Overview

Base Services are additional components that have a fixed pricing for a given duration. They offer the option to shorten or extend the duration of service, by subtracting or adding a specified amount from the fixed price.

Each Base Service is loaded as a single product and has a fixed pricing for the standard duration, and and optional pricing for additional days or hours.

Base services are used for example: 

• To add single fees to a tour, e.g. national park fees
• To add a service for a specific duration (measured in days or hours), e.g. a driver or guide.

The creation of both types of base services as well as their usage will be covered in this article.

 

Article Available in Video The information in this article is available in videos and with additional details below.

 

00:00: In this video, you will learn how to create base services on TripBuilder. Base Services are additional components that have fixed pricing for a given duration, like, for example, an Insurance program, a guided tour or a private guide. 00:15: To go to the Base Services in TripBuilder, go to the Inventory, and click on Products. Then click on Base Services. 00:24: It will open a list of all the Base Services you have created as Inventory Products on TripBuilder. If you haven't created one already, it will show empty. But don't worry, with this video you will have your first one. 00:37: To create a new base service, Click on the "Create Base Service" button. Please pay attention to the information you will need at your hands to create the base service. 00:46: Start by adding a name to this Base Service. 00:49: Click on the dropdown menu with currency options, to select the contracted currency. Attention: you can't change this field after creation. 00:59: On the type field, you can choose the type that best suits the Base Service your creating. You can choose between Transport, Activity, Accommodation, Meal, Entrance Fees, Personal assistance or Miscellaneous. 01:13: The geo-attribution - country, and location - of base services is purely for managing purposes. Later on, The information can be used to find base services in the product management or when assigning base services to modules and templates. 01:28: On Included field, you can add included items on your Base Service. For example, if we were creating a Base Service for a Travel Insurance, we could list all the included things, like 24/7 available contact number, transportation to hospital, and emergency. You can edit this field later on. 01:48: On the other hand, on excluded field, you can list all the excluded things from your base service. 01:54: On visibility, you can select if this Base Service is visible or not visible to customers and agencies. 02:01: When the mandatory information is completed - name and currency - Click on the "Save" button. 02:07: Click on the "Description" tab. In here, you will have the information you have just field. 02:13: In this tab, You can change the information, like the included and excluded items, visibility, name and country or region. 02:22: To define the prices of this base service, Click on the "Pricing" tab. 02:27: You will see that the are no service categories defined for this product. Click on the option to add a service category. 02:35: Choose a descriptive name for the Service Category, that you can later on identify. 02:40: Click on the "Ok" button. 02:42: Click on the dropdown menu with rate options. By selecting Daily Rates, the net prices entered is per day. If you select hourly, the net prices entered are per hour. A fixed rate has a single, fixed price, independent of the number of days. 02:58: If Daily or Hourly Units rates are selected, you can have the option to add a standard duration to this Base Service. 03:05: Click on the dropdown menu with pricing options. Pricing Types can be per group, per PAX or included. If you select included, no further configuration is needed. 03:17: Selecting per PAX or per Group, will allow you to define a PAX range and pricing season. 03:23: To define a pricing for your Base Service, you need to create the PAX range first. Click on the "create now" button. 03:31: Pax ranges can be added according to the price calculations needed. If the base service should be bookable for more than 2 PAX, a range of 1-6 PAX should be created. Products that do not have a price for more than 2 PAX will not be visible on the Frontend for an inquiry of more than 2 PAX. If PAX ranges are not important, use 1 to 99. Click on "OK" once you added the ranges. 03:55: Once you have added the PAX range, you can now add a pricing season. Click on add a pricing season. 04:02: Click on the option to choose the season dates. 04:05: A pop-up window will open to edit the pricing season. Several season tables can be added, and there are two possibilities for adding. Enter a Season Name, for example, Low, High or Peak Season. Seasons names are optional and are for internal use only, they are not displayed on the Planner. 04:25: Pricing season can be created via the "Calendar view" or "List view". Choose the one which is most convenient for you. 04:32: Using the Calendar view you can select one single day by clicking on it. 04:37: You can select several dates by using a drag motion with your hover. 04:41: Click on the "Ok" button when you have defined the season. You can add as many seasons as you want to a PAX range. 04:48: After defining the PAX range and the seasons, you can now define the pricing for this Base Service. 04:54: As already said before, you can add more seasons, and more pricings. Click on the option to add a new pricing season to do so. 05:03: Be aware that you cannot create overlapping seasons. One specific day can't be in more than one season. 05:10: As you can see, when you create a season for a PAX Range, it also populates the other fields of pricing, like in this example, the pricing for additional days. You can set different pricing for this. 05:24: When the pricing is defined as your contracted, Click on the "Save" button. 05:29: Remember that for this base service to be used, in the Planner or Templates and Modules, you need to publish it. Click on the action menu. 05:38: Click on the "Express Publish" option. 05:41: Cancelation Policies, Tags, Miscellaneous and Integration tabs are explained in other videos. Make sure to watch them if you haven't yet! 05:51: This guide covered the steps to create base services on TripBuilder. Thank you for watching, and remember that you have at your disposal our knowledge base with available articles about this topic.

 

How to Create Base Services?

In order to load a base service, please make sure you have the following information available:

• Name of the base service 
• Net prices for the base service categories

 

Steps to Create Base Services:

• Go to Cockpit
• Click on Inventory
• Click on Products
• Click on Base Services

• Click on the button Create Base Service to open the following screen and enter the required information. 

• Add the Name of the Base Service
• Choose the contracted Currency 
  • Note: This is only possible while creating the base service. Once you click Save, the currency cannot be changed for this base service anymore.
• Select the Type
  • Choose between
    • Transport
    • Activity
    • Accommodation 
    • Assistance Personnel
    • Meal
    • Entrance Fees
    • Miscellaneous 
• Add country information 
• Add an additional location (if required)
• Add items or services that are included and/or excluded.
  • For example, use clear and short descriptions (such as Included: "Lunch" or Excluded: "Transportation fees").

 

• Additionally, you can decide if the base service should be hidden or visible to Agent or End-Consumers.
  • Select the Hidden from customers (consumes, agencies) tick box if required. 
• Click Save 
  • After clicking Save, the draft of the Base Service will be created and you will be redirected to a new page. 

 

Adding Service Categories and Pricing

On the Pricing tab, service categories can be added to model different price levels. There is no restriction to the number of service categories that can be created. If multiple service categories exist, users will have the option in the checkout process to change the service category.

There are three rate types for defining a base service price:

• Daily rates: The net prices entered is per day.
• Hourly rates: The net prices entered are per hour.
• Fixed pricing: A fixed rate for the whole base service. In this case, the base service will not have a default duration.

• Click on the Pricing Tab 
• Click on Add Service Category
• Enter the Name of the Service Category and hit OK. The entered Base Service will appear on the screen. 
• Select the Unit Rate
  • If Daily Rates are selected, you can further define the pricing rules for the standard duration (measured in days) and additional days

• • If Hourly Rates are selected, you can further define the pricing rules for the standard duration (measured in hours) and additional hours

• • If a Fixed Rate is selected, you can only define an overall pricing rule (i.e. without a standard duration associated with it nor additional time periods)

• Select the Standard Duration (measured in days or hours depending on the previous Unit Rate selection). If a "Fixed" Unit Rate has been previously selected this field is not available.
• Select the Pricing Type 
  • Price per Group 
  • Price per Pax
  • Included 
• Click on the small calendar icon to add a Stop Sell Date (optional)
  • Specific dates (i.e. single days and/or date ranges) where the service cannot be offered can be entered here.

Create a Pricing Season

Know more: Check out the How to create pricing seasons article to know the pricing season creation process.

 

Single Fee Base Service (option 1)

To create a base service for a single fee, proceed as follows:

• Set the Unit Rate to Daily Rates
• Keep the Standard Duration at 1
• Add one or more pricing seasons
• Set Pricing for Additional Day to 0

If a single fee is created for one day and added to a stop, it will be charged just once. If this one-time fee is added to various stops, it then will be added to each selected stop.

 

Set Duration Fee Base Service (option 2)

To create a base service that covers a set duration, proceed as follows:

• Set the Unit Rate to Daily Rates or Hourly Rates
• Adjust the Standard Duration
• Add a pricing season
• Add the Pricing for Additional Day or Hour
• Add special offer - Child Reduction 

If a service is created for a specific duration and added to a stop or to several stops, it will be charged just once for the duration of the chosen stops. If the stay is shortened or extended, the price difference will be calculated accordingly.

Please see the calculation process further down for three base service examples.

 

Additional Tabs

00:00: In this guide we will cover what you can do in other tabs of an Inventory Product when you're creating or editing it. 00:07: The Description tab, Pricing or Room Categories or Service Categories tabs, Amenities tab, and Picture tabs are explained in each Inventory Creation video you have available. 00:19: In your library of Videos and Guidance, you can also find a video dedicated to Cancellation Policies. 00:26: In this video, we will focus on the following tabs: Tags; Translate: Miscellaneous; Integration; Reselling; and Summary. All of this tabs exist on all of the Inventory Products you can create, and they are similar in all of the products. 00:43: Let's start with tags. Select the "Tags" tab of any inventory product. 00:48: You will see a list of all the tags that have been created in your instance. If none has been created yet, this list will be empty. 00:57: You can also see if this product has any tags associated to it. 01:01: To create a new tag, click on "Create new tag". 01:05: Give the tag a name, and click on Ok. 01:08: To add your newly created tag, or any other existing tag, click on the plus icon of any tag. It will add that tag to the product. 01:18: Tags are mostly useful on listings, templates and modules, where you can find Inventory by searching for the tags. 01:26: Let's move on to translate. 01:28: As the name says, this is where you can translate the information that is visible in the frontend of your Inventory Product. 01:35: For each available frontend language (in Discovery, Planner and Checkout), that is set in your settings, you have the possibility to translate the original text. 01:45: In some cases, like Areas, and airports, you have some pre-filled translations. 01:51: Let's move on. Choose the "Miscellaneous" option. 01:55: On Miscellaneous, you can set the Supplier and the Operator of the Inventory product. To know more about working with Suppliers, check our video about it. 02:05: You can also set a Commission Category, from the ones already defined by your TripBuilder Admin. This commission categories define how much commission an agency gets when this product is sold. 02:16: On Internal Remarks, you can leave any comments you might find suitable. This field is not visible by Agent users, or end-users. 02:25: In this last information, you can see if this Inventory product is included in any Template. If so, you will see a link to that template, and their status. 02:35: Now, let's navigate to the "Integration" section. 02:39: This tab allows you to create an external reference for this product that you might use in other external softwares. 02:46: The major integrations are included, like Midoco, GIATA, Amadeus, between others. 02:54: You can then add the external ID you might use to identify this Inventory Product. The information will then be passed via the Booking API to the external system defined. 03:05: The next tab is Reselling. 03:07: On Partner Reselling, you can share this Inventory Product with other Travel Agencies, Distribution Channels or Partners. For this to be possible, your TripBuilder Admin must have reselling rules and markups created. 03:20: The last tab is a summary tab. Navigate to it. 03:24: You have the ID of your product, and it's revision. The revision is the number of edits made to this inventory product. Name indicates the name of the Inventory Product. Lastly, Status indicates the current status of the Product. Status reflects if the product is Published and visible on the frontend, or if it is in a Draft status, when you are creating it, and lastly Incomplete, if you are making changes to it. 03:51: Also on the Summary tab, you have the possibility to mark certain inventory products as "Available on Request". 03:58: When a specific component needs to be manually requested, booked or confirmed at all times, then you can set it up to be always available on request. 04:07: Marking this option as "ON", will make this product not directly booked in the time of the booking. 04:13: Lastly, on the Summary tab, in some Inventory Products, you will have the Room or Service Categories, Amenities and Special Offers displayed. 04:23: This guide covered the common tabs of Inventory products. See you next time!

 

Learn more about the use of Additional Tabs in the following overview. 

Topic	Description
Cancellation Policies	Cancellation Policies can be created within the Settings and will appear in the drop-down menu. See here Or a custom cancellation policy can be defined and set directly on the product via the Add Custom Policy button.
Tags	Tags can be used to distinguish products on the platform from one another and to pull the information from the base service via our APIs.
Translate	If the content is offered in various languages, this tab can be used to add the translation from your created content of the base service. The language options displayed are based on the setup of your application.
Miscellaneous	This tab is for internal use only. Here you are able to: select a supplier or operator (select a commission category)  add an internal remark  see in which template/module the accommodation is referenced
Integration	The integration is used to add the external ID and system information.

Publishing a Base Service

Before a base service can be used in the Planner and added to a Module or Template, it must be published. The status of the base service is always displayed next to the defined base service name. 

Next to the SAVE button, on the top right, you will see an action button with three dots. 

• Click on the Button 
• Click on Express Publish to publish the base service 
  • The status of the base service will be set from draft mode to published. 

 

Adding a Base Service to a Template or Module

To add a base service to a Template (also applicable to a Module) select the intended template.

• On the top right, you will see an action button with three dots. Click on it and in the popup click on the option "Checkout & Open"
• Go to the Base Services & Rental Cars tab in the Template.
• Add a base service by clicking on Add Another Base Service (in the "Base Services" section).
• Use the filter options available to narrow down your search for the required based service: 
  • Search by name
  • Filter by Type 
  • Search by country 

• Choose one of the base services that are listed in the pop-up window.

• The selected base service can be further customized by:
  • From the list of available services, categories define which shall be used as default value.
  • Enable/disable the selection of a different service category (from default) during checkout
• Click Done
• The selected Based Service is added to the "Base Services" section
• The way how a Base Service can be assigned to one or more stops is conducted by clicking on the edition action icon.
• Two types of assignments are supported:
  • by stops:

• • By start/end time. In this scenario and depending on if daily or hourly rates have been previously selected for the Base Service definition, the Front End adjusts accordingly:
    • for Daily Rates

• • • for Hourly Rates

• Click Save
• Depending on the Rate Type and Assignment previously selected, the details for each Base Service are properly presented:

• Remove selected Base Services via the bin icon, if needed
• Click SAVE
• Next to the SAVE button, on the top right, you will see an action button with three dots. Click on it and then on the Publish option. 

On the Planner, the base service will then be added to the selected stops. 

 

Display of Base Services

 Display in Customer Care on Service & Price List: 

Calculation Example

The following three examples should help to understand how base services work and how they are calculated.

Single fee excluding additional day: Single fee, e.g. national park fee, entrance fee, handling fees, etc.

• Standard duration of base service: 1 day
• Price for 1 day: USD 25
• Price for additional day: USD 0

If a single fee is created for 1 day and added to a stop, it will be charged just once. If this one-time fee is added to various stops, it will be added to each selected stop.

 

Single fee including additional day: For example, daily driver for a Module/Template with a 3-day duration

• Standard duration of base service: 1 day
• Price for standard duration: USD 100
• Price for additional day: USD 50

The standard price is USD 100 for 1 day and the chosen stop(s) span(s) is 3 days. In this case, the prices are calculated as follows:

 

Set duration fee: For example, a 5-day tour guide for a Module/Template with an overall 10-day duration

• Standard duration of base service: 5 days
• Price for 5 days: USD 50
• Price for additional day: USD 10

The standard price is USD 50 for 5 days. This will be added to the tour once. The application will assume the guide is only there for 5 days and not 10 days.

At the Template level, choose which stops the base service applies to. As soon as one of these stops are extended, the price for every additional day is added as follows: