Podcasts about rezgo

Anyone who deals with sales and/or marketing has known for a while now that tracking the consumer journey from start to finish is becoming nigh on impossible because of the changes from platforms like Facebook and companies like Apple. It is now impossible to track across domain names, which means tracking over a booking widget or separate booking URL is no longer possible. But there is a simple solution to this problem that Res Tech and booking platforms MUST implement if they wish to aid their customers and partners in generating more bookings through their systems. What is the current issue? Most operators who use the likes of Fareharbor, Bokun, Trekksoft, Checkfront, Rezdy, PeekPro or any of the other popular booking platforms will be familiar with the widget that is added to a website. This works by adding a button and/or a snippet of code through a piece of Javascript. When clicked, an iFrame containing the booking widget launches on the operator website or a calendar loads on a page that itself launches a separate window so the consumer can complete the booking. Now the issue is, Facebook now needs you to verify your domain name to make tracking website interactions work properly. It also has to be a main domain name and not a sub-domain name. Without getting too technical, the widget loaded from most booking platforms is from a URL on the res tech side within a container called an iFrame. As this is seen as a separate URL – one that you cannot verify on your own Facebook account – Facebook can no longer track your customers' interactions once they start the booking stage. This makes it impossible to know if they completed a purchase or where in that booking journey they may have dropped off. Currently, it is mainly Facebook that has this issue. But this will eventually be implemented by the likes of Google and other platforms as global pressure on data tracking becomes more and more strict. Facebook, and other platforms, have launched a way to track conversions using server side tracking. This means a server you set up, say on Google Cloud, can help claw back some of that missing data. But it will still not be as it was before, and still not entirely help with how most booking platforms are currently set up. Server side tracking is also a lot harder to set up for the non technical folks and may cost you a small monthly fee (or large if you get a lot of traffic). There is an easy solution Some platforms, like TourCMS or Rezgo, offer an API solution, so a developer can build you a bespoke, on-site booking process that would get around this issue. However, this can be an expensive endeavor to build and maintain. We did this back in the day for companies like Gray Line and Macs Adventure, amongst many others, when we used to develop bespoke websites. However, this solution is not viable for the vast majority of operators. The easy solution, from what I can see, is if these booking platforms allowed operators to add a ‘payment complete' URL that redirected the consumer back to a booking confirmation or thank you page on the operator website. Now, while this may still not allow you to track the full journey, it would allow you to track if that customer who visited a product page completed a purchase on your site. Some res tech may say this could stop any upsell opportunities, but another simple solution is to embed an iFrame into the thank you page that could still pull in upsell experiences and add-ons. By going to this page, the Facebook Pixel may have the opportunity to even pull in the sale price of that booking. This simple solution would allow for more insights into the ads or content that inspired that consumer to make the booking. That means marketing agencies like mine could create more of this content to create even more bookings and revenue for the operator and the res tech. For me, it is a no brainer that brings many benefits. The likes of PayPal, Stripe and most other payment platforms allow you to set a “payment complete” URL and it is high time booking platforms followed suit. Those who do will find themselves being recommended by agencies and other partners, more so, than those who don't. If there is a good reason why booking platforms don't do this, please do tell me, but from where I am sitting, this solution, at least, must be implemented by all. Join the Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/digitaltourismshow

Host Brian Crombie is joined by Stella Rezgo and Karolina Elizabeth, two musical talents to talk about their musical journeys and love songs because of the proximity to Valentine's Day.

Our guests, Alex Kremer (Redeam) and Stephen Joyce (Rezgo), dissect the latest in the tours and activities sector after what was probably the most fascinating week in its history following acquisitions by both Booking.com and TripAdvisor.

Grand Opening of the Rezgo Marketplace After much anticipation we are happy to announce that the Marketplace functionality is complete. The Rezgo Marketplace is a built in distribution network that allows you to distribute your products through third-party websites. When a sale is made through a third party, you agree to pay that third party a commission for the sale. We do not charge any additional fees for you to use this feature and it is available for some or all of your products. We are also pleased to announce that the Flight Centre, our premiere marketplace partner, will be launching their integrated marketplace on February 15th, 2008. Over the next two weeks, Flight Centre will be reviewing all applications for participation in their marketplace. * Read this important information about joining the Flight Centre Marketplace 10 Questions to Ask a Tour Operator Reservation System Supplier Alex Bainbridge from TravelUCD in the U.K. posted a questionnaire on the Travel Technology Show blog last week. Since the questionnaire referred to applications like Rezgo.com, we decided to answer his questions and post them on our blog for your review. It is always useful to get third party validation of your application and to promote openness in the marketplace. * Review the answers to the questionnaire on the Rezgo Blog 5 Travel & Tourism Trends for 2008 Both Stephen Joyce, President of Rezgo.com and PhocusWright recently posted their top 5 trends for 2008. Not surprisingly, there are some similarities in their predictions for the coming year. How will these trends affect your business over the next year and beyond? Take a look at the posts and decide for yourself how you can piggyback on these emerging activities in the travel & tourism landscape. * Read Stephen Joyce's Top 5 Trends at the Travel & Tourism Technology Trends Blog * Read PhocusWright's 5 Trends on the PhocusWright FYI website Check out the Rezgo Blog For the latest updates to Rezgo including lots of helpful tips, hints, and tricks, visit the Rezgo Blog. Why not take a look at some of the latest posts now: Rezgo.com is PCI Compliant Ogone Payment Gateway Now Supported! Social Bookmarking supported Automated Supplier Notification Proud to be associated with the following industry conferences:

Special End of Year Release Announcement We are really excited to announce that we are releasing some features that we hope you'll find useful in the coming New Year: Time Zone Support We have added the ability for you to set your own time zone in your Rezgo.com account. This means that when your customers book your tours and activities, the booking will be made based on your time zone. This feature will ensure that every international customer will be able to accurately schedule their tours. Required Passenger Types You can now set what passenger types are required for an activity or trip. For example, if you offer adult, senior, and child pricing, you can now specify that there must be at least one of either an adult or a senior to book. This eliminates the possibility that someone can book only child pricing for an activity where a supervising adult is required. Send Email When a Specific Booking is Made Do you need to let a specific supplier know when a booking has been made for a specific tour or activity. Now you can add the supplier's email to the details for a tour in the administration system. When a booking is made for that tour, the supplier will be notified via email that a booking has been made. This is particularly useful if you re-sell tours or activities for third party suppliers or supplier partners. Get more exposure with Social Bookmarks We have added the "AddThis.com" social bookmarking button and the TravelBookMarking.com bookmark icon to the category, group and item pages on all Rezgo.com accounts. These social bookmarking buttons give your customers the ability to easily bookmark your products on social bookmark sites like Digg.com, Del.icio.us, Travelbookmarking.com and Stumbleupon.com. Ogone Payment Gateway Our European members will be happy to know that the Ogone Payment gateway is now fully supported in Rezgo.com. Once you have been approved for your Ogone merchant account you can enter in your API information in the payment gateway section of the Rezgo.com settings and begin accepting real-time payments for your tours and activities. Rezgo.com is PCI Certified Credit Card Safe We are very happy to report that Rezgo.com has completed the Level 3 PCI compliance security and self-assessment requirements. We have also completed software certification with both PPI (Payment Processing Inc.) and Paymentech. You can rest assured that your critical and sensitive customer payment information is secure with Rezgo.com. For more information about PCI compliance, please visit Visa's PCI and CISP information website.

Volume 1 Issue 3 December 07, 2007 Make a Successful Blog Strategy Part of Your 2008 Plan As a travel & tourism industry expert, I can tell you that a content strategy that includes a well planned and consistently updated blog will go a long way to improving your search engine friendliness and your credibility. Connect with your customers by sharing your experiences and expertise in a casual and interesting way and keep them coming back for more. Contact us for help with developing your content strategy for 2008. Stephen Joyce, President Rezgo.com Leading the Way for the Travel Industry I am very happy to report that our participation in both the Canada-e-Connect Conference in Vancouver and the PhoCusWright Conference in Orlando were huge successes. At Canada-e-Connect we launched our ground breaking book "Tips from the T-List" which brought together twenty-eight industry bloggers from around the World. At the PhoCusWright Conference, we participated in the first ever Blogger Workshop and Summit where some of the bloggers who contributed to the "Tips from the T-List" actually met face to face and discussed the impact of blogging on the travel industry. As a result of the success of the book and the workshop, we have been invited to help with the planning and presentation of Blogger workshops at several other conferences in 2008. We'll keep you posted on these conferences as they come up. For now, I recommend you download an e-version. Don't forget to pass a copy on to your friends and colleagues. Download the Tips from the T-List at: http://www.rezgo.com/connected Stephen Joyce, President Rezgo.com Rezgo Wins Silver Award for Innovation Canadian E-Tourism AwardsRezgo.com won the Silver Award for Innovation at the Canadian E-Tourism Awards presented at the Telus World of Science on November 8th, 2007.Hosted by the Canadian e-Tourism Council, these prestigious new awards recognize excellence in website design, online campaigns and innovation for three sectors: public, private and small- and medium-sized enterprise. They also want to recognize travelers by showcasing the best in user-generated content with awards for the best story telling, the best photo, and the best video or short-film. Entries from around the world will be accepted so long as they feature, market, or sell a Canadian destination, product, attraction, or experience. Tis the Season to offer a Coupon Did you know that you can offer your customers (or potential customers) a promotional coupon using Rezgo.com? Use the promotional code feature to create a discount coupon on one or all of the tours and activities you offer. Find out more about using the promotional code feature by reading this article. 3 Ways to Improve Your SEO with Rezgo Have you been thinking about ways to improve your SEO but you're not quite ready to do online booking? Here are three simple ways to improve your SEO using a Rezgo.com account that won't cost you a dime. Read the entire article here. Check out the Rezgo Blog For the latest updates to Rezgo including lots of helpful tips, hints, and tricks, visit the Rezgo Blog. http://blog.rezgo.com