Supplier Loading Guidelines

We’ve provided guidelines below of what to load per Supplier and Product type. Before getting started, we have a few tips to help you get up and running sooner.

Suppliers, Products and Options

Tourwriter Suppliers follow a hierarchy in that you must have a Supplier with at least one Product loaded, which has at least one Option loaded before it can be used in an itinerary.

A Supplier is the company/organisation that is operating the product you are buying.

A Product is what they sell. For example a Deluxe Room at a hotel, or General admission into a museum.

An Option is how that Product is sold. For example, the Deluxe Room might be sold on a Double, Twin or Single basis, while the General admission is available at an Adult or Child rate.

By structuring your supplier data in this way now, you’ll be able to take advantage of additional functionality such as editing the price for each Option and automatically calculating the final sell price of your itinerary, and sending detailed booking emails to your suppliers.

Be selective with regard to what you decide to load

Some supplier contracts are complex (i.e. they have a large number of Products), in which case you could spend hours loading a single Supplier into your database if you were to load the entire content of the contract into your Tourwriter database. We strongly recommend that you only load the data you need and that you will use regularly.

Consider applying the ‘20/80’ rule

  • Do you book 20% of your Suppliers 80% of the time? If so these are the Suppliers you should load first.
  • Do you book 20% of Products 80% of the time? If so these are the Products you should load initially for this Supplier.

Consistency is key!

Be consistent with the use of capitals particularly under Product Names and Option Names as this information will appear on your Proposals, and in future, final itineraries and supplier email booking requests.

Utilising these recommendations will help your team enormously and ultimately you will be using Tourwriter sooner!

Examples per Supplier and Product Type

The following sections provide examples and tips for each of the Supplier and Product Types.

Accommodation Suppliers

When loading an Accommodation supplier, its Products will be the types of rooms sold, for example, Standard Room, Deluxe Room, Honeymoon Suite and so on. Load only the room types you will need.

An Option in how a Product is sold. For an accommodation Supplier this is the room configuration or occupancy, e.g. Double, Twin, Single, Triple, Quad etc. if there is a choice between 1 King bed or 2 Single beds, or 1 Queen bed or 2 Double beds, include both the Double and Twin as Options for that Product.

Suggested abbreviations

  • Always state, in brackets, the age range for the Child and Infant Option, together with whether the age is inclusive. Examples: Child (2-15 yrs inclusive) or Infant (0-2 yrs inclusive).
  • If describing the number of people that can be accommodated, write as 2A + 3C instead of 2 adults and 3 children
  • If describing the room configuration in the Option Name, use K for King, Q for Queen and S for Single, so 2 Queen beds would be abbreviated to 2Q, and one King bed and 1 Single bed would be abbreviated to 1K+1S

Note: You can add other Product types such as Meal, Activity, Transfers if those products are offered by the Accommodation supplier. These will be available as Add-ons when using any of the supplier’s accommodation products in an itinerary.

Supplier Name Product Name Product Type Options*
The Louise Stonewell Suite Accommodation Double Twin Single

Triple

Buffet breakfast Meal Adult Child (2-12 yrs inclusive)
Private dining Meal Four courses Four courses with wine pairing
Brilliant Blend Tour Activity Per person

Note: In the example above, the product other than the type Accommodation are Add-ons. Hence, Buffet breakfast, Private dining and Brilliant Blend Tour are included in the itinerary as Add-ons.

Activity Suppliers

Activity

  • Always state, in brackets, the age range for the Child and Infant Option, together with whether the age is inclusive. Examples: Child (2-15 yrs inclusive) or Infant (0-2 yrs inclusive).
  • If including a Family Option, specify the number of adults and children like this: Family (2A + 3C), instead of 2 Adults and 3 Children.
Supplier Name Product Name Product Type Options
Dart River Adventures Wilderness Jet Activity Adult

Child (5-15 yrs inclusive)

Infant (0-4 yrs inclusive)

Family (2A + 2C)

Dart River Adventures KRUSE Personal Audio Extra Per person

 

Supplier Name Product Name Product Type Options
International Antarctic Centre General admission Activity Adult

Child (5-15 yrs inclusive)

Infant (0-4 yrs inclusive)

Family (2A 3C)

Student/Senior (with ID. Senior 60+)

Note: You can add other Product types such as Transfers and Extras if those products are offered by the Activity supplier. These will be available as Add-ons when using any of the supplier’s activity products in an itinerary.

Meal

Supplier Name Product Name Product Type Options
Logan Brown 3 Course dinner Meal Per person

Guide

Supplier Name Product Name Product Type Options
Robert Smith Guiding services Guide Per day Per group

Transportation Suppliers

Note: Any ‘Extra’ products, such as lounge access, snow chains and GPS units will be available as Add-ons when using any of the supplier’s main transportation products in an itinerary.

Ferry

Supplier Name Product Name Product Type Option Names
Interislander Wellington to Picton Ferry Adult
Kaitaki Plus Lounge Access Extra Per person

Flight

Supplier Name Product Name Product Type Option Names
Air New Zealand Auckland to Queenstown Flight Seat

Seat & Bag

Flexi

Flexi Plus

Motorhome

Supplier Name Product Name Product Type Option Names
Maui Rentals NZ Maui Ultima 2 Berth Camper Motorhome 1-6 day hire

7-13 day hire

14+ day hire

Rental Car

Supplier Name Product Name Product Type Option Names
Hertz New Zealand Ltd Group H. 4L Premium Wagon 5 door auto wagon AWD or similar Rental Car 1-6 day hire

7-13 day hire

14+ day hire

Snow chains Extra Per day
GPS Extra Per day

Transfer

Note: Be sure to include the carrying capacity of the vehicle in the option name, e.g. (1-3 pax). This will help ensure you’re adding the correct vehicle for your groups’ size.

Supplier Name Product Name Product Type Option Names
Opal Charters Limited Meet & Greet at Christchurch Airport and Transfer to City Transfer Mini Coach (1-6 pax)
Royale Limousines Melbourne Transfer from Melbourne Airport to City Transfer Premium Sedan (1-3 pax)

Train

Supplier Name Product Name Product Type Option Names
KiwiRail Scenic Journeys Tranz Alpine Christchurch to Greymouth Train Adult (Flex Plus)

Fees & Insurance Suppliers

Fees

Supplier Name Product Name Product Type Option Name
Your Company Name Booking Fee Fee Per booking
Your Company Name Credit Card Fee Fee Per booking

Insurance

Supplier Name Product Name Product Type Option Name
Comprehensive Travel Insurance Worldwide Comprehensive cover Insurance 1-7 days

8-14 days