Importing bookings

Integration of your online booking system/store into Odyssey will provide you with significant time savings, by being able to pull the online bookings directly into Odyssey, and onto the appropriate departure.  

Once we have worked with you to make the necessary configurations, the online bookings can automatically flow towards Odyssey.  Alternatively, you may have to manually trigger the push of records from your online booking website to Odyssey.

The data gets pushed to a separate URL first, which separates out the content from the online booking into useable chucks, and then automatically creates the Bookings to import into Odyssey).  

Bookings can then be reviewed, allowing you to have control of the records you import into Odyssey.  Bookings can be added to exisiting Tours, or new Tours can be created automatically from the first booking received.

When do the bookings to import appear?  They appear almost instantly.  You will receive an email notification that the booking has been received; at the same time, you should find the booking ready to import.

To Import Online Bookings

Stage 1 - Review the incoming bookings

You will know when there are new bookings to import, because there will be a notification above the Main Menu (also visible from the Departures and Bookings menu).  Also, you will receive an email notification that the booking/s have been received.

• From the Main Menu | Dashboard
• Click # Bookings to import

• The list of records which have flowed from your online store/website, ready to be imported, can be viewed

• The data is arranged under the following headings: 
  • Action Required!  Alerts will show here, advising you of any issues that need your attention; e.g. No Master (just enter a correct trip code), Code Error (again, just enter a correct trip code)
  • Traveller Count (The number of clients who booked on the same tour, together)
  • Name (First name and Last name)

  • an icon to alert you that this client may already exist in your database.  

    NOTE:  Possible existing name match Alert : Where Odyssey thinks there could be a match to an existing client in Odyssey (based on first name and last name), this alert will appear.  Odyssey does not consolidate this booking to the existing client - it's up to you to cross check and decide how you wish to proceed.

  • Master name
  • Departure/Tour date
  • Master Code
  • Matched Tour Code (if this field is empty, you can enter the correct code in when you review the booking)
  • Current Bookings
  • Bookings Max
• Clients who are travelling together, i.e. booked on the same trip, will be grouped together

Click once on the record in the list of records to import

• You land on the Review Imported Details window, on the client's Personal Details tab
• The number of clients who booked together for this trip will be shown in the top left corner, this booking may be one of several.  
• Use the < > buttons to navigate and view other clients who booked at the same time

Personal Details

Any data that the client has completed in their online booking will be shown on the Personal Details tab.  

• Go ahead and review this data, and also the data on the Medical, Contact Info, Extras and Passport tabs
• You can edit/change details as required, prior to adding the client to a tour
• then come back to the Personal tab to add this imported booking to the tour.  

• The available fields are:

First Name

Last Name

Gender

Title

Email address

Phone

Address

City

Country, (use the duplicate button to copy this information to other travellers who

booked at the same time)

How did you hear (use the duplicate button to copy this information to other travellers

who booked at the same time)

Occupation

• Any bookings that you do not want to import can be deleted using the Delete button

Medical

Fitness, age, and health related data is stored here.

• The available fields are:

Date of Birth

Age

Height

Weight

Fitness

Dietary Requirements

Medical Condition Details

Dietary Requirements - Comments

Contact Info

There is space here for up to two emergency contact records to be stored.

• The available fields are:

Emergency Contact First Name

Emergency Contact Last Name

Emergency Contact Email

Emergency Contact Relationship

Emergency Contact Phone

Next of Kin Name

Next of Kin Email

Next of Kin Relationship

Next of Kin Phone

Extras

Extras relate to extra resources this client might select, such as bike type, extras (chargeable) and accessories (non chargeable).

• The available fields are:

Bike

Extras

Accessories (check the required accessories)

Passport

• The available fields are:

Passport Number

Place of Issue (select from the drop down list)

Date of Issue

Nationality (select from the drop down list)

Stage 2 - Adding this imported booking to a tour

• From the Personal tab, review the Booking Import Options first
• You have three options to consider, before clicking the + Add to tour button
  • by default, this booking will be added to the existing Tour, if one is available.  If a suitable tour has been found, it will be detailed in the grey box.  
  • alternatively, click the Create New Tour button (read more about this below)
  • or, use the Override Tour Code field, to override the Tour Code with a Tour Code of your choosing.  (Ensure you enter the code correctly!)
• click the + Add to Tour button
• you will receive a message saying "should this traveller be added to the Tour (tour code)?". Click OK, if it should be added.

• Every piece of info from the created booking has been imported, creating the Client record if required, creating the Booking Record (attached to the required Departure), and creating every bike hire day record, if a Bike is being hired/used as part of the Booking.
• Use the <> buttons to navigate to the next booking to review and import

To view a list of records which have been imported 

• wFrom the Import Online Bookings Window, click View Previously Imported

• This takes you to the Imported Bookings list

• Here you will see an entry for each online booking which has been imported into Odyssey.  The list shows the date that the record was imported into Odyssey on the left,  and the relevant Departure details are on the right.
• Clicking the imported booking entry will display a pop-up window containing the Departure details, and contact details for this customer.

• Clicking the > arrow button at the end of each imported booking record, will take you directly to that departure, to view the imported record

To delete unwanted bookings from the imported list, after they have been successfully imported

• From the Imported online bookings list, click the - button to the left hand side of the record

• You will be asked if you wish to permanently delete this one record

• This does NOT delete the booking that you have added to departure, it is simply cleaning up the list of imported bookings.

What the import process does not do:

• Double check to see if the client already exists and/or update existing client records (it will alert you there COULD be a match though), by the use of the multi client icon

We recommend that you create records for these existing clients manually, copying the data from the import list. Importing them automatically from the import list  would create a duplicate "profile" for this client, resulting in a database which doesn't help you find true analytic search results such as how many repeat clients did we have this year, or how many people over the age of xx.  And these repeat clients would appear multiple times in your email lists.

​

• Automatically match ‘some’ of the long free flow WorldEx text - to the dropdown list choices (but the alert symbol will indicate to you that you need to do this)

• It's up to staff to make a selection from the Diet dropdown list, of an option that best suits the comments beside it. 

  If no selection is made, then Odyssey will continue to use the option it's been told is the default for your company.

To learn more about using the Import Template, click here  

From the previous version of this page:  (I'm waiting on feedback from Tanya on these things)

• If the trip code is highlighted in Orange, this means the trip code does not match exactly a trip code in your system.  The booking will not be able to be imported  (i.e. the import button will not be available) until you follow the review process below, and replace the trip code with a valid one
• There will be a delete button to enable you to delete any test or unwanted bookings (deleted bookings cannot be recovered; however as part of the normal process is that you are emailed a copy of the booking, the booking can be manually created using those emailed details)
• test bookings will show in a different window, labelled Test Booking

If ever there is some information from the online Booking, that has NOT had its corresponding dropdown list value selected, the field will be highlighted, and the original information shown below in green text, for your reference to help you make your choice.

When all bookings have not been made by one person, but by several clients over a period of time their record shows the GREEN import icon, (since they placed their own online booking - therefore they are considered a solo traveller) - but Odyssey provides the ability to override this:

in the popup window the top radio button is highlighted, [ B ] , showing a NEW Trip would be created for her.

BUT If the client is meant to be joining others on a Trip... the matching Date/Master of a Trip already created, will show in the peachy coloured column on the original main list page, [ C ] as well as under the 2nd radio button [ D ].