May 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 

Copa Airlines Direct NDC integration

Spotnana has added a direct NDC integration with Copa Airlines, providing travelers with expanded content and fare options. Travelers can also:

• Access NDC-exclusive sales promotions and ancillary products.

• Make self-service booking modifications and cancellations, without agent involvement.

• Make or change a seat selection for a flight after the booking has been made, without agent involvement.

• View personalized seat maps (after booking) based on their frequent flier status.

• Avoid cost-recovery surcharges on reservations.

For details on all our direct NDC integrations, see our NDC Overview. 

Traveler Experience 

Hotel: new filters and toolbar

We have made the following enhancements to the hotel search page to provide travelers with an improved hotel shopping experience:

• New filter layout - the filters are now shown on the left hand side of the search results page, allowing you to easily scan and scroll vertically. These filters let you restrict and target the options shown based on your needs.

• New toolbar - the toolbar shown on the top of the hotel search page has been redesigned to be more compact and cleaner.

• Larger hotel map - on the hotel search page, travelers can choose to view hotel results in list view or map view.

Car: new filters and toolbar

We’ve made similar updates to both our car and hotel booking experience, including updating the filter layout and toolbar. For details on the new filter organization, refer to Book a car rental. 

Travel Management

Updated side navigation for Administrators

To improve the usability and consistency of administrator features, we have updated the side navigation in the Company page. To view this, select Company from the Program menu. Then, using the new side navigation, you can click on the following groups to expand each section – Company, Payment, Supplier, Configuration, Users, and Policy.

Supplier tiered preferences

Administrators can now assign three ‘tiers’ to their preferred suppliers. This tiering gives administrators greater control over supplier management. This applies to Air, Hotel property, Hotel brand, and Car rental companies. For example, you can now assign a preferred supplier as Tier 1, Tier 2, or Tier 3. This allows you to ensure your travelers know which suppliers are preferred by tier during their shopping experience in the Spotnana platform. 

In addition, administrators can now:

• Personalize the tier naming by assigning a custom label to each tier. For example, you can name Tier 1 “Gold”, Tier 2 “Silver,” and Tier 3 “Bronze.”

• Assign preferences based on a traveler's legal entity or based on the country they are traveling to.

To set this feature, select Company from the Program menu. Then, select Supplier management from the Supplier section in the side navigation. 

User role bulk upload

Administrators are now able to upload and assign user roles in bulk via a CSV file. To do this, select Users from the Program menu. Then, select Roles from the Users section in the side navigation. The Roles page will be displayed. To add new user roles in bulk, click Upload.

In addition, we have made the following usability improvements:

• To view instructions for file uploads and to download a CSV template, click either the Download or Upload button.

• To view an activity log, click on the clock icon to expand the side panel. This will display your most recent file uploads and related status notifications.

• If an error occurs in the file upload, the error file now contains all columns pre-populated with the information that was uploaded along with the reason for the error. Users can simply modify this file to correct any errors and upload it again.

For details, see Upload user role assignments.

Non-employee policy

Administrators can now define and configure travel policies to be applied to non-employee guest bookings. These policies are separate from the ones you use to control the bookings of your employees. The non-employee policies will only be applied to bookings made by (or for) individuals who do not work for your company (e.g., do not have an email with your company alias within the Spotnana system). The settings available to you and their functionality are the same as the ones you can set for employee policies.

To access and configure your company's non-employee policy, select Policies from the Program menu. Then, expand the Non-employee branch under the Policy menu. For more details, see Non-employee policy.

Savings report: Rail Split Tickets

Administrators are now able to view a new report, Rail Split Tickets. When booking rail travel in the UK, travelers can sometimes significantly reduce the cost of the booking by splitting it into multiple tickets. The Rail Split Tickets report provides insights about the savings generated by selecting split tickets for rail bookings. 

To view this report, select Company reports from the Analytics menu. Then, expand the Savings category on the side navigation and select Rail Split Tickets. The sub-filters in this report can be used to restrict the data you see to specific travelers, departments, and events. For more details, see Rail Split Tickets report.

Canadian invoices

Invoices for travel booked through Canadian suppliers are now available on Spotnana’s platform. These invoices are tailored to Canadian tax requirements and provide a detailed breakdown for transparent billing and efficient expense management. Depending on the province, the tax compliant invoices display the goods and services tax (GST), Québec sales tax (QST), and harmonized sales tax (HST). This allows your company to adhere to compliance requirements and claim tax rebates.

The invoices are available on the Trips page and can be accessed by clicking Payment details and then Invoices and Receipts.

Agent Experience 

Displaying the Sabre PCC for the PNR on the Trips page

The Sabre pseudo city code (PCC) is now displayed on the Trips page. This allows agents to quickly identify the exact Sabre PCC the Passenger Name Record (PNR) is booked on, enabling them to resolve traveler issues at an even faster rate.

This is only applicable to Air and Hotel GDS PNRs. To view the Sabre PCC associated with a Sabre Air or Hotel GDS booking, locate the Source field (above the booking tile) on the Trips page. This is viewable to individuals with agent or administrator roles. 

View employee ID in companion view

The Companion view provides agents with the ability to view a traveler's profile, allowing them to provide more personalized support. To allow agents to more quickly verify a traveler’s identity, they are now able to view the employee ID directly within the Companion view. To see this, go to the Companion view and select Profile from the dropdown menu. Then, click on Work and the Employee ID will be displayed. This is viewable to individuals with agent or administrator roles.