If you’re an online travel business selling hotels online, you know that one erroneous hotel listing can trigger a domino effect—wrong reservations, financial loss, and frustrated customers. Even the best internal mapping systems or third-party vendors are not immune to the occasional mismatch in hotel listings.
To prevent such instances, you need an extra layer of mapping- one that acts as an authenticator for precise hotel bookings. DualMap does exactly that.
This blog will walk you through the basics of DualMap, why you need it for your online travel business, how it helps, the benefits, and more.
TL; DR
- DualMap adds a second layer of defense over your existing mapping—no need to replace your current system.
- Mapping errors still happen even with reliable APIs or third-party vendors due to ID mismatches, outdated metadata, or real-time data gaps.
- It performs pre-booking verification to flag mismatches like incorrect images, locations, or property details before confirming the booking.
- It also runs post-booking verification to double-check that no errors have slipped through the confirmed booking.
- It integrates seamlessly with both in-house mapping systems and external vendors.
- The smart error handling engine allows customizable actions based on booking type, value, or refundability.
- DualMap helps OTAs reduce operational overhead by automating checks and minimizing support escalations.
What Is DualMap Really?
Contrary to what it might sound like, DualMap is not a combination of hotel mapping & room mapping solutions, but a set of rules that adds an extra layer to your existing mapping system, whether managed in-house or through external vendors. Think of it as two-factor authentication for hotel bookings made through your OTA.
Moving further, we’ll look at what problems DualMap solves precisely so that the role it plays in your tech stack is clear. But before that, let’s understand why mapping errors happen despite implementing mapping solutions.
Why Do Mapping Errors Happen Despite Mapping APIs Integration?
Often, despite integrating mapping APIs into their platform, OTAs experience mapping errors. As surprising as it may be, it can happen for many reasons. A lot of the time, property ID mismatches between suppliers and internal systems tend to occur when providers use different naming conventions or identifiers.
Also, real-time data gaps sometimes arise when supplier content updates aren’t captured instantly. Another culprit is outdated mapping that allows stale or inaccurate information to persist across systems. When it’s not these issues, inconsistent metadata leads to discrepancies in star ratings, amenities, or location details.
By the time these errors come to the surface, the damage is already done, and the next thing you know is customers asking for refunds, bad reviews, and tons of internal escalations. This is where DualMap plays the saviour. Explore the problems it solves & ‘how’ in the following sections.
What Problems Does DualMap Solve?
Even with well-established internal mapping systems or trusted third-party vendors, hotel booking platforms face recurring challenges that impact revenue, operations, and customer trust. DualMap was explicitly created to solve these critical problems by adding an intelligent, automated layer of mapping verification:
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Financial Loss Due to Wrongly Mapped Properties
One of the most pressing issues DualMap addresses is revenue loss due to bad mapping. When a hotel is mapped incorrectly, it can lead to customers booking the wrong property. These errors result in refund requests, last-minute rebooking at higher costs, or total losses when the booking is non-refundable. DualMap detects mismatches before or immediately after the booking is confirmed, thus flagging booking inconsistencies that help reduce the financial fallout.
2. Untimely Detection of Mapping/Booking Discrepancies
In many cases, mapping errors are discovered only after the booking is complete, and often after the customer has reached the front desk of the hotel. At that point, it is not possible to mend the wrong booking; the best the customer gets is a free upgrade, which is not bad, but the OTA’s reputation is already damaged.
DualMap helps prevent such instances by providing real-time verification, either before checkout or immediately after booking, giving your team a chance to catch and address issues early, before they become customer-facing problems.
3. Operation Overhead to handle the bad bookings
Another major problem is the operational overhead that bad bookings create. Customer support teams must intervene to resolve the issue, coordinate with suppliers, and sometimes negotiate refunds or alternative accommodations. These manual processes are time-consuming and costly. DualMap helps reduce this load by automating the verification step, allowing teams to focus on solving real problems rather than preventable errors.
4. Customer frustration since the wrong property is getting booked
Customer dissatisfaction is another serious consequence of poor mapping. Booking the wrong property can ruin a customer’s travel experience, leading to frustration, complaints, and negative reviews. Over time, repeated mapping errors damage your brand’s reputation and reduce customer loyalty. DualMap acts as a quality assurance layer that prevents these issues before they impact the end user, helping to maintain a reliable and trusted brand image.
5. Brand degradation
While financial loss and operational strain from bad mappings are immediate and measurable, brand degradation is a slower, more damaging consequence. When customers experience booking errors, especially repeated ones, they begin to lose trust in your platform. Even if you fix the issue, the perception of unreliability can linger. Disappointed customers often share their negative experiences publicly through reviews, social media, and word-of-mouth. This not only deters new customers but also chips away at the loyalty of existing customers.
Now that you know ‘what’ problems DualMap solves, learn ‘how’ it does so.
How Does DualMap Enhance Your Existing Mapping System?
As mentioned above, DualMap doesn’t map your inventory, but adds a second layer of defense to your existing mapping system through two stages of verification. Let’s understand how:
Pre-booking Mapping Verification
When a customer lands on your booking platform, DualMap springs into action. Before they hit the ‘Confirm Booking’ button, DualMap carefully verifies the mapping to identify any discrepancies like incorrect images, geolocation, room details, outdated metadata, etc., on the go.
Post-booking Mapping Verification
The verification doesn’t stop at the pre-booking stage; DualMap verifies the booking even after it’s made to ensure no errors slip through the cracks. This helps avoid refund requests for bad bookings, poor user reviews, supplier disputes, etc.
Whether preventing errors in real-time or auditing them quietly in the background, DualMap, with its dual-layer protection, allows you to implement a strategy that aligns best with your platform’s operational flow.
Smart Error Handling: Customizable, Context-Aware Responses
Even though DualMap flags mapping errors, it’s only half the battle won; how OTAs respond is what impacts their bottom line. It empowers them with a rule-based engine that lets them define how to handle different circumstances based on risk, refund policies, and booking amount.
For instance, if the erroneous booking is refundable, the OTAs can proceed but also flag it for a manual review. If the booking is non-refundable, they can stop the transaction and trigger an alert, so the booking doesn’t go through. Similarly, if it’s a low-value booking, they can monitor it to avoid any operational overheads. This prompt ensures smart decision-making, ensuring OTAs exercise complete control over how they want to act, minimizing revenue leakage.
Take Away
Mapping errors don’t just spoil your travelers’ booking experiences; they also cause revenue leakages in your OTA. With Vervotech’s DualMap, you don’t have to replace your existing mapping system but add an extra layer of defense. Whether you use in-house tech or get a vendor to map your hotel inventory, DualMap gives you the power to prevent and respond to booking errors before they hurt your business.
Let DualMap be your OTA’s second line of defense.
See how it works- Book a free demo today!
FAQs
What is DualMap, and how is it different from standard mapping APIs?
DualMap is a set of rules that work alongside your existing mapping system. Unlike traditional mapping APIs that focus on matching supplier property data, DualMap adds intelligent pre- and post-booking verification to catch and resolve discrepancies in real time.
Can DualMap work with our current mapping provider or in-house solution?
Yes. DualMap is designed to be provider-agnostic and seamlessly integrates with both third-party mapping vendors and custom-built mapping systems, adding an extra layer of accuracy without disrupting your existing infrastructure.
How does DualMap improve booking accuracy?
DualMap performs two critical checks: one before checkout to prevent errors from reaching the customer, and one after booking to catch any mapping issues that may have slipped through. This dual-layer approach drastically reduces rebooking, refund claims, and customer complaints.
Can I customize how mapping errors are handled with DualMap?
Absolutely! DualMap offers rule-based smart error handling, allowing you to define actions based on booking type, refundability, and value. For instance, you can allow low-risk bookings to proceed while pausing or blocking high-risk ones.
What kind of results can I expect after implementing DualMap?
Customers using DualMap typically see a significant reduction in mapping-related incidents, improved customer satisfaction scores, and more efficient post-booking operations, leading to better supplier relationships and reduced financial risk.
