Webmaster API

Vertical Booking Integration API for Webmaster

29-Oct-2014- ver. 1.5.4

A.E.C. ADVERTISING AND ELECTRONIC COMMERCE s.r.l.

Piazza Pontida, 7 – I-24122 Bergamo (Italy) - Tel. +39 035 232366 - Fax. +39 035 210500
E-mail: [email protected]
Webmaster API 2 | 18 25-Jul-2014 ver. 1.5.4

Index

1 Introduction ......................................................................................................... 3

2 Internet Booking Engine Versions ........................................................................ 4

2.1 Per Room version .............................................................................................. 4
2.2 Per Rate version ................................................................................................ 5
2.3 Per Room version (RESPONSIVE) ........................................................................ 6

3 Quick Reserve Modules ......................................................................................... 7

3.1 Single calendar for arrival date and number of nights ............................................ 8
3.2 Two calendars for arrival date and departure date ................................................. 8

4 Reservation front end URL.................................................................................... 9

4.1 Standard front end URL...................................................................................... 9
4.2 Custom third-level front end URL ........................................................................ 9
4.3 Custom front end URL ........................................................................................ 9

5 Special offers ..................................................................................................... 10

5.1 HTML + CSS Version – ASP inclusion ................................................................. 10
5.2 HTML + CSS Version – PHP inclusion ................................................................. 10
5.3 PHP serialized array version – PHP inclusion ....................................................... 10

6 Request for proposal .......................................................................................... 11

6.1 Needed fields for result form ............................................................................ 11
6.2 Result form .................................................................................................... 11

7 Request for recall ............................................................................................... 12

7.1 Needed fields for Result form ............................................................................ 12
7.2 Result form .................................................................................................... 12

8 Corporate customer registration ........................................................................ 13

8.1 Needed fields for Result form ............................................................................ 13
8.2 Result form .................................................................................................... 13

9 Google analytics ................................................................................................. 14

9.1 Inserting the Google Analytics script in the hotel website ..................................... 14
9.2 Inserting the Code into the Vertical Booking Extranet .......................................... 14
9.3 Inserting an Analytics-enabled quick reserve ...................................................... 15
9.4 Inserting an Analytics-enabled link .................................................................... 15
9.5 Set Referral Exclusion ...................................................................................... 15
9.6 Goals and funnels ............................................................................................ 16
9.6.1 Per Room Interface .................................................................................................................. 17
9.6.2 Per Rate Interface .................................................................................................................... 17
9.6.3 SMART 3.0 ............................................................................................................................... 17
9.7 Custom page names (only for Per Rooms and Per Rate interface) .......................... 17

A.E.C. ADVERTISING AND ELECTRONIC COMMERCE s.r.l.

Piazza Pontida, 7 – I-24122 Bergamo (Italy) - Tel. +39 035 232366 - Fax. +39 035 210500
E-mail: [email protected]
Webmaster API 3 | 18 25-Jul-2014 ver. 1.5.4

1 Introduction

Vertical Booking is a complete and versatile online booking system with an integrated IDS Channel
Manager and GDS connectivity. Simple for hoteliers to manage and incredibly easy to use for hotel guests,
the system provides complete and up-to-date information for its users.

A.E.C. ADVERTISING AND ELECTRONIC COMMERCE s.r.l.

Piazza Pontida, 7 – I-24122 Bergamo (Italy) - Tel. +39 035 232366 - Fax. +39 035 210500
E-mail: [email protected]
Webmaster API 4 | 18 25-Jul-2014 ver. 1.5.4

2 Internet Booking Engine Versions

The Vertical Booking Internet Booking Engine can be used with different graphic templates. For each
version, parameters that need to be used in the quick reserve module are indicated in red to implement a
working ‘quick reserve’ for your hotel, as described in Section 3.

2.1 Per Room version

<!-- URL ACTION --> https://reservations.verticalbooking.com/prenota_new.htm

<!-- ROOM VALUE--> 4

<!-- HOTEL ID CODE --> Numeric value provided by Vertical Booking

<!-- SECURITY CODE --> Numeric value provided by Vertical Booking

<!-- STYLE CODE --> Numeric value provided by Vertical Booking

<!-- LANGUAGE --> One of the following options: ita, eng, deu, fra, esp, rus, dut, tur, por, fin, ell, chi,
kor, jpn, tha, vie, bul, nor, sve, ron, pls, etn, hun, slo, cze, dan, cat, usa, bra

A.E.C. ADVERTISING AND ELECTRONIC COMMERCE s.r.l.

Piazza Pontida, 7 – I-24122 Bergamo (Italy) - Tel. +39 035 232366 - Fax. +39 035 210500
E-mail: [email protected]
Webmaster API 5 | 18 25-Jul-2014 ver. 1.5.4

2.2 Per Rate version

<!-- URL ACTION --> https://reservations.verticalbooking.com/prenota_new.htm

<!-- ROOM VALUE --> Leave empty

<!-- HOTEL ID VALUE --> Numeric value provided by Vertical Booking

<!-- SECURITY CODE --> Numeric value provided by Vertical Booking

<!-- STYLE CODE --> Numeric value provided by Vertical Booking

<!-- LANGUAGE --> One of the following options: ita, eng, deu, fra, esp, rus, dut, tur, por, fin, ell, chi,
kor, jpn, tha, vie, bul, nor, sve, ron, pls, etn, hun, slo, cze, dan, cat, usa, bra

A.E.C. ADVERTISING AND ELECTRONIC COMMERCE s.r.l.

Piazza Pontida, 7 – I-24122 Bergamo (Italy) - Tel. +39 035 232366 - Fax. +39 035 210500
E-mail: [email protected]
Webmaster API 6 | 18 25-Jul-2014 ver. 1.5.4

2.3 Per Room version (RESPONSIVE)

<!-- URL ACTION--> https://reservations.verticalbooking.com/reservation_hotel.htm

<!-- ROOM VALUE --> Leave empty

<!-- HOTEL ID VALUE --> Numeric value provided by Vertical Booking

<!-- SECURITY CODE --> Numeric value provided by Vertical Booking

<!-- STYLE CODE --> Numeric value provided by Vertical Booking

<!-- LANGUAGE --> One of the following options: ita, eng, deu, fra, esp, rus, dut, tur, por, fin, ell, chi,
kor, jpn, tha, vie, bul, nor, sve, ron, pls, etn, hun, slo, cze, dan, cat, usa, bra

A.E.C. ADVERTISING AND ELECTRONIC COMMERCE s.r.l.

Piazza Pontida, 7 – I-24122 Bergamo (Italy) - Tel. +39 035 232366 - Fax. +39 035 210500
E-mail: [email protected]
Webmaster API 7 | 18 25-Jul-2014 ver. 1.5.4

3 Quick Reserve Modules

At the address below it is possible to download a ZIP file containing two examples of quick reserve modules
that are ready to use, that can be customized via CSS.

http://www.verticalbooking.com/quickreserve/quick_reserve.zip

The HTML in each of the two files (quick_reserve.html or quick_reserve_two_calendars.html) is ready to be

embedded in any web site and customized with CSS.

As you can see from the script below, there are placeholders which need to be substituted. The values to
use are the ones provided in section 2 and depend on the graphic layout that you want to implement.

<div>
<form action="<!-- URL ACTION -->"
method="post"
name="myform"
id="myform"
target="_blank"
onsubmit="invia_form();">
...

<input name="gg" id="gg" value="" type="hidden">

<input name="mm" id="mm" value="" type="hidden">
<input name="aa" id="aa" value="" type="hidden">
<input name="id_albergo" value="<!-- HOTEL ID VALUE -->" type="hidden">
<input name="lingua_int" value="<!-- LANGUAGE -->" type="hidden">
<input name="dc" value="<!-- SECURITY CODE -->" type="hidden">
<input name="id_stile" value="<!-- STYLE CODE -->" type="hidden">
<input name="headvar" value="ok" type="hidden">
<input name="graph_be" value="<!-- ROOM VALUE -->" type="hidden">

...

</div>

The provided HTML code is ready to implement Google Analytics tracking with Vertical booking. All you
have to do is include the Analytics (asynchronous) tracking code. For further information concerning Google
Analytics integration with Vertical Booking refer to section 9.

A.E.C. ADVERTISING AND ELECTRONIC COMMERCE s.r.l.

Piazza Pontida, 7 – I-24122 Bergamo (Italy) - Tel. +39 035 232366 - Fax. +39 035 210500
E-mail: [email protected]
Webmaster API 8 | 18 25-Jul-2014 ver. 1.5.4

3.1 Single calendar for arrival date and number of nights

In this kind of ‘quick reserve’, the end user will be able to select the arrival date with a calendar and the
number of nights with a select HTML component.

3.2 Two calendars for arrival date and departure date

In this second ‘quick reserve’, the end user will be asked to select both the arrival date and the departure
date with a calendar.

A.E.C. ADVERTISING AND ELECTRONIC COMMERCE s.r.l.

Piazza Pontida, 7 – I-24122 Bergamo (Italy) - Tel. +39 035 232366 - Fax. +39 035 210500
E-mail: [email protected]
Webmaster API 9 | 18 25-Jul-2014 ver. 1.5.4

4 Reservation front end URL

4.1 Standard front end URL

The standard frontend URL uses the domain

https://reservations.verticalbooking.com

4.2 Custom third-level front end URL

It is possible to use a third level domain of verticalbooking.com hinting the name of the hotel, the name of
the chain or the web portal name on which the end user will perform the reservation. In fact it is possible
to configure a generic third level domain like, for example:

https://myhotelname.verticalbooking.com

https://myhotelchain.verticalbooking.com

https://myportalname.verticalbooking.com

All these hotels share the same SSL technology to provide information encryption and have the same
degree of security of the default URL.

4.3 Custom front end URL

Lastly, it is even possible to use a completely customized URL, for example:

https://secure.myhotelname.com

This solution has a higher cost in resources because Vertical Booking needs to reserve an IP address for this
purpose only, and we have a limited number of these IP addresses shared with all the system.

A.E.C. ADVERTISING AND ELECTRONIC COMMERCE s.r.l.

Piazza Pontida, 7 – I-24122 Bergamo (Italy) - Tel. +39 035 232366 - Fax. +39 035 210500
E-mail: [email protected]
Webmaster API 10 | 18 25-Jul-2014 ver. 1.5.4

5 Special offers

5.1 HTML + CSS Version – ASP inclusion

It is possible to include a widget in the website both directly and server-side in order to include the list of
the special offers in a page.

<%
url = "
https://reservations.verticalbooking.com/xml/offerte_css_analytics2.htm?id_albergo=<!—HOTEL ID VALUE
-->&dc=<!-- SECURITY CODE -->0&lingua_int=<!-- LANGUAGE -->&id_stile=<!—STYLE CODE --
>&user=albergo_<!—HOTEL ID VALUE -->&pass=<!-- SECURITY CODE -->"
set xmlhttp = CreateObject("MSXML2.ServerXMLHTTP")
xmlhttp.open "GET", url, false
xmlhttp.send ""
Response.write xmlhttp.responseText
set xmlhttp = nothing
%>

5.2 HTML + CSS Version – PHP inclusion

It is possible to include a widget in the website both directly and server-side in order to include the list of
the special offers in a page.

<?php
include(' https://reservations.verticalbooking.com/xml/offerte_css_2.htm?id_albergo=<!—HOTEL ID
VALUE -->&dc=<!-- SECURITY CODE -->&lingua_int=<!-- LANGUAGE -->&id_stile=<!—STYLE CODE --
>&user=albergo_<!—HOTEL ID VALUE -->&pass=<!-- SECURITY CODE -->’);
?>

5.3 PHP serialized array version – PHP inclusion

It is possible to obtain in a single PHP array variable all the information concerning the special offers. An
example could be the following request:
<?php
$stringa_array =
file_get_contents('https://xml.verticalbooking.com/htng/prices/Offers.htm?id_albergo=<!-- HOTEL ID
VALUE -->&lingua_int=<!-- LANGUAGE -->&user=albergo_<!-- HOTEL ID VALUE >&pass=<!-- SECURITY CODE --
>');
echo $stringa_array;
$array_ritornato = unserialize($stringa_array);
print_r($array_ritornato);
?>

A.E.C. ADVERTISING AND ELECTRONIC COMMERCE s.r.l.

Piazza Pontida, 7 – I-24122 Bergamo (Italy) - Tel. +39 035 232366 - Fax. +39 035 210500
E-mail: [email protected]
Webmaster API 11 | 18 25-Jul-2014 ver. 1.5.4

6 Request for proposal

6.1 Needed fields for result form

If the hotel would like to insert a custom form in the website, just insert the following HTML fields and post
them to the indicated page (result form):

Field name Mandatory Meaning

nome yes First name of the applicant
cognome yes Last name of the applicant
telefono yes Number of telephone of the
applicant
email yes Email of the applicant (must be a
valid email address)
id_albergo yes ID of the hotel at which the
customer wants to request a
quote
gg yes Day of arrival [1-31]
mm yes Month of arrival [1-12]
aa yes Year of arrival [current_year,
current_year+5]
notti yes Number of nights of stay [1-120]
tot_adulti yes Number of adults
tot_bambini no Number of children
tot_camere yes Number of rooms
etabambn yes (if tot_bambini > 0) Each children age (for example
etabamb1 = 4; etabamb2 = 5 ie
first children 4 years old, second
children 5 years old)
prezzo_proposto no Any proposed price per night and
per person (the currency will be
that used by the hotel)
final_page no URL of the final page, in case of
successfully request
nota no Any customer note

NOTE: The price offered will only be accepted by the hotel in the stated period.

6.2 Result form

The form must have the following string as ACTION attribute:

https://reservations.verticalbooking.com/quot_web_req/invia_richiesta_preventivo_ris.htm

A.E.C. ADVERTISING AND ELECTRONIC COMMERCE s.r.l.

Piazza Pontida, 7 – I-24122 Bergamo (Italy) - Tel. +39 035 232366 - Fax. +39 035 210500
E-mail: [email protected]
Webmaster API 12 | 18 25-Jul-2014 ver. 1.5.4

7 Request for recall

There are two ways to insert a recall request (7.1 and 7.2).

7.1 Needed fields for Result form

If the hotel would like to insert a custom form in the website, just insert the following HTML fields and post
them to the indicated page (result form):

Field name Mandatory Meaning

nome Yes First name of the applicant
cognome Yes Last name of the applicant
telefono Yes Telephone number of the
applicant
email Yes Email of the applicant (must be a
valid email address)
id_albergo Yes* ID of the hotel at which the
customer wants to request a
quote
id_gruppo Yes* ID of the hotel group at which the
customer wants to request a
quote
telefono Yes Telephone number of the
applicant
cellulare No Mobile number of the applicant
note No Any customer note

NOTE: The recall request will only be accepted by the hotel in the stated period.

7.2 Result form

The form must have the following string as ACTION attribute:

https://reservations.verticalbooking.com/recall_service/invia_richiesta_recall_ris.htm

A.E.C. ADVERTISING AND ELECTRONIC COMMERCE s.r.l.

Piazza Pontida, 7 – I-24122 Bergamo (Italy) - Tel. +39 035 232366 - Fax. +39 035 210500
E-mail: [email protected]
Webmaster API 13 | 18 25-Jul-2014 ver. 1.5.4

8 Corporate customer registration

Vertical Booking offers a way to automatically insert a customer into the hotel CRS customers section. The
page below is to be inserted in an iframe:

8.1 Needed fields for Result form

Field name Mandatory Meaning

id_gruppo No Chain identifier
tipo Yes Customer type. Must be
“Azienda”
lingua_int Yes Language of the reservation ita,
eng, deu, fra, esp, rus, dut, tur,
por, fin, ell, chi, kor, jpn, tha, vie,
bul, nor, sve, ron, pls, etn, hun,
slo, cze, dan
rag_sociale Yes Company name

indirizzo Yes Company address

cap Yes Company zip code
localita Yes Company city name
provincia No Company province
nazione Yes Country
telefono No Phone number
fax No Fax number
cellular No Reference mobile
email No Reference email
cod_fiscale No Personal Tax ID
partita_iva Yes Company Tax ID
ref_ruolo No Referent position
ref_cognome Yes Referent surname
ref_nome Yes Referent first name
ref_telefono No Referent phone
ref_cellulare No Referent mobile
ref_email Yes Referent email
ref_note No Referent note

8.2 Result form

https://reservations.verticalbooking.com/cli_registra_ris.htm

A.E.C. ADVERTISING AND ELECTRONIC COMMERCE s.r.l.

Piazza Pontida, 7 – I-24122 Bergamo (Italy) - Tel. +39 035 232366 - Fax. +39 035 210500
E-mail: [email protected]
Webmaster API 14 | 18 25-Jul-2014 ver. 1.5.4

9 Google analytics

In order to activate the interface between Vertical Booking and Google analytics we need:

 An account in Google Analytics set for Universal Analytics

 Google Analytics UA-XXXXXXX-X code
 A hotel using the Vertical Booking Booking Engine willing to track its reservations with Google
Analytics.

9.1 Inserting the Google Analytics script in the hotel website

The first thing a hotel must do in order to enable Analytics tracking, is to insert the Analytics script code in
all the web pages. There are three types of Google Analytics scripts, and both Google and Vertical Booking
suggest using the “Universal Analytics” script. This should be inserted after the beginning <body> tag and
should look like the following extract:
<script type="text/javascript">

(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){i['GoogleAnalyticsObject']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){
(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),
m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)
})(window,document,'script','//www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js','ga');

ga('create', 'UA-XXXXXXX-XX', 'auto', {'allowLinker': true});

ga('require', 'linker');
ga('linker:autoLink', [/\.(com|net)$/], true, true);
ga('require', 'displayfeatures');
ga('require', 'linkid', 'linkid.js');
ga('send', 'pageview');
</script>

9.2 Inserting the Code into the Vertical Booking Extranet

Be sure that the same UA-XXXXXXX-X code is inserted into the Vertical Booking Conversion analysis –
Google page.

Enable the Universal Analytics feature

A.E.C. ADVERTISING AND ELECTRONIC COMMERCE s.r.l.

Piazza Pontida, 7 – I-24122 Bergamo (Italy) - Tel. +39 035 232366 - Fax. +39 035 210500
E-mail: [email protected]
Webmaster API 15 | 18 25-Jul-2014 ver. 1.5.4

9.3 Inserting an Analytics-enabled quick reserve

In Vertical Booking, a ‘quick reserve’ is a portion of a webpage in the hotel website that contains a form
providing reservation information to the booking engine. The ‘quick reserve’ must comply with the
following rules:

 It must have a <form …> tag

 The action must be one of the following, depending on the version of the graphic interface
o Interface by room: prenota_new.htm
o Interface by rate: prenota_new.htm
o One page Interface : prenota_grafica_b.htm
 The method must be POST
 There must not be scripts which trigger the submit action.

This is an example of how the form could look:

<form action="https://reservations.verticalbooking.com/prenota_new.htm" method="post" name="myform"

id="myform" target="_parent">

<input name="tappa_1_id_albergo" value="2887" type="hidden">

......
<input type="submit" name="invia" value="Book Now!" />

</form>

9.4 Inserting an Analytics-enabled link

The hotel website could choose not to display a quick reserve module, and instead just display a link
redirecting the user to the booking engine. In this case, we also have to pass the Analytics information in
order for the tracking to work correctly.

Below is an example of an analytics-enabled link:

<a href=https://reservations.verticalbooking.com/prenota_new.htm?id_albergo=2887>Book Now</a>

9.5 Set Referral Exclusion

In order to make sure that traffic from your .com domain to the verticalbooking domain won’t trigger a new
session, you have to add your domain to the “Referral Exclusion List” on your GA account.

To do this, go back to the GA account and go to the Admin section. Select your property and select Referral
Exclusion List:

A.E.C. ADVERTISING AND ELECTRONIC COMMERCE s.r.l.

Piazza Pontida, 7 – I-24122 Bergamo (Italy) - Tel. +39 035 232366 - Fax. +39 035 210500
E-mail: [email protected]
Webmaster API 16 | 18 25-Jul-2014 ver. 1.5.4

Click +ADD REFERRAL EXCLUSION

Enter your .com site domain and and “secure.alesiadistribution.com” domain for exclusion

Now if you login to GA, you will see the transaction source of the booking engine page is no longer
misinterpreted as referral from your .com site, but instead shows the actual source that directed the visitor
to the site originally (e.g. social, search etc.). You can use this information to identify which acquisition
channels you should be focusing on.

9.6 Goals and funnels

Although it is not mandatory, defining goals and funnels is one of the most interesting features provided by
Google Analytics. We decided to include a list of the page names in this document, which are named to let
you easily define funnels. In addition, in section 4.4, you will see how to define custom page names.

A.E.C. ADVERTISING AND ELECTRONIC COMMERCE s.r.l.

Piazza Pontida, 7 – I-24122 Bergamo (Italy) - Tel. +39 035 232366 - Fax. +39 035 210500
E-mail: [email protected]
Webmaster API 17 | 18 25-Jul-2014 ver. 1.5.4

9.6.1 Per Room Interface

 prenota_new.htm
 richiesta_grafica_a.htm
 prima_pagina_grafica_a.htm
 risultati_grafica_a.htm
 vedi_accessori_grafica_a.htm
 riepilogo_grafica_a.htm
 dati_grafica_a.htm
 finale_vedi_grafica_a.htm

9.6.2 Per Rate Interface

 prenota_new.htm
 richiesta_new.htm
 prima_pagina_standard.htm
 risultati_new.htm
 vedi_accessori_new.htm
 riepilogo_super_new.htm
 dati_new.htm
 finale_vedi_new.htm

9.6.3 SMART 3.0

 reservation_hotel_start.htm
 reservation_hotel.htm
 reservation_services.htm
 reservation_summary.htm
 reservation_offer.htm
 reservation_thanks.htm

9.7 Custom page names (only for Per Rooms and Per Rate interface)

The interface with Google Analytics lets you define custom page names. In the Conversion analysis – Google
section, all you have to do is activate the feature and indicate the custom page names you want to use.

A.E.C. ADVERTISING AND ELECTRONIC COMMERCE s.r.l.

Piazza Pontida, 7 – I-24122 Bergamo (Italy) - Tel. +39 035 232366 - Fax. +39 035 210500
E-mail: [email protected]
Webmaster API 18 | 18 25-Jul-2014 ver. 1.5.4

Note that these names will be used independently by the version of the booking engine the customer will
be using (per room, per camera, emotional or mobile). This lets you implement a multi-channel tracking
strategy, defining goals and funnels only once.

A.E.C. ADVERTISING AND ELECTRONIC COMMERCE s.r.l.

Piazza Pontida, 7 – I-24122 Bergamo (Italy) - Tel. +39 035 232366 - Fax. +39 035 210500
E-mail: [email protected]