Overview
WaveRez supports tracking the source of an Order by attaching a username to the booking portal URL. When a guest arrives at the booking portal through a URL with ?from=username appended, any booking they make is automatically tagged to that username. Partners use this to track which website, affiliate, marketing campaign, or referral partner drove a sale, and to filter bookings by source on the Agent Sales Report. Setup involves creating a dedicated user in WaveRez Admin (the user does not need login access, they just need to exist), then appending ?from=username to the booking portal URL or a Trip-specific URL shared with that source. This is different from setting up an Affiliate or Custom Portal user, URL tracking is purely for attribution and reporting, not for granting access to WaveRez.
Prerequisites
You must have access to General > System Setup > Users in WaveRez Admin to create the tracking user. You also need access to your booking portal URL or the URLs of specific Trips you want to track.
Create a Dedicated User for Tracking
URL tracking attributes bookings to a specific username. To use the feature, that username has to exist as a user account on your WaveRez Admin, even if no one will ever log in with it. The recommended approach is to create a separate, dedicated user for each source you want to track (one user per affiliate, one user per partner website, one user per marketing campaign, etc.). This keeps the attribution clean and avoids mixing URL-driven Orders with internally created Orders.
⚠️ Use a dedicated tracking user. Do not reuse a real staff member's username. If a staff member's username is used in a ?from= URL and that staff member also creates internal Orders manually, the Agent Sales Report mixes both sources together and there is no way to separate URL-driven Orders from internally created ones. Always create a separate user account specifically for tracking purposes.
Step 1 — Open General > System Setup > Users in WaveRez Admin. The Users page lists all existing user accounts on the account.
Step 2 — Click the Register button in the top-right corner of the Users page. WaveRez Admin opens the user registration form.
Step 3 — Complete the registration form with a username that clearly identifies the source you are tracking. Examples: affiliate-johnsmith, partner-website-xyz, marketing-spring2026. The username will appear in URLs and on reports, so use something readable but distinctive.
Step 4 — Fill in the email field with any valid email address. Permissions and the Crew member / Custom portal Type selector do not matter for tracking-only users, the user will never log in and never accesses any features.
Step 5 — Set a password meeting the WaveRez password requirements. Since the user will never log in, the password is not shared with anyone. It just needs to exist on the account.
Step 6 — Click Save in the top-right corner. WaveRez Admin creates the user account. The new username is now available to use in tracking URLs.
For full details on the user registration form and password requirements, see the Manage Users and Permissions in WaveRez Admin article.
Build the Tracking URL
Once the dedicated user exists, the next step is constructing the tracking URL. The tracking parameter is ?from=username, appended to the end of any booking portal URL or Trip-specific URL.
Step 1 — Find the booking portal URL or Trip URL you want to track. To find the general booking portal URL, open WaveRez Admin and click Booking Portal in the Marketing menu — the URL in the new browser tab is your booking portal URL. To find a Trip-specific URL, navigate to the individual Trip's listing page on the booking portal and copy the URL from the address bar.
Step 2 — Append ?from= followed by the tracking username to the end of the URL. The username must match exactly what you entered in General > System Setup > Users during the user creation step — usernames are case-sensitive.
Step 3 — For a general booking portal tracking link, the URL looks like this:
https://reservations.waverez.com/yourpartnerurl?from=exampleuser
This sends guests to the full booking portal where they can browse and book any Trip, with attribution to exampleuser on whatever they end up booking.
Step 4 — For a Trip-specific tracking link, the URL looks like this:
https://reservations.waverez.com/yourpartnerurl/details/TRIP_ID?from=exampleuser
This sends guests directly to a specific Trip's booking page with attribution to exampleuser.
Step 5 — Share the tracking URL with the affiliate, partner website, or marketing source. Any booking that originates from a guest clicking that link will be tagged with the tracking username automatically.
How the Tracking Works
When a guest clicks a tracking URL, the ?from= parameter is recorded and the guest's booking session is associated with that username. If the guest completes a booking at any point during that session, the resulting Order is automatically tagged with the tracking username on WaveRez's side.
The attribution persists even if the guest does not book immediately. Orders placed within approximately 7 days of the original click are still attributed to the tracking username, as long as the guest returns from the same browser. After the attribution window expires, a returning guest's booking is no longer tagged.
This means partners can share a tracking URL in an email or social post, and a guest who clicks the link Monday but doesn't book until Wednesday is still attributed correctly.
View Tracked Bookings on the Agent Sales Report
⚠️ V2 Reports are not live yet — use V1 reports for tracked booking data in the meantime. WaveRez V2's Reports section is in active development and is not yet available. To view bookings tagged by URL tracking, log into V1 and run the Agent Sales Report there. Filter by the tracking username (the user you created in General > System Setup > Users) to see all Orders attributed to that source. Once V2 Reports launch, this article will be updated with the V2 reporting path.
The Sales Report in V1 lets you filter all bookings by Agent, where an Agent corresponds to a user on the account. Selecting your tracking user from the Agent filter shows every Order attributed to that source, the date and time of each booking, the Trip and tickets booked, and the total revenue from that source. Use this report to:
Calculate affiliate payouts based on actual bookings driven
Compare performance across multiple tracking sources
Verify that a website integration or marketing campaign is producing bookings
Reconcile commission statements with referring partners
URL Tracking vs. Affiliate or Custom Portal Users
URL tracking using ?from= is a different mechanism than the Custom portal user type in WaveRez Admin. Choosing the right approach depends on what the source needs to do.
Use URL tracking (this article) when:
The source just needs their bookings tagged for reporting and payout calculation.
The source does not need to log into WaveRez.
You want a simple, low-effort attribution method that works through any link.
Use a Custom portal user (separate setup) when:
The source needs their own dedicated booking portal with custom branding or behavior.
WaveRez Support has specifically instructed you to set one up.
The Custom portal user type is a specialized account configuration reserved for very specific use cases — most partners tracking affiliates, marketing campaigns, or referrer websites should use URL tracking instead. The Custom portal type exists only for a duplicate-portal feature that requires support guidance to configure correctly.
Troubleshoot Common URL Tracking Issues
Bookings from my tracking link are not showing up under the tracking user
Symptom: A guest clicked a tracking URL and booked, but the resulting Order is not appearing on the Agent Sales Report under the tracking username.
Cause and resolution: Check each of the following:
The username in the URL doesn't match a real user. Open General > System Setup > Users and confirm the exact spelling and capitalization of the tracking username. The
?from=value must match exactly —JohnSmithandjohnsmithare different users to the system.The tracking parameter is malformed. The correct format is
?from=username(with a question mark beforefrom, an equals sign, and the username). Common mistakes: using&from=when no other parameters exist, using?from usernamewith a space, or accidentally including quotes around the username.The guest used a different browser or device than they originally clicked from. Attribution is tied to the guest's browser session. A guest who clicks the link on their phone and then books on a desktop will not be attributed to the tracking user.
The 7-day window expired. If the guest clicked the link more than 7 days before completing the booking, attribution may have expired.
The booking was created internally. Internal Orders created by staff in WaveRez Admin are not tagged by URL tracking.
A staff member's bookings are mixing in with my tracking user's bookings
Symptom: The Agent Sales Report for a tracking user includes Orders that the partner did not expect — typically internal Orders created by staff.
Cause and resolution: This happens when a real staff member's username has been used in ?from= URLs. Internal Orders created by that staff member are also tagged to their username, mixing with URL-driven Orders. The fix is to create a separate, dedicated tracking user in General > System Setup > Users (one with a name like affiliate- or tracking- so it cannot be confused with a real staff account), update all tracking URLs to use the new dedicated username, and stop using staff usernames in tracking URLs going forward.
I want one tracking user to track multiple websites or sources
Symptom: The partner is using a single tracking user across several websites or campaigns and now wants to separate the data.
Cause and resolution: A single tracking username cannot retroactively distinguish which source produced which Order — all bookings under that username are mixed together. Going forward, create a separate tracking user for each source you want to track separately (one for each affiliate, website, or campaign), and update each source's URL with its own dedicated ?from= value.
The tracking link works but the URL looks ugly when shared
Symptom: The tracking URL with ?from=username appended is long and not user-friendly when shared in marketing materials.
Cause and resolution: Use a URL shortener (like Bitly or TinyURL) or a custom branded short link to wrap the full tracking URL. The shortened link redirects to the full URL with ?from=username intact, and attribution still works correctly. This also lets the partner change the destination URL later without reissuing the shortened link.
URL tracking works on a direct link but not when opened in the Lightframe pop-up
Symptom: The tracking URL works when opened directly in a browser tab but does not seem to attribute bookings when clicked from a website using the WaveRez Booking Portal Lightframe.
Cause and resolution: When using the Lightframe install on a website, the tracking URL must still include the ?from=username parameter on the link target — the Lightframe respects the URL parameter and passes it through to the booking portal. If the website button or link is set to the bare booking portal URL without the tracking parameter, no attribution occurs. Update the link target on the website to include ?from=username. For the full Lightframe install steps, see the Install the WaveRez Booking Portal Lightframe article.