fbpx

Implementation Guide for Seatslink

Getting Started Guide

Click on the image to download the Getting Started Guide.  This can be useful for socializing the capabilities of the widget with your team.

To add Smart Trip Planning to your Event Landing Page

Ideally, you will get the highest conversion on hotel bookings from the trip offer being in the buying path.  Since you don’t control the buying path, this would be something that you would request of TicketNetwork.

The second best conversion comes from placing the widget above the fold.  It can fit in a right rail column and you can precede it with a marketing message, such as Make it a Weekend (if the event is on Thurs, Fri or Sat) or simply “Do you need or want a hotel room?”

The third option is a button (we recommend using an easy to spot graphic such as this one), which would sit next to your Ticket Packages graphic.

When invoked, it would display the widget in a window.

 

The instructions for installing this tool can be found in the Event Widget section.

To be installed on your corporate website as a VISIT US page

Seatslink can add the Smart Trip tool to your website as a VISIT US page.  This will allow anyone that is traveling to your offices, whether driving or flying to get driving directions and book a hotel nearby.

The instructions for adding this static widget to your corporate site can be found in the VENUE WIDGET section below.

To plan travel to any event venue

The Smart Trip tool can be added to your venue landing pages on any of your sites to allow anyone traveling to an event at that venue to find a hotel nearby.  This can be useful when someone already has a ticket to an event, but still needs to find a hotel nearby.

The instructions to load the dynamic venue widget to your venue landing pages can be found in the VENUE WIDGET section below.

Address lookup

If the user wishes to travel to a different destination, they can type in their destination using the pencil.

Social Sharing

Once the Smart Trip Tool is displayed, the user can choose to share the widget with friends/family.  The widget can be linked back to the ticket purchase page.

 

Smarter Driving Directions

TripProximity now handles multi-day trip planning by allowing the user to define the number of hours per day that they would like to drive.  This then calculates the actual driving time, versus the driving straight throughmethod that Google uses.

Smarter Car Rental

TripProximity now allows the user to specify whether they want to drive or fly to their destination, which changes where you would pick up your car rental.

The Event Widget

The Event widget is one of our Smart Trip tools.  It allows you to dynamically embed trip planning in any event in your system.

It is distinct from the Venue widget in that it has a specific date range for the event and a location where the event is held.

The next section includes your snippet.  Then you will find the instructions for our Dynamic tool, which shows you how to substitute your data for our variables in real time, so that you only have to install the widget snippet once.  Once it is installed, if you wish to make changes, you can edit the base elements of the widget in the Portal and you do not have to reinstall the snippet.  See the defaults in the last section.

Your dynamic code snippet for Seatslink (use with variable fields outlined below)

<script type="text/javascript" data-id="tp-widget" data-token="714vvv3u2XVdu6e932C0Fq21q6rxWl1GO8780b6ROSsER4n10718iMEflgH2K96k" src="https://widget.tripproximity.com/js/widget.min.js"></script><div class="tp-widget" id="tp-widget"></div>

Dynamic Tool - Customizing with variables from your system

Add the dynamic variable elements that you wish to pass at display time to the appropriate widget snippet.  They should be preceded by the following two lines. Follow the variables with the closing code segment.

We’ve included the recommended variables for Seatslink (shown encased in %VARIABLENAME% signs, which you will strip out in your actual entry):

<script type=”text/javascript”>
tripWidget({
eventStart: ‘YYYY/MM/DD’,
eventEnd: ‘YYYY/MM/DD’,
headerText: ‘Plan your trip to ‘,
appendPOI: ‘Y’,
lookupvenue: “Y”,

venuename: “%VENUENAME%

poiName: ‘%EVENTNAME%’,
address: ‘%CITY%,%STATE%’,
trackingCode: ‘%CUSTOMERTRACKINGINFO%’,
imageUrl: ‘%IMAGEURL%’,
imageLink: ‘%IMAGELINK%’,
})
</script>
Once you have the code installed, contact us with the test link and we will help to test on multiple platforms and on multiple browsers.

Your Variable Settings can be modified in your TripProximity Portal

  • The tool type is set to EVENT
  • The header text is set to “Plan my trip to “
  • Pass the Event Name as a variable
  • The POI name will be appended to the header text
  • We have stored a default image that you can override at display time
  • Pass the Tracking number at display time from your customer information
  • Pass the location information in the address field at display time
  • We default to the US and USD for currency
  • The booking brand will default to the hotels nearby events
  • We havc used your color scheme from your site to customize the palette for the widget.  This can be modified in our portal.
  • The widget is set to display the HOTEL tab in front.  If you would like a MAP widget as the default, we can change it or we can provide a separate widget for that purpose, which could be called based on a business rule.  We have a 10 booking per month minimum if you use the MAP widget to cover the costs of our mapping API.
  • We have enabled the Air and Driving tabs
  • The user can enter the departure and arrival airports at transaction time
  •  The event dates should be passed to us at transaction time

The Venue Widget (dynamic)

The Venue widget is one of our Smart Trip tools.  It allows you to embed trip planning on any page in your system or on your site or blog where there is a contact with an address.  A venue can be a physical place, like a company or a museum, or it can be a location like a park or a beach.  As long as we can pinpoint a latitude/longitude, we can “trip enable” any landing page.

This tool is distinct from the Event widget in that the dates of travel are relative to the date that the tool is displayed, e.g. travel 7 days from today for 1 night.

Click the HDQ widget above to see the widget for the Seatslink corporate website for people traveling to see you.

The next section includes your snippet.  Then you will find the instructions for our Dynamic tool, which shows you how to substitute your data for our variables in real time, so that you only have to install the widget snippet once.  Once it is installed, if you wish to make changes, you can edit the base elements of the widget in the Portal and you do not have to reinstall the snippet. See the defaults in the last section.

Your code snippet (paste in as Text or in a Raw HTML container) for HDQ

<script type="text/javascript" data-id="tp-widget" data-token="Ox1B4Y1403bsQ8tEvcHW9u6Lyi67x69rCnp25b1FnW5P682pGCVc79rsos5RD5g1" src="https://widget.tripproximity.com/js/widget.min.js" async onload="tripWidget()"></script><div class="tp-widget" id="tp-widget"></div>

Your dynamic code snippet for Venue (use with variable fields outlined below)

<script type="text/javascript" data-id="tp-widget" data-token="h1vx41Vnn04g56Hj2Nw2o9M54vdY4N76D5gP3kh13wSeSakb264xzapP798V565R"
src="https://widget.tripproximity.com/js/widget.min.js"></script><div class="tp-widget" id="tp-widget"></div>

Dynamic Venue Tool - Customizing with variables from your system

Add to the widget snippet the dynamic variable elements that you wish to pass at display time, preceded by the following two lines (your snippet). Follow the variables with the closing code segment.

We’ve included the recommended variables for TicketNetwork (shown encased in %VARIABLENAME% signs, which you will strip out in your actual entry):

<script type=”text/javascript”>
tripWidget({
daysFromToday: ‘7’,
numberOfDays: ‘1’,
headerText: ‘Plan your trip to ‘,
appendPOI: ‘Y’,
poiName: ‘%CONTACTNAME%’,
address: ‘%STREET%, %CITY%,%STATE%,%POSTCODE%’,
trackingCode: ‘%CUSTOMERTRACKINGINFO%’,
imageUrl: ‘%IMAGEURL%’,
imageLink: ‘%IMAGELINK%’,
 </script>
Once you have the code installed, contact us with the test link and we will help to test on multiple platforms and on multiple browsers.

Your Variable Settings can be modified in your TripProximity Portal

  • The tool type is set to VENUE
  • The header text is set to “Plan my trip to “
  • Pass the Company or Venue Name as a variable
  • The POI name will be appended to the header text
  • We have stored a default image that you can override at display time
  • Pass the Tracking number at display time from your customer information
  • Pass the location information in the address field at display time
  • We default to the US and USD for currency
  • The booking brand will default to the hotels nearby events
  • The color scheme has been set to match your site palette.  This can be changed using our portal.
  • The widget is set to display the MAP in front.  If you would like a HOTEL widget as the default, we can change it or we can provide a separate widget for that purpose, which could be called based on a business rule
  • We have enabled the Air and Driving tabs
  • The user can enter the departure and arrival airports at transaction time
  • The travel dates will default to 7 days from the day that the widget is displayed
  • The default trip length is 1 night
  • These can both be overriden by the traveler

What brands can I choose from for the booking system that the traveler sees?

Depending on how you implement the widget, you may have a different need for targeted messaging in the booking system.  For example, for a calendaring implementation, you may want to use TheHotelsNearby Companies.  Or for a contact management system, just TheHotelsNearby.  Or if you are designating all of the upside from using the widget to your favorite charity, you can use TravelingToGive.   The next selection shows you all of the possibilities.

The Brand Options

The default refid is 5135 and the default brand is The Hotels Nearby.
To change the brand to one of our niche brands, you must use the combination of the refid and reflickid2 below.
These can be overridden at transaction time by using the refid and refclickid2 variables
refid= Brand refclickid2=
5135 The Hotels Nearby
6832 The Hotels Nearby Amusement Parks hotelbyattractions
6832 The Hotels Nearby Assisted Living hotelsbyamusementparks
6832 The Hotels Nearby Attractions hotelsbyassistedliving.com
6832 The Hotels Nearby Bloggers hotelsbybloggers
6832 The Hotels Nearby Companies hotelsbycompanies
6832 The Hotels Nearby Convention Centers hotelsbyconventioncenters
6832 The Hotels Nearby Cruise Ports hotelsbycruiseports
6832 The Hotels Nearby Doctors hotelsbydoctors
6832 The Hotels Nearby Embassies hotelsbyembassies
6856 The Hotels Nearby Events hotelsbyevents
6832 The Hotels Nearby Festivals hotelsbyfestivals
6832 The Hotels Nearby Funeral Homes hotelsbyfuneralhomes
6988 The Hotels Nearby Golf Courses hotelsbygolfcourses
6832 The Hotels Nearby Hospice hotelsbyhospice
6855 The Hotels Nearby Hospitals hotelsbyhospitals
6832 The Hotels Nearby Military Bases hotelsbymilitarybases
6832 The Hotels Nearby Museums hotelsbymuseums
6832 The Hotels Nearby Nursing Homes hotelsbynursinghomes
6832 The Hotels Nearby Places hotelsbyplaces
6832 The Hotels Nearby Prisons hotelsbyprisons
6832 The Hotels Nearby Racetracks hotelsbyracetracks
6832 The Hotels Nearby Spas hotelsbyspas
6832 The Hotels Nearby Theatres hotelsbytheatres
6832 The Hotels Nearby Trainstations hotelsbytrainstations
6857 The Hotels Nearby Universities hotelsbyuniversities
6832 The Hotels Nearby Wineries hotelsbywineries
6832 The Hotels Nearby Zoos hotelsbyzoos
7028 TravelingtoGIVE

Private Label Branding

Can we use our own brand?  Absolutely!

For a one time fee of $1500 you can provide your own header artwork to us for the booking back end.

Tech Tips

Following are tips for the technical integration of TripProximity.

External System Interaction

The TripProximity widget interacts with the following systems:

  • Google Places for lookup of the venues and addresses in the address field
  • Google Maps for lookup of the latitude/longitude of any address

Once the input from the widget is received, we pass a search string to our booking system.  It contains:

  • Brand to be displayed in the booking system
  • Travel parameters
  • Tracking information to provide reporting back to you for each client

CSS

The widget has its own style sheet that governs the display of the widget within a container.

 

Rules for Display

The widget can be populated with event and venue information.  Ideally, the widget needs the full address to do an accurate proximity lookup of the hotels nearby.

The date fields for events can be coupled with a business rule.  For instance if you have an event that begins before noon, you may want to set the date of arrival to 1 day before the event begins.  If the event ends after 3pm, you may want to set the date of departure to 1 day after the event.

Just a reminder, even if there is no address or a partial address (city/state), our new widget with the Google Places lookup can find the precise address of the venue or company that they are visiting (even a Starbucks or TopGolf! or finding a hotel near someone’s house that works from home).  The user controls this by using the pencil tool on the address field to do their own lookup.

Static Widgets versus Dynamic Widgets

The static widget contains the following:

async onload=”tripWidget()”

The dynamic widget does not load asynchronously.  If you turn on the dynamic flag in the portal in the widget editor, it removes that line from the code snippet that is generated.  If you try to install a dynamic widget directly into an HTML container on WordPress, it will NOT render.

Press Release Draft

We will work with you to craft a press release for your implementations of TripProximity.  You will be the first ticket reseller site to launch smart trip planning.

Update your About Page with smart trip planning

We recommend these changes to your About Us page.

There’s an unforgettable thrill in being among 20,000 screaming fans, counting down the final seconds of a big victory. But, you can’t exactly celebrate with all of them after the game.

As if grabbing floor seats wasn’t enough, you swear that the lead singer gave you a smile when he made eye contact with you and only you during the encore (of course more than a dozen other people right near you claim the exact same thing).

You can take the kids for pizza any time. Doesn’t a day out at their first Broadway play deserve something just a little bit better?

Sure, we have the tickets you need to all of your favorite live events, and at prices that’ll certainly put a smile on your face. But, we don’t stop there. Seatslink is the only online ticket source that also offers you convenient access to the available hotels nearby, some of the best local restaurants, parking, transportation, and other activities that can help make your night out special, unique, and perfect for you! Not just a place for tickets, Seatslink provides immediate and continuous access to the little extras that can take your night out a long way, and you can plan it that way every single night of the week, no matter the event.

Once you get your tickets on Seatslink, you still might need that romantic date spot to take your spouse to before the concert; or the perfect sports bar for you and your buddies after the big game. How about a nearby place to park the car, or a safe and reliable ride home? Seatslink has you covered. Oh, and did we mention you’ll save up to 15% on all of it?

And if you need to get driving directions, or you want to make it a weekend getaway or extend that date night to include a hotel stay, our unique smart trip tool is right there on the event page to help you make your plans.

And if you want to meet friends in another city for the event?  No problem, with the smart trip tool you can even send a link to your network or to specific friends on social media or email with our integrated social sharing on the smart trip tool.

Get the tickets you’ve been looking for and if you want, build out the rest of your event experience with additional activities that you’ll love. Seatslink is more than a ticket website it’s your one-stop-shop for the perfect, truly localized night out…The Complete Ticket Experience.

Recommended Help Text

We will assist you in drafting the help text for your clients, including the FAQs.

Click the button below to review the Enterprise Terms and Conditions and then REGISTER as an Enterprise Client

Read Terms and Conditions

Portal Invitation

Once you have registered as an Enterprise Client, we will send you an invitation to the beta version of our Portal.

From our portal you can modify your widgets, create new ones and see your usage statistics.  We are still in the process of rolling this portal out, so over the next few months you will see many new features.  It is important to note that if you update a widget you do NOT need to reinstall it.  The changes will be live immediately.  The script that you write to augment the code snippet that is generated by the portal will override the fields that are included in your script.  We have put them in as %VARIABLENAME% into the Event and Venue widgets.  We have also built a few sample widgets for you that are included at the top of this page.  These are static widgets.

For any other details regarding widget customization, please access the Support Center.