Traffic Optimizer: Reduce unnecessary search traffic and improve your L2B

The solution to block non-performing traffic and enhance global performance automatically through TravelgateX.

Searching for availability in hotels that for some reason do not convert isn't just annoying, it's a waste of money. This is one of the industry's biggest problems, one that is almost regarded as "normal" by many travel industry players.

We understand the cost that handling "useless" traffic has on every party involved in the connectivity chain, so we came up with a solution that provides intelligent optimization of the connections in our marketplace.

Who can benefit from Traffic Optimizer and what problems does it solve?✅

Every connection through our Hotel-X Buyers API!

Save time and benefit from our intelligent optimization. Traffic Optimizer analyses data from all the transactions in our marketplace while it helps you to:

• Improve your L2B ratio.
• Reduce search traffic and save costs.
• Even reduce response times.

How does it work? 🚦

Traffic Optimizer is applied to a particular connection Buyer-Seller or to a specific access. It analyses data gathered from all the transactions taken place in our marketplace to identify and blacklist hotels that did not convert the previous day based on different optimization criteria such as:

• No availability: blocks hotels with 100% "no availability" results during the previous day.
• Zero bookings: blocks a particular hotel offered by a Seller that has never had any bookings recorded by TravelgateX. 
• Not in portfolio:  identifies and blocks hotel codes that are no longer offered by the Seller. 

Hotels that match the criteria will be blacklisted and if requested, searches for those hotels will be blocked, thus avoiding unnecessary traffic. This blocklist is updated every day, so the optimization will always be up to date!

I want to try it!

Once you have logged onto TravelgateX, click on APPs >Traffic Optimizer. There, you will access your Traffic Optimizer dashboard, where you will be able to check the connections and accesses currently active on Traffic Optimizer and those that were optimized at some point. 

Here you can check the following information:

• Connection name and code
• Access name and code (when using the 'Optimized by access' section)
• Last update of the Traffic Optimizer configuration
• Criteria: list of all the criteria active for this connection or access
• Number of today hotels blocked
• Searches completely blocked and saved by the APP in the last 24h
• Active: check and change your Traffic Optimizer status (active/inactive).
• Actions:
  • View blocked hotels: check the complete list of today blocked hotels.
  • View performance: check how the search traffic is being optimized.
  • Edit configuration: add or delete a specific criteria for this connection or access.

Configuring a Traffic Optimizer connection or access... 🖱️

In order to configure Traffic Optimizer for one of your connection or accesses, you should click on the 'Optimize a connection' or 'Optimize an access' button.

Then complete the fields requested in the form: connection or access and the criterias you want to use to optimize it:

 

How can I know which hotels are being blocked by Traffic Optimizer?🚫

Transparency is a must in today's industry, so in order to help you know how Traffic Optimizer is improving your connections and accesses you can now check the hotels blocked each day and the criteria met to be on that list.

In order to visualize the list of hotels blocked during that period, you just need to select the connection or access to review and click on the 'Actions' menu > 'View blocked hotels' (you will be able to filter by hotel name or code an by optimization criteria).

How is Traffic Optimizer improving my search traffic? 🔎

You can also check the performance of your optimized connections directly from our APP. Clear and transparent.  Select the connection or access to review and click on the 'Actions' menu > 'View performance' and you will find more detailed information of the Search traffic saved in the last 24 hours. 

 

Can I exclude some hotels from being blocked by Traffic Optimizer?🗒️

You can exclude hotels from this blacklist for specific connections. Moreover, each hotel in the blacklist could be temporarily available for a preset amount of time in order to re-check conversion. This grace period is activated by default in the "Zero bookings" criteria.

Use cases:

Buyer X has activated Traffic Optimizer for n connections with criteria "No Availability".

• • • Day 1: "Hotel XXX" returned 100% no availability.
    • Day 2: Criteria "No Availability" is applied for "Hotel XXX", so it will be blocked and won't receive requests.
    • Day 3: "Hotel XXX" is automatically removed from the blacklist, so it will receive requests.
    • Day 4: if "Hotel XXX" returned 100% no availability on day 3, it will be blocked again.

Buyer X has activated Traffic Optimizer for n connections with criteria "Zero bookings".

• • Day 1:  Traffic Optimizer notifies "Hotel TGX " has never been booked by any of the Buyers connected to that specific Seller.
  • Day 2: Criteria "Zero bookings" is applied for "Hotel TGX", so it will be blocked and won't receive requests except for a limited period of time (temporary whitelist) that day.
  • Day 3: "Hotel TGX" will remain blacklisted, but temporary whitelisted to give it a chance to convert.

• • Day X: If "Hotel TGX" has been booked on the temporary whitelisted window or has received a booking from any other Buyer in TravelgateX the day before, the hotel is automatically removed from the blacklist. 
    
    

Relevant information:

• All criteria ("No Availability", "Zero bookings" and "Not in portfolio") can apply at the same time. However, we recommend starting one by one.
• Once Traffic Optimizer is activated, the Buyer will receive the following error and warning when requesting all blacklisted hotels:
  • • •  "Code": "BLACKLIST" 
      • "TYPE". "TRAFFIC_OPTIMIZATION_ERROR"
      • "description": "Access: "XXXX" has no codes left after filter hotel codes.