Documentation
Guides for owners, reservations staff and the developers of channels connecting to Riverdesk.
Getting started & administration
Setting up a company, people and roles, going live, backups and outages.
- What Riverdesk isThe parts of Riverdesk, who uses each one, and how they fit together.
- Signing in for the first timeCreating your password from an invitation, the two-step code, a forgotten password, and switching language.
- Setting up your companyWhat is prepared for you, and the settings to check before the first booking.
- People and rolesThe four roles, what each may do, inviting and removing people.
- Going liveImporting your existing bookings and the checklist before the first real booking.
- Backups, alerts and outagesHow your data is kept safe, how you are warned, and what the office does if Riverdesk is unreachable.
- Privacy and guest dataHow passports are protected, how long data is kept, and handling a guest's request for their data.
Staff guide
Every screen of the back office, step by step.
- TodayThe first screen each morning — everything that needs doing, most urgent first.
- New bookingTaking a booking on the phone in under a minute.
- BookingsFinding a booking, guests, payments, changes, cancellation and documents.
- RequestsAnswering agency requests before their deadline.
- InventoryFree cabins per departure, blocks, stop sale and emergencies.
- ScheduleDepartures, cancellations, date and port changes, dry dock — with the impact shown first.
- Rates and policiesEditing prices per season, category and occupancy; supplements; reading the policies.
- ChannelsAgencies and platforms, their contracts, allotments, API keys and webhooks.
- PaymentsThe payments ledger; recording payments, refunds and corrections.
- Guests and manifestsWho is aboard each departure, cabin numbers, manifests and rooming lists.
- DocumentsVouchers, itineraries, payment schedules and cancellation terms, in Arabic or English.
- Vacancy sheetThe weekly list of free cabins for agencies that are not connected.
- SettingsPeople and invitations, company details and defaults.
- Pilot dashboardFor owners — is the system healthy and is the office keeping its promises?
Channel API guide
For agencies and platforms connecting their systems.
- OverviewWhat the Channel API does, the base URL, and the flow from availability to a booking.
- AuthenticationClient credentials, tokens, and rotating secrets without downtime.
- Availability and quotesWhat you may sell, free cabins per sailing, and pricing a booking.
- Holds and bookingsHolding cabins, confirming with guests, releasing, and reading a booking.
- Requests and offersOn-request contracts — sending a request, the decision, and alternative offers.
- Changes and cancellationsGuest details, amendments with the price first, and cancellation with its penalty.
- Events and webhooksSigned webhooks, ordering and duplicates, the event types, and catching up from the feed.
- Errors and retriesThe error format, every error code, idempotency keys and what to do in each case.
- Sandbox and going liveTesting on the sandbox company, and the checklist before selling for real.
Concepts & glossary
How Riverdesk thinks about sailings, inventory and money — in plain words.
- Routes, itineraries, sailings and legsHow one vessel's weekly route becomes the cruises you sell.
- Inventory and why it never oversellsPools, allotments, blocks, holds and the nightly reconciliation check.
- Holds, requests and booking statesThe life of a booking from first hold to completion, and every state it can be in.
- PricingRate plans, seasons, occupancy, children, supplements and channel markups.
- Payments, deposits and refundsWho collects the money, deposits and balances, currencies, and the append-only ledger.
- Channels and contractsThe terms each agency or platform sells under.
- GlossaryEvery term used in Riverdesk, in plain words.