Zapier
Send your WP Travel Engine booking and enquiry data to Google Sheets, Mailchimp, and 5,000+ other apps automatically. No manual data entry, no coding needed.
Zapier is a service that connects different apps together so they can share information automatically. Think of it as a bridge between your website and the other tools you use to run your tour business.
With the Zapier add-on for WP Travel Engine, every time someone books a trip or sends an enquiry on your site, that information can flow straight into tools like Google Sheets, Mailchimp, HubSpot, Zendesk, Dropbox, and more. You set it up once, and it keeps working in the background.
Say you get a new booking on your website. Instead of copying the customer's details into a spreadsheet by hand, Zapier can add that row to your Google Sheet for you. Or when a traveler sends an enquiry, Zapier can add them to your Mailchimp email list without you touching anything.
You'll need WP Travel Engine version 5.0 or later installed and active on your WordPress site for this add-on to work. If you're new to WordPress, a plugin is a small piece of software that adds features to your site. WP Travel Engine is a plugin, and this Zapier add-on is an extension that plugs into it.
What Zapier can do for your tour business
Here's what becomes possible once Zapier is connected to your WP Travel Engine site:
- New bookings and enquiries show up automatically in tools like Google Sheets, your CRM (customer management software), or your email marketing platform. No copying and pasting needed.
- You skip the manual data entry that eats up your time after every booking comes in.
- Follow-up emails, team notifications, or task reminders can fire off automatically the moment a booking or enquiry lands. Say someone books a 5-day trek. Zapier can trigger a welcome email or notify your guide without you lifting a finger.
- Your customer and booking information stays in sync across all the tools you use, so nothing falls through the cracks.
- You can connect WP Travel Engine to any of the 5,000+ apps Zapier supports, without writing a single line of code.
Setting this up takes a bit of patience the first time around. Once it's working, you can forget about it.
What you'll need before you start
Make sure you have these ready before you begin:
- WP Travel Engine and WP Travel Engine Pro installed and activated on your WordPress site.
- A Zapier account. You can sign up for free.
Not sure how to get the Pro add-on set up? See how to activate a Pro add-on license key for a full walkthrough, from download to activation.
Adding webhooks in WP Travel Engine
A webhook is a link that sends information from one app to another when something happens. In this case, it sends your booking or enquiry details from WP Travel Engine to Zapier. Then Zapier passes that information along to whatever app you've connected.
Here's how to set up your webhooks:
Open the Zapier settings page
This step takes you to the page where you connect your site to Zapier.
In the left sidebar of your WordPress dashboard, go to WP Travel Engine. Then click Settings, then Extensions, then Zapier Integration.
Turn on booking automation
This tells WP Travel Engine to send booking details to Zapier every time a new booking comes in.
Find the toggle labeled Automation for Booking and switch it on.
Turn on enquiry automation
This does the same thing as the booking toggle, but for enquiries instead of bookings.
Find the toggle labeled Automation for Enquiries and switch it on.
Add your booking webhook
This is where you link your booking data to Zapier.
In the booking webhook section, type a name you'll recognize later (like "Bookings to Google Sheets") and paste the webhook URL from Zapier. You'll get this URL when you set up your Zap in the next section. Once you've pasted the URL, click Save Settings at the top or bottom of the page. Then click the green tick mark icon to send a test signal through the webhook.
Add your enquiry webhook
This links your enquiry data to Zapier the same way.
Do the same thing in the enquiry webhook section. Type a name, paste the webhook URL from Zapier, save, and click the tick mark to test it.
That's the WP Travel Engine side of things sorted. Now let's set up the Zapier end.
Creating a Zap in Zapier
A Zap is what Zapier calls an automated connection between two apps. It watches for something to happen in one app (like a new booking on your site) and then does something in another app (like adding a row in Google Sheets).
You'll need your Zapier account open and ready before you start.
Log in to Zapier
Open your web browser and log in to your Zapier account.
Create a new Zap
This starts a new automated connection.
Click the Create Zap button. You'll usually find it near the top of the Zapier dashboard.
Pick Webhooks by Zapier as your trigger
A trigger is the event that starts the automation. In this case, the trigger is "your website sends data to Zapier."
When Zapier asks you to choose a trigger app, search for Webhooks by Zapier and select it.
Choose the Catch Hook event
This tells Zapier to listen for data coming from your website.
From the dropdown, select Catch Hook as the trigger event.
Copy your webhook URL
This is the link your WP Travel Engine site will use to send booking and enquiry data to Zapier.
Zapier will generate a unique webhook URL for you. Copy this URL so you can paste it into your site's settings.
Paste the URL into WP Travel Engine
This connects your website to the Zap you're building in Zapier.
Go back to your WordPress dashboard. Open the Zapier Integration settings page (from Step 1 above) and paste this URL into the booking or enquiry webhook field, depending on what you're setting up.
Send a test from your website
This sends a sample set of data through the webhook so Zapier can see what it looks like.
Submit a test booking or a test enquiry form on your website.
Check that Zapier received the data
This confirms the connection is working.
Go back to Zapier and click Test Trigger. If everything is connected properly, you'll see the data from your test booking or enquiry appear on the screen. If you see the data, you're connected and ready to choose what happens next in Zapier, like adding a row to a spreadsheet or sending an email.
You can add multiple webhooks for different purposes. For example, one webhook could send bookings to Google Sheets, while another sends enquiries to Mailchimp. Set up each one the same way, using a separate Zap in Zapier for each connection.
If you're still stuck or have a question we didn't cover, our support team is happy to help. Reach out at our support page and we'll get you sorted.