Expedia holding May events for advisors in affiliate program
01.05.2024 - 16:01
/ travelweekly.com
Starting today, Global Travel Advisor Day, Expedia Group is holding 16 events for travel advisors in May for members of Expedia's Travel Agent Affiliate Program.
Expedia (No. 2 on Travel Weekly's Power List) is updating advisors on new features.
"This channel is of critical importance to us," said Robin Lawther, vice president of TAAP. "TAAP has been going for about 15 years, but in the last couple of years we've started to put significant energy, time and investment behind the TAAP program."
In the past, TAAP has held events throughout the year, but this year has unified them around Travel Advisor Day, Lawther said. Events will be held in the U.S. (this week in Dallas and Arizona, with more to come later this month), Mexico, Brazil, Canada, the U.K., Switzerland and Italy.
Robin Lawther
The events vary a bit by market, Lawther said, ranging from lunches to cinema nights, but TAAP updates will be provided to advisors attending. Among those updates will be about TAAP's deferred-payments feature as well as the expansion of the TAAP Rewards program outside of the U.S.
TAAP started rolling out deferred payments in the U.S. last year, Lawther said. As of this year, it is available globally. Any agency can ask for the feature to be turned on (about 16,000 have it enabled). The feature enables agencies to pay closer to check-in date, giving the agency's clients more flexibility.
TAAP Rewards is being expanded into Canada and Mexico. It launched in the U.S. several years ago and adoption has grown, Lawther said. A "significant majority" of active agencies are using the program, under which lodging bookings earn reward points that can be redeemed for gift cards.
Lawther is particularly excited about a new feature TAAP will start rolling out in early July: the ability for agencies to add service fees on to bookings.
"We of course pay commission on every booking, but the advisor might want to add a fee -- which we know is now very common -- on top of that," Lawther said.
Upon checkout, advisors will have the ability to tack on a fee, which will be charged to the customer and remanded to the advisor.
Particularly in the U.S., it has been the feature advisors have most requested, Lawther said. Following testing in early July, it will be rolled out more widely over the course of the year.
Advisors can also expect some changes around reporting, with a new API that will more easily integrate into different accounting or inventory management systems advisors might use, according to Lawther.
TAAP has also been testing a new shopping experience that will be rolled out after some features and functionalities are added.