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Go City Reseller Connection

How to enable Go City pass scanning & validation in Ventrata

Dominic Martinkevic avatar
Written by Dominic Martinkevic
Updated over a month ago

Go City is a leading provider of multi-attraction passes, offering tourists a convenient and cost-effective way to explore top destinations. By partnering with Go City, attractions and tour operators can reach a broader audience, increase foot traffic, and enhance their visibility. Learn more at https://gocity.com/en/work-with-us

Go City reseller connection in Ventrata enables you to scan, validate and redeem Go City passes from walk-up customers right in your Ventrata dashboard or Ventrata-powered equipment (e.g. turnstile, ticket kiosk, point of sale / terminal) without the need to use a separate Go City app/hub and manually entering booking data into Ventrata (a.k.a. Go City "Direct Connect" flow). In addition to walk-ups, this connection also allows pass holders to pre-book their visit using Go City app or reservation portal and use their pass as entry ticket (a.k.a. "Go Reserve" flow). Looking to also sell Go City passes yourself? See Go City Operator Connection.

Connection Capabilities

Pass Scanning

When a barcode/QR-code is scanned by a Ventrata-powered hardware (e.g. turnstile, ticket kiosk, point of sale / terminal), mobile app, or is entered into "Redeem Voucher Code" in Ventrata dashboard AND it does not belong to one of the existing bookings/tickets, Ventrata will verify in real-time if this barcode/QR-code belongs to Go City pass and if it is valid for admission at your attraction/activity. This is achieved by Ventrata automatically verifying format of the pass barcode/QR-code and using Go City's Pass Usage Lookup as well as Barcode Lookup (legacy) API endpoint.

Availability

Walk-ups ("Direct Connect")
Customers will only be able enter your attraction/activity if availability permits.

Pre-booked visits ("Go Reserve")

If Go City will be offering pass holders an option to pre-book a visit, customers will be able to see your product's real-time availability (time-slots still available) when when making a reservation. This is achieved by Go City automatically pulling availability using Ventrata's OCTO API Availability Check live when a customer attempts to make a reservation.

Booking

Walk-ups ("Direct Connect")

If a pass scanned belongs to Go City and is valid for entry to your attraction/activity, a booking will automatically be created in your Ventrata system with pass # recorded as a reseller reference on a booking/ticket (in the {pass_number}/{attraction_ID} format). The booking will be made for earliest tour/availability currently running, unless otherwise specified by a user (e.g. when booking on ticket kiosk or with staff using point of sale / terminal device).

If a walkup booking is made for a future date, Ventrata may periodically verify is customer's pass is still valid using Go City's Pass Check Lookup API endpoint and automatically cancel bookings for cancelled, used or otherwise invalid passes to free up your availability for other customers.

Customers can use either Go City pass itself or barcode/QR-code issued by Ventrata (if applicable) for entry as both are associated with the same booking/ticket.

Pre-booked visits ("Go Reserve")

If Go City will be offering pass holders an option to pre-book a visit, customers will be able to see select and pre-book a specific date/time using Go City app or reservations portal. This is achieved using Ventrata's OCTO API Booking Reservation and Booking Confirmation endpoints.

Customers can also reschedule or cancel their visit. Go City will also automatically cancel any bookings where pass becomes invalid for any reason. This functionality uses Booking Update and Booking Cancellation endpoints.

Redemption

When a booking/ticket is redeemed in Ventrata, message about redemption will be communicated to Go City using their Pass Validation API endpoint, marking it as redeemed/validated in their system as well. Redemption in Ventrata will fail if Go City validation is not successful.

Note that if you have "Redeem only on Redemption/No-show" unticked (not recommended) in your Go City connection settings, redemption/validation will be communicated to Go City at time of booking creation rather than actual redemption.

Creating Connection

  • You must be one of the Go City attraction partners and already have your products created in their system before creating this connection. If you do not yet work with Go City, contact their regional team to get started:

  • You must be using Ventrata-powered hardware (e.g. turnstile, ticket kiosk, point of sale / terminal), mobile app or dashboard at the entry to your attraction/activity to use this integration.

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

Step 1. Receive "Direct Connect" Credentials & Test Passes from Go City

Email [email protected], indicating that you are interested in setting up an API connection with Ventrata and requesting "production Direct Connect API credentials & production test pass of each type (adult, child, familiarization) for each product". The API credentials you'll receive will include username and password you will need to create a connection, along with a few Go City test passes (usually sent as PDF files or links) needed to map the products.

Step 2. Create Go City Connection in Ventrata

In your Ventrata dashboard, go to Connections → Connections, click + New Connection, and select "Go City" from the list of connection partners shown.

In the form displayed, select a Reseller (connection will use this reseller's configuration like pricing, blacklisted/whitelisted products, etc. and all bookings will be recorded on behalf of this reseller), and enter Go City username and Go City password you've received in Step 1.

Tick "Redeem only on Redemption/No-show" to send pass redemption message to Go City at the time when booking is actually redeemed or no-showed in Ventrata (recommended), otherwise redemption will be sent to Go City immediately at time of booking creation.

You can also additionally blacklist/whitelist destinatinations or products for this connection (these settings will apply on top of any reseller settings). This is helpful if you will have multiple Go City Connections, for example for different destinations. You can also set a specific connection name to help you differentiate between different connection (e.g. "Go City Paris", "Go City Sydney", etc.) if needed.

If you wish for connection to force all Go City bookings to be made in test mode and be scanned only by equipment in test mode as well, you may tick "Test" as well, but be sure to un-tick this when you are ready to receive visitors.


Click "Create Connection" and proceed to Mapping Products.

Mapping Products

Step 1. Scan Test Passes from Go City

Using Ventrata-powered hardware (e.g. turnstile, ticket kiosk, point of sale / terminal) or mobile app, scan each of the test Go City passes you received. This should result in error message Pass not mapped in Ventrata connection.

Alternatively, you can also enter pass # shown on each pass into Ventrata dashboard under + New Order → Redeem Voucher Code and receive the same error message.

First such scan of the test pass of each type & product, will populate a list of Go City products (listings) for you to map to corresponding Ventrata products in Step 2 below.

Step 2. Map Go City Listings to Ventata Products

In your Ventrata dashboard, go to Connections → Connections, and select a Go City connection you've created previously.

You will see a table with Go City listings shown on the left (populated on first scan of pass of each type / product) and corresponding Ventrata product, option, unit, etc. (if mapped) to on the right. Listings not mapped will be highlighted in red.

To map (or re-map) a listing, simply click on the it's row in the table, select a Ventrata product, option and unit you'd like to be booked for this pass and click Update Mapping.

Step 3. Send "Go Reserve" API Key to Go City.

If you wish for Go City customers to be able to also pre-book a visit to your attraction/activity via Go City app or reservation portal (a.k.a. "Go Reserve" flow) in addition to walk-ups ("Direct Connect"), copy the API key shown on Go City connection page (above listings table) and email it to [email protected] requesting to enable "Go Reserve". Go City team may reach out to you for additional information about these steps.

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