In order to increase your online bookings, frontdesk offers you the opportunity to sell your Products through a number of third party Distributors. If you ‘Opt-in’ to a Distributor, they will be able to sell your products online via their website or visitor centre and receive a commission. If you ‘Opt-out’ of Distributor, they will not be able to sell your products. Within the Distributors section you can opt in or out of a Distributor, and specify the Rate Type for each Distributor (which defines the price at which Customers can purchase your Products via each Distributor). In order to opt-in, you must agree to each Distributor's Terms and Conditions.
Website Distributors: Distributors who have a website where customers may go to search and book your Products online.
Visitor Information Centres: Distributors who run a Visitor Information Centre within a particular tourism region. They access your online availability to allow their staff to make online bookings on behalf of their Customers, using the Customer's credit card details or by booking on account.
When you opt-in to a Distributor, the payment option will be shown as either 'Full Payment' or 'On Account'. This indicates the manner in which you will receive payment for bookings via this Distributor.
Full Payment: You will receive payments direct from customers when they book your products online via 'Full Payment' Distributors such as your own website and many others. These monies will be processed by your Online Merchant Service Facility into your nominated bank account. Any Distributor Fees (Commissions) owed by you to any Distributors will be invoiced, direct debited and settled automatically with the Distributor by V3 .
Distributor Collects Full Payment This is an 'On Account' Distributor - ie a website or VIC (Visitor Information Centre) that takes payment from the customer and is responsible for the booking, including cancellations and changes requested by the Customer. If your products are booked through an On Account Distributor, the invoicing and receipt of funds by your business must be managed externally to the System. V3 will provide you with a monthly Settlement Report detailing all on-account transactions, then you must provide an invoice for the value of each booking to the relevant Distributor according to their Terms and Conditions. The Distributor will then reimburse you less any commissions owing (which will usually be accounted for with a Purchase Bill).
See also Online Bookings and Payment Processes for more information regarding the different kinds of online bookings.
Click on the Marketing tab and click on Distributors >Channel Opt-in from the left hand menu.
You will see a list of potential Distributors. A green tick indicates you are opted-in to be sold by that Distributor. A red cross indicates you have not yet opted-in.
In most cases, you will be able to click on the Distributor name to view the website where your business will be listed and bookable once you opt-in.
To further assist you to make a decision about whether or not to opt into each Distributor, you can also click on 'View terms and conditions and channel features'.
Once you choose which Distributors to opt into, go through the following steps:
Click on the Marketing tab and click on Distributors from the left hand menu, then Channel Opt-in.
Click the Accept T&Cs and Opt-in button next to the required Distributor. Carefully review the Terms and Conditions, taking particular note of the Distributor Fee specified. By opting in to a Distributor, you are forming a contract directly with that Distributor (except for 'Managed Distributors').
If you accept, click I have read and accept the terms and conditions. Click on the OK button. The status will now be displayed as a green tick (opted-in).
Note the 'Payment Options' column. 'Full Payment' indicates that payment will be processed directly to your business in full. 'Distributor Collects Full Payment' (On-Account) means this Distributor will be responsible for collecting payment from the Customer and all monies will need to be settled with the Distributor outside the system.
The Rate Type to be applied to the products sold via this Distributor will be set by default to Best Available Rate (which you will have entered when you Define Daily Rates). However, you may click Edit to select a Custom Rate Type if you have previously created and defined one or more.
You are now opted-in to the Distributor. Each Distributor is responsible
for activating your opt-in so that your business is displayed and bookable
via their website. This may not occur instantly and is entirely dependent
on each Distributor's processes. It may take from a few days to several
weeks for your business to be bookable by a Distributor website. In addition,
each Distributor may choose to block your business from their website
if it does not fit the criteria within their Terms and Conditions.
For any 'Managed Distributors'
(such as Wotif, Rates to Go, Bookeasy VICs, and Air New Zealand Holidays) it will
first be necessary to complete a mapping process via the My Distributors
tab. Please see this section of the Guide for more details.
Click on the Marketing tab and click on Distributors from the left hand menu then Channel Opt-in.
Find the required Distributor.
Click on the Opt-out button.