Geo Meta Widget

Overview

TripAdvisor Geo Meta widget details the pricing, availability, ratings, photos and reviews available for a given city. This widget functions and a replica of the /Hotels page on TA live site). Users can:

  • Search for hotels in a specific geo
  • View TA rankings and ratings for each property along with a sample of reviews and traveler photos
  • Search for hotel availability (using a dated search) in Tripadvisor geos and view Meta hotel prices for each property
  • Sort and filter based on their preferences
 
This widget may be used with the Hotel Meta Widget, which provides more details on a specific Hotel.

Functionality 

  1. In a pre-specified geo state, the geo widget will allow users to enter geo locations using the TA type-ahead service (restricted to only cities)
  2. Once the desired geo has been entered   
  •  Pre dates: List of hotels in the geo will be displayed, sorted by TA ranking.
  • Post-dates: List of hotels in the geo will be displayed along with prices, sorted by Availability
  • Hotel Info: We will display

                                               i.   Hotel name
                                               ii.   Star rating
                                               iii.   Bubble rating
                                               iv.   TA rank                                             
                                               v.    Review snippets



  • Filters: Users will be able to filter the list by:

                                             i.     Price
                                             ii.    Traveler Rating
                                             iii.    Neighborhood
                                             iv.    Hotel Class
                                             v.    Amenities



  • Sort: Users will be able to sort the list by:

                                               i.    Pre-dates state:
                                                        1. Ranking (default)
                                                        2. Distance
                                             ii.     Post-dates state:
                                                        1. Availability (default)
                                                        2. Price (high to low)
                                                        3. Price (low to high)
                                                        4. Ranking
                                                        5. Distance







  • Hotel count: We will display the count of hotels displayed on the page and the total number of hotels in the list (eg. Showing 5 of 60 hotels)
  • Meta Display: If the lowest price is from the top bidder, the Chevron will have the partner’s name and clicking on it will re-direct the user to the provider site that opens up in a new window. When highest CPC provider does not have lowest nightly price: The button will show the lowest price per night and clicking the button opens the hotel widget. We will show upto 3 providers according to bid order. Other providers can be seen by clicking on the See All link that will bring up the Hotel widget

3.     Pre-dates state: The Show Prices button will be displayed. Clicking on the button for the geo which will open up the calendar. Clicking on the Show Prices button for any hotel will bring up the Hotel widget.

4. Pagination (can be customized based on the iframe height on the partner site): The list of hotels will be displayed in a paginated format, with a minimum number of hotels per page (10) or as mutually decided by TA and the partner site

5. Switching geos: The geo widget will allow users the ability to switch geos with a city typeahead at the top

6. Height of the iframe: Customizable based on the partner need. This will also impact the number of hotels we show on a page

7. Language and currency: will be set by the partner POS

 

Setting Up Your Widget

Configuration Options - Set by Tripadvisor

These configuration settings will apply to all widget invocations and are set up TripAdvisor. Each setting option is detailed in the following table:

Option Name Description
Width  Width of the iframe. Min: 706px
Height  Height of the iframe. Min: 348px
Font Color  Provider row text color. Default: #000000
Font Type  Provider row text font. Default: Arial 
Show All Providers  Show an "all providers" dropdown if they don't all fit into the initial display. Default: true
Show Hotel Name  Show the name of the hotel. Defualt: true
Enable Sorting 

Allow the user to change the result sorting criteria. Default: false
Enable Filtering 

Allow the user to filter the results by various criteria. Default: false
Enable Landing Page 

Allow the widget to be used with no specified location.  A landing page with location/date input will be displayed. Default: false
Landing Page Title 

Set the title text for the landing page (only if landing page is enabled). Default: 

"Find hotels and compare prices from hundreds of travel sites"
Enable Typeahead

Make the location editable and allow the user to change it. Default: false
Default Checking Offset Days 

If no dates are provided, assume check-in this many days ahead of today. Default: 1
Default Stay Length 

If no dates are provided, assume a stay of this many nights. Default 2

 

 

Partner Widget URL Options - Set by Partner

Partner widgets are intended to be displayed in an iframe on the partner site. A sample iframe with a widget invocation might look like:

       

<iframe src=http://www.tripadvisor.com/WidgetEmbed-cdscustomhotels?&partnerId=PARTNER_KEY&checkIn=2015-10-28&checkOut=2015-10-28 &pageSize=3&locationId=60745&display=true&lang=en_US&currency=USD”
 Width=”400” height=”600”</iframe>

 

All widget URLs include the /WidgetEmbed Tripadvisor page followed by the key value for the widget being requested. This is followed by a question mark and the key/value pairs of URL parameters.

 

Option Name Description 
locationID Required. This will be the ID of the destination requested. This value can be either a TA ID, or a partner ID if TA has done a mapping of partner destination IDs to TripAdvisor IDs.
partnerID Required. The partner key provided by Tripadvisor to allow partner access to widgets.
lang Optional. The language in which to display the widget. 
pageSize Optional. You may choose how many Accomodations to show on a page. Default:10
checkIn Optional. Set the Check In Date on the widget. Default: 1 night from today
checkOut Optional. Set the Check Out Date on th widget. Default: 2 nights from checkin
currency* Optional. The currency shown to the user depends on their IP Country if it is not defined.

*Currency is dependent on IP country. 

Examples 

1) Pre-specified geo state with Landing Page

The background image is static but can be customized.

User enters the city/geo using the TA type-ahead. Entering dates is optional. Clicking on Find Hotels will take the user to the geo widget page.

Note: Both the above and the geo widget should be referenced in the same page. Navigating between pages isn’t possible with the current version of the widget.

 

2) Geo Widget: Pre Dates 

In pre-dates state, results are sorted by Ranking

Clicking on Show Prices button will open up the calendar against the Check-in field (see Example 3).

Clicking on the hotel name or the thumbnail image will open the reviews widget in an overlay.

 

3) Geo widget: Enter dates

Upon entering check-in and check-out dates, prices will load on the widget (see example 4)

In post-dates state, results will be sorted by Availability

 

4) Geo Widget: Post Dates

Clicking on any provider link or Chevron button will re-direct the user to the provider website

Clicking on “See all #” will open up the hotel widget (see next example) in an overlay 

5) Geo Widget: "See all"