Frequently Asked Questions


CruiseBase: What you need to know

Here are some answers to many of the frequently asked questions including questions about the set up process, about standard features, rate options and standard customization.

For information about advanced customization and custom design and development or additional information on any Travtech products and services please do not hesitate to contact us and we will be happy to help you.

Frequently Asked Questions

CruiseBase is TravTech's suite of web-based applications available to travel companies who sell cruises. CruiseBase is composed of the following applications:

Consumer Booking Engine:
The Consumer Booking Engine (CBE) offers the ability for an agency's customers to search and shop online for a cruise. The Consumer Booking Engine can be accessed by adding a search widget to an agency's existing website or by using one of the white labeled cruise websites offered by TravTech.

Location Explorer:
The location explorer is located within the consumer booking engine and contains detailed information about cruise ports worldwide including a port overview, weather and shopping information and other information that is helpful to the client.

Agent Booking Engine:
The Agent Booking Engine (ABE) provides agents the ability to easily search over 30,000 cruise itineraries for over 40 cruise lines. In addition, agents can book 18 cruise lines real time and get instant confirmations. The ABE offers a variety of search parameters to help agents quickly find the information that they are looking for.

Agent Booking Center:
The Agent Booking Center (ABC) is a comprehensive back office application used to manage all aspects of an agencies cruise business and includes invoicing, customer management, lead management and agency reporting.

The set up process takes approximately two to three weeks once TravTech receives the signed contract, the completed setup forms and payment. The setup time is most affected by the time it takes the cruise lines to accept an agency's booking credentials and to accept TravTech as a proxy for the agency.

CruiseBase is fully compatible with the current versions of Google Chrome, Firefox, Safari and with Internet Explorer and has been designed to meet W3C HTML5 standards to maximize browser compatibility. While not based on HTML5 standards, CruiseBase is also compatible with most popular modern browsers.

A Search Widget is a small web page that is usually embedded in an HTML <iframe> on a page within an agency's web site and is used by consumers to search and book cruises.

Most times the Search Widget application is hosted by TravTech and agencies can choose from 3 widget layouts: standard format (shown above), vertical left format and a vertical top format. The look and functionality of the widget can be customized using certain Query String (QS) parameters on the Iframe source URL and can be further customized using a customer-hosted "skin-override" CSS file. Travtech customers will be provided with detailed documentation during the set up process.

Cruise Search Widget

The standard Search Widget is shown here

Online cruise lines are those which offer real-time electronic connectivity and where they support on-line booking via this connection. Offline cruise lines are those that do not offer online booking capability.

Prices for online cruise lines are displayed from the cache prices in the search results and search details pages and from the cruise line system (real-time) in ABE and CBE. Prices for offline cruise lines are displayed from cache in all applications. The cached prices for offline cruise lines are loaded into the CruiseBase system using a daily "flat-file feed" where available or are manually harvested from the cruise line web-site.

Yes. A set of generic destination and cruise line pages are available and provide information to consumers about cruise lines and cruise destinations. Each of the pages contains a search widget to promote bookings. These pages can be customized to include an agency's logo and phone number.

Each Skin is configured with its own logo (image file) and sales telephone number which are displayed on every page. Booking confirmation messages will be sent to the email address that was provided during the set-up process.

Yes. There are three ways to add custom header and footer areas to the search result pages and the booking path pages. Detailed information regarding custom headers and footers will be provided during the set up process if requested.

Well-formed HTML-based tags and in some cases JavaScript language code can be automatically inserted into selected pages generated by the CS and CBE applications from the CruiseBase database.

There are four different tag types that can be added. Detailed information regarding page tags will be provided during the set up process.

The Search Widget has a number of customizable options including the ability to change the text and background color of the box and set the default values of search criteria drop-down controls. The contents of the drop-down controls are dynamically populated from the CruiseBase database based on the other search criteria selected by the user.

We recommend that customers use one of the widgets provided by TravTech if possible. However, it is possible to bypass the CruiseBase Search Widget and build your own static or dynamic control widget. Detailed information regarding custom build widget will be provided during the set up process if requested.

A certain amount of customization is possible including changing the Search Widget's background color and the color of text items within the Search Widget. All style aspects of the Search Widget (as with all CS and CBE web pages) are controlled by an external Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) file. Customers have the option to host a "skin override" CSS file on their own website which can contain style rules that override selected rules associated with the CS/CBE application or a specific CruiseBase CS/CBE page. As the use of CSS style rules is a complex subject that requires considerable technical expertise, Customers who wish to take advantage of this feature must have access to web design resources that are fluent in the use of CSS styling. CruiseBase customers who wish to associate a skin-override CSS file with their CS/CBE skin, should contact Customer Service to set up this feature.

Customers can choose from 3 widget layouts: standard format, a vertical left format and a vertical top format.

The size of the Standard (or Left) Search Widget is affected by which search controls are visible to the user, which in turn is controlled by the agency's Skin settings and/or by the Query String (QS) parameters included on the URL used to call the widget.

Technically advanced customers can take advantage of the "skin-override" CSS feature which provides fine-grained tuning of the way the widget is displayed. This feature can be used to adjust the widget size larger or smaller. While CSS is a powerful tool to control the look and feel of a web page, it cannot alter the page HTML itself (i.e. the page layout). Customers who require a custom page layout (either for the widget or other CruiseBase pages may wish to consider a custom designed page template.

Agencies can select the cruise lines that will be displayed in both the Consumer Booking Engine and the Agent Booking Engine. Please advise TravTech which vendors are preferred during the set up process.

Yes. You can indicate on your set-up form that you wish to have the Star Rating icons suppressed for your site or after setup by contacting customer service.

Yes. Agency service fees can be added to bookings. There are three different means to collect the service fee. Detailed information service fees will be provided during the set up process.

Yes. The content in the standard disclaimers can be customized at the agency level.

Yes. Group rates can be displayed within both the consumer and agent booking engines provided that the cruise lines provide group rates online. In addition, Agencies can opt to add the Group Module to their package. View the many features of the Group Module. Contact us for more information on the functionality and cost of the Group Module.

Yes. If interline rates are provided by the cruise lines under an agency's booking credentials then they can be shown within the consumer booking. Please advise us during the set-up process if you wish that interline rates be enabled.

Yes. Net rates are supported for agencies who collect the customer payment directly using their own credit card merchant account.

By default, the cruise line is the credit card merchant of record. However, an agency can be configured to use an agency merchant account for agency fees and/or payments for selected cruise line bookings.