Integrate a hotel and travel platform

Overview

This resource will help you as you build an integration between a hotel and travel platform and Klaviyo. It will walk you through understanding the basics of the Klaviyo data model and run through important profile and event data use cases. Where relevant, there will be links to associated resources for deeper understanding.

Since Klaviyo allows data to come in all formats with our schema-less data architecture, it's important to follow best practices, such as creating top-level fields for segmentation. Check out our integration FAQ for more information.

Building an integration with Klaviyo

If you are a partner interested in building a Klaviyo app, explore our guide to joining the Klaviyo ecosystem.

Understanding Klaviyo

Data categories

Klaviyo separates information into three broad primary data categories — events, profiles, and objects. (This is a non-exhaustive list of data types in Klaviyo, but highlighting the most common use cases for hotel and travel brands)

Events

Events are extremely versatile, since they can be used to record any type of timestamped action and can include associated information. Metrics are events grouped by type.

Profiles

Profiles are people. You can use either an email, phone number, or (not recommended) a specified guest ID as a primary identifier. Klaviyo supports custom profile properties with the following data types: strings, integers, floats, dates, booleans, arrays/lists, or JSON (e.g., Birthday, Preferred Location, Dietary Restrictions).

Objects

Objects are stateful representations of your data. Objects enable you to map diverse data concepts into Klaviyo with a many-to-one relationship, like reservations.

Additional Data Categories

In Klaviyo, you can also use catalogs, web feeds, lists & segments, campaigns, and templates. Catalogs are supported through the Catalogs API or via a JSON feed. Web feeds are supported either through a JSON or XML endpoint.

For each item in the catalog, consider including the following details:

Unique ID: can be text, numeric, or alphanumeric, but must be unique
Title: the name of the item
URL: the website at which a person can find this item
Image URL: a URL at which the image for this item is hosted
Description: a text description of the item
Price: numeric item price, no currency symbol
Categories: comma-separated list/array of categories, tags, or collections associated with an item
Variants: Variants for each parent item, with full item details per variant
Inventory: Inventory available for each variant (Klaviyo does not support storing location-based inventory at this time)
Sale Price (if available)

Since Klaviyo allows data to come in all formats with our schema-less data architecture, it's important to follow best practices, such as creating top-level fields for segmentation.

Data use cases

Data pushed into Klaviyo is used to personalize both the types of messages and the content within those messages that a profile receives. You can send messages through Klaviyo's supported channels (Email, Text Messaging, and Mobile Push) through Campaigns and Flows. Outside of messaging, profile and event information can be used for segmentation, personalized/dynamic content in messages, flow filtering, and personalized on-site content like forms.

Models

Below are all of the events hotel and travel integrations are using for success. We recommend all of the events in each relevant category to build an integration.

Profile Data

Profile Properties

Regardless of your use case, these are the most common profile properties that you'll want to pass into Klaviyo. Note that only email (recommended identifier), phone number, or external ID (not recommended identifier) are required.

Resources:

Profile API Overview

Profile Property	Description
Email (Recommended as primary identifier)	The profile's valid email address (must be <= 100 characters)
First Name	First name
Last Name	Last name
Phone Number	Klaviyo's APIs only accepts the E.164 format (e.g., +15005550006)

Example Profile Properties:

Street address
City
Organization
Country
State/Region
External ID
Tags
Interests
Allergies
DietaryPreferences
CommunicationMethods
Notes/Custom
PreferredLanguage
Hometown
Gender
MaritalStatus
Pronouns
NumberOfKids
Nationality
ReturningGuestStatus
Birthday
Title
Locale
GuestsClassification
PreferredSpaceFeatures

Consent Data

Consent allows messages to be sent via the Klaviyo platform. Without syncing consent via your integration, consent will need to be captured outside the integration (either uploaded manually or gathered for all contacts in the list again). It is crucial that this connection be built if your platform collects consent in a compliant way.

If possible, it's important to collect both email and text message consent:

During booking experience
On your website (via onsite forms)
During check-in
During check-out

Resources:

Collect email and text message consent via API
Bulk Subscribe Profiles
Create Client Subscription

Consent Type	Description	Notes
Email consent (marketing)	Whether or not someone is consented to receive email marketing communication.	We highly encourage passing consent to Klaviyo. Please review the regulations for where your users are located to ensure that you're staying compliant.
Text message consent (transactional and/or marketing)	Whether or not someone is consented to receive text message communication. Consent can be granted separately for marketing and transactional purposes.	This consent must be explicit and include disclosure language to be compliant with text message regulations.

User Onsite Activity

These often come from injected Klaviyo javascript on listing pages but could be webhooks/APIs as well. Historic sync is optional, but helpful.

Resources:

JavaScript Track API for onsite metrics

Use Cases:

Trigger browse abandonment automation sequences based on guest behavior on your site
Trigger abandoned checkout automation sequences when a guest does not complete a booking

Event	Description
Active on Site	This event occurs when a guest visits your website.
Viewed Listing	This event occurs when a guest views a listing.
Added to Cart	This event occurs when a guest adds an item to their cart.
Started Checkout	This event occurs when a guest begins the checkout process.

Example Event Properties:

ListingTitle
ListingPrice
ListingURL
ListingImage
ListingAmenities
Tags
PropertyType
CheckInDate
CheckOutDate
NumberOfGuests
CreatedDate

Reservations

Below are examples of the most common data coming from the reservation process. Note that not all of these data points are necessary and you can add additional ones for your use case. We recommend using events to capture critical points in the Reservation journey while using objects to store persistent data about a guest's reservation(s).

Resources:

Events API Overview
Custom Objects API Overview
Sync Reservations as Objects

Use Cases:

Trigger post purchase transactional sequences (e.g. booking confirmation)
Trigger post purchase marketing automation sequences (e.g., experiences, guest winback)
Trigger check-in confirmation automation sequences to welcome guests to your property
Trigger check-out confirmation automation sequences to build guest loyalty and get feedback

Event	Description
Created Reservation	This event occurs when a guest starts the reservation process.
Requested Reservation	This event occurs when a guest requests a reservation.
Confirmed Reservation	This event occurs when a guest confirms the reservation.
Checked In to Reservation	This event occurs when a guest checks in to their reservation.
Checked Out of Reservation	This event occurs when a guest checks out of their reservation.
Cancelled Reservation	This event occurs when a guest cancels a reservation.
Completed/Closed Reservation	This event occurs when a reservation is closed or completed.
Updated Reservation	This event occurs when a reservation is updated.
No Show Reservation	This event occurs when a guest is not checked in for their reservation after the specified reservation time.
Object	Description
Reservation	This object is used to store data about a guest's reservation(s).

Example Event Properties:

ReservationID
ConfirmationNumber
ReservationGroupName
ScheduledCheckInTime
ScheduledCheckOutTime
ActualCheckInTime
ActualCheckOutTime
ReservationPurpose
ReservationPersonCounts
ReservationAdultCounts
ReservationChildCounts
ListingImages
ListingTitle
ListingDescription
Vouchers
OriginChannel
ReservationValue
Timestamp

Example Object Properties:

ReservationID
ConfirmationNumber
ReservationGroupName
ReservationValue
ReservationStatus
ReservationNumber
ListingImages
ScheduledCheckInTime
ScheduledCheckOutTime
ActualCheckInTime
ActualCheckOutTime
ReservationPurpose
ReservationPersonCounts
ReservationAdultCounts
ReservationChildCount
ListingTitle
ListingDescription
Vouchers
OriginChannel

Orders

Below are examples of the most common events coming from the ordering process for hotel and travel integrations. Typically, orders represent items that a guest has added to their reservation (e.g. merchandise, in-stay purchases). Note that not all of these events are necessary and you can add additional ones for your use case.

Resources:

Events API Overview

Use Cases:

Trigger post purchase transactional sequences (e.g. order confirmation)
Trigger post purchase marketing automation sequences (e.g., upsell, winback)
Filter marketing automation sequences based on items guests have ordered
Analyzing and segmenting purchase behavior for individual line items within an order
Factored into models for order prediction and customer lifetime value (CLV)

Event	Description
Placed Order (most important)	This event is tracked when an order was placed and includes all of the product information about the items purchased, store information, and order details that can be used in messages.
Ordered Product	This event is tracked when a customer places an order, but a separate event is tracked for each item someone purchases. For example, if someone buys a coffee and a sandwich, 1 Placed Order event will be tracked along with 2 Ordered Product events; 1 Placed Order event for the purchase as a whole, and then 1 Ordered Product event for the coffee and 1 Ordered Product event for the sandwich. This is useful when creating behavioral segments based on product variant options and other detailed information that's not available in the Placed Order event.
Fulfilled Order	This event is tracked when an order is marked as "fulfilled" in your restaurant. The event Klaviyo tracks includes all product information regarding the items someone purchased including product names and images so you can use that information in purchase follow up emails.
Refunded Order	This event is tracked when a customer completes the checkout process in your restaurant and a payment is made, but the customer requests the payment to be returned. The event Klaviyo tracks includes all of the product information about the items someone purchased including product names, images, and variant information.
Closed Order	This event is tracked when an order is considered complete.
Adjusted Order	This event is tracked when an order has been fully or partially adjusted or refunded.
Cancelled Order	This event is tracked when an order was canceled by a user or the system.

Example Event Properties:

Value
Timestamp
Items
ItemCount
ItemCategories
FulfillmentMethod
OrderID
ProductID
Quantity
Collections
VariantTitle
DiscountApplied
DiscountCodes
OrderingProvider
VendorName
Currency
PaymentType
ProductURL
ImageURL
RefundAmount
AdjustmentType
AdjustmentReason
CanceledReason
SKU
Tags
Source

Loyalty

Out of all of the apps for hotel and travel businesses, loyalty apps differ the most based on how the structure is set up. Below are the most common loyalty events, but feel free to customize based on what's important to your application.

Resources:

Events API Overview

Use Cases:

Trigger post redemption transactional sequences (e.g. order confirmation, new tier welcome)
Trigger post welcome marketing automation sequences (e.g., encouraging loyalty sign up)

Event	Description
Signed Up (most important)	This event occurs when a guest signs up for your loyalty program.
Created Redemption	These events happen when a guest updates a redemption.
Updated Redemption	These events happen when a guest updates a redemption.
Applied Redemption	This event is generated when a redemption gets applied.
Checked-In	These events happen when a user checks in to the loyalty program or for a specific gift.
Earned Reward	This includes user rewards gifted/issued events triggered as they happen.
Converted Points to Reward	This event is triggered when the points earned by a guest are turned into rewards.
Completed Card	This event is generated when a guest's loyalty card gets completed.

Example Event Properties:

LocationID
LocationName
CreatedDate
ExpirationDate
Barcode
RedemptionCode
RewardID
DiscountAmount
RewardType
RewardName
PointsSpent
PointsEarned
AdditionalProperties
UpdatedDate
RedeemedPoints
RedemptionType

Common gotchas

The primary gotchas are:

Using the wrong naming convention so dynamic content does not populate correctly
Nesting data so it is unreachable using segmentation

Follow this Identify common gotchas article to optimize your integration.