SFTP data exchange

Our SFTP (secure file transfer protocol) solution is a zero-touch, secure end-to-end solution. It automates sending the data file used to connect to our customer relationship management (CRM) marketing email solution.

Steps for one-time set up

To set up the marketing data feed, you’ll do a one-time SFTP and file encryption process to generate public and private keys for secure file transfer to Expedia.

Step 1: Request your site identifiers

You’ll need three site identifier values to set up the SFTP file exchange:

Site ID: A unique identifier for your template site.
tpid: The travel product ID, which, together with the eapid, defines a point of sale in the Expedia system.
eapid: The Expedia affiliated partner ID, which, together with the tpid, defines a point of sale in the Expedia system.

You should use the support form on our Partner Solutions site to request these values from your account manager.

Step 2: Create your keys

Use your preferred method to generate the public and private key for SFTP and file encryption setup.

Using terminal (MacOS X) or command line (Windows)

In the Mac terminal or Windows command line, enter user@localhost: ssh-keygen -t rsa.
Note: If the command fails, check with your IT department to ensure you have sufficient permission to run it.
When prompted, leave the passphrase request empty.
Save your keys to a secure location.

Be sure to save your keys in a secure location. If you lose your private key, you’ll have to reset the SFTP.

Using a key generator

Download and install a key generator.
Use the generator to create an RSA public/private key pair.
Copy the public key, which starts with ssh-rsa. This is what you’ll send to Expedia Group.
Save the private key to a secure location. Do not delete it—you’ll use it instead of a password each time you send the encrypted file.

Be sure to save your private key in a secure location. If you lose your key, you’ll have to reset the SFTP.

You’ll securely share your SFTP public key with Expedia. We’ll securely store this key and create an account from which you’ll be able to authenticate the SFTP connection. We’ll give you a username to use in the file-sharing process.

Important

Expedia uses SharePoint as a secure key repository. If your organization blocks access to SharePoint, you can also send the public key via secure email. Talk to your account manager if this is an issue for you.

Send us your organization’s name and the email address from which you’ll be uploading the public SFTP key via SharePoint. Your Expedia launch manager will provide you with the email address.
We’ll create a folder in SharePoint that’s specific to your organization and send an access link to the email address you provided. We’ll also upload our public key that’s used to encrypt the file before upload.
Once you receive that access email, you’ll click the link to generate the required access code. (Note: Be sure to check your spam folder if the access code doesn’t appear in your inbox within 2 business days.)
You’ll upload the public key you generated to the folder we created and download the gpg_encryption_public_key.asc from the folder.
We will reach out to you when the SFTP account is ready to use.

File format and structure

To successfully upload CRM data files, they should meet the following criteria.

The file format should be .csv to begin with. When you encrypt the file, you’ll change the file extension to .gpg.
Use pipes (|), not commas, to delimit fields.
File naming convention should not include special characters other than underscores (_). The file name must begin with eps_crm_marketing, followed by your organization name; the tpid, eapid, and site_id shared by your account manager; and the upload date. For example: eps_crm_marketing_<PartnerName>_<tpid>_<eapid>_<site_id>_YYYYMMDD.csv.
The file data should have all the columns in the table below, in order, and must include values in all required fields.

Column name	Definition	Sample value	Type	Required
`first_name`	Customer first name	Chris	Varchar	—
`last_name`	Customer last name	Smith	Varchar	—
`email`	Customer email	chris.smith@hotmail.com	Varchar	Yes
`mer_flag`	Marketing-eligible registrant flag; the customer’s decision to opt in (YES) or out (NO) of email marketing	Yes	Varchar	Yes
`mer_timestamp`	Timestamp of when the customer decided to opt in or out	2021-06-12 20:14:23.000000	Varchar	Yes
`lang_id`	The site language (see the Language codes table); this value is not case-sensitive	en_US en_FR	Varchar	Yes
`tpid`	Travel product ID provided by your Expedia account manager	0000	Number	Yes
`eapid`	Expedia affiliated partner ID provided by the Expedia account manager	1234	Number	Yes
`site_id`	Unique identifier for the template site provided by the Expedia account manager	5678	Number	Yes
`points_balance`	The customer’s loyalty points balance	100000	Number (13 digit max)	—
`points_cash_value`	The cash value of the customer’s loyalty points	250	Varchar (10 character max)	—
`cash_value_currency`	The currency in which the loyalty points are valued	USD	Text (3 character max)	—
`credit_card_type`	The type of credit card used for the transaction	YourBrand card	Text (25 character max)	—
`loyalty_tier`	The customer’s loyalty tier within your program	Platinum	Text (25 character max)	—
`attribute1` `attribute2` `attribute3`	3 fields used to share additional information about the customer	Frequent traveler	Varchar (25 character max)	—

Sample CSV file contents

The .csv file will include each element of the information, separated by pipe characters (|). The pipes act as column dividers, with each field the column header for the information beneath it.

SFTP connection and upload

Before you upload your data, you should encrypt the file.

Encryption

We use PGP encryption to protect personally identifiable information (PII). You’ll use our public key (which we’ll provide) to encrypt your .csv file. You can use whichever encryption tools you prefer, but we often work with GPG encryption tools.

Ask your Expedia launch manager for the email address to use as the import destination for the Expedia public key
Do not encrypt with a password—you'll use your private key for this
Save the encrypted file with a .gpg extension

File upload

The next step is to upload your encrypted file—you can use any SFTP connectivity tool. Make sure to select SFTP as the protocol, and enter these details:

Server: s-b1b59c1d2afa43cba.server.transfer.us-west-2.amazonaws.com
Port: 22
Username: <partnername-username> (for example, BestTravel-CRMteam or BestTravel-Asmith)
SSH private key: the private key you generated

You can automate the frequency with which your SFTP files are uploaded depending on your organization’s business needs.