Development

During the development phase, multiple Expedia teams will work through all of the details of your site so that it’s as close to final as possible by the time you’re asked to integrate and test it. Your Expedia launch manager will keep in touch throughout to make sure you’re involved.

Development time will depend on the scope of your travel site—more complicated builds will take more time. We will stay in contact with you as we work to build out your template site. Here are some of the things we’ll be working on.

Site setup

We’ll build out the back end of your site with the functionality you’ve chosen. Site setup involves configuring the APIs you’ve selected, connecting to your domain, and making sure that everything works together.

Branding

Next, we’ll apply the colors, logos, and styling you’ve provided us so that the site follows your brand requirements. If you’ve chosen to co-brand your site with Expedia.com or Hotels.com, we’ll set that up as well.

Supply

We’ll connect the supply APIs for any line of business you’ve contracted for (such as hotels, flights, or cars) and make sure that they’re fully functional.

Single sign-on

To keep your customers from needing to log in more than once, we’ll integrate a single-sign on solution for your domains.

Payment

We’ll set up payment options as your contract stipulates, either to accept all debit and credit cards or to let your customers use your branded credit card to make their purchases.

Servicing

One vital part of any online sales application is customer service. We’ll prepare your site for not just shopping and booking, but also post-booking, such as allowing customers to cancel or modify their choices. We’ll set up a virtual agent and an interactive voice response system (IVR)—in multiple languages, if necessary—for those customers who prefer phone over chat.

Loyalty

If you’ve chosen to add access to a loyalty program, we’ll get that in place so that your customers can earn points on their travel purchases. We’ll also hook up a way for them to use those points to book travel, if your contract includes that.

Legal

Where your company does business has an impact on how your site should be set up. We’ll help make sure that the templated site is compliant with any local regulations, such as the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Reporting

We’ll set you up with ways to keep track of how your site is performing. This includes daily transaction logs and long-term site data from a robust analytics platform.

Testing

Before we pass the template site to you for integration with your main site, we’ll test it thoroughly. Our end-to-end testing includes checks at every phase, plus an in-depth review of the financial connections to make sure that your customers’ transactions will be secure and accurate.

Ready to launch

Once your template site is integrated into your main site ready for use, we’ll monitor it closely (typically for 2 weeks) as part of our warranty agreement.

As always, if you have any questions, please reach out to your Expedia launch manager.