You are offered only for the hotels you priced
A customer booking an airport transfer says where they are staying and sees the companies that have a price for that hotel. A company with no price for it is not shown lower in the list or as a dearer option. It is not shown.
So the number of hotels in your file is the number of hotels you can be booked for. Two hotels can share a parking lot, and if your file has one and not the other, every customer staying at the second goes to another company, at a fare you would have been glad to take.
Why a file ends up covering a fraction of the hotels
It is usually one of three things:
- The list is old. Hotels open, close and change names, and a file priced years ago does not have the ones that arrived since.
- Pricing every hotel by hand was too much work, so the well-known hotels were done and the rest were left for later.
- You chose not to serve that area. That is a decision, and it is the only one of the three worth keeping.
Check it in a few minutes
Search Expedia for a transfer from your airport the way a customer would, to a hotel you know you priced. Then search again for two or three hotels on the same street. If your company comes up for the first and not for the others, your file is behind.
Then ask Expedia for the current hotel list for each airport you serve, and compare the number of hotels in it with the number in the file you priced. The steps below are what to do with the difference.
By hand or in GroundZones, step by step
| Step | By hand | In GroundZones |
|---|---|---|
| 1.Start from the file you already priced | Open it, keep an untouched copy | Upload it with its zone column |
| 2.Add the current list and find what is new | XLOOKUP between the two files | Upload into the same project; new hotels arrive unassigned |
| 3.See where the missing hotels are | Sort by ZIP, or geocode and plot elsewhere | On the map, beside your zoned hotels |
| 4.Zone the hotels inside the areas you already serve | One lookup per hotel | Box-select on the map, or rules on unzoned hotels only |
| 5.Decide about the hotels beyond your zones | Route lookup per hotel, then sort | Distance from the terminal, measured and sortable |
| 6.Check the pins of the new hotels | Check every new address on a map | Only the flagged pins |
| 7.Export the file and send it back | Remove working columns, re-check the rows | Export; unassigned hotels read N/A |
1.Start from the file you already priced
The hotels you serve today, and the zone each one is in, are the part of the job that is already done. Nothing below should change them.
Find the column that holds the hotel ID. It is what tells a hotel you have priced from one you have not, even when its name has changed since.
By hand
Open the priced file in Excel or Google Sheets and keep an untouched copy. Every later step is a comparison against it.
In GroundZones
Create a project for the airport and upload the priced file. Map the hotel ID column as External ID and choose your zone column under Sort into zones by column: every hotel starts in the zone your file gave it, and each zone gets its own color on the map.
2.Add the current list and find what is new
Match the current list against the priced file on the hotel ID. A hotel in both is already done. A hotel only in the current list is one you cannot be booked for today.
By hand
Add a column to the current list with VLOOKUP or XLOOKUP on the hotel ID, pulling the zone from the priced file. The rows that come back empty are the missing hotels.
Without an ID column the match has to be on name and address, and a hotel that was renamed, or whose address is written differently in the two files, reads as new.
In GroundZones
Upload the current list into the same project and choose Update existing properties, add the new ones. A hotel already in the project is matched by its ID and keeps the zone it is in; the rest arrive unassigned. Zone Statistics shows how many are unassigned and what share of the list has a zone.
3.See where the missing hotels are
A list of missing hotels says how many. A map says which ones matter: the hotels sitting between and beside the ones you already serve are the first to add, because your cars already drive past them.
By hand
A spreadsheet has no map. Sorting the missing hotels by ZIP code or city puts them roughly beside the priced ones, but one ZIP code can run across several of your zones.
To see them properly, the addresses have to be turned into coordinates with a geocoding add-on or website and plotted in a mapping tool, next to the hotels you already priced.
In GroundZones
The new hotels are placed on the map from their addresses during the upload, drawn in the unassigned color among your zoned hotels. The pointer icon on the Unassigned row selects all of them, and the table can be filtered to Unassigned.
4.Zone the hotels inside the areas you already serve
A hotel next to one you serve belongs in the same zone at the same price. For these there is no pricing decision to make, only the work of assigning them.
By hand
For each missing hotel, find the priced hotel nearest to it and copy its zone, or look up the driving distance from the airport and apply your distance bands. Either way it is one lookup per hotel.
In GroundZones
Drag a box around a group of unassigned hotels on the map and pick their zone. Or let rules do a first pass: the zones created from your file in step 1 are already rules, filled in with the cities, ZIP codes and longest distance of the hotels in them. Apply them with Only hotels with no zone yet ticked and every hotel that already has a zone is left alone.
5.Decide about the hotels beyond your zones
Some of the missing hotels are farther out than anything you serve. Each group of them is a choice: a new zone with its own price, or hotels you leave out on purpose.
Make it from the driving distance, not from how far it looks on a map.
By hand
Look up the driving distance from the terminal to each one on a maps site, type it into the sheet, and sort.
In GroundZones
Select the hotels that are still unassigned and choose Distance: the driving distance from the airport terminal is measured for each one, and the table sorts by it. Add a zone for the hotels you will serve and leave the others unassigned.
6.Check the pins of the new hotels
A hotel placed on the wrong building lands in the wrong zone, at the wrong price. Before the file goes back, look at every new hotel whose address could not be confirmed.
By hand
Paste each doubtful address into a map and compare. Nothing in a spreadsheet says which ones are doubtful, so in practice it means checking them all.
In GroundZones
A hotel whose address could not be confirmed carries an amber ring on the map, with the reason in plain words, and the Check pins filter lists them in the table. Mark the pin as correct, or edit the address and it is placed again.
7.Export the file and send it back
The finished file holds every hotel you now serve, with its zone. Spot-check a few of the new ones against the map before it goes back.
By hand
Make sure the zone is filled in for every hotel you mean to serve, remove the working columns, and check the rows still line up after the sorting.
In GroundZones
Export to XLSX or CSV. Every hotel carries its zone, and a hotel you left unassigned reads N/A.
What this does not fix
If you are not shown for a hotel that is in your file, with a zone and a price behind it, the file is not the reason. That is a question for Expedia.
And a zone is only as good as the rate beside it. GroundZones puts hotels into zones; the fares stay in your rate sheet.
Frequently asked questions
Why does my company not come up for some hotels on Expedia?
A transfer company is offered for a hotel only when it has a price for that hotel. A hotel that is not in your hotel association file, or has no zone in it, has no price, so customers staying there are not shown your company at all.
How do I get an updated hotel file?
Ask Expedia for the current hotel list for each airport you serve. It comes with a hotel ID for every hotel, which is what lets you match it against the file you already priced.
Do I have to price every hotel again?
No. Match the new list to your priced file on the hotel ID, and the hotels you already zoned keep their zones. Only the hotels that are new to you need one.
What if I do not want to serve some of the new hotels?
Leave them without a zone. Coverage is your decision; the point is to make it for each area on purpose, not to lose hotels because the list was old. In GroundZones the export always holds the whole project and an unassigned hotel reads N/A, so filter those rows out of the spreadsheet if the file should not carry them.
What if my file has no hotel ID column?
Then two lists can only be matched on name and address, which misses renamed hotels and addresses written two ways. GroundZones matches on the ID alone, so a list without one adds every hotel as new. The list Expedia sends carries the ID, so keep that column in the file you work from.
Is GroundZones part of Expedia?
No. GroundZones is independent and not affiliated with or endorsed by Expedia Group. It is a tool for the operator's side of the job: zoning the hotel file.
Zone your own hotel file.
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GroundZones is independent and not affiliated with or endorsed by Expedia Group.