Setting up the Viator Integration with Checkfront

Plan Availability: ✓ Soho | ✓ Pro | ✓ Plus | ✓ Enterprise | ✓ Flex |
Locate: Manage > Integrations > Channels > Viator
Industries: X Accommodations | ✓ Activities  | ✓ Tours  | X Rentals  | ✓ Adventures | ✓ Escape Rooms | Learn More
Prerequisites: 

• Admin permissions to manage integrations.
• A Viator account (or sign up during integration setup!)
• Your account must have access to items (Inventory > Items), which is a key feature of our classic version of Checkfront. 
• This integration is not yet supported with products (Inventory > Products), which is a key feature of our newest version of Checkfront. 

New to Checkfront - Products ✨ Products (Inventory > Products) is the successor feature to (Inventory > Items) and is available in our newest version of Checkfront. Not yet on our newest version and interested in upgrading? Please contact our Technical Support team for more information. Discover more product-related help articles here: Products (New).

Viator - A TripAdvisor Company, is an online marketplace for tours, activities, and attractions. With a Viator account, you can make your inventory available for booking online through Viator!

Viator does not use Checkfront to process payments, rather they process the payments directly through their own processors and then send this information to Checkfront. We then create an invoice with a booking form field with merchant details.

Checkfront's Viator integration enables you to connect your Checkfront inventory to Viator. Once configured, Viator can query item availability in Checkfront on behalf of Guests who are looking to book through the Viator system. Once an item is booked through Viator, the inventory in Checkfront will be updated and a booking record will be reflected in both Viator and Checkfront.

Timelines Viator integration activation can take up to 24 hours. Availability checks are done twice a day (every 12 hours). Inventory is checked again before the booking is confirmed.

To activate the integration in Checkfront, navigate to Manage > Integrations > Channels in your main Checkfront menu and click on the Viator tile.

This will open a modal, which first asks whether you have a Viator account or need a Viator account. Select the applicable option to continue.

The I need a Viator account button takes you to Sign Up for Viator through their website. You can return to Checkfront after creating your Viator account to complete setup in Checkfront.

The I have a Viator account button takes you to the Viator Setup fields form in Checkfront as described next.

Let's have a look at the various fields and the information you will need to enter. The information fields are broken up into two sections. The first section gathers details on your business, plus some of the basic settings for Viator.

 

This is the name of your business as entered in your Viator account. Viator will use this name to match the Checkfront integration with your Viator account. Make sure that whatever you enter here, matches your supplier name at Viator.

The person at your business who Viator should contact after, or during the configuration process, should they have any questions.

The name of the city in which your tours or activities are operating. You may enter only one city per integration.

This is the UN/LOCODE for the city. You can search for the code at the following website: http://www.unece.org/cefact/locode/service/location.html.

Search by country and locate the suffix code for the city. 

For example: Vancouver, Canada = CA VAN

This is the length of time for which Viator will set aside inventory for booking. If a customer is in the process of booking an item in Viator, the system will hold the inventory aside. If the customer commits to the booking within this hold time, the inventory will be updated to reflect the fact that the item is no longer available. If the maximum hold time is reached, however, before a booking is completed, the system will release the hold and that item will be available for booking by somebody else. This is a mechanism to prevent double bookings.

This is the status that will be assigned to new bookings in Checkfront that were created at Viator. You can opt for the same status you use with your regular Checkfront bookings, or, you could create a custom status so that you can quickly tell (in the Checkfront interface) which bookings have come in from Viator. For example, you can perform a search for all bookings with the status Viator.

When a booking is made through Viator, a reservation is also made in Checkfront and the invoice generated will contain various information brought in from Viator.

With the Viator Merchant Details drop-down, you are able to select the field from your booking form which will include this booking information brought in from Viator.

We highly recommend you create a new field, specifically for Viator! Here's why... If you have chosen to display booking notes from Checkfront on your customer invoices, then the details that come in from Viator will also be shown. Generally, you will probably not want your customers to see this information. Therefore, a Viator-specific, staff-only field is recommended. You can create a new Checkfront booking form field within Booking Details (Manage > Layout > Booking Form).

We recommend using the above settings when creating the Viator-specific booking form field (Manage > Layout > Booking Form > Add new field > Options).

By using these settings, you are hiding the Viator details from your customers, but showing them on the company-side invoice views. It is necessary to select Show on form for Staff, otherwise, the details will not be included.

Discrepancies between Checkfront Invoice and Viator Please note that the details you see on the Checkfront invoice, namely the amount charged, may differ from what you see in Viator as the Checkfront invoice does not include Viator fees charged.

As you can see in the example above, the amount paid by the customer through Viator is different from the amount sent over to Checkfront. This is due to fees charged by Viator for using their service. Due to API restrictions, Checkfront does not have access to a breakdown of those fees and cannot display them anywhere in your Checkfront account. Viator only provides the booking net amount that is the total amount payable to the supplier for one booking. Following on from this, you will notice that invoices in Checkfront for bookings created in Viator will have a zeroed out balance and item cost. This is to avoid any confusion between the amounts paid in Viator and the amounts posted in Checkfront. As a result, you should use Viator for your reporting purposes when it comes to those bookings.

This booking form field will hold customer information sent over with your Viator booking.

We highly recommend you create a new field, specifically for Viator! As with the View Merchant Details field, we recommend creating a specific field to display this information. You can create a new Checkfront booking form field within Booking Details (Manage > Layout > Booking Form).

Mapping Checkfront inventory to Viator inventory >