January 2024 - Release Notes

Here are the most recent enhancements to Spotnana’s Travel-as-a-Service Platform. The features are grouped by functional category (Content, Self-service, etc.). 

Content

Hotel: Expedia direct integration

We have built a direct integration to Expedia’s APIs to increase the capabilities and level of detail we provide travelers for their listings. These include:

• Access to all of Expedia's global properties and room availability information.
• Access to expanded hotel content, including additional amenity information, hotel and room information, and room photos.
• The ability to earn loyalty points at certain properties.

Traveler Experience

Flights: High fare reporting

We strive to provide travelers with the most competitive rates for their air travel. However, if a traveler finds the same flight, cabin class, and amenities priced higher on the Spotnana Online Booking Tool than other travel websites, they can now easily report the higher fare to us directly from the flight Search page. This helps us identify opportunities for driving improvements.

To submit a report, the traveler would simply click on Report High Fare and then specify where they saw the lower fare, its price, and include an optional screenshot and comments. Our team at Spotnana will then investigate the reported higher fare and notify the traveler of the reason for the difference.

Flights: Ability to retry payment on mobile (NDC only)

Last month, we introduced a few improvements to the Online Booking Tool to address situations when a traveler’s form of payment fails while booking a flight. We have now extended these improvements to the Spotnana mobile app.
If the form of payment used for a booking fails:

1. The status for the flight booking will be updated to Payment Failure.
2. Travelers will be provided with the opportunity to retry their payment from the Trips page in order to complete the booking successfully.
3. An email will be sent to the traveler explaining that the payment has failed and direct them to the Trips page to retry the payment in order to confirm the booking.
4. The flight booking (PNR) will automatically be canceled if payment is not completed within the allowed hold period.

Rail: UK split tickets

When booking rail travel within the UK, travelers can now select a Split ticket. This saves the traveler money by "splitting" their journey into multiple tickets. Instead of paying for a single ticket from point A to B, they pay less by breaking their trip into smaller segments. Same train (or trains), same route - just more tickets.

For example, instead of booking a direct ticket from London to Brighton, by selecting a Split ticket, the traveler purchases and receives two tickets – one ticket from London to Gatwick Airport and one ticket Gatwick Airport to Brighton. Given it's the same train, the traveler doesn’t have to exit and reboard; they just have to switch tickets.

Within the Spotnana Online Booking Tool, split tickets are marked with the blue Split ticket icon. When a traveler clicks on a split ticket fare, we display the savings they will receive by booking a split ticket. Travelers can then click on the icon for more details. The details include information on the two (or more) tickets being sold in the split ticket and whether the traveler needs to change trains between tickets.

Travel Management

Consolidate trip invoice  

Spotnana now provides travelers with a consolidated view of all invoices associated with their upcoming or completed trips within the trip itinerary. This provides travelers and travel arrangers with a comprehensive view of all expenses incurred.
To view the consolidated invoice, go to the Trips page within the Spotnana Online Booking Tool and click the Download icon for your trip. This will download the consolidated trip itinerary and invoice to your device. When you open this file, you will see a section at the bottom called Payment details. This section contains the price of travel items booked under the chosen trip.

Expense Management integration with Chrome River

Spotnana’s Online Booking Tool is now integrated with Chrome River’s expense management software. If your organization uses Chrome River, you will now be able to access any invoices associated with Spotnana bookings from within Chrome River. This streamlines the reimbursement process for your travelers. To activate this integration for your company, please reach out to your Spotnana Customer Success Manager.

Agent Experience

Debug Tool

We have added a native debugging tool to the Spotnana Online Booking Tool. This makes it easier for agents to investigate the root cause of an issue. If an agent experiences an error in the Online Booking Tool, they can now open the Debug Tool to get a full trace of all the API calls that were made when that error occurred.