Creating Suppliers

This article introduces you to the Suppliers area in Tourwriter. Here you will create and manage suppliers that you use in your itineraries. Your database comes with a range of pre-populated suppliers to help you get started.

Exploring the Suppliers workspace

The Supplier workspace lists all the suppliers loaded in the database.

1. Navigate to the Suppliers tab to view the list of existing suppliers in your organisation.
2. You can filter suppliers by Type (Accommodation, Activity, Transportation and Fees & Insurance).
3. Narrow your results further by using the Search field to enter either the supplier name or supplier city.
4. Click on a column label to order the listed suppliers by their name, city, supplier type or date created.

Creating a new supplier

Create a new supplier by following the steps below.

1. Click Create supplier.
2. Either enter the supplier details or search for a supplier online by clicking the Look up supplier online button and entering the name of the supplier.

Note: The supplier search field is populated with Google Places data and if a supplier is listed on Google Places, you can select the supplier from the search dropdown options based on the keywords entered when creating a supplier. Google Places is included with the Google Maps integration on the Expert plan or above.

Note: If you’d like to add a supplier that is not on Google Places, enter the supplier name in the Name field manually.

3. Choose a supplier type from the drop-down list. Select from a list of existing supplier types of Accommodation, Activity, Transportation or Fees & Insurance. See Supplier loading guidelines for details.
   • When you create an accommodation supplier, three extra fields appear.
     • Check-in time and the Check-out time fields appear. These fields accept values in 24-hour format.
     • Industry Rating lets you classify the accommodation supplier based on their star rating. You can even assign half a rating to the accommodation supplier. Click the rating twice to change it to half a star.
4. Enter the optional pricing range for the supplier by clicking the $$$$ sign. Each rating denotes the following price range:
   • $: Inexpensive.
   • $$: Moderately expensive.
   • $$$: Expensive.
   • $$$$: Very expensive.
5. Enter additional supplier details such as Email, Phone, Mobile, Freephone, Other, Website and Notes.
6. Add supplier tags to allow a simple search of suppliers at a later time.
   • Note: It is a great approach to add Supplier tags, Price range and Industry rating to your supplier as your advanced itinerary search services feature lets you use these fields to filter your supplier search results.

7. Add information to the Notes field. Notes is a passive (i.e. data is not published anywhere), free-format field to use for internal comments. You could use this field to enter the supplier’s alternate email address, rate loading notes, child policy and more.
8. Add location information. Adding or editing location information manually will over-ride any pre-populated Google Places location data used for displaying on Map Preview. When manually loading location data Latitude and Longitude co-ordinates are the most accurate way to displaying map points. To access map co-ordinates go to Google Maps and right click on a red pin point. Click the coordinates to copy to you clipboard. Paste directly to the Latitude field.
9. Click Save

Note: The Email field is used to send booking requests to the supplier. So, ensure that you enter a reservation email address here. The contact number entered in the Phone field is published in the final itinerary template.

Note: You can associate a supplier contact with the supplier. The supplier contact appears in the Contacts section, below the Supplier setup section on the Setup page. To learn more, refer to Adding a contact to a supplier.

The Supplier workspace

The Supplier Workspace presents a few new sections: Description, Media, Amenities, Prices, Products and Rates.

1. The Description section lets you add a supplier description to Accommodation, Activity and Transportation supplier types. You can now add Supplier descriptions in different languages, such as Danish, Dutch, English, French, German, Spanish, Swedish and Default.  The information entered in the Description section will appear on your itinerary. All existing Supplier description will be linked to Default type.

2. In the Media section, You can attach multiple images to the accommodation supplier, for example, the exterior and interior of the hotel. We resize images to suit each itinerary template. However, the image size we recommend is 2200px W x 1000px H.
   • Click Add media to access the Media section. Choose existing images from the library or upload a new image.
   • If you wish to load multiple images for the supplier, you can choose to make one of those images the primary image. To do this, hover over the image and select “1” to make it the primary image, as shown below.

Note: Even though you may add multiple images to the supplier media, the image marked “1” in the supplier media will appear on the itinerary proposal. To include the second image as part of your slide presentation on the itinerary, you’ll have to manually select it from the Media in the Options menu on the item card on the itinerary proposal.

3. Include the amenities provided by the hotel such as a swimming pool, complimentary Wi-Fi in public areas, meeting rooms and so on, in the Amenities section of the supplier.
   • Click Select amenities to choose from a preloaded list of amenities.
   • You can also add a supplier amenity manually by typing it in and hit enter on your keyboard to add it.

Note: Any Supplier amenities loaded will automatically display on your itinerary preview or PDF export unless the Hide amenities from all itineraries checkbox is ticked.

Adding products

The Products area is used to load detailed information on the products that a supplier offers. You can add any product type to a supplier; for example, an accommodation supplier might also sell other product types such as meals, activities and transfers.

The steps below outline the available fields for products. However, please note that not all fields are available for each product type.

1. Within the supplier workspace, select Create product to add a product to your supplier.
2. Complete the available fields following the instructions below.
   • Name: The name of the product will appear on your traveler’s itinerary.
   • Type: The drop-down list displays the predefined product types alphabetically: Accommodation, Activity, Extra, Fee, Ferry, Flight, Golf, Guide, Insurance, Meal, Motorhome, Rental car, Train, Transfer.
   • Product code: This is a dedicated field to enter the product code associated with this product. Although not currently displayed anywhere else, it will display on booking email requests to suppliers in a future release.
   • Description: The description of the product, in this case, the room, will follow the supplier description and display on the item card in the itinerary proposal and itinerary final. Similar to Supplier description, you can add Supplier descriptions in different languages, such as Danish, Dutch, English, French, German, Spanish, Swedish and Default. All existing Production description will be linked to Default type.

Note: You cannot enter a product code for the following product types: Extra, Fee, Guide, Insurance.

Product restrictions

Product restrictions lets you setup warnings at the Product level which will be displayed in the Itinerary if the Product is booked during the restriction period. To setup Product restrictions:

1. Click on a Product and go to the Setup tab
2. Click on Add restriction
3. Enter the Title, Start date, End date, Description
4. Click Save.

The Product restriction warning will be displayed at the time of booking the Product and also in the Itinerary Pricing whenever the restriction applies.

Product Locations & times

The locations & times section lets you add multiple product specific locations for the product and choose the check-in & check-out times. Product level locations are useful for Product like Rental car pick up points for nationwide chains.

1. Switch to the Locations & Times tab to add a product location and enter a product check-in time and check-out time.
2. Adding or editing location information manually will over-ride any pre-populated Google Places location data used for displaying on Map Preview. When manually loading location data Latitude and Longitude co-ordinates are the most accurate way to displaying map points. To access map co-ordinates go to Google Maps and right click on a red pin point. Click the coordinates to copy to you clipboard. Paste directly to the Latitude field.

Times: Enter the start time and the end time for each product. Start time and end time appears under a different label for each product type. It appears as Check in time and Check out time for an accommodation product type, Pick up & Drop off time for transportation type and Departure time and Arrival time for a flight type and so on.

The different times entered will be sorted in ascending order in the Supplier-> Products-> Location & Times. You can set default time by clicking the Star icon. The Default time will be used when you book the Product in the Itinerary.

Check-in instructions: Enter the check-in instructions to inform your travellers how they could get started. The Check-in information for an Activity type is available on the Itinerary Final, once the status of the booking is marked with one of the Booking confirmed statuses in Manage > Bookings.

Product Media

The Media section within a product lets you select images for your products.

1. Navigate to the Media tab to add product images. Click Upload image to access the Media library.
   • If you wish to load multiple product images, you can choose to make one of those images the primary image. To do this, hover over the image and select “1” to make it primary.
   • The primary image of a product overrides the primary image of a supplier. This means that if you have assigned a Primary image for both your product and the supplier the product’s primary image will appear on the itinerary ahead of the supplier primary image. You may manually change images that appear once you are in the Proposal editor and even choose to display both the supplier and product images as a slide presentation

Product Amenities

The Product>Amenities tab lets you add amenities specific to a product. Amenities loaded will automatically display in the Preview and/or PDF.

1. Click Select amenities to choose from a preloaded list of amenities. You can also add a supplier amenity manually by typing it in and hit enter on your keyboard to add it.
2. Deselect the Hide amenities from all itineraries option to display the amenities in the item cards of the itinerary proposal and final. The default view is to hide amenities from displaying in the itinerary.
3. If you have loaded Supplier Amenities, you can use the Hide supplier amenities for this product to hide the Supplier Amenities from the Itinerary. This option allows you to hide/show the Supplier amenities along with the Product Amenities.

Note: To exclude the Product>Amenities from the Preview and/or PDF untick the Hide amenities from all itineraries checkbox.

To exclude Supplier>Amenities displaying as well as Procut>Amentities:

1. On the Supplier>Amenities tab, Untick the ‘Hide amenities from all itineraries’ checkbox.
2. On the Product>Amenities tab, Tick the ‘Hide supplier amenities for this product’ checkbox.

Product Inclusions

The Inclusions tab lets you add product inclusions. Inclusions are things included with the product (an opportunity to create optional paid add-ons is available at a later time.

1. For example, add free inclusion such as a free Breakfast along with the product Deluxe Suite. Alternatively, add a subsidised inclusion such as a discounted guided tour with the Museum admission product.

Product Options

An Option describes how a product is sold. A product must have at least one option loaded before it can be added to an itinerary.

1. Select Calculate rates by 24 hour period to enforce the option to be calculated in 24-hour intervals when added to an itinerary. With this option enabled, changing the duration of a service to more than 24 hours increases the number of days.
2. Type the option name and hit enter on your keyboard to add it to the product. Options are pre-loaded for products in Tourwriter. The option list depends on the product type. The following are the pre-loaded options for products based on the supplier types:

• • Accommodation product type: Options for accommodation product type are the room configuration or occupancy of the room e.g. Double, Twin, Single, Triple, Quad and Family room.
  • Activity product type: Options are based on the type of ticket sold. This includes Adult, Child, Infant, Student and Senior.
  • Transportation product type: Options are based on the type of travel. This includes Adult – One way, Adult – Return, Child – One way, Child – Return.
  • The Supplier loading guidelines go into further detail about the option names you might enter for each product type.

Quick rate edit

The Rates subtab allows you to quickly add rate periods to existing product options and make swift adjustments to an existing product/option. You may find the quick rate edit feature useful to edit existing rates when the supplier provides updates. To access the quick edit rate view:

1. On the Suppliers tab, head to the Rates subtab. Existing products with their options are listed on the rates page. A product with multiple options is listed with multiple option lines.
2. For a product option, you can perform the following functions:
   • Create a new rate period
   • Edit the existing rate period and rates
   • Duplicate the rate period
   • Delete the rate period