Super Category vs. Product Category

Super categories and product categories define how products are grouped within the CRS System for searching purposes. Each super category and product category has different attributes and different types of rates and availability. Super categories are more general terms while product categories are the more specific terms pertaining to a particular super category. For example:

  • The product category Child Care belongs to the super category Services.
  • The product category Rafting belongs to the super category Activities.

Below is an example of how product categories are grouped under the super category Activities:

In the CRS search area, super category search tabs appear across the top of the page:

Super categories also appear as search tabs on Inntopia eComm websites but will appear differently depending on each site's web design.

For a full list of Super Categories and their respective product categories (XML format), click here.

The following Super Categories are available in the Inntopia System. Inntopia recommends checking this list periodically to keep up to date with new additions. Related super categories are grouped together (e.g. "Golf Rentals" is listed beneath "Golf"). The name appearing in parentheses next to some categories indicates the short name that appears to users on that category’s search tab.

Note: Your Inntopia CRS account may have some, or all, of the search categories available in Inntopia CRS; however, only those products that are offered by suppliers that you sell are available for you to search. For example, if you do not book air travel through your call center, you will not have an option to search air products.

Activity searches return a wide variety of product categories, or sub-groups of products. Activities can include anything from backcountry skiing to rafting. When searching for Activities, you should know the types of Activities your Inntopia CRS sells and the Destinations it uses.

To see a full list of Activity product categories available in the Inntopia System (in XML format), click here.

An Activities search returns any and all valid Activities that begin and end during the specified date range, regardless of whether the Activity is a two-hour boat ride or an all-day jeep tour. When an Activity such as a two-hour boat ride has multiple departures during the day, each departure time that occurs during the specified date range is displayed.

Search for and reserve airfares as well as air package products.

Search for mountain bike trail ticket, rental, and lesson products.

Search for pass products for campgrounds.

Search for rental car products.

Search for food and beverage products.

Search for gear your customer needs to complete their travel experience such as bikes, skis or snowboards, snowmobiles, snowshoes, or motorcycles.

Search for concert tickets, theater tickets, or tickets to other standard events such as a local county fair or rodeo.

Search for gift card or gift certificate products.

Golf products usually refer to tee times but can also include golf equipment rental or cart rental. They may be sold to individuals or groups of two, three, or four guests. Searches for Golf during a specific date range usually return a tee times and golf cart rentals. Some Golf products have advance booking requirements. Some interfaced courses may not allow an individual golfer to reserve a tee time.

Note: The Golf search screen has two additional fields: Tee Time and Golfers. However, the Tee Time field only works if you are using the GolfSwitch integration. The Golfers field works with non-interfaced golf products.

Search for golf lesson products.

Search for golf membership product offers for specific golf resorts.

Search for seasonal programs offered by golf courses. Merchandise inventory type, dateless search.

Search for golf equipment rental products including golf carts and clubs.

Search for services offered by a golf course outside of tee-times such as driving range access, club fitting, club cleaning, club repair, club storage, bucket of balls, caddy services, or golf food and beverage. All inventory types, dated search.

Search for instructional products for several different activities including biking, skiing, and snowboarding.

Search for seasonal ski and snowboard instructional program products.

Search for ski/snowboard resort lift ticket, equipment rental, lesson, lunch, or a combination of these products (Lift+Lesson, Lift+Lunch, etc.). During winter months, this may be one of the searches you use most.

Search for ski and snowboard lift tickets to mountain resorts. They may be sold individually or as part of a larger package.

Search for merchandise (dateless) -style lift tickets.

Search for physical cards or tags that contain the RFID data for passes, lift tickets, etc., as some resorts charge for these cards.

Search for retail items.

Search for various fees, insurance, or products that don’t fall into a particular category.

Note: Only the following Product Categories will cause the Miscellaneous super category to appear as an option in eComm /Inntopia CRS:

  • 180 Trip Cancellation Insurance
  • 189 Rental Damage Insurance
  • 191 Supplier Commission
  • 1040 Donation
  • 150 Miscellaneous Fee

Search for credits that can be redeemed at a particular resort, usually monetary credits on resort pass cards (pass cash).

Search for ski and snowboard season passes to mountain resorts.

Search for various services including child care, pet care, and grocery delivery.

Search for transportation products to get your customer to and from the airport or lodging accommodations such as shuttle bus, limousine service, ground transportation, or chartered air. Some shuttle products transport customers to multiple destinations, stopping at many lodging facilities, ski slopes, or town centers along the way. Your individual shuttle supplier will have booking instructions for you to follow in such cases.

In many, but not all Inntopia CRS models, each trip that a shuttle makes from an airport to a lodging facility, or vice versa, is an individual product. If there are 12 trips daily both to and from an airport to a lodging facility, 24 products are available to choose from when searching for a customer's arrival shuttle, but only half of them will be in the right direction. This is true also of the departure shuttle trip.

Also, most shuttle products represent one seat on the shuttle. You must find individual shuttle products for each trip for each person in the party. For example, if you have one person in your party, you would locate one shuttle product for their arrival (check-in) day and one for their departure (check-out) day. If two people are in the party, you would find two shuttle products for the arrival date and two shuttle products for the departure date, and so on.

When searching for shuttle products, use the customer’s travel dates for the “From” and “To” dates. This displays all products for the date range, in both directions, and lets you choose the date for each of the products that you require.

Most shuttle products are clearly named with times and direction for easy identification. For example, some typical shuttle products might be named as follows:

  • 8:00 a.m. Denver Airport to Resort
  • 10:00 a.m. Denver Airport to Resort
  • 12:00 p.m. Denver Airport to Resort
  • 2:00 p.m. Denver Airport to Resort
  • 7:00 a.m. Resort to Denver Airport
  • 9:00 a.m. Resort to Denver Airport
  • 11:00 a.m. Resort to Denver Airport
  • 1:00 p.m. Resort to Denver Airport

Search for ski and snowboard program products including programs specifically for kids or adults.

Search for spa treatments and services such as facials, massage, manicures, or pedicures. These products can be sold as individual, couples, or group services.

Search for lodging products at a pre-determined, locked-in price where customers can wait to reserve their dates at a later time.

Search for summer camp day-pass products and card reloads.

Search for tickets and passes for various activities including skiing, snowboarding, biking, and tubing.

Search for water park pass products.

A: Before adding a new product category to the System, Inntopia staff evaluates how effective and useful the new product category would be to all users.

For example, an acceptable request for a new product category might be to add "Massage" to the super category "Spa".

An example of a request that would likely be denied might be to add "Day Hiking" to the super category "Activities" because "Hiking" is already included as a product category.

Remember, the more your agents or your guests have to guess which product category belongs to which super category, the less effective a search becomes.

A: No. Super categories and their subgroup of product categories are pre-defined specifically for the ease of search. Since new product categories are added to the System each year, it can be hard to keep track of which product category belongs to which super category. Below is an XML that shows how products are grouped under the super category search tabs:

https://crs.inntopia.com/sqlxmlviaduct/reports/productcategories_RAW.xml

Examples seen in this XML:

Super Category: Activities & Attractions

Product category examples under this super category:

  • Miscellaneous Activities
  • Rafting
  • Adventure Tours

Super Category: Airport Shuttle

Product category examples under this super category:

  • Shuttle
  • Limousine Service
  • Ground Transportation

A: Yes. Your web developer can create your own custom widget, which gives you the flexibility to determine the layout, search tabs description, font size, colors, etc.