How to connect with Viator

Introduction

In this guide, we will walk you through connecting your Viator account with your kleesto account, including steps for both the Viator Supplier Portal and the kleesto Dashboard. Connecting your kleesto account with Viator will significantly decrease the manual booking operations and automate the availability synchronization between kleesto and Viator. In summary, you can benefit from the following features:

• Real-Time Availability: Viator and kleesto continuously communicate to exchange information about your products’ availabilities. This means that when a traveler requests to book a time slot for a specific product, Viator will request for availability and kleesto will respond with the actual availability of your product. As a result, kleesto acts as a centralized availability system that distributes your availability to Viator and other distribution channels.
• Centralized Booking Management: All bookings received by Viator are automatically created on your kleesto dashboard, resulting in a single hub for managing your bookings.
• Booking Cancellations: If the traveler cancels a booking on Viator, Viator will forward the cancellation request and kleesto will automatically cancel the booking on your kleesto account.

What is not supported by this connection

1. This connection does not support changing the number of persons, start date, or start time of a confirmed booking. In such a case, you will have to manually change the booking details in both accounts.
2. Syncing prices and commissions is also not supported. To be compatible, ensure to keep the same prices in both accounts.
3. Due to Viator's privacy restrictions, some of the customer details may not be forwarded to kleesto in the booking confirmation.
4. Viator does not support offering additional services to their customers via this connection.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, make sure you have completed the following steps:

1. Viator supplier account: You must have an active Viator supplier account. If you don't have one, you can sign up on their website. https://supplier.viator.com/sign-up-info
2. Access to Viator supplier portal: You should have access to Viator supplier portal to request a connection with your reservation system.

(1) Prepare your Travel Product

To have a successful connection with Viator, you will need to properly configure your kleesto products to be compatible with your Viator products. Both kleesto and Viator offer flexibility on the product structure, so following the guidelines described below is highly recommended.

(1.1) Channel Manager Settings

OTAs (including Viator) need information about your product's cancellation and refund policy. Viator offers a flexible cancellation policy to their customers, so it's highly recommended that you adapt the same settings for your kleesto products.

Here's how you can set the channel manager settings for your kleesto product:

1. Navigate to Travel Products page and click on the Edit button of your product
2. Click on the Channel Manager Settings button and set the following settings:

• Traveler / Reseller can cancel confirmed bookings: Yes
• Your cancellation policy must be configured on the Viator's supplier portal according to their restrictions, so make sure to keep this setting enabled to be compatible with the Viator's cancellation policy. If this setting is deactivated, you won't be able to receive cancellation requests in kleesto.
• Traveler / Reseller can request refund on confirmed bookings: Yes
• Your refund policy must also be configured on the Viator's supplier portal according to their restrictions, so make sure to keep this setting enabled to be compatible with the Viator's refund policy.
• Cancellation Policy: 
• Optionally provide a detailed description (in text format) of your cancellation and refund policy.
• General hours of operation for this product:
• This is an informative detail to let Viator know your product's working hours. You can leave it empty (00:00 - 23:59) or set your product's first starting time and last ending time. For example, if you have one execution trip that starts at 10:00 and lasts for 6 hours, the time range should be 10:00 - 16:00.

(1.2) Minimum Persons (per booking)

OTAs (including Viator) allow customers to book as a single person. Although kleesto allows you to set the minimum number of persons per booking, it is required to accept bookings with 1 person; otherwise, your Viator product will not be bookable and compatible with Viator's policy.

Here's how you can set the minimum persons per booking for your kleesto product:

1. Navigate to the Travel Products page and click on the Edit button of your product
2. Set the Minimum Persons (per booking) = 1

(1.3) Cut-off Time

If your Viator product has a cut-off time, you should also have the same cut-off time for your kleesto product. Different cut-off time is bad practice because it might result in inconsistent availability checks.

Here's how you can set the cut-off time for your kleesto product:

1. Navigate to the Travel Products page and click on the Edit button of your product
2. Click on the Cut-off Settings button and set the same cut-off time you have in Viator

(1.4) Pricing Type

Viator product supports 3 pricing types, all supported by kleesto, so you must have the same pricing type for your kleesto product. Also, depending on the pricing type, some fields must be set on the pricing option for being compatible with the Viator's pricing configuration.

The following table shows how a Viator pricing type is translated to a kleesto pricing type, including the required fields for the pricing option:

(2) Create Custom Pricing Option

You need to create 1 Custom Pricing Option for Viator in order to receive bookings in your kleesto dashboard. Viator prices must be the same as the prices you set on the pricing option; otherwise, kleesto will not be able to calculate the booking price correctly, resulting in a booking failure.

Here's how you can create a custom pricing option for your kleesto product:

1. Navigate to Availability & Pricing > Products Schedules page
2. Find the product and click on the "+" icon to expand the table
3. Click on the Pricing Options > Custom tab
4. Click on the Create Pricing Option button
5. Set the prices to be the same as you have in Viator
1. Make sure to set the required fields according to pricing type (1.4) 👆

(3) Create Product Availabilities

Viator's product schedule and starting times must be the same as the starting times and availabilities of the kleesto product. It's essential to set the availabilities in kleesto before completing the connection; otherwise, your product may be unavailable for a short time.

If you haven't already created the availabilities for your kleesto product, follow the steps:

1. Navigate to Availability & Pricing > Products Schedules page
2. Find the product and click on the "+" icon to expand the table
3. Click on the Create Availabilities button to create the availabilities

(4) Create Payment Policy

It is required to create a payment policy that reflects the contract between your company and Viator so that kleesto can calculate the Viator commission correctly. If you offer multiple travel products with different commissions, you should create multiple payment policies with similar configuration but with different commission amount.

Here's how you can create the Viator Payment Policy in your kleesto account:

1. Navigate to Account > Policies page
2. Click on the Add Policy button
3. Here is an example of a payment policy with 30% commission:

• Policy Type: Payment Policy
• Policy Name: Viator Payment Policy (30%)
• Commission Type: Commission (Percentage) - In Final Booking Price
• Commission Amount: 30%
• Auto-accept Bookings: Disabled
• Approval Time (in hours): 1
• Who is getting paid from the Traveler: Channel

(5) Create Viator Channel

Creating the Viator channel in kleesto will allow you to connect your kleesto products with your Viator products and be able to receive bookings via the connection.

Here's how you can create the Viator Channel in your kleesto account:

1. Navigate to Channels page
2. Click on the Viator card located under the Kleesto Services section
3. Select the Payment Policy that you have previously created for Viator
4. Add the Product and the Custom Pricing Option you have previously created for Viator
5. Click on the Submit button to create the channel

You have successfully prepared your product to be connected with Viator! Now, you need to do a few more steps on the Viator supplier portal to finalize the connection.

(6) Request access from Viator Supplier Portal

1. Log In to Viator's Supplier Portal https://supplier.viator.com/login
2. Click on the Account Name (placed on top right of the navigation bar)
3. Navigate to Account > Connectivity > Connect Now
4. Request Connection Access: kleesto is in partnership with Redeam to handle the channel management synchronisation, so select Redeam as the reservation system.

Once you complete this step, Viator will initiate a communication with kleesto to verify the connection for your account. Please note that this process may take 1 to 3 business days, depending on the Viator's plan effort.

(7) Map Viator Product to kleesto Product

Once the connection is established, you can start mapping the Viator product to the kleesto product.

Here's how you can do the mapping of a Viator Product to a kleesto Product:

1. Log In to Viator's Supplier Portal:https://supplier.viator.com/login
2. Navigate to Products page
3. Click on the Manage button to edit your product you want to connect with kleesto
4. Navigate to Product Connection tab and click on the Connect button
5. Select the corresponding product in your reservation system to be the kleesto product (it should be listed with the kleesto product's internal name)
6. Select the Supplier option to be the kleesto Pricing Option that you have previously created for the Viator channel (it should be listed with the kleesto pricing option's internal name)
7. Click Save to complete the mapping

It's a wrap !!! 🎉🎉🎉

You have successfully connected your kleesto product with a Viator product. Now it is the time to let the automagic work its wonders and enjoy a hassle-free experience!

We are here for you

We understand that the process of connecting Viator with kleesto may present some challenges, and we're here to assist you every step of the way. Your success is our priority, and that's why we're pleased to offer a free consultation call to provide expert guidance and ensure a seamless connection process. Don't hesitate to reach out to us via our chat support or send us an email at [email protected].