Integrations

Distributor Guide
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Introduction
FAQ
Distributor Standalone
Integrations
Google Tag Manager
This guide assumes at least basic knowledge of Google Tag Manager - how to create and publish a container, how to setup a triggers and custom events and how to connect them to a tags.
Notice of Usage
Google Tag Manager is a 3rd party service and we provide this integration as is. We export a set of supported events and their data to the container, however, we have no control over what happens with them and how they are used. Below we provide a set of basic setup examples that have been tested and verified to work with Distributor. If you need a more complex setup, it is up to you to configure and test it.
Enabling Google Tag Manager in Distributor
You can enable it by setting up your GTM container’s id in the Distributor's configuration in Mews Commander. The id has formatGTM-XXXXXX and you can find it in Google Tag Manager.
Important: It is not enough to just copy and paste the Google Tag Manager container code to a website, you have to set it up in the configuration. However, if you use the container on your website, Distributor will connect to it and will not create a new one.
Migrating to Google Tag Manager
In previous versions, Distributor supported direct integrations with Google Analytics and Google AdWords. These legacy integrations still remain functional for a backward compatibility, but will be removed completely in the near future. We strongly suggest you migrate them to Google Tag Manager.
Important: If you enable Google Tag Manager in Distributor, it will take precedence over any legacy integration, and those will not be triggered. Meaning that once you enable Google Tag Manager, you will have to migrate all of your integrations to it!
Triggers
This is a basic description of how to set up a Distributor event as a Trigger. You can get full reference of all Distributor events here.
For an integration with Google Tag Manager, Distributor provides a set of Custom Events _that you can set up as Triggers_. To setup a Trigger for an event, match it with its name:
trigger
If you want to track multiple events with one Trigger, you can easily use regex matching on an event name. For example^distributorwill track every distributor event, which can be useful for setting a Trigger for Universal Analytics:
regex trigger
Basic setups
Universal Analytics
You can track all the events for further statistical computations about behaviour of your customers. Use the Google Universal Analytics tag with theEventtrack type. The Trigger should be a regex grouping of all the events you want to track (to track all events, you can use^distributorregex as described here).
events_tag
Google Ecommerce
You can track transactions with the Google Universal Analytics tag with theTransactiontrack type on thedistributorBookingFinishedevent. All the needed data for tracking is set in the Tag Manager’s dataLayer and will be passed automatically.
Each reservation is send as Product with quantity set to 1. Name of the reserved category is send as Product name, name of the hotel is send as Product category.
ecommerce_tag
Google Enhanced Ecommerce
We also publish all interesting data for enhanced ecommerce tracking. To track these, setup a tag with Enable overriding settings in this tag option enabled, then under More Settings > Ecommerce set option Enable Enhanced Ecommerce Features to True and check Use Data Layer. The trigger should be set to all distributor events as described previously.
Track Type of the event shouldn't be important in this case. You can even reuse the same tag as for tracking all distributor events in analytics.
Be sure to also enable Enhanced Ecommerce in you Google Analytics under Admin > Ecommerce settings. The Enhanced Ecommerce plug-in should not be used alongside the Ecommerce plug-in for the same property.
Tracking with Mews Merchant and source attribution
When you have Mews Merchant set up, a payment by a customer is legally required to happen on our domain. Therefore, all the transactions during a checkout are attributed to Mews domain. This is an unfortunate limitation of the checkout process that we cannot currently overcome.
Conditionally firing tags based on tracking consents
Google Tag Manager integrations are very often used to track users, be it with cookies or other approaches. You can use TrackingConsents and Google Tag Manager to use integrations only when permitted.
Commonly used integration which often needs a tracking consent is Universal Analytics.
Let's see how you can fire Universal Analytics tag only when TrackingConsents permit it.
1. Set up Universal Analytics in Google Tag Manager:
See previous section about Universal Analytics.
2. Let Distributor know what the tracking consents should be:
Call Distributor API methods enableTracking or disableTracking when the Distributor widget starts.
Calling the API methods at the start guarantees all events have the correct consents.
Don't rely on defaults since they can be changed in the future. Defaults are there only for backwards compatibility.
You can also call mentioned API calls again later, e.g. after user agrees with tracking in your cookie banner.
4. Create data layer variable for performance tracking consent:
Open Google Tag Manager.
Go to "Variables" section.
Click "New".
Name the variable - e.g. performanceConsent.
Select "Variable Type" to be "Data Layer Variable".
Set the "Data Layer Variable Name" to trackingConsents.performance.
Click "Save".
5. Create trigger for all distributor events where performance consent is given/true:
Go to "Triggers".
Click "New".
Name the trigger - e.g. "All Distributor events with performance consent".
Select trigger type "Custom Event".
Inside "Event name" add ^distributor.
Tick "Use regex matching".
Select "Some Custom Events".
Select condition performanceConsent equals true.
Click "Save".
6. Use created trigger to fire Universal Analytics tag:
Go to "Tags".
Click Universal Analytics tag.
Click inside "Triggering" section.
Remove previous trigger/s for distributor events if there are any.
Add trigger "All Distributor events with performance consent".
Click "Save".
6. All is set up now.
Preview or submit your changes.
From now on, Universal Analytics will fire only when the performance consent is given.
Troubleshooting
There are no events or ecommerce transactions tracked after a redirect to the Mews Merchant page
You have probably included the container in your website, however, you haven’t set the container id in Distributor. Meaning that after the redirect, Distributor will not know anything about your container. You should set up your GTM container’s id in the Distributor's configuration in Mews Commander.
I’ve set up the container correctly but there are still no events tracked
If you have everything set up correctly and you still cannot see events tracked, please, ensure that you’re not using any ad-blocking or similar software in your browser. They tend to block not only ads, but also tracking software like Google Tag Manager. Disabling the software for testing or adding your website to the exceptions should solve the issue.
**Important:**If you are using Mews Merchant, you need to disable the software for the *.mews.com domain too.
The Tag Assistant Chrome extension shows me a warning about multiple installations, but I use only one
Distributor includes our Mews Google Tag Manager container (idGTM-M7JV35D) to keep statistics in our own Google Analytics. We use that data for a global Distributor performance measuring, to have an idea about performance in hotels that don’t use Analytics and for the ability to build our own statistics on top of the Analytics API in Commander.
Having multiple installations is perfectly fine, if you keep common data layer name for all of them, which we do. Please, see the official documentation: https://developers.google.com/tag-manager/devguide#multiple-containers​
Triggers Reference
All events data is passed to Tag Manager through dataLayer. To use it in your tags, set up Variable with proper name as a variable of the data layer like this:
variable
All prices currently presented via the data layer are gross (including taxes and fees).
Data layer variables in events
Each event is fired with a standard set of data:
Data Layer Variable Name
Description
eventName
Name of the event in readable form without prefix, i.e.Step Dates.
trackingConsents
​TrackingConsents applied at the time when event was created.
If a hotel is selected, information about it is also added to the event. (Note: The hotel is always selected in the Singlehotel mode)
Data Layer Variable Name
Description
hotelName
name of the hotel
hoteId
unique identifier of the hotel
Some events expose additional data layer variables. They are described separately for each event.
TrackingConsents
Text
Property
Type
Purpose
advertising
boolean
required
Advertising, e.g. used to help advertisers deliver more relevant advertising or to limit how many times you see an ad.
functional
boolean
required
Unnecessary functionality, e.g. remembering user choices made in the past.
necessary
boolean
required
Necessary functionality.
performance
boolean
required
Performance, e.g. collecting information about how user uses a website, data are anonymized.
distributorLoaded
The Distributor application was initialized (triggers once per session even with a Merchant redirect).
distributorConfigurationSet
Initial values were configured. When there is no custom value, it propagates the default one.
Data Layer Variable Name
Description
startDate
Start date in ISO 8601 format YYYY-MM-DD, i.e.2017-01-20.
endDate
End date in ISO 8601 format YYYY-MM-DD, i.e.2017-01-22.
languageCode
Language code, i.e. en-US.
currencyCode
Currency code in ISO format, i.eEUR
promoCode
Value of the promo code, i.e.promo.
distributorOpened
Distributor was opened.
distributorClosed
Distributor was closed.
distributorTrackingConsentsSet
​TrackingConsents were set.
distributorStepDates
A Dates step was displayed.
distributorStepHotels
A Hotels step was displayed.
distributorStepRooms
A Rooms step was displayed.
distributorStepRates
A Rates step was displayed.
distributorStepSummary
A Summary step was displayed.
distributorStepCheckout
A Checkout step was displayed.
distributorStepConfirmation
A confirmation page was displayed.
distributorLanguageCodeChanged
A language code was changed.
Data Layer Variable Name
Description
languageCode
Language code of the selected language, i.e.en-US.
distributorCurrencyCodeChanged
A currency code was changed.
Data Layer Variable Name
Description
currencyCode
Currency code of the selected currency, i.e.USD.
distributorStartDateSelected
A start date of the reservation was selected.
Data Layer Variable Name
Description
startDate
Selected start date in ISO 8601 format YYYY-MM-DD, i.e.2017-01-20.
distributorEndDateSelected
An end date of the reservation was selected.
Data Layer Variable Name
Description
endDate
Selected end date in ISO 8601 format YYYY-MM-DD, i.e.2017-01-22.
distributorPromoCodeSelected
A promo code was set.
Data Layer Variable Name
Description
promoCode
Value of the inserted promo code as a string, i.e.promo. It is not validated.
distributorAvailabilityLoaded
Availability of hotel was loaded.
Data Layer Variable Name
Description
availableRooms
Array of available rooms.
Each item in theavailableRoomsarray contains following data:
Name
Description
roomName
Name of the room.
roomId
Unique identifier of the room.
availableRateIds
List of available rate ids for the room
lowestPrice
Price of the room in hotel's default rate currency
price
All prices of the room in all available currencies as (key: currency, value: price) dictionary/object.
distributorAlternativeDatesOffered
Alternative dates were displayed.
distributorOfferedDatesSelected
Alternative dates when there is no availability selected.
distributorCategoryGalleryOpened
Category gallery was opened.
distributorRoomSelected
A room (or other space type) was selected.
Data Layer Variable Name
Description
roomId
Unique identifier of the selected room.
roomName
Name of the selected room in the hotel’s default language.
spaceType
Name of the selected room’s space type, one ofRoom,BedorDorm.
distributorSpaceTypeCountChanged
A number of the selected “rooms” in the order was changed.
Data Layer Variable Name
Description
count
Number of the selected space types.
distributorRoomOccupancyChanged
An occupation (adults and children counts) was changed for the one room (or similar) space type.
Data Layer Variable Name
Description
roomIndex
Index of the changed room.
adultCount
Number of the selected adults.
childCount
Number of the selected children.
distributorProductAdded
A product was added to the order.
Data Layer Variable Name
Description
productId
Unique identifier of the added product.
productName
Name of the product in the hotel’s default language.
distributorProductRemoved
A product was removed from the order.
Data Layer Variable Name
Description
productId
Unique identifier of the removed product.
productName
Name of product in the hotel’s default language.
distributorRoomAdded
A room/multiple rooms were added to the order.
Data Layer Variable Name
Description
reservations.orderId
Unique identifier used only within session to identify order items
reservations.hotelId
Unique identifier of selected hotel
reservations.roomId
Unique identifier of selected room
reservations.rateId
Unique identifier of selected rate
reservations.productIds
Collection of selected product unique identifiers
reservations.startDate
Reservation start date
reservations.endDate
Reservation end date
reservations.adultCount
Number of selected adults
reservations.childCount
Number of selected children
distributorRoomCountChanged
The quantity of rooms in the order was increased or decreased
Data Layer Variable Name
Description
orderId
Unique ID used only within session to identify order items
roomId
Unique identifier of selected room
rateId
Unique identifier of selected rate
countChange
Change of quantity (e.g. 1, -1)
distributorBookingPrepared
A booking is prepared and user needs to enter their details. This event triggers when user reaches Checkout step.
Data Layer Variable Name
Description
totalCost
current total cost of the reservation group, in the hotel’s default currency
distributorBookingFinished
A booking was made. This event triggers once every reservation group is made.
Data Layer Variable Name
Description
reservationGroupId
id of the reservation group
totalCost
total cost of the reservation group, in the hotel’s default currency
currencyCode
hotel’s default currency code in ISO format
distributorReservationCreated
A reservation was created. This event triggers when each reservation is made in the reservation group.
Data Layer Variable Name
Description
customerEmail
the customer’s email
customerName
the customer’s name
currencyCode
hotel’s default currency code in ISO format
reservationGroupId
id of the reservation group
id
id of the reservation
roomId
id of the room category
rateId
id of the rate of the reservation
number
confirmation number of the reservation
roomName
name of the room
startDate
start date of the reservation
endDate
end date of the reservation
nights
total nights spent
cost
cost of the reservation in the hotel’s default currency
alternativeCost
cost of the reservation in all currencies supported by the property as (key: currency, value: price) dictionary/object.