Direct partner support for merchant partners

In this guide, we’ll explain the context of being the Merchant of Record as well as how our customer service, payments and technical support work.

Quick find

  1. YOUR RESPONSIBILITIES & VIATOR’S RESPONSIBILITIES
  2. GENERAL SUPPORT FOR MERCHANT PARTNERS
  3. TECHNICAL PARTNER SUPPORT
  4. PARTNER SUPPORT PRACTICES
  5. CANCELLATION PROCESSING
  6. AMENDMENT PROCESSING
  7. HOW TO REPORT PRODUCT ISSUES
  8. GUIDELINES FOR FRAUDULENT TRANSACTIONS
  9. ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE
  10. COPYRIGHT

 

1. YOUR RESPONSIBILITIES & VIATOR’S RESPONSIBILITIES

The partnership with Viator grants you access to the full range of products available through our marketplace and for you to facilitate the sale of those products to your own customer base. When you facilitate the sale of products sourced through Viator as merchant of record, you will be responsible for:

  • all first line customer services, whether via telephone, email or any other means of communication
  • processing payments, and you accept full liability in respect of all transactions
  • payment of applicable taxes
  • your compliance responsibilities
  • implementing your own fraud detection strategy

For further support from Viator (e.g. you need to amend a booking or get more detailed product information) your customer service agents can contact our dedicated Direct Partner Support Team.
Communication from your end customers to Viator’s general B2C customer service operations will result in your customers being directed back to you as the merchant of record, as detailed in Section 4.

↑ Back to top

2. GENERAL SUPPORT FOR MERCHANT PARTNERS

Note: This service is provided to you as a Partner, not to the end consumer (traveler) – they need to contact your customer services teams for first line customer support.

For further information please take a look at our Partner Help Center.

[2.1] GENERAL HOURS

Viator Partner Support is available to you and your customer service team 24 hours a day on every day of the year.

[2.2] RESPONSE TIMES

Viator responds to all English language requests within 4 hours. When further information is needed from an operator, or further research on a claim is necessary, the final response may take longer than 4 hours, however, you should receive a response and acknowledgement within 4 hours.

For requests in languages other than English, Viator responds within 24 hours. The final response may take longer than 24 hours in case further information is needed from an operator, or further research on a claim is necessary.

[2.3] SUPPORT FOR BOOKINGS OR GENERAL CUSTOMER SUPPORT

Your customer service team members should seek to answer customer requests by using the support tools below, in the following order:

  1. First, before reaching out to Viator, we ask that you review product description pages for common questions
    • Viator is a 100% online business. We require that operators provide full descriptions of their tours and attractions and other content available via the API. The individual product descriptions provided via the API should contain all the information that customers will need.
    • Typically, customers asking questions have not actually read the product detail pages in detail, and do not realize that the answer to common questions may be found there. Viator updates this content regularly, taking into account the questions that customers commonly ask.
    • We recommend that your Customer Service team members check the following pieces of information on your own site or in your own app as the first step in resolving any customer query. Common questions are on:
      • Inclusions / Exclusions
      • Starting Times and Duration
      • Product Options (Tour Grades)
      • Pricing
    • Please note that it is your responsibility to maintain the accuracy of the products with the information provided via the API. It is your responsibility to lawfully present your full terms and conditions and pricing to the end consumer, provided that they do not conflict with the information we provide via the API.
  2. Second, if you have general questions or non-urgent inquiries related to a booking, email the Viator Partner Support Team at dpsupport@viator.com
  3. Third, if you need support for bookings within 24 hours of travel that require urgent handling or require an immediate response, please reach out to the numbers below.
    • Appropriate examples to call include the following scenarios:
      • customer has missed or cannot find a pickup
      • customer is unable to retrieve their voucher for the day of service
      • customer cannot make contact with a local vendor when this was a requirement
    • Viator Support Team Telephone numbers:
      • Australia +61-2-8310-6510
      • UK +44- 203-868-3791
      • US Local 702-749-5734
      • US Toll Free 866-227-7081

       

See Section 2.1 for operating hours

For further information please check out our Partner Help Center.

↑ Back to top

3. TECHNICAL PARTNER SUPPORT

Viator offers full technical support to partners experiencing technical or connection problems. Please note – this is for NON-BOOKING related questions only. Please reach out to us at affiliateapi@tripadvisor.com. We will be happy to assist you with your technical query.

Provide as much detail as possible when contacting our support center, including:

  • Company Name
  • Product Name and Product ID (if applicable)
  • API key used (if available)
  • Date and Time of error or time of first notification of error
  • Error Message text received (where applicable)
  • Data Version of your current feed (if available)
  • DETAILED overview of service incident

↑ Back to top

4. PARTNER SUPPORT PRACTICES

In all cases the Viator Partner Support Team is the contact between the traveler and you/your company. Viator supports your customer service team, but does not respond to the traveler directly.

Furthermore, as you are the merchant of record, our Partner Support Team members do not have detailed information on payment, prices, fees, terms and conditions or cancellations policies – which are all set by you.

↑ Back to top

5. CANCELLATION PROCESSING

[5.1] CANCELLATION TERMS – PRE-TRAVEL

As merchant of record for the Viator products, it is up to you/your company to set your own cancellation terms for your travelers. These terms should be set in conjunction with the Viator cancellation terms: they can be more strict if you would require so, but not less strict than Viator’s cancellation terms.

Current Cancellation Policies:

  • Standard cancellation policy – Products in this category can be canceled up to 24 hours before the travel time (local supplier time) and a full refund will be granted. However, a 100% cancellation penalty applies for cancellations submitted less than 24 hours before the start time. Most products (about 85%) fall into this category.
  • Custom cancellation policy – The refund amount for products in this category varies depending on how long before its start time the product is canceled, which is specified by and varies by the supplier. Many products on a custom policy are multi-day tours, which require more sophisticated planning on the supplier’s end. Only a small number of products (around 5%) fall into this category.
  • All sales final – Products in this category cannot be canceled or amended without incurring a 100% penalty, i.e The refund amount will be zero.

Please note that ‘non-cancel’ also means that bookings for these products are non-transferable and non-changeable i.e. the name of the traveling party cannot be changed post-purchase. These are supplier-imposed restrictions and are out of Viator’s control.

You as a partner are responsible for validating the Viator cancellation policy for each product and for providing your own cancellation terms to your customers that are aligned with Viator’s policy. You are also responsible for building out flows in your implementation to support this cancellation functionality. We have endpoints that you will use to automate cancellations.

If you have not yet implemented this or were unaware of this functionality, please contact your Viator Partner Implementations team at affiliateapi@tripadvisor.com for detailed technical documentation.

Please note: always use the /cancel-quote API endpoint before initiating the actual cancellation request via the API. This will ensure that the cancellation is possible and will provide the refund amount if applicable. It’s always possible to cancel bookings with a start time in the future but this doesn’t mean that the booking is fully refundable. Please bear in mind that the Viator’s cancellation policy returned in the response to the booking service always applies. There are some exceptional cases where the API connection will not allow cancellation (post-travel cancellations) to cancel a booking; in that case you need to contact Viator Partner Support.

The cancellation request needs to be submitted and validated by you as the partner before contacting Viator Partner Support.

Learn more about handling cancellations.

[5.2] CANCELLATION TERMS – DUPLICATE BOOKINGS

Please note that if you make duplicate bookings and the supplier does not approve the refund, Viator will not be held responsible and will not refund the booking.

[5.3] CANCELLATION TERMS – POST-TRAVEL

From time to time you may need to submit a cancellation request to Viator after travel is completed. This can be due to a service issue (e.g. tour did not operate due to weather or other operational issues) or a complaint (customer did not feel they received what was promised).

To submit a post-travel cancellation request, you should submit a request to this email address dpsupport@viator.com.

↑ Back to top

6. AMENDMENT PROCESSING

Viator supports amendment processing UNLESS the request to amend the bookings is received within 72 hours of travel, OR the product is a non-cancellable one (see section 5.1).

Please note that ‘non-cancellable’ also means that bookings for these products are non-transferable and non changeable i.e. the name of the traveling party cannot be changed post-purchase. These are supplier-imposed restrictions and are out of Viator’s control.

If you receive a request to amend a booking within 72 hours of travel, the Viator Partner Support Team will advise that the customer calls the supplier directly for changes.

Please note that an amendment can be traveler-requested or supplier-requested. All amendments should be sent to dpsupport@viator.com.

[6.1] TRAVELER-INITIATED AMENDMENTS

If the traveler wishes to amend a booking after confirmation has been received, and you allow the amendment request to be fulfilled, the following steps should take place in case of the following scenarios.

  • Name / Date Changes:
    In cases of a date change or a change in lead passenger name ONLY (no difference in product or price) there is no need to submit a new booking request. To amend the booking:
    1. Traveler requests a change to you.
    2. Your customer service team contacts Viator via email (dpsupport@viator.com) with the following details:
      1. Viator Reference ID (Itinerary ID)
      2. Viator Item Reference ID (also referred to the Tracking number or Tracking ID)
      3. Distributor Reference ID (Your Booking Reference)
      4. Lead Passenger Name / Details
      5. Detail of the Date Change or Name Change Requested.
    3. Viator will confirm the change and update the voucher directly.

NOTE – All names, titles and initials of travelers should be correct at the time of booking – Viator is not responsible for errors or omissions. While the Viator Support Team does not charge an additional transaction fee for name / date changes it is important to note that some operators may not allow such changes. It is very important as well that you do NOT use placeholders for customer names or use duplicate names as customers may be refused entry to certain attractions.

  • Product or Option Change – no Price Change:
    In cases of a product or product option change where the product start time is at least 72 hours away, the price does not vary, AND the travel date is available the following steps need to be taken to amend the booking:
    1. Traveler requests a change to the partner.
    2. Partner contacts Viator via email(dpsupport@viator.com) with the following details:
      • Viator reference ID (itinerary ID)
      • Viator item reference ID (also referred to as tracking number or tracking ID)
      • Distributor reference ID (your booking reference)
      • Lead passenger name / details
      • Travel date
      • Viator product name and code
      • Amendment request (name change, date change, etc)
      • Amendment reason
    4. If the amendment is available (valid operating date with open availability), you will be notified of the status via return email and the amendment will be processed. The Viator Partner Support Team will update the traveler voucher – the voucher link should be sent to the traveler.
    5. If the amendment is not possible (date closed, or not operating), you will be notified of the status via return email. The original booking will remain valid and not changed. If the booking is open to cancel, you must submit a cancellation request per Section 5.
  • Product Change with Change to Price
    In cases where the amendment request results in a price change from the original booking, you must submit a request to cancel first. A new booking request is required and a new voucher link is issued. The original voucher becomes null and void. It is your responsibility to verify the cancellation availability in accordance with Section 5.

[6.2] PRODUCT SUPPLIER-INITIATED AMENDMENT

If the product supplier advises of an amendment to the customer booking (due to operation issues, weather, scheduling changes, etc) the following steps will take place:

  1. Product supplier will notify Viator of the change request
  2. Viator will advise you of the service change
  3. You will advise the change to the customer
  4. If accepted by the customer, you will advise Viator and Viator will advise the product supplier of the acceptance of the alternate arrangement. Viator Partner Support will update the voucher details.
  5. If no alternative is available or the change is not acceptable to the customer, you will advise Viator and Viator will notify the vendor and cancel and refund the booking. A credit will show on your next invoice. You will notify and refund the traveler.

↑ Back to top

7. HOW TO REPORT PRODUCT ISSUES

If you notice any product content issues (e.g. incorrect tour description, discrepancy in inclusions/exclusions, no availability or blockouts; mistranslation etc.), please report the product issue using this form. Our Suppliers Support team will review your reported issue and work with the Supplier on necessary resolution.

Please note that you will not get a reply but we will take action.

Please include the following information in your form submission:

  • Reporter name
  • Reporter email
  • Viator supplier ID – the supplier ID is the numeric digits in the product code before the P character (e.g. the supplier code would be 12345 for a Product code 12345P1)
  • Viator product code
  • Viator product name
  • Product issue reason
  • Description / action required: issue explanation and expected outcome

↑ Back to top

8. GUIDELINES FOR FRAUDULENT TRANSACTIONS

As the merchant of record, you are responsible for any transactions and payments including fraudulent ones that may occur on your site. It is therefore essential that you have your own fraud detection strategy in place to monitor transactions and identify potential fraud.

[8.1] BOOKING SIGNALS / REVIEW CRITERIA

Your Fraud detection system should check and store for future use the following criteria. Please find below some booking signals to watch out for which could suggest fraudulent transactions on the alert.

Location

  • The device used by the customer, or as a very minimum the IP address
  • Geolocation of customer
  • Geolocation of product
  • Location of issuer of the customer payment instrument
  • Self- stated location of the customer

Mismatches

  • Geolocation country
  • Payment instrument country
  • Self-stated country

Velocity of transactions over a set period with the same

  • Device
  • IP
  • Payment instrument
  • Product or Product type

Product Rules

  • Easily sellable products
  • High value products
  • Products with previous chargebacks against them
  • Ticketing products with no start date

Time to Travel

  • Short time to travel
  • Products with no start date that can be used immediately, even if booked for a later intended date

Policy

  • Countries or locations which you do not wish to trade with, or trade certain products with

This list is not exhaustive and is only offered as a basic guide. Viator cannot be responsible for Fraud committed outside of this guide. Please speak to your payment provider(s) or a fraud screening provider for more details.

Note: In the event that a booking is found to be fraudulent, please send an email to dpsupport@viator.com. Where possible, our DPSupport team will check with the supplier if the voucher has been redeemed and if the booking can be canceled in time. However, there are instances where it is past the travel date, or past the cancellation deadline for standard products, or where the product is on “All sales are final and incur 100% cancellation penalties” terms and conditions, as such the booking refund request will not be granted as it is the partners’ responsibility to ensure proper fraud check processes are in place.

↑ Back to top

9. ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE

You will receive your invoice and remittance report to the email provided when you created your account.

If you have any inquiry about your invoice, you can reach out to our Accounts Receivable team at exp-accountsreceivableshared@tripadvisor.com 

If a booking is canceled within the cancellation policies and before the travel date, we will not include that in your upcoming invoice and remittance report. Read more about our Cancellation Policies.

For the avoidance of doubt, you shall pay all invoices in full, and may not withhold payments of any invoiced sum that is pending resolution of a dispute. In the event the dispute is substantiated, Viator will issue the Distributor with a credit or adjustment on the next invoice.

Once you have received your invoice and made your payment:

  1. Submit your booking dispute request here.
  2. Upon your submission, you will receive a confirmation message of your request.
  3. The DPSupport team will investigate and update on the status of your claim within the next 5-7 working days.

↑ Back to top