Overview

Products not sourced via a live API, so-called offline products, can be created and managed in Inventory. TripBuilder supports the following product types:

• Accommodations
• Transfers
• Transports
• Transit Activities
• Stop Activities
• Base Services
• Rental Cars
• Upsell Products

00:00: This guide will walk you through the steps to access and navigate the TripBuilder Inventory. 00:05: Once you login to your TripBuilder instance on the Dashboard, you can navigate to the Cockput section to enter the TripBuilder Inventory. 00:13: Click on the Inventory link to access the Inventory. 00:17: The inventory, located inside the Cockpit, is where all the products, modules, and templates are created and managed. It is the place where the actual trip and tour templates are built and published in order to be displayed and used on the Discovery and Planner. Let me give you a brief overview. 00:36: Click on the Package Builder on the upper left. This is where your offered tours are created and managed. In this section, Templates and Modules are built, and areas and descriptions can be added and saved. 00:48: Navigate to the Itinerary Templates section. 00:51: An itinerary template acts as a blueprint for a tour. In this view, you have an overview of all your created templates. Published templates are examples of trips that are displayed on the Discovery. You also have the possibility to save templates as "custom", which are not shown on Discovery but are a good example of templates to be tested first before publishing or to create a trip for a specific customer only. By clicking on "Create Template", a new template can be created. 01:19: Navigate back to the Package Builder and click on Modules. 01:23: This view shows you all your created Modules. As described in the Itinerary Templates section, Templates act as the main blueprint for a trip. Itinerary Templates can be built in a stop-to-stop program plan, or in a modular approach, by using Modules. Different types of Modules are supported that can be used as many times as needed, allowing different Itinerary Template possibilities. Modules allow you to create, for example, fixed trips, with the offering of pre-and post-programs. 01:54: By clicking on "Create Module" a new module can be created. 01:58: Navigate again back to the package builder and click on Areas in the drop down. 02:03: Areas form a major component of the itineraries as they are used as itinerary stops. They delimit the area where customers can overnight, allowing them to choose from the available activities and accommodations. They include several descriptive elements, as well as pictures, to give an overview of the route of the tour. Areas must be created in the Inventory before they can be used in templates and products so that the area can be referenced to the exact location and displayed correctly on the map. Your TripBuilder comes with an area database of over 30 tausend areas, shown in this view. 02:38: Clicking on the area "Aachen" for example, opens the detail view of the area. 02:43: In the detailed view of the area, you will find information such as the area naming convention, rating, nearby airports important for the flight search, the hotel search radius, as well as activity search radius and general coordinates of the location. 02:58: Access the area descriptions section in the package builder drop down. 03:03: Area Descriptions are used to describe an area, a stop within an itinerary, where the customer can overnight and choose from a selection of optional activities. In order to create an Area Description, the area must be created beforehand. Within your TripBuilder, a recreated set of location content is automatically available. 03:24: Start typing in the search field to search for an area description. 03:28: Search for example for Berlin. 03:31: Select Berlin from the search results. 03:34: A detailed view of the area description will be opened. Navigate between the different tabs to explore the area content. Starting with the description, which is divided into Key Sentence, Short Description and Log Description. 03:48: Click "Pictures" 03:51: ...to view the pictures which will be displayed with the area. Or click on Translate ... 03:56: ...to view the translated description. 03:59: Own contracted Products not sourced via a live API can be added and managed in the Inventory. To access the product section, click on Products. Different types of products can be created, such as accommodation, transfers, rental cars, activities and more. 04:17: In the Products section click on Accommodations - Own Inventory. 04:22: Create accommodation manually with your own contracted rates. Each accommodation is loaded as a single product and defined with seasons, prices and special offers based on your contract with the supplier. The location of the accommodation has to be within the radius of a created area in order to be displayed on the Planner. In order to add inventory accommodations to modules or templates, they have to be created previously in the inventory by clicking the "Create Accommodation" button. 04:50: Navigate back to the Products section and click on "Accommodation - Bed Banks" 04:55: This overview gives you a view of the accommodation NBC within our database. This descriptive content and pictures are used and displayed with accommodation sourced via supplier APIs. But also can be used to create your own inventory accommodation with your own season and pricing. 05:12: Click within the Products drop-down on Transfers. 05:16: Transfers are used as connections in Templates. Each transfer is a single product with a specific start and end location. A transfer in the Inventory can model any of the following means of transportation: Car Train Bus Flight Car Ferry Boat Bicycle Motorcycle and Walking 05:36: By clicking on "Create Transfer", a new transfer product can be created. 05:41: Back on the Products drop-down, click on Transport. 05:45: Inventory transports can be used as primary connections between Departure and Arrival airports in a template, like live flight offers. Transport can be of type Flight Bus or Train 05:58: Click on "Create Transport" to cerate a new transport type. 06:02: Another product option are "Transit Activities" 06:05: Transit activities are activities or tours that can be used between stops and might often be used to model multi-day tour packages such as: Group Tours Cruises Fixed Private Tours and /or Rental Car Tours Each activity is loaded as a single product with specific pricing per season and location. In order to add inventory activities to modules or templates, they have to be created previously in the inventory. 06:31: Let's discover such a Transit Activity. We have created an example trip to Namibia. 06:37: In the detail view of the activity, you can navigate between the different tabs. The segment tab allows you to create the day-by-day description and outline of the trip you want to offer. 06:48: Preview the created segment description from a Discovery and PLanner point of view. 06:53: The created segments will be showcased in a similar way to your user in the Discovery, Planner and Travel Documentation. 07:00: Besides Transit Activities, also Stop activities can be created within the Inventory. 07:06: Stop activities in the inventory model activities or tours that take place in a certain place, in a city. They always start/end in the same place, and maybe anything from a small day activity to a multi-day tour: Private Day Tours Private Multi-Day Tours or Cruises Each activity is loaded as a single product with specific pricing per season and location. In order to add inventory activities to modules or templates, they have to be created previously in the inventory. 07:36: See this example activity "Royal Versailles & Paris". 07:40: Stop and Transit Activities are built up in a similar way, as you will see in the detailed view of the activities. They are following the same tab structure. 07:50: Navigate to the next section within the Products drop-down. Base Services. 07:56: Base Services are additional components that have 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 with fixed pricing for the standard duration and optional pricing for additional days or hours. Base services are used, for example: To add single fees to a tour, such as national park fees. To add a service for a specific duration (measured in days or hours), such as a driver or guide. 08:29: Moving on to the discovery of the next product type which are Rental Cars. 08:34: Rental cars are used as connections in Templates. Each transfer is a single product with a specific start and end location. The pick-up and drop-off locations of a rental car have to be the same as the stops added to a template in order to select them properly. 08:49: Pricing of a rental car can be structured with different seasons and rental duration prices per day. 08:55: The last but not least product type which can be created within the TRipBuilder Inventory is Upsell Items. 09:02: Upsell Products are additional products or services that the user can book. With the help of the ruleset, upsell products can be displayed for all of your templates or for specific ones, depending on your needs. Upsell Products have a dedicated step within the planning process, and they will be displayed in the first checkout step before the user needs to fill in the personal information. If a template has no upsell product assigned, then the step will not be displayed in the checkout process. 09:30: The supplier section allows you to create and manage supplier information within the TripBuilder inventory. The stored supplier information can be added to inventory products. 09:41: The supplier in the inventory can be managed with two attributes: Supplier: The company that legally sells a product and acts as the official supplier of the inventory product. Operator: The company that in the end provides the service operationally. Could be a subcontractor of the supplier. 10:00: Both attributes, the supplier as well as the operator, describe a contact to whom notification emails are sent during the booking process of an inventory product. Additionally, the supplier information defined for an inventory product is shown in Customer Care in the Services & Price List view and can be edited. 10:19: Navigate further to the picture library section. 10:22: While not mandatory, it's recommended that pictures are organised in folders, as in any other file system structure. For that purpose, use the New Folder button at the top-right of the screen. 10:34: Pictures must be uploaded to the Picture Library before they can be added to the different areas, products and templates. 10:41: While uploading pictures, they will be cropped to the correct ratio as it should be displayed on the Front-end of TripBuilder. 10:48: Once the picture is uploaded in the system, you can add the License information on the Licence Tab next to the Description Tab. 10:55: We hope you enjoyed this TripBuilder Inventory overview. Discover more details of all mentioned sections in the following guides. Thank you

How to access Inventory Products?

To access the product section:

1. Go to the Cockpit.
2. Click on Inventory. 
3. Click on Products.

The supported inventory product types will be presented as menu items. These inventory products represent offline products contracted directly between the client and suppliers and unavailable for a supplier connected via a live API.

Follows an overview of the available product types and references to support articles acting as introductory information, tutorials and guidelines on creating and managing such products.