Agoda is one of the most popular channels among the guests in Asia so we enable it very often in our Channel Manager. Check the connection guide to see how the connection works and what should be done to activate it correctly. 



Contents


1. How does the connection with Agoda work?

2. Before you activate the connection

3. How to request the connection from Agoda?

4. How to enable the connection in FrontDesk Master?

5. How to verify if my connection with Agoda is active?

6. How to change price and availability on Agoda?

7. How to check if the specific date is synchronized properly on Agoda?

8. How to close/open rooms on Agoda?

9. How to set up restrictions on Agoda?

10. How to disable XML connection?

11. Agoda troubleshooting




How does the connection with Agoda work?


Agoda connection supports the Availability & Rates synchronization and Bookings retrieval.




What information does system receive and send to Agoda?


Basics:



  • Bookings Retrieval - if a guest makes a reservation in Agoda, it will be downloaded to the system with all information about the guest and booking rate within one minute
  • Availability and Rate updates - the information about each change in the system is sent to the portal immediately.
  • Automatic Modifications & Cancellations - each modification made by guest (cc update, guest details change,...) or a cancellation will be downloaded to the system


And more:



Restrictions supported in Agoda connection:


  • Minimum Stay Through
  • Maximum Stay
  • Closed at Arrival
  • Closed at Departure
  • Close Rate
  • Close Room





Before you activate the connection 


Make sure, if:



1. Rooms and room types in the system are set up correctly and the room types correspond to settings in Agoda (if you have two physical rooms assigned to Double Room Shared Bathroom room type in FrontDesk Master, in the portal you should have one corresponding room type, Double Room Shared Bathroom).


In case of dorm rooms in Agoda, please make sure that the max standard occupancy of the rooms is set to 1 person. You can check and configure that in the Agoda back office or with your acocunt manager directly.

 


2. Prices and rates are correctly set up in the system and correspond to settings in the portal.



3. A very important point as well is to make sure that the price limits set up on Agoda for each room type are correct. If you try to send the prices out of the mentioned limits Agoda will reject such update. E.g. if the minimum accepted price is 15 and you are trying to send 14, it will not go through. Please contact Agoda directly to check the price limits for your property.



Please make sure if everything is set up properly before you move to the next step.




How to request the connection with Agoda 


In order to activate the connection, please provide us with your Agoda property ID. We will contact the connectivity team directly and request the connection for you. Once it is activated, we will contact you and send you further instructions. The connection should be activated within max 2 days after sending the request.


Next, see the instruction below which shows how to enable the Agoda plugin in Channel Manager.



How to enable the connection in FrontDesk Master  



In order to fully activate the connection with Agoda, open Channel Manager.



Choose Agoda plugin, and click on the Enable button on the right bottom corner of the window, then confirm the action:





STEP 1 - connection details


1. Enter your property ID and following username and password:

Username: frontdeskmaster@xml.agoda.com

Password: Agoda123*


2. Select additional connection settings:

  • Disable All Availability Uploads - this option disable all uploads to Agoda so the system will not synchronize prices nor availability. 


3. Decide if reservations form Agoda should be Auto-allocated to beds or not.



Click on Next button in order to proceed.


STEP 2 - room mapping 


You will see two columns. In the first one, you will the list of your room types from Agoda. In the second one, you have to choose which system room type corresponds to each portal room type.





Please note that if you leave an unmapped room type the system won't control it at all. No price or availability updates will be sent to the channel and the system won't be able to allocate bookings to beds. 


Click on Next button to continue.


STEP 3 - rate mapping 


In this part you decide from which rate the prices will be sent to Agoda:


1. Please make sure that you send the prices in the correct currency. If you use more currencies, you can also choose the option Automatically convert received bookings to .... and the system will convert the price automatically to the main currency according to the change rate you previously set up in Property Settings. (Setting up currencies).


2. In the table, select the rates from FrontDesk Master from which the prices will be updated on the portal.


3. Click on the Save button to activate the connection.





Please note that if you leave an unmapped rate the system won't control it at all. No price or availability updates will be sent to the channel and the system won't be able to allocate bookings to beds. 


Additional columns


  • Adjustment - this option gives you the possibility to adjust the rate prices you send to the channel. You can choose if you would like to adjust the price adding or discounting some specific amount or you can also choose the % option. Note that the adjustment will not visible in Availability & Rate Calendar!






STEP 4 - save the connection


When you click on the Save button in STEP 3, you will see the connection confirmation view. At this moment, the system starts to download future reservations (it can take about 15-30 minutes, depending on the quantity of reservation) from Agoda and it sends the one-year global availability and rates update to the portal. 




Congratulations!

The connection with Agoda is now active!




IMPORTANT NOTES
 


  1. After confirming your XML connection you will not be able to edit rates and availability in Agoda back office anymore.   
  2. Rates and availability will be editable and uploaded automatically from FrontDesk Master.  
  3. It is critical to making sure that FrontDesk Master contains correct prices and availability. 
  4. If you are not sure if FrontDesk Master is set up properly, DO NOT REQUEST XML before verifying the settings and making sure that you know how to manage them.   
  5. Please note that the action of mapping and unmapping rooms by itself does not generate the rate or availability change on Agoda. After such action, you must SAVE the connection (go to STEP 4 in Channel Manager to send the synchronization) in order to overwrite previous settings.  
  6. Please make sure that the 3 next bookings which you will receive after the synchronization has been enabled, have entered your system. If not then please report it to us immediately to support@frontdeskmaster.com.
     



How to verify if my connection with Agoda is active? 



You can check if the connection with the portal is active in two places:

Channel Manager - if the plugin is green, it means that the connection is activated:



Online Availability - in this part of the system you will see only these portals which are active. If a plugin is deactivated, it will not appear on the list. You can check here what availability was sent to the system recently and check if it was correct.



How to change price and availability on Agoda? 


When the connection is activated, the system automatically updates all price and availability changes. They are updated on Agoda extranet within few seconds.


Price Changes


You can change prices for whole seasons (check the instruction: How to set up prices?) or for selected days only (see here: Quick price changes in the Calendar). 

To check if the changes are updated properly, you can change the price on selected day and room in Availability and Rate Calendar:


1. Change the price manually in the Calendar.

2. Save the changes.

3. Open the calendar on your Agoda extranet or refresh the window if it is already opened and check if the price is updated.




4. Restore season price with right click.

5. Check the price update in the Agoda extranet.




Availability Changes


Every time there is a new reservation added to the system (manually or it is downloaded from the portals), moved to another room type, cancelled or modified, the system updates the availability automatically in Availability and Rate Calendar. That availability is sent to Agoda and the updates are immediately done in the extranet.


You can easily check how it works:


1. Create a new reservation in the system and observe how the availability changes in the calendar.



2. Open the calendar on Agoda extranet to see the availability updated on the portal.



How to check if the specific date is synchronized properly on Agoda? 


In order to check if the availability, rates or restrictions were synchronized properly with Agoda, please always check that information directly in Agoda extranet (not on Agoda website) and compare it to the data in Availability & Rate Calendar. The information should be always the same in both places.





How to close/open rooms on Agoda? 


In order to close or open a room on Agoda, use Close Room restriction. You can also simply block beds on Bed View to close it with 0 availability. (How to block/unblock beds?)



Close Room restriction


1. Click on Close Room checkbox on the selected date and Save the changes in the Calendar. Then, refresh the extranet to see the changes.



2. In order to open a room, uncheck the box of Close Room restriction and Save the changes.




If you use Close Room restriction the room type will be closed on all portals connected to the system. In order to close it only on Agoda and leave it available on other portals, you can use Close Rate restriction, however, it will work only if you have a separate rate created and connected with Agoda only (it lets you set up different prices and restrictions for selected portal). See How can I have different prices on each portal?.


How to set up restrictions on Agoda? 


Restrictions supported in Agoda connection:



  • Minimum Stay Through
  • Maximum Stay
  • Closed at Arrival
  • Closed at Departure
  • Close Rate
  • Close Room



Minimum Stay Through 


 

Minimum Stay Through (or minimum length of stay) restriction limits availability by specifying the number of nights that must be booked for stays that include the restriction date in any part of the stay date range.


The Minimum Stay restriction is set in Availability and Rate Calendar, manually for selected days or using Bulk Update option. 

To set up the restriction manually: 


1. Select it from the list and click on Show button.



2. Enter the restriction value, for example, 2 nights of Minimum Stay Through and Save the changes. 

The restriction will appear in the extranet.



To set up the restriction using Bulk Update:


1. Click on Bulk Update button and select Restrictions from the option buttons.



2. Select dates, room and rate to which the restriction should be applied and enter the value of Minimum Stay Through or Arrival. Then, click on Run or Run and Close button.



Done! The restrictions will appear in the calendar and will be automatically synchronized to the portal.



In order to remove the restriction, change its value to 1.


Maximum Stay 


Maximum Stay restriction limits availability by specifying a maximum number of nights that may be booked for stays that include the restriction date as the arrival date.


You can set up Maximum Stay the same way as Minimum Stay restrictions, manually in the Calendar:



Or using the Bulk Update button:



Closed at Arrival and Closed at Departure 


When Closed at Arrival restriction is active, reservations are not accepted for this arrival date.

When Closed at Departure restriction is active, reservations are not accepted for this departure date.


You can set the restrictions in Availability and Rate Calendar, manually:


1. Select it from the list and click on Show button.



2. Click on the checkbox in order to close availability to arrival or departure on the selected day and Save the changes. The restriction will appear in the extranet.



Uncheck the boxed in order to remove the restriction.



Or using the Bulk Update button:


Select dates, room and rate to which the restriction should be applied and click on the Close/Open buttons in order to close or open the restriction. Then, click on Run or Run and Close button.




Done! The restrictions will appear in the calendar and will be automatically synchronized to the portal.


Close Rate 


When Close Rate restriction is active there's no availability for bookings made with the rate in question. For example, if "Agoda Rate" is closed for 2 days there won't be availability for 2 days for bookings made with this rate.


If you created a separate rate for Agoda connection only and it is mapped in Channel Manager, you can use Close Rate restriction in order to close availability on Agoda and keep the rooms open at the same time on different portals.

See the instruction: How can I have different prices on each portal?



You can set the restriction in Availability and Rate Calendar, manually:


1. Select it from the list and click on Show button.



2. Click on the checkbox in order to close rate on the selected day and Save the changes. 

The restriction will appear in the extranet.



Uncheck the boxed in order to remove the restriction.



Or using the Bulk Update button:


Select dates, room and rate to which the restriction should be applied and click on the Close/Open buttons in order to close or open the restriction. Then, click on Run or Run and Close button.



Close Room  


When Close Room restriction is active the room type in question is closed, which means the room will not be available on booking channels and FrontDesk Master Booking Engine under any of the rates. See here.



How to disable XML connection? 



In order to disable the XML connection, contact your Agoda Account Manager and request deactivating the XML connection with FrontDesk Master.


When it is deactivated on the portal, open Channel Manager in FrontDesk Master. In Agoda plugin, click on Disable Now button.




Then confirm the action.




The plugin will appear as disabled.



 Agoda troubleshooting 





1. How to re-download a deleted booking from Agoda?


When the connection between the system and Agoda is working correctly and you receive a new reservation, it will be downloaded to the system with all guest information.


If, by a mistake, the reservation was deleted from the system, you can download it again by opening Reservation View / Online Bookings / Download Bookings:



Put the reservation ID and click on Show Bookings button. If the booking was downloaded correctly it will appear below in grey colour. In case the booking was modified or cancelled you will see more positions on the list with the information if it was a New Booking, Modification or Cancellation.


Check booking you need to download and click the Download button. If the booking was modified a few times, you can just download the last modification. It will contain all the necessary information.



In case you cannot find the booking on the server you can re-download it directly from Agoda. In order to do it click on Show Future Bookings in the same Download Bookings window.


You will see the list of all future booking from different channels. The green colour means that the booking exists in the system. However, the red color means that the booking is pending to be downloaded. Check the box on the left side and click the Download button.



Be careful! If you re-download a green booking all the information you have inside the existing reservation will be overwritten and you can lose what you put there before. 



2. Why the availability or prices I set in FrontDesk Master are not updated in Agoda Extranet?


Option 1.

Please open Channel Manager and check if Agoda plugin in enabled (green). If it is disabled, the updated will not be sent to the portal and you will not receive any new reservation.


Option 2.

Please check if the problematic rooms and rates are mapped in the Channel Manager. If the room or rate is not mapped, the system will not send the updates to the portal.


Option 3.

If you change prices in the system and they are not updated on the portal, make sure that they are within the minimum and maximum price limit set up on your Agoda account. If the price is lower than the minimum price or higher than the maximum price, Agoda will not accept the update. You can contact your account manager in order to check or change the limits.


In case the prices match the limits, yet they are still not updated correctly, contact support@frontdeskmaster.com, we will check it for you!


Option 4.

Make sure that the currency selected for rates in Channel Manager match the currency in the portal. Agoda will not accept any update if the system sends price in the incorrect currency.



If you have any doubts or questions regarding Agoda connection, do not hesitate to contact your account manager or support@frontdeskmaster.com, we will be happy to help!