Tripadvisor Plus and Tripadvisor Instant Booking
Tripadvisor Plus is a travel subscription service that provides exclusive room rates and offers to guests who subscribe to the service. It charges properties a commission on their retail rates if they have signed up, and then returns the commissions in the form of rewards to guests, who can either spend them on activities and upgrades during their vacation or redeem them for the equivalent cash value.
Properties signed up to Tripadvisor Plus receive special badges on the Tripadvisor platform and increased visibility. And because properties can join the service for free with no upfront cost, it can help increase bookings at a lower cost compared to other channels.
Tripadvisor Instant Booking, on the other hand, offers rates to all guests (i.e. those with or without a Tripadvisor Plus subscription) that appear alongside all the other website options on Tripadvisor. Properties pay a commission on any reservations received via Tripadvisor Instant Booking.
Both service types are connected to the Channel Manager via the one ‘Tripadvisor Plus / Instant Booking’ channel. Once added to the Channel Manager, you must then activate either Tripadvisor Plus or Tripadvisor Instant Booking to complete the connection.
You can check whether your property is eligible for Tripadvisor Instant Booking here.
Tripadvisor setup
The process of connecting to Tripadvisor Plus or Tripadvisor Instant Booking is almost identical. Only the last step of ‘completing the activation with Tripadvisor’ differs.
Add Tripadvisor to the Channel Manager
You initially connect to Tripadvisor in the same way as you would with other channels. Here’s how:
Go to the Channels tab in your Channel Manager
Click Connect New Channel and select "Tripadvisor Plus / Instant Booking"
Complete the required information to add Tripadvisor as a channel
Once added to your channel manager, you will need to set up your taxes and fees for Tripadvisor. To do this, go to the Channels tab and select Tripadvisor Plus / Instant Booking from the list of active channels. Next to the Rooms & Rates and Channel Settings tabs are the Taxes and Fees tabs, where you can create the required taxes and fees.
After your taxes and fees are configured, you can start mapping your rates to Tripadvisor.
However you can only finalise the connection to the channel after the mapping is finished.
Map your room rates for Tripadvisor and enable the connection
With most other channels, users must first create the room rates in the channel extranet, then select and map them from within the Channel Manager. With Tripadvisor, however, users are able to create channel room rates directly from the Channel Manager.
Map the rates
To map your room rates to Tripadvisor, follow these steps:
Go to the Channels tab
Select Tripadvisor Plus / Instant Booking from the list
This will display the channel's Rooms & Rates tab. Find the room rate you wish to map and click Map to Tripadvisor Plus / Instant Booking in the third column.
This opens a window where you can enter the information that will appear on Tripadvisor, including codes, names, and descriptions of rooms and rates. If you’re unsure how to complete a specific field, mouse over the blue "i" icon for more information.
Fill in the necessary information in English and click Save
Enable the channel connection
Once you have completed mapping the rooms you’d like to advertise on Tripadvisor Plus / Instant Booking, follow these steps to enable the connection from the Channel Manager:
Go to the Channels tab
Click on Tripadvisor Plus / Instant Booking
Click on the tab Channel Settings
Set the status to Enabled
Click Save
After enabling the channel connection, you have two options:
Connect to Tripadvisor Plus
Connect to Tripadvisor Instant Booking
Instructions are available in the relevant section below
Complete the activation with Tripadvisor Plus
You can complete the activation process with your Tripadvisor Account Manager after you have filled in all channel details in Channel Manager, set up your taxes and fees, mapped your room rates, and enabled the channel connection.
To complete activation, please contact your Tripadvisor Account Manager and provide them with the following information:
Confirmation that you have acknowledged and returned the Tripadvisor Plus agreement.
Confirmation that you’ve broken down the taxes and fees to ensure the rates are priced competitively.
Confirmation that the availability on your daily lowest available rates are open, and you’ve limited any closeout and blackout dates to maximise booking opportunities.
Please complete the self-sign-up process on Tripadvisor, either by signing in to your existing Tripadvisor account or creating a new account for free.
Complete the activation with Tripadvisor Instant Booking
Once your room rates are mapped, it can take up to 48 hours before you can complete the activation on Tripadvisor. To finish the activation, please complete the self-sign-up process on Tripadvisor, either by signing in to your existing Tripadvisor account or creating a new account for free.