select the service type: guide, audio or other. In case there are no suitable items, click Other. To add another type of service, click . The additional drop-down appears.

   • Description: describe the excursion service.

   • Number of tourists: specify the number of tourists for which the excursion is available.

4. Click Save. The excursion service is added to the directory of excursion services.

Creating Extra Services

For the self-operated excursions, you can specify the list of Extra services available for tourists.
To add an Extra service to a contract of a self-operated excursion,

1. Open the required self-operated excursion.

2. On the Information tab, click Extra services. The New Extra Service window appears:

   

3. In the New Extra service window, specify the following information:

   • Name: type the name of the Extra service.

   • Price per: In the group, specify the method of price calculation: either per service or per tourist. In case you select per service, while creating price-lists for Extra services, you will be asked to specify the price for the service itself. For example, in case you offer an additional transfer to a hotel from the excursion location, you set a fixed price of $40 for the transfer irrespective of the number of tourists. In case you select per tourist, the total price for the Extra service is the sum of the prices payed by the tourists who buy the service. Pay attention that in case the price is calculated per tourist, you should specify the tourist type: adult or child.

   • Offer this Extra service: In the group, specify the conditions of the Extra service availability.

     • In case you want the service to be available for all excursion categories, click always.

     • In case you want to restrict the service availability to certain room types, click only when booking the following services.
       After you click only when booking the following services, the additional form appears:

       

       Click Add to excursion. The Room types window appears:

       

       In the window, select the services for which you want the additional to be available. Click Apply.

4. Click Save. The Extra service is added to the list of available Extra services and displayed on the Add. services page.

>> Added Info Uploading photo

Go to the Photo tab to upload the image to illustrate the excursion – how it should appear on search results and within the reservation details.

Uploading images from your PC

To upload an image from your PC,

1. On the Photo tab, in the Upload File group click Add.

   

2. Browse to the image you want to upload, and click Open.

3. Click Upload.

4. Select the respective image category from the drop-down list below the image.

5. Click Save.

Uploading an image from the Internet

To upload an image from the Internet,

1. On the Photo tab, click Upload via link to expand the form.

   

2. Locate mouse pointer into the box and enter the web source where the required image is stored.

3. Click Add if you need to add several images.

4. Click Upload. The image is uploaded and displayed on the Search results, as well as in the Detailed excursion description window.

5. Click Save.

Prices

GP Travel Enterprise allows you to set prices for self-operated services in 2 different ways:

• You can create a tariff first, and then operating within the settings of the tariff, add price-lists, discounts, commission plans and other regulation a particular service requires.

• Alternatively, you can separately create price-lists, set discounts, develop commission plans and then link them to tariffs.

Let us have a closer look at each of the steps.

Tariff means combination of conditions for price offers – e.g. you can have:

• Standard tariff with regular prices and ability to cancel without fees up to 1 day before the date of excursion;

• Promotional tariff valid only for certain period with reduced prices, but non-refundable;

• Early booking tariff valid only 60 days in advance;

• etc.

New tariff setting

To configure a tariff for a self-operated excursion,

1. On the Self-operated products menu, click Excursions.

2. In the profile of the required excursion, go to the Prices tab.

3. On the Prices tab, in the Tariff group, click Create. The New tariff page appears:

   

4. On the New tariff page, first specify the tariff description:

   • Name: enter the name of the tariff.

   • Contract number: specify the number of contract with supplier related to this tariff.

   • Hide tariff name from client: select the check box in order to hide the name of the tariff from product customers.

   • Description for internal use: locate mouse pointer into the box and enter tariff description. The information entered in the filed is not available for customers and is used for internal aims only.

   • Description: in the text field enter the tariff description. This description will be shown for customers.

5. After you have entered the tariff description, start connecting tariff constituents. Click the respective tab to expand the form. After you fill in all the sections, click Save.

Let us consider the constituents to be filled in on the Tariff page.

Price-Lists setting

Click the Price-lists bar to expand the form. The following form appears:

To connect a price-list you need to:

• Specify price-lists for working with your suppliers and clients.

• Add corresponding price-lists to the tariff.

To add a price-list, click Add price-list. The Price-lists window appears:

• In case you already have created a price-list, select the required one from the drop-down.

• In case you have not created a price-list previously, select Create price- list from the drop-down. After you click Create price-list, the New price-list window appears:

  

  1. On the General information tab, specify the name of the price-list, specify the days of the week on which it will be valid and the price-list description. If needed, you can create different price-lists for week days and weekends.

  2. Click Save and proceed to the Prices tab.

  3. On the Prices tab, select the method of price calculation (considering the service and tourist category) and specify the rates for all trips and categories of tourists:

     

     • In case the price is the same for all the excursions is selected, one single price rate is set for the service irrespective of the excursion service or the schedule.

     • In case the price depends on the type of the excursion is selected, you should specify a separate price rate for every created excursion category.

     • In case the price depends on the service and the time of the excursion is selected, you should specify a separate price rate for the types of excursion taking their schedule into consideration too.

4. Click Save.

Setting price-lists for customers and suppliers

If you’re going to use only your net price-list (based on your contract with supplier) and add markup for your clients within the settings of your sales channels – then within configuration of your excursion select the option Use the same price-lists for both customer and supplier:

If you want to set separate price-lists for customers and suppliers (not via logic of applying markups, but create absolutely different prices), click Use net price-lists for supplier and gross price-lists for customer. Separate forms for net and gross price-lists appear:

>>If you want to include taxes for customers and suppliers, then in tariff settings you can select the option "Taxes included":

If you want to create a new tariff that differs little from existing ones, then in tariff settings you can select the option "Inherit prices from the following tariff" and add only some changes to new tariff:

>> Info added Commission setting

To set up commission plan,

1. On the Tariff page, click Commission to expand the form.

   

2. Click Add commission. A Commission window appears:

   

3. In the Commission window, from the Add drop-down, select the item of your
   choice. Specifically,

   • In case you have previously created a separate commission plan, select the required one from the drop-down.

   • In case you create a tariff first, click Create commission. The New commission window appears:

4. On the General information tab, specify the commission name, as well as the period when it is active and the description.

5. Click Save and proceed to the Price-lists for Commission tab.

6. On the Price-lists for Commission tab, specify the rates and the availability of Extra services:

   

7. Specify,

   • Currency for commission calculation is the currency in which the commission is set. By default the base currency of the hotel is used. But you can change it to any other value.

   • Commission per:

     • Service: specify single commission for the whole service.

     • Tourist: specify single commission for one person.

• Choose the excursion type radio-button from the Commission applied for the following transfer types section.

• Commission for extra services.

8. Click Save.

>> Added info Penalties setting

To connect a penalty plan to a tariff,

1. On the tariff page, click Penalties to expand the form. The following form appears:

   

2. Click Add. The Penalties window appears:

   

3. From the Name of the penalty to be applied within the indicated tariff drop-down, select the item of your choice. Specifically,

   • In case you have previously created a separate penalty plan, select the required one from the drop down.

   • In case you create a tariff first and have no penalty plans created, click Create. The New penalty window appears:

     

4. In the window, specify the following information:

   • Name: type the name of the penalty plan.

   • Description: in the text field describe the penalty plan.

   • Cancellation terms: in the group specify the conditions for penalties application and the cancellation charges:

   1. from the drop-down select the number of days before the check-in date when the penalties are applied.

   2. select whether to calculate penalties in currency units or in per cent from a certain sum.

   3. in case the penalties are calculated in per cents, specify the price from which they are calculated: total price or a price for a particular number of nights/days.

   4. To add another penalty rule, click Add button ().

   • Penalties are active during: in the group, specify the tariff for which the penalty plan will be applied and the terms of its application.

5. Click Save.

Terms of Use setting

To connect the terms of use to a tariff,

1. On the Tariff page, click Terms of use to expand the form. The following form appears:

   

2. Click Add. The Terms of use window appears:

   

3. In the Terms of use window, specify the list of conditions under which the tariff is applied. You can link the tariff to one, several or all specified conditions. In the latter case the tariff is applied only if all the conditions are observed. Specifically,

   • Early booking: the tariff only applies if a customer books a service the
     specified number of days before the service start date.

   • Booking occurs at the day of the specified interval: the tariff applies if a
     customer books a service any day within the specified interval.

   • Min/max duration: the tariff applies if the period of booking corresponds to
     the specified minimal and maximal duration.

4. Click Save.

>> Added info Discounts setting

To connect a discount to a tariff,

1. On the Tariff page, click Discounts to expand the form. The following form appears:

   

2. Click Add. The Discounts window appears:

   

3. In the Discounts window, from the Add drop-down, select the item of your choice. Specifically,

   • In case you have previously created a separate discount, select the required one from the drop-down.

   • In case you create a tariff first, click Create discount. The New discount window appears:

4. In the New discount window, specify the following information:

   

   • Name: locate mouse pointer int the box and type the name of the discount plan.

   • Discount is equal: specify the amount of the discount. From the drop-down, select whether to calculate the discount in per cents or in currency units. Then locate mouse pointer into the box and type the value itself.

   • Discount period: specify the period when the discount is active.

   • Specify dates from … to for discount period;

   • Choose one option from the list Apply for discount. Optional: This discount is applied in accordance with the conditions configured in the "Discounts" section of this tariff; Always: This is discount applies regardless of tariff.

   • Choose the option from the list Discount type who will be provided by. Supplier's discount: A discount that is provided by a supplier and is calculated from the net price;Tour operator's discount: A discount that is provided by a tour operator and is calculated from the gross price. Tour operator's commission is calculated from the net price.

   • Restrictions on services: specify whether to apply the discount for all trips or only for the selected services. To select the routes on which to apply the discount choose the discount only for the selected services and click Add to excursion. The selection window appears.

     

   • Restrictions on tourists: specify whether the discount is applied for all tourists or for groups from … passenger (s), consisting of a particular number of persons only. Click the required option and specify the number of persons in the group if needed.

5. Click Save.

You can add any number of discounts to the tariff. Note that In this case the effective periods of different discounts can overlap. For this purpose you need to specify whether all discounts, only one discount or the best discount should be applied:

Price-Lists for Extra services setting

1. In Price-lists for Extra services group, click Add price-list for Extra services. The Price-lists for
   Extra services window appears:

   

2. From the drop-down select the item of your choice. Specifically,

   • If you have already created price-lists for Extra services, click the required one.

   • In case you have no price-lists for Extra services created, select Create price-list for Extra service from the drop-down.

3. The New price-list for extra services window appears:

   

• On the General information tab, specify the price-list for extra services name, as well as the period when it is active and the description.

• Click Save and proceed to the Price for Extra services tab.

• On the Price-lists for Extra services tab, specify the rates and the availability of Extra services:

  

• Specify the following information:

  • Availability: select the conditions for service booking.
    The following items are available:

    • mandatory: a tourist must book the Extra service, when booking the main service.

    • optional: the service is offered to a tourist while booking the main service, but it is not mandatory.

    • not available: the service is unavailable for booking and is not offered to a tourist.

  • Include into cancellation charges: specify whether the price for an Extra service is included into the penalty charge in case the offer is canceled. If the check box is selected a tourist is charged along with the penalty of the accommodation price.

  • Include into mark-up and commission: select the check box in case you want a rate for an Extra service to be included into the mark-up and commission. In case the option is selected, the markup and commission, that you set in the contract settings, are used for calculation of the final price of the service. For the service reservation fee, markups and commissions are not required.

  • Price: In the Price column specify the price of the Extra service. The payment currency is the contract currency that is specified in the Contract tab of the corresponding event. You may enter the price both in currency units and in per cents. If you click the per cent button, the additional drop-down appears. From the drop-down, select the price conditions (either the first night or the total price) on base of which the rate for the Extra service will be calculated.

• Click Save.

When Extra services are booked, their prices are calculated on the basis of the service rate valid on the check-in date.

Tags setting

Every new product or tariff has a “public” tag by default. This means that they are available for search and booking for all customers.

However, you can create additional tags. In this case, if a products or a tariff contains at least one additional tag along with the “public” tag, the conditions of the additional tag are applied to them.

For instance, if you add the “private” tag to the product, it is only displayed in search results for the customers that have access to the “private” products according to the contract. This means that the customer contract must contain either the “private” tag, or several tags, including the mentioned above, for example: the "public" and "private" tags. The product is unavailable for customers if the “private” tag is not included in their tag list.

Availability

>> Info added Seat allotments settings

With the seat allotments you can indicate the number of seats that are currently available and specify the dates of service booking.

To set seat allotments,

1. Select the necessary operation from the list:

   

You can select the following operations:

• Set up allotment: set up a number of allotments (guaranteed quotas) allocated to you by the supplier.

• Terminate allotment: cease sales for a certain period. For instance, if the supplier recalls the allotment.

• Block out: set up periods when the service is not available for booking, for instance, during fairs and exhibitions.

• Set release: release is the number of days after the booking when the supplier does not guarantee the allotment and therefore confirmation of the service availability from the supplier is required.

• Set be default: resets the number of allotments to the initial value (0, by default means, that the hotel is available upon request only).

2. Set up operation parameters.

You can select the following parameters:

• Period (from - to): the period of time when the conditions are applied.

• Days of the week: select All to choose the allotment conditions for the whole week. If you need to limit the availability of the service, for instance, set allotments for week-ends only, select the respective check boxes manually.

• Sub-allotment: Creating sub-allotments allows you to specify different sales conditions within the allotment group provided by the supplier. Created sub-allotments are available in the Sub Allotment drop-down.

• Excursion Code: Specify excursion code included into the allotment;

• Service: Specify the service included into the allotment.

3. Specify the number of allocated units in the Quantity group.

When limiting the number of allocated units, select one of the following options:

• Upon request: during the booking you should make an additional request about the availability of the service from the supplier. Instant confirmation of the service is unavailable.

• Unlimited: the number of services that can be booked is unlimited. This service is confirmed immediately.

• Limited: the number of instantly confirmed services is limited. Once the allotment provided is exhausted, you can only make new bookings if the Allow Overbooking check box is selected. In this case the services are offered “upon request”, this means you have to contact the service supplier to check if the booking can be confirmed, if not, further bookings will be impossible.

 Example

The allotment management can be illustrated with the following example:
Suppose you have an agreement with the supplier on 25 allotments in the Guided city tour category to be booked from June 1 to June 30. To set this number of guaranteed allotments in the system:

1. Click Create Allotment (see Group 1 in the figure below).

2. Set the time span from June 1 to 30 (Group 2).

3. Select the required allotment, category and excursion code (Group 3).

4. In the Quantity group, click Limited and specify the number of allotments that you can offer (Group 4).

5. Click Update (Group 5).

The number of guaranteed seats that you set appears on on the diagram:

and in a table report:

All conditions of the availability configured in this block are taken into account during the booking. For example, during the booking of the hotel, single rooms of the Standard category are displayed as available in the search results, while double rooms are displayed as available upon request.

Once a room is booked for a certain period, the number of available rooms respectively decreases:

Changing the Number of Allotments

In some cases the effective management of allotments requires decreasing or increasing the number of allocated units. To change the amount of allotments,

1. On the Availability tab, in the Quantity group, click Limited, and then select the required function from the drop-down:

   

   The drop-down list includes three functions:

   • «+» - add the number of seats specified by the user to the existing allotment.

   • «-» - decrease the amount of seats by the number specified by the user.

   • «=» - set the number of seats specified by the user.

2. Click Update.

Setting blockout dates

To set blockout,

1. Click Blockout (Group 1);

2. Select sub allotment, category and room type for which you set blockout
   (Group 2);

3. Click Set blockout (Group 3.)

4. To reset blockout click Reset blockout (Group 4). This function permits to cancel all previous settings on block-out with saving all other allotments.

Viewing the List of Excursions

To view the list of excursions, on the Self-operated products menu, click Excursions.

All the previously created excursions are arranged in the table:

• The entries in the table are sorted by the Name. In order to change the sorting criterion, click the corresponding column head (e.g. Supplier, Status, etc.);

• To change the order of sorting, click the column one more time. Forexample in case sorting by name is applied, the entries in the table are sorted from A to Z. To apply the reverse sorting order, click Name column head. The entries are now sorted from Z to A;

• In case the number of entries in the list is sufficient or if you need to find a particular excursion, use the search form at the top of the page:

• In the search form, fill in the boxes and click Search. the list of excursions will be contracted to those fitting your search criteria. To clear the search form and return to the initial state, click Reset.

• In order to download the list of tours as XLS/XLSX-file, click above or below the table of excursions. The list of entries displayed on the page will be downloaded to your computer.

Viewing/Editing Excursions

To view or edit an excursion,

1. On the Self-operated products menu click Excursions.

   

2. In the table of excursions click the required one.

   

3. The Excursion page appears:

   

4. Go to the required tab and click Edit to switch to editing mode.

5. Make necessary corrections.

6. Click Save.

Deactivating Excursions

In order to deactivate an Excursion,

1. On the Self-operated products menu, click Excursions.

   

2. Open the required excursion. The Excursion page appears.

   

3. Click Edit.

4. Clear the Active check-box. The excursion will be moved to archive.

   

5. Click Save.

The deactivated excursions are not deleted permanently. They are moved to archive and can be restored. To view the list of archived excursions, in the table of self-operated excursions, click Archive:

To restore the archived excursions, repeat Step 1 and Step 2, then select the Active check-box and click Save.