Question 1

If my customer's payment goes through but the booking does not complete, will I know about it?

Accepted Answer

Yes, you will be told when that happens, and it helps to understand why it happens at all. A booking is really two separate steps, taking the money and confirming the seat or the room with the supplier. Almost always they run one after the other in the same moment, but if the supplier does not answer in time, or the fare is taken by somebody else while your customer is paying, the payment can succeed while the confirmation does not. When that happens the booking is not quietly dropped. It stays in your system with a status that marks it as unfinished, and it shows in your bookings list so your staff can see it for themselves instead of finding out when the customer calls. Most agencies also set up an alert so whoever is on duty is told straight away, because the sooner someone looks at it, the better the chance the same fare is still there. What you can do next depends on the supplier. Sometimes your staff can simply retry the confirmation and it goes through on the second attempt. Other times the fare has gone, and the choice is to move your customer onto the next best option or to refund. Refunds follow the rules of your payment provider and of the supplier, so the money can take several working days to reach your customer even when you release it the same day. Ask whoever set up your portal to show you exactly where unfinished bookings appear and who receives the alert, and agree with your team what they should say to a customer while it is being sorted out.

Question 2

Can I add my own markup to the prices my customers see on my portal?

Accepted Answer

Yes, in most cases you can add your own markup to the prices your customers see, and they will only ever see the final figure, not the supplier's price sitting underneath it. The usual way this works is that you set a markup rule in your admin area and the portal applies it automatically to every search result before the page is drawn. You can normally choose whether the markup is a percentage or a flat amount, and you can often set different rules for different products, so flights carry one rule and hotels carry another. Many setups also let you keep separate rules for the smaller agents who work under you, so each group of users sees prices that suit the way you deal with them. There are limits worth knowing about, because not every part of a price can be marked up. Taxes and supplier collected fees usually have to be passed through exactly as they come, and with some airline fares the rules of the fare itself restrict what can be added on top, so your markup may apply only to the base part of the price. What is possible here also depends on the supplier and on the plan you are on, so it is fair to expect some differences between one source of content and another. Before you go live, set your rules and then run a few real searches and take one booking all the way through to the confirmation page, so you can check that the amount your customer pays and the amount printed on the voucher are both what you expected.

Question 3

Can I correct a passenger's name on a flight if my staff typed it in wrong?

Accepted Answer

Yes in many cases, but not always, and it depends on the airline. A small spelling correction, such as a missing letter or two letters the wrong way round, is often accepted while the booking is still live. Changing the name to a different traveller altogether is a different matter, and most airlines treat that as a cancellation and a fresh booking rather than a correction. The part that surprises agents is that it is usually not a button on your portal. Very few airlines allow a name to be edited straight through the booking system, so the correction normally has to be raised with the supplier or with the airline support desk, and someone waits for it to be actioned. Many airlines also charge for the change, and whether they do is set by the airline and the fare, not by your portal. Timing makes a real difference. The sooner your staff spot the mistake the better, because the options narrow once the ticket has been issued and narrow again once check in has opened. With some budget airlines there is no correction route at all, and the only way forward is to cancel and book again, which can mean losing what was paid if the fare was not refundable. The sensible thing to do is ask your supplier what the name correction process is for the airlines you sell most often, so your staff know who to contact and how long it takes. It also helps to make it a rule that names are read back from the passport before the booking is confirmed, because catching it in the first minute costs nothing.

Question 4

Can I control which staff members are allowed to cancel bookings or issue travel documents?

Accepted Answer

Yes, your travel agency software can be set up so that staff members have access only to the work they are responsible for. For example, a booking consultant may be allowed to search, create bookings and view customer details, while a manager handles cancellations, refunds or the release of travel documents. The exact controls available depend on your glideFares plan and how your portal is configured. Some actions may also be controlled by the travel supplier, especially after a booking has been confirmed or a ticket has been issued. A permission in the software does not mean that every airline or hotel will allow the requested change. Using separate staff access helps protect customer information and reduces the chance of an important booking being changed by mistake. It can also make responsibilities clearer inside the agency, because each person sees the parts of the booking process needed for their role. Managers should still review booking activity regularly and make sure access is removed when someone no longer works with the agency. Before your team starts using the software, decide who should be able to create, confirm, cancel and amend bookings, then check which staff permissions and approval controls are included in your glideFares setup.

Question 5

Can my customers create their own login to manage their bookings on my portal?

Accepted Answer

Yes, your white label travel portal can allow customers to create a personal login, but the exact features available depend on your plan and the services connected to the portal. A customer login can give travellers one place to enter their details and return to their booking information without starting again each time. Depending on the setup, customers may be able to view current and previous bookings, check confirmation details, download available travel documents and update basic personal information. Saved traveller details can also make a future booking quicker. Access to tickets, vouchers and live booking updates depends on what the airline, hotel supplier or travel API makes available. A customer login does not always mean the traveller can change or cancel every booking themselves. Many changes still need to be handled by agency staff because supplier rules, cancellation conditions and extra charges must be checked first. Some information may also appear only after the supplier has confirmed the booking and issued the relevant document. Before enabling customer accounts, check which self service features are included in your glideFares plan, which booking details your suppliers return, and which requests you want customers to send to your staff for help.

Question 6

Will a hotel booking made on my portal reach the hotel straight away, or does someone have to confirm it by hand?

Accepted Answer

Most of the time yes, a hotel booking made on your portal goes through to the hotel straight away, but there are rates where it does not. When a room is sold on what the industry calls instant confirmation, your customer pays, the booking is sent on to the supplier while they are still on the page, and a confirmation number comes back within seconds. That number is the hotel's own reference, so the room is held in the hotel's system from that moment and your customer can travel on the voucher without anyone in your office doing anything else. Some rooms are sold on request instead. Here the booking is only a request until the hotel replies, and the reply can come back quickly or, at smaller properties and in busy season, take a good deal longer. Your portal should show these bookings with a clearly different status, and your staff should not send out a voucher or treat the room as held until that status changes to confirmed. Whether a hotel is instant or on request is decided by the supplier and the contract sitting behind that rate, so the same hotel can be instant through one supplier and on request through another. Open a recent hotel booking in your portal and look at the status and the supplier reference recorded against it, and ask each of your hotel suppliers which of their rates are sold on request, so your staff know which bookings still need watching before the customer travels.

Question 7

Can I prepare a travel quote in my agency software before the customer decides to book?

Accepted Answer

Yes, travel agency software can usually help your staff prepare a quote before the customer is ready to book. Your team can search for suitable travel options, select the preferred flight or hotel, and present the main details in a clear document or page for the customer to review. The exact layout and sharing options depend on the features included in your glideFares plan. A quote is not normally a confirmed reservation. Seats, rooms, fares and cancellation terms may change while the customer is deciding because availability comes from the supplier through the API. The software may show when the search was made, but it cannot guarantee that the same option will still be available later. Some suppliers may offer a temporary hold, although this is not available for every booking. When the customer accepts, your staff should search or recheck the chosen option before taking payment or confirming the booking. The latest fare, taxes, baggage, room terms and cancellation conditions should be reviewed with the customer, especially if some time has passed since the quote was prepared. Check whether your glideFares plan includes saved quotes, branded quote documents and a direct way to turn an accepted quote into a booking.

Question 8

Can the flight price change between the search results and the payment page on my portal?

Accepted Answer

Yes, it can, and this is normal in flight booking rather than a fault with your portal. The prices your customer sees in a search come from fares the supplier has stored or cached so that results come back quickly. The real, bookable price is only confirmed at the moment the booking is being made and the airline is asked directly. In between those two moments the airline can sell the cheaper seats to someone else, reprice the fare, or update the taxes. How often this happens depends on the airline and the supplier you are connected to. On busy routes, and with budget airlines where seats move quickly and fares are priced live, a change between search and payment is more common. On quieter routes a fare can stay the same all day. It also happens more when a customer takes a long time between searching and paying, or comes back the next morning to a search result they left open. Most flight booking APIs have a step that checks the fare again just before payment, and a well built portal uses it. Your customer is shown the new price and asked to agree before any money is taken, so nobody is charged more than they have accepted. Whether the older price can still be honoured is not something the portal can decide, because the seat and the fare belong to the airline. Ask your supplier how long their fares stay valid, and check that your portal is set to show the customer the new price and ask them to confirm, rather than failing the booking quietly.

Question 9

Can my customers filter hotel searches by facilities such as a swimming pool or parking?

Accepted Answer

Yes, customers can usually narrow their hotel search by facilities, but the available filters depend on the information supplied through each hotel booking API. Common options may include parking, a swimming pool, internet access, air conditioning, a restaurant, or facilities for disabled guests. The results are only as complete and accurate as the hotel information received from the supplier. Some hotels provide detailed facility records, while others provide only basic details or use different descriptions for the same facility. This means a filter may leave out a suitable hotel if that facility has not been recorded correctly, and a listed facility may have conditions such as limited opening times or an extra charge. A filter helps customers create a useful shortlist, but important facilities should still be checked on the hotel details page before booking. For anything essential, such as accessible rooms, secure parking, or a pool that must be open during the stay, your staff may need to confirm it with the supplier or hotel. A booking note can request something, but it does not guarantee that the hotel will provide it. Ask glideFares which hotel facility filters are supported by your selected API and check how the supplier displays any conditions before making them available to customers.

Question 10

Can I make my white label travel portal look like my own travel agency brand?

Accepted Answer

Yes, you can usually make a white label travel portal match your travel agency brand. You may be able to add your logo, brand colours, business name, banners and selected wording so customers feel they are booking directly with your agency. The amount you can change depends on the portal design and the plan you choose. Some layouts allow changes across most customer pages, while others use a fixed structure with your branding added to it. Hotel details, airline information and other travel content may also follow the format supplied through the API, so every part of a results page may not be fully adjustable. It is also important to check the complete booking journey, not only the home page. Search results, payment pages, confirmation messages, tickets and vouchers should be reviewed because branding options can differ between them. In some cases, required supplier or payment information may still appear where it is needed to complete or explain the booking. Before your portal is launched, provide your preferred logo, colours and wording, then ask to see the main search, booking, payment and confirmation pages so you can check that the customer experience suits your brand.