Starting today with Global Travel Advisor Day, Expedia Group will host 16 travel advisor events in May for members of the Expedia Travel Agent Affiliate Program.
Expedia (No. 2 on Travel Weekly's Power List) updates its advisors on new features.
“This channel is very important to us,” said Robin Lowther, TAAP Vice President. “TAAP has been around for about 15 years, but in the last few years we have started to put a lot of energy, time and investment into his TAAP program.”
In the past, TAAP held events throughout the year, but this year they have unified events around Travel Advisor Day, Lowther said. Events will be held in the United States (this week in Dallas and Arizona, with more scheduled later this month), Mexico, Brazil, Canada, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, and Italy.
robin lowther
Lowther said the events will vary slightly by market and range from lunch to movie nights, but advisors who attend will be provided with the latest information on TAAP. Some of those updates include TAAP's pay later feature and the expansion of his TAAP Rewards program outside of the United States.
TAAP began implementing deferred payment in the U.S. last year, Lowther said. It is available worldwide starting this year. Any government agency can request that this feature be enabled (approximately 16,000 agencies have it enabled). This feature allows agents to pay closer to their check-in date, giving the agency's clients more flexibility.
TAAP Rewards is also expanding to Canada and Mexico. It was launched in the U.S. a few years ago and adoption has grown, Lowther said. A “significant number” of active agents are using the program, which allows them to earn reward points that can be redeemed for gift cards when they book a stay.
Lawther is particularly excited about a new feature that TAAP will begin rolling out in early July: the ability for agents to add a service fee to reservations.
“Of course, you pay a fee on every booking, but advisors may want to add on top of that a fee that we know is very common now,” Lowther said. Ta.
At checkout, the Advisor may add a fee, which will be billed to the Customer and returned to the Advisor.
Lowther said this was the most requested feature from advisors, especially in the United States. Following testing in early July, a wider rollout is expected later this year.
According to Lawther, advisors can also expect some changes in terms of reporting, with new APIs that can be easily integrated into the various accounting and inventory management systems that advisors may use.
TAAP is also testing a new shopping experience that will be rolled out after several features are added.