Credit Card Payment Processing using Authorize.net

TravelHerd now incorporates credit card payment processing using Auth orize.net. Authorize.net processes over one billion transactions per year for over 430,000 merchants. We selected Authorize.net as our credit card processing partner because of their award winning API integration and customer service.

TravelHerd credit card payment processing is available in our on-line Book Now tour booking engine as well as from invoice emails generated within TravelHerd for any reservation with an open balance. TravelHerd uses the Authorize.net Accept suite. After much research, we chose the Authorize.net Accept suite as the credit card payment processing solution for TravelHerd for its extensive on-line security and ease of use for the end-user making the payment. This solution is a SAQ-A level PCI compliance. To make a payment, the credit card information is entered on the Authorize.net server via an overlay on TravelHerd scripts.

All TravelHerd subscriptions have incorporated this value added service. Subscribing companies may choose to use credit card processing using Authorize.net or not; its use is neither obligatory nor automatic. TravelHerd subscribing company administrators can activate credit card processing using Authorize.net for their company via an option in their TravelHerd company settings. Administrators must verify that their credit card processing bank has set up their company credentials with Authorize.net prior to activating this functionality. There is no additional charge to the monthly subscription rate. TravelHerd does not receive remuneration from Authorize.net for this value added service. Click here to schedule a demo for TravelHerd including credit card payment processing using Authorize.net.

Travel Agent Portal

Select travel agents can book your products via the TravelHerd Travel Agent Portal.

Travel agents have moved toward becoming destination and category specialists (think Africa, honeymoons, pilgrimages and more); indeed many have become as knowledgeable in their areas of expertise as the tour operators themselves. The TravelHerd Travel Agent Portal allows tour operators to invite select travel agents, on an individual agent basis, to book your tours and specials for their clients, by themselves without the direct involvement of your staff. Travel agents logged-in to the secure TravelHerd Travel Agent Portal will also have access to additional functionality. Here’s how it works:

Authorize select travel agents on an individual basis and invite them to log-in with their email address and create their own password to access the secure TravelHerd Travel Agent Portal
After logging-in, travel agents are presented with a display of featured promotions and news on the portal’s home page along with a menu of actions available to them including the following:
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Travel agents can book tours and specials, including up-sell options and extensions, from within the secure TravelHerd Travel Agent Portal by themselves without the direct involvement of your staff
Travel agents can review their upcoming reservations, including those booked via your sales consultants as well as those booked via the portal
Travel agents can enter passengers’ names and other information to their upcoming reservations
Travel agents can issue invoices, client invoices and itineraries for their upcoming reservations
Variable commission levels can be set in the TravelHerd scheduled tours and specials database for reservations made 1) via the Travel Agent Portal, 2) via your in-house sales consultants or 3) combination reservations (initially booked by the travel agent via Travel Agent Portal but later requiring revisions by your sales consultants) as a means to incentivize travel agents to use the portal
Travel agents can initiate brochure requests from within the secure Travel Agent Portal, which are then transmitted to the tour operator

Select travel agents will appreciate the ease, convenience, and functionality which the secure TravelHerd Travel Agent Portal offers them without the direct involvement of your sales consultants.

FIT Booking Engine

TravelHerd has a unique FIT booking engine consisting of a scratchpad to produce quick quotes and the reservations module for highly customized FITs, scheduled tours and other travel options. The scratchpad and the reservations module both utilize XML, vendor web sites and the internal database in TravelHerd in the booking process. Items added to the scratchpad can be generated into a proposal with the inclusion of the booking agent’s information, whether they are a travel agent or a direct consumer. Proposal and reservation itineraries and invoices can be emailed to booking agent/now client.

Services queried via an XML interface can be stored in the TravelHerd database, based to the user’s authorization level. Stored services for hotel, land and transfers display at the top of the list of available options, thus directing entry level reservation agents to preferred product. Booking from the stored services is faster because queries are made based on a single item as opposed to searching by destination. The default flag is set to display only refundable services with an option to show all services. Queries may also be done based on available services, e.g. star rating, business center, swimming pool, etc. for hotels, with similar options for land and transfers.

TravelHerd takes the net costs from the supplier and adds a mark-up in one of following ways:

Single step multiply if the markup is higher than 1 or divide is the the markup is less the 1.
Double step multiply if the markup is higher than 1 or divide is the the markup is less the 1.
A separate mark-up can be set for travel agents and direct consumers.
TravelHerd supports two exchange rates per currency, one for buying and one for selling.

The TravelHerd reservation module uses the same principle as the scratchpad for additions and revisions to an existing reservation.

The single or multiple itinerary deviation feature in the TravelHerd FIT booking engine allows for a passenger or multiple passengers to deviate from the main itinerary for their own specific activities while staying within the overall main itinerary framework, within a single reservation. Itineraries using this feature show the main itinerary with the deviations, tagged with their specific travelers names, as they occur.

TravelHerd Online Knowledge Base

A powerful online tool to answer TravelHerd users’ questions while working within the application, the TravelHerd Online Knowledge Base, is a click away.

TravelHerd users have a powerful online tool to assist them with questions while using application, the TravelHerd Online Knowledge Base, which is powered by the WordPress for fast and easy searching. Users may access the TravelHerd Online Knowledge Base whilst working within the TravelHerd application, thus maintaining productivity and continuity.

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The TravelHerd Online Knowledge Base has searchable topics applicable to employees day-to-day use of the TravelHerd application. The Online Knowledge Base covers many areas of responsibility including Reservations, Database, Sales and Marketing and Accounting, to name a few. Users have commented that they find the Knowledge Base particularly convenient as a “memory-refresher” assisting them while they perform TravelHerd functions outside of their day-to-day responsibilities.

Many clients find the TravelHerd Online Knowledge Base to be a helpful assistant when the training new employees and cross-training current employees on the TravelHerd application. They find that the Online Knowledge Base’s ease of access is a functional method to answer many common, and some not-too-common, questions which employees may have during their training. Using the Online Knowledge Base does not require the intervention of supervisory and training personnel; it is available to every TravelHerd user.

Multiple level inventory for scheduled tours

The TravelHerd tours module offers multiple level inventory for scheduled tours based on one of the following inventory types:

Number of persons
Number of rooms
Number of Singles or Twin/Double

Additionally, a single tour can be provided with multiple pricing levels. The nomenclature for the pricing level is controlled by the client. Pricing levels and inventory type can be revised from season to season or ad hoc as required. The scheduled tour inventory set-up details the inventory usage for previously entered tours. In the event of occupancy based inventory, actual inventory is not required for every occupancy type. TravelHerd will confirm from scheduled tour inventory what is available, i.e. twin confirmed, single on request. Online sales of tours book from the same inventory and follow the same inventory rules; the online buyer of a scheduled tour is advised what can be confirmed at the time the buyer makes booking.

multiple level inventory for scheduled tours

With multiple level inventory for scheduled tours, tour inventory is set to zero as soon as the release date has been reached. The release date is set as a number of days prior to the tour departure date. A more strict online cut-off number of days prior to departure can be set in the TravelHerd company settings. Availability is calculated by counting actual confirmed persons, rooms or occupancy types including temporarily-held persons, rooms or occupancy types booked or in-process bookings made by the internal sales consultants/reservation agents. This ensures that true availability is shown at all times. A TravelHerd report displays temporarily-held inventory booked or in-process bookings made by the internal sales consultants/reservation agents, confirmed inventory as well as tour inventory on request.

TravelHerd can also accommodate tours with shared inventory. These may be Land-only and Land and Air tours or Complete itinerary/Partial itinerary tours. In these situations, TravelHerd allows for shared inventory for the related tours.

Profile history and profile date tracking

Profile history and profile date tracking make TravelHerd profile management easier

Profiles of Travel Agencies, Travel Agents and Direct Consumers are elements of TravelHerd’s profile management module. They are key to your marketing efforts and sales, so being able to view the history of profiles’ additions and revisions, include the dates attached to these actions, is a very important part of profile management. Profile history and profile date tracking are standard elements of TravelHerd’s profile management.

Simply put, all additions and revisions to profiles are now logged in the profile history within your TravelHerd database. The profile history enables the TravelHerd user to see what revisions have taken place to a profile. Revised profiles display the date and time of the revision and which TravelHerd user made the revision.

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While it is a truism that “change is the only constant”, it can also lead to confusion when there is no history to fall back on. Fortunately, profile history and profile date tracking in TravelHerd does away with this type of confusion for your staff when dealing with profiles.

All in all, the profile history and profile date tracking elements of TravelHerd’s profile management module provide key practical information for your Sales and Marketing, Reservations, Accounting and Operations departments.