Historic Tours of America is an entertainment company selling history-led vacation experiences, running around forty brands across nine US cities: Boston, Charleston, Key West, Nashville, San Antonio, San Diego, Savannah, Saint Augustine and Washington DC. Its Old Town Trolley, Ghosts and Gravestones and Boston Tea Party Ships lines carry heavy domestic sightseeing volume. For operators, it brings domestic leisure visitors, student field trips and wedding and corporate groups already holding a trolley or attraction ticket in those cities, who buy companion experiences in destination. Historic Tours of America uses Ventrata as their primary ticketing system.

Connecting Historic Tours of America to Ventrata syncs your availability and prices and delivers bookings, changes and cancellations with tickets issued automatically.

To learn more about partnering with Historic Tours of America, visit historictours.com.

Primary website	historictours.com
Tags	Operator Reselling Others · Sightseeing & Hop-On Hop-Off · Ventrata Client
Destination markets	🇺🇸 US
Source markets	🌎 Global
Specialties	History-led sightseeing in US heritage cities
Connection features	Availability Sync · Pricing Sync · Bookings Sync
Developed by	Ventrata (using Ventrata's OCTO API)

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

Availability Sync – Historic Tours of America checks your live availability in Ventrata.
Pricing Sync – Historic Tours of America gets your prices from your reseller pricing in Ventrata.
Bookings Sync – bookings, updates and cancellations from Historic Tours of America are created in Ventrata instantly, and customers get Ventrata tickets.

Creating the Historic Tours of America Connection

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

Before you begin:

You have a commercial agreement with Historic Tours of America for them to sell your products.
Historic Tours of America is created as a Reseller in Ventrata, with retail and wholesale/commission pricing set up.

Historic Tours of America runs on Ventrata, so this is a Ventrata-to-Ventrata connection. You create a Ventrata Reseller Connection for Historic Tours of America and securely share its API key. Historic Tours of America then connects and maps your products in its own Ventrata account.

In the Ventrata Dashboard, go to Connections > Connections, press + New Connection and search for Ventrata Reseller Connection.
Select Historic Tours of America as the reseller. If needed, allow or disallow destinations and products on the connection, then press Create Connection.
Press the eye icon to reveal the API key, copy it and securely share it with your contact at Historic Tours of America.
Historic Tours of America adds you as an operator with Ventrata (Operator Backend) as the backend, then connects and maps each product. Ask them to make a test booking, and check that it appears in your bookings table.

📗 TIP

For every step with screenshots, see Ventrata: Reseller Connection. Historic Tours of America follows Ventrata: Operator Backend.

Managing the Historic Tours of America Connection

Allow or disallow products: limit which destinations, products and options Historic Tours of America can access. See how to allow or disallow products.
Rename the connection to tell several Historic Tours of America connections apart.

Connection Features Detailed

This section is for anyone who wants to know exactly how the Historic Tours of America connection works: which Ventrata OCTO API calls Historic Tours of America makes (through Ventrata's certified integration), when it makes them, and what that means for you. Each call links to Ventrata's API documentation.

In short: Historic Tours of America pulls everything it needs from Ventrata. It reads your products, checks your availability and prices, and sends bookings and cancellations. Ventrata doesn't push changes to Historic Tours of America, so anything you change in Ventrata reaches Historic Tours of America the next time it checks.

Product Mapping	✅	Historic Tours of America maps your products to its own in its Ventrata account. On each backend-connected product, Historic Tours of America picks the matching product, option and units from your account on the product's Mappings tab. Products that aren't mapped correctly are highlighted in red, and bookings for them fail. See Ventrata: Operator Backend.
Content Sync	❌	Historic Tours of America doesn't read your product content from Ventrata. Historic Tours of America uses the descriptions, images and other content set up on its own side, so update your content with Historic Tours of America directly.
Availability Sync	✅	Historic Tours of America checks your live availability in Ventrata. Ventrata doesn't push availability changes to Historic Tours of America. This works as follows: Availability Check (`POST /availability`) – Historic Tours of America 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 Historic Tours of America 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 Historic Tours of America can't overbook a slot that has just sold out, even if its stored availability is slightly out of date. What this means for you: when you close a date, change capacity or sell out in Ventrata, Historic Tours of America shows it only after its next check, so there can be a short delay. Ventrata's check at booking still prevents overbooking.
Pricing Sync	✅	Your prices come back with every availability check, once Historic Tours of America asks for them with the octo/pricing capability. This works as follows: Historic Tours of America can take your prices with Backend Pricing on its product, or set its own prices in its account.
Promotions Sync	❌	Your Ventrata promotions don't apply on Historic Tours of America. Prices on Historic Tours of America don't include promotions you create in Ventrata. Set up any promotions with Historic Tours of America directly.
Bookings Sync	✅	Bookings and cancellations made on Historic Tours of America are created in Ventrata instantly, and customers get Ventrata tickets. This works as follows: Hold: Booking Reservation (`POST /bookings`) – when a customer starts checkout on Historic Tours of America, Historic Tours of America 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. Confirm: Booking Confirmation (`POST /bookings/{uuid}/confirm`) – once payment goes through, Historic Tours of America confirms the hold. 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. Historic Tours of America gives these to the customer, who shows them at your entrance like any Ventrata ticket. Expire: if the customer doesn't finish paying, Historic Tours of America never confirms, and the hold expires on its own and frees the places. Cancel: Booking Cancellation (`POST /bookings/{uuid}/cancel`) – when a customer cancels on Historic Tours of America, Historic Tours of America 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 Historic Tours of America has to contact you. Change: Booking Update (`PATCH /bookings/{uuid}`) – lets Historic Tours of America change a booking in place, for example a new date, time or number of people. Some resellers cancel and rebook instead. ‼️ IMPORTANT – Bookings sync one way, from Historic Tours of America to Ventrata. If you cancel, change or rebook a booking from Historic Tours of America in Ventrata, for example in the Dashboard, Historic Tours of America isn't notified. Contact Historic Tours of America so the booking is cancelled or changed on their side too, or ask the customer to cancel through Historic Tours of America.
Pickups/Dropoff Sync	❌	Historic Tours of America doesn't send pickup or drop-off details with its bookings. If your products include pickups, check with Historic Tours of America how it collects pickup details, or arrange them with the customer.
Custom Questions Sync	❌	Historic Tours of America doesn't send answers to your booking questions. If you rely on booking questions, for example names or dietary needs, check with Historic Tours of America how it collects that information.
Extras Sync	❌	Extras and add-ons can't be booked through Historic Tours of America. Customers can only book your main products and options on Historic Tours of America. Sell extras separately, for example on arrival.
Redemption Sync	❌	Redemptions aren't reported to Historic Tours of America. Ventrata doesn't notify Historic Tours of America when a ticket is scanned or redeemed. Historic Tours of America only sees a redemption if it reads the booking back from Ventrata.
Pass Walkup Scanning Sync	❌	Historic Tours of America pass holders can't be scanned at your entrance without a booking. Customers from Historic Tours of America need a booking made through Historic Tours of America before they visit.
Gift Card Sync	❌	Ventrata gift cards can't be sold or redeemed through Historic Tours of America. Gift cards bought in Ventrata can't be used on Historic Tours of America, and Historic Tours of America can't sell Ventrata gift cards.

✅ supported · ❌ not supported

Good to know: limits and details of the Historic Tours of America connection

Delays: availability and prices reach Historic Tours of America only when it checks, so there's always a short delay after you change something in Ventrata.
Cancellation cutoff: Historic Tours of America can cancel over the API only before your option's cancellation cutoff. Later cancellations have to be agreed with you.
What Historic Tours of America 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: Historic Tours of America issues the Ventrata tickets or voucher it gets on confirmation, so your usual scanning and redemption work as normal.
Test bookings: Historic Tours of America 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 Historic Tours of America.

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.

📚 More about Ventrata connections

Partner Information

Historic Tours of America, Inc.

201 Front Street, Suite 224, Key West, FL 33040

United States

historictours.com

Ventrata Partner ID: ddc9e53b-03ae-420d-b0ea-95a40cc3d483

Ventrata Ltd

55 Baker Street, London, United Kingdom

W1U 7EU

ventrata.com

Ventrata Partner ID: a6a2a406-088a-4466-b87c-7fcc17770b71

Historic Tours of America: Reseller Connection