As an administrator, you can use the Partner Dashboard to set up guest traveler profiles in the same way as user profiles. The guest traveler's delegate can then book travel for the guest, or the administrator can impersonate the guest traveler to book travel for the guest. A best practice is to define delegates in your organization who can book travel for others (see "Setting Delegates" in Editing a User Profile and Setting Delegates), and then create a guest traveler profile for each delegate to use as they need.

A user profile is identified as a guest traveler by having a profile with the first and/or last name of “Guest”. This guest user profile must be included in a group (see Groups Tab for Managing Groups for details), with the appropriate rules assigned to that group (see Rules Tab for Managing Rules for details). Those rules must include the following display configuration settings (both are described in Booking, Change and Cancellation Configuration):

• Enable the user to change the traveler's name on the Purchase page when booking a trip – the user, in this case, is "Guest" and can't travel under that name.
• Disable the ability to change or cancel airline flights, hotels, and/or rental cars post booking. Since the traveler name is different (not "Guest), changes are not allowed and unused tickets can't be tracked. 

To book travel for a guest, the guest traveler profile must be assigned a delegate who can book the travel, or the administrator must impersonate the guest user to book the travel. See "Booking Travel for the Guest" in this topic for details.

This training tip takes you step-by-step through the process of setting up and booking travel for a guest traveler:

Setting Up the Guest User Profile

You add the guest user profile the same way as adding a user profile: follow the steps in Adding a User Profile, with the following guidelines:

• Enter a name such as “guest.traveler” for the user name and external ID fields.
• Enter an email address not expected to be used elsewhere in your organization. You may want to use one that is shared by several users in order to see emails sent to the guest traveler.
• Enter “Guest” for the First Name field, and a name for the Last Name field to make it recognizable among several guest traveler profiles (if your organization creates more than one), or to satisfy accounting or group requirements.
• Be sure to check the Activate Account checkbox.

After adding the profile, you can edit the guest profile by following the steps in Editing a User Profile and Setting Delegates, with the following guidelines:

• On the Employer Info page, include cost center or other fields that are required by your agency as you would any other user.
• If you intend to allow delegates (other users) to book travel for guest travelers, be sure to add a delegate for the user. You may want to add yourself, as site administrator, to be a delegate for the user. See "Booking Travel for the Guest" in this topic for details.

Tip: If your agency has gender and date-of-birth (DOB) as mandatory on the site, these fields will be mandatory for the guest traveler during this process. You can allow these fields to be populated on the Purchase page rather than including default values for them, as guests vary in gender and DOB. To change the field settings, see Profile Field Settings (under the Settings tab of the Partner Dashboard). You can temporarily mark the gender and DOB fields as not mandatory. Once the fields are no longer mandatory, edit the guest user profile to populate the other required fields, and save your changes. You can then return to Profile Field Settings configuration and make the gender and DOB fields mandatory again.

Enabling Changing the Name on the Purchase Page

To change the name of the traveler from Guest to the real traveler’s name, make sure that the “Enable user to change the Traveler Name on the Purchase page?” field is set to “Yes” in the display configuration. If you don't want all travelers to be able to change the name on the Purchase page, create a new display configuration for the guest with a name you can recognize, such as "Guest Display Configuration".

Follow the instructions in Adding or Editing a Display Configuration, which includes the instructions for the Booking, Change and Cancellation Configuration section. If necessary, change the “Enable user to change the Traveler Name on the Purchase page?” field to “Yes”.

If you create a new display configuration it will not yet be assigned to a group that includes the guest. You will want to assign the configuration to either a new group or an existing group that includes the guest traveler. You do that in the next step.

Adding a Guest Group with Rules

The best practice for setting up one or more guest travelers is to add a new group for the guest traveler or travelers, rather than adding them to an existing group or assigning to them the rules for the Everyone group. By doing so, you can change the rules and apply the changed rules to guests automatically.

To add a new group for guest travelers, see Groups Tab for Managing Groups, and keep in mind the following:

• Enter a name that will be easily recognizable for the group, such as "Guest Travelers".
• Be sure to check Service Rules for Group Use, so that the group appears in the list of groups for Service Rules under the Rules tab.
• To quickly define a group that includes only guest traveler profiles, use the following parameter definition for Group Parameters:  User, Is Guest User, Is Not Null.

After adding the new group, you can attach the travel rules to the group, which includes enabling changing the name on the Purchase page. See Rules Tab for Managing Rules for instructions. The rules to assign include the Service Rules (see Service Rules for details). Be sure to:

1. Click the Add link in the Travel column next to the guest traveler group to add a travel rule.
2. Select the display configuration you created for guest travelers.\
3. Click the Save button to save the rule.

Booking Travel for the Guest

As a site administrator, you can impersonate a guest the same way as impersonating any other user. See Impersonating a User for detailed instructions. If you have more than one guest traveler profile, be sure to select the appropriate one.

You can also book travel as the guest's delegate. See "Booking Services as a Delegate" in the user help for detailed instructions. To add yourself as a delegate for a guest, see Editing a User Profile and Setting Delegates for instructions on editing the guest user profile.

Whether you impersonate the guest, or act as the guest's delegate, the booking process is the same. See "Booking a Trip" in the user help for detailed instructions.

Additional Tips and a Warning

Warning: If you use a credit card to book travel for a guest, that credit card is stored in the guest traveler’s profile. Remember to remove this credit card from the guest traveler’s profile each time the guest traveler profile is used to book travel, or it may be used for the next guest trip in error.

• Custom passenger name record (PNR) modifications may be needed to accommodate custom fields. See Configuring Agency Settings for details.
• Don't write down or make accessible the hard-coded cost center, bogus email address, or other security-compromising fields in the guest profile.
• If your organization (or your agency) is using a site card for guest travelers (as described in Enabling Site Payment Cards), update the configuration for the site card to associate its rules, along with any custom fields and display configuration settings, to specific groups that do not include guest travelers. See Enabling Travel Rules for details.
• The unused ticket feature is unavailable for a guest traveler. We recommend that you not allow trip changes for guest travelers.