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TravelAd: Reseller Connection

Connect TravelAd to Ventrata to sync availability and prices and receive bookings instantly. London river, cable car and bus-tour combinations.

TravelAd logo

 

TravelAd is an online travel agency (OTA) selling attraction tickets and day experiences across the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates and Turkey, with a London catalog built on river transport, cable car tickets, afternoon tea and bus-tour combinations. For operators, it brings family and short-break leisure travelers buying repeat-purchase city products, often as combinations of transport, sightseeing and dining.

 

Connecting TravelAd to Ventrata will sync your availability and prices and deliver bookings, changes and cancellations with tickets issued automatically.

 

To learn more about partnering with TravelAd, visit traveladoffers.com.

 

Primary website

Tags

OTA · Tours & Activities OTA · Sightseeing & Hop-On Hop-Off

Destination markets

🌎 Global

Source markets

🌎 Global

Specialties

London river, cable car and bus-tour combinations

Connection features

Availability Sync · Pricing Sync · Bookings Sync

Developed by

TravelAd (using Ventrata's OCTO API)

 

This reseller connection lets you sell your products through TravelAd without managing availability, pricing and bookings by hand. Features of this connection include:

  • Availability Sync – TravelAd checks your live availability in Ventrata.

  • Pricing Sync – TravelAd gets your prices from your reseller pricing in Ventrata.

  • Bookings Sync – bookings, updates and cancellations from TravelAd are created in Ventrata instantly, and customers get Ventrata tickets.

 

Creating the TravelAd Connection

🔐 Required Role Permissions: See Connections, Modify Connections, See Connection Key

Before you begin:

  • You must have a commercial agreement with TravelAd for them to sell your products. To inquire about partnering with them, contact them via traveladoffers.com.

  • You must have TravelAd created as a Reseller in Ventrata with their pricing (retail, wholesale/commission) defined correctly. Note that this API connection requires that the reseller is set to the "Bill to my account" settlement method.

 

  1. In Ventrata Dashboard, go to Connections → Connections, click + New Connection, and select TravelAd from the list of partners.

  2. Select TravelAd Reseller from the list of your resellers (must be created before creating a connection). The connection will inherit the reseller's configuration like pricing, allowed destinations, products, etc.

  3. (Optional) You can also set the connection Name of your choosing, which may be helpful if you plan to have multiple TravelAd connections and would like to differentiate between them more easily in the future.

  4. Press the Create Octo Connection button.

 

📗 TIP

If needed, you can also allow or disallow products or destinations on the connection level, in addition to what you have configured on the reseller.

 

Mapping Products to TravelAd

Securely share the OCTO API key shown on the connection you've created with your TravelAd contact and ask them to map your products using Ventrata's OCTO API, with pricing (octo/pricing) enabled. Typically, it takes no longer than a few business days for the TravelAd team to complete this.

 

Your Ventrata configuration is complete. You do not need to take any further steps.

 

📗 TIP

TravelAd can access all products enabled on the connection, but you can also provide the Product and Option IDs from the connection page when contacting them to specify what to map.

 

 

Managing the TravelAd Connection

  • Allow or disallow products: limit which destinations, products and options TravelAd can access. See how to allow or disallow products.

  • Rename the connection to tell several TravelAd connections apart.

 

Connection Features Detailed

This section is for anyone who wants to know exactly how the TravelAd connection works: which Ventrata OCTO API calls TravelAd makes, when it makes them, and what that means for you. Each call links to Ventrata's API documentation.

 

In short: TravelAd pulls everything it needs from Ventrata. It reads your products, checks your availability (and your prices, when it asks for them), and sends bookings and cancellations. Ventrata doesn't push changes to TravelAd, so anything you change in Ventrata reaches TravelAd the next time it checks.

 

Timings are typical for TravelAd and rounded, and they can change if TravelAd changes how it syncs.

 

Product Mapping

❌

You can't map products from Ventrata. TravelAd maps them on its side, through your account manager or TravelAd's portal.

This works as follows:

  • Get Products (GET /products) – when TravelAd sets up your connection, and whenever it refreshes its listings, it reads every product enabled on the connection, with its options and units (ticket types such as Adult or Child).

  • Get Product (GET /products/{productId}) – TravelAd re-reads a single product to pick up changes to its options, units, booking cutoffs and settings.

  • Mapping on TravelAd's side – TravelAd links each Ventrata option and unit to its own listing and ticket types. Your TravelAd account manager does this for you, or you do it in TravelAd's own portal if TravelAd offers one. You only share the connection's API key.

 

Typically with TravelAd:

  • TravelAd reads your full product list about once a day.

 

What this means for you: TravelAd can only sell what it has mapped. When you add a product, option or unit in Ventrata, TravelAd may see it on its next refresh, but it won't sell it until it's mapped. So tell your TravelAd account manager whenever you add one.

Content Sync

❌

TravelAd doesn't read your product content from Ventrata.

TravelAd uses the descriptions, images and other content set up on its own side, so update your content with TravelAd directly.

Availability Sync

✅

TravelAd checks your live availability in Ventrata. Ventrata doesn't push availability changes to TravelAd.

This works as follows:

  • Availability Check (POST /availability) – TravelAd sends a product, an option and a date or date range. Ventrata answers with each bookable day or time slot, its status (AVAILABLE, LIMITED, SOLD_OUT, CLOSED or FREESALE), the remaining vacancies, the booking cutoff and an availabilityId, which TravelAd needs to book that slot.

  • Availability Calendar (POST /availability/calendar) – returns one summary per day instead of every time slot, typically to show which dates are open in a date picker.

  • Check at booking – when a customer books, Ventrata checks capacity again before it creates the booking, so TravelAd can't overbook a slot that has just sold out, even if its stored availability is slightly out of date.

 

Typically with TravelAd:

  • Availability Check: TravelAd checks each product about every 4 hours.

  • Availability Calendar: TravelAd checks each product about every 5 hours.

 

What this means for you: when you close a date, change capacity or sell out in Ventrata, TravelAd shows it after its next check. For dates it checks regularly, that's within about 4 hours. Dates further ahead are usually checked less often.

Pricing Sync

✅

Your prices come back with every availability check, once TravelAd asks for them with the octo/pricing capability.

This works as follows:

  • octo/pricing capability – TravelAd asks for prices by adding octo/pricing to the Octo-Capabilities header of its requests. Without it, Ventrata sends availability with no prices at all.

  • Availability Check (POST /availability) – with pricing on, each day or time slot comes back with your price per unit (ticket type): the retail price the customer pays and the net price you invoice TravelAd, both from the reseller's pricing in Ventrata (retail and wholesale/commission).

  • Group prices – when TravelAd also sends how many people of each unit type are booking, Ventrata prices that exact group. This matters for Booking Size fares and other group pricing.

  • Booking Reservation (POST /bookings) and Booking Confirmation (POST /bookings/{uuid}/confirm) – the booking comes back with its final retail and net price, so the booking in Ventrata always records the price it was sold at.

 

‼️ IMPORTANT – Ask for pricing to be enabled. When you ask TravelAd to map your products, ask them to enable pricing (octo/pricing) as well, or switch it on yourself if you map in TravelAd's portal. Otherwise it may be off, and TravelAd won't receive your Ventrata prices.

📗 TIP – If prices on TravelAd look wrong, check the TravelAd reseller's pricing in Ventrata first: that's what TravelAd reads.

Promotions Sync

❌

Your Ventrata promotions don't apply on TravelAd.

Prices on TravelAd don't include promotions you create in Ventrata. Set up any promotions with TravelAd directly.

Bookings Sync

✅

Bookings and cancellations made on TravelAd are created in Ventrata instantly, and customers get Ventrata tickets.

This works as follows:

  1. Hold: Booking Reservation (POST /bookings) – when a customer starts checkout on TravelAd, TravelAd sends the product, option, chosen slot (availabilityId) and one unit item per person. Ventrata checks capacity again and creates an ON_HOLD booking, which holds the places while the customer pays. If there's no longer room, Ventrata rejects the hold.

  2. Confirm: Booking Confirmation (POST /bookings/{uuid}/confirm) – once payment goes through, TravelAd confirms the hold, with its own booking reference and the customer's contact details. The booking becomes CONFIRMED in Ventrata, and Ventrata sends back your booking reference and the tickets (one per person) or a voucher (one per booking), depending on how your product is set up, each with a QR code and a PDF link. TravelAd gives these to the customer, who shows them at your entrance like any Ventrata ticket.

  3. Expire: if the customer doesn't finish paying, TravelAd never confirms, and the hold expires on its own and frees the places.

  4. Cancel: Booking Cancellation (POST /bookings/{uuid}/cancel) – when a customer cancels on TravelAd, TravelAd cancels the booking in Ventrata. Ventrata accepts this only if the booking can still be cancelled and the option's cancellation cutoff hasn't passed. Otherwise it rejects the request, and TravelAd has to contact you.

  5. Change: TravelAd doesn't use Booking Update (PATCH /bookings/{uuid}), so a change most likely reaches Ventrata as a cancellation plus a new booking.

 

Typically with TravelAd:

  • TravelAd doesn't set a hold time, so the default hold time applies.

  • A typical TravelAd booking is for about 1 person.

  • It's normal to see more holds than confirmed bookings: holds from customers who don't finish paying simply expire.

 

‼️ IMPORTANT – Bookings sync one way, from TravelAd to Ventrata. If you cancel, change or rebook a booking from TravelAd in Ventrata, for example in the Dashboard, TravelAd isn't notified. Contact TravelAd so the booking is cancelled or changed on their side too, or ask the customer to cancel through TravelAd.

Pickups/Dropoff Sync

❌

TravelAd doesn't send pickup or drop-off details with its bookings.

If your products include pickups, check with TravelAd how it collects pickup details, or arrange them with the customer.

Custom Questions Sync

❌

TravelAd doesn't send answers to your booking questions.

If you rely on booking questions, for example names or dietary needs, check with TravelAd how it collects that information.

Extras Sync

❌

Extras and add-ons can't be booked through TravelAd.

Customers can only book your main products and options on TravelAd. Sell extras separately, for example on arrival.

Redemption Sync

❌

Redemptions aren't reported to TravelAd.

Ventrata doesn't notify TravelAd when a ticket is scanned or redeemed. TravelAd only sees a redemption if it reads the booking back from Ventrata.

Pass Walkup Scanning Sync

❌

TravelAd pass holders can't be scanned at your entrance without a booking.

Customers from TravelAd need a booking made through TravelAd before they visit.

Gift Card Sync

❌

Ventrata gift cards can't be sold or redeemed through TravelAd.

Gift cards bought in Ventrata can't be used on TravelAd, and TravelAd can't sell Ventrata gift cards.

✅ supported · ❌ not supported

 

Good to know: limits and details of the TravelAd connection

  • Delays: availability and prices reach TravelAd only when it checks, so there's always a short delay after you change something in Ventrata.

  • Cancellation cutoff: TravelAd can cancel over the API only before your option's cancellation cutoff. Later cancellations have to be agreed with you.

  • What TravelAd can see: only the destinations, products and options allowed on the reseller and the connection, and enabled for sale on the Direct API source. See how to allow or disallow products.

  • Tickets: TravelAd issues the Ventrata tickets or voucher it gets on confirmation, so your usual scanning and redemption work as normal.

  • Test bookings: TravelAd can send test bookings while it sets up the connection. Test bookings don't use your availability and aren't invoiced.

 

FAQs

No products are displayed on the connection page.

Verify which destinations, products, and options are allowed on your reseller and connection. Next, confirm that your products and options are enabled for sale on the Direct API source. If the issue persists, contact our Technical Support.

My Ventrata products use Booking Size fares, and pricing isn't working correctly on TravelAd.

After every fare change, update the product mapping to ensure the partner tier counts are synced with Ventrata. Ensure the fare is enabled for sale over Direct API.

 

 

Partner Information

TravelAd

 

Ventrata Partner ID: 383ee4de-d831-4384-8ab0-7cbc91079a18

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