BEX data layer: overview and events

Through BEX data layer, Booking Experts sends booking and browsing activity as structured events; which are picked-up in Google Tag Manager and forwarded to tools like GA4, Google Ads, Meta Ads and TradeTracker.

Two types of sites via BEX CMS:

Booking sites are the typical website for a holiday park or concern.
Guests can search availability, add accommodations to a cart and book through a checkout portal with online payment. The main conversion event is purchase, which fires after a successful payment.
Sales sites show listings, property detail pages and inquiry forms.
They have no cart or checkout. The main conversion event is form_submit, which fires when a visitor sends an inquiry form.

Quick start checklist

Install the GA4 base tag on all pages.
Enable “Send ecommerce data” in the GA4 tag.
Create data layer variables for required custom fields.
Configure cross-domain measurement if multiple domains are involved.
Read more: Cross-domain tracking
Configure Consent Mode v2 if using Ads/remarketing.
Read more: Google Ads conversion tracking
Add a Conversion Linker tag if using Google Ads tags.
Trigger purchase and verify in DebugView.
Validate tags with GTM Preview + Tag Assistant.
Confirm reporting variables are mapped to GA4 custom definitions.

Optional: Connecting to Meta Ads or TradeTracker

Read more here: Meta Ads (Pixel / Conversions API) or TradeTracker

Upcoming changes

BEX data layer is moving to Google's GA4 recommended e-commerce schema.
Legacy events that don't follow this schema will be replaced by GA4-compatible events, and every event payload will include all required data in a consistent structure.

New events

View this page for more information on all new and current events.

Event	Status	Trigger location
`search`	Active	Sales site, booking site
`view_item_list`	Active	Booking site
`view_item`	Active	Booking site
`add_to_cart`	Active	Booking site, checkout portal
`remove_from_cart`	Active	Booking site, checkout portal
`begin_checkout`	Active	Checkout portal
`purchase`	Active	Checkout portal
`select_promotion`	Planned	Booking site, checkout portal
`search_results_loaded`	Planned	Booking site
`checkout_progress`	Planned	Checkout portal
`add_payment_info`	Planned	Checkout portal
`form_submit`	Planned	Sales site, booking site
`option`	Planned	Booking site
`bex_av_filter_applied`	Planned	Booking site

Deprecated legacy events

The following events will be removed. Make sure to replace the events with the new events. View this page for more information on all legacy events.

Legacy event	Replaced by
`productImpression`	`view_item_list`
`productDetail`	`view_item`
`promotionClick`	`select_promotion` (planned)
`formSubmit`	`form_submit` (planned)
`failed_payment`	None
`view_price_information`	None
`visit_checkout_step`	`checkout_progress` (planned)
`select_amenity`	`add_to_cart`
`deselect_amenity`	`remove_from_cart`
`ga4option`	`option`
`ga4optionConfirm`	-
`checkout`	`begin_checkout`
`addToCart`	`add_to_cart`

What has also been removed:

Legacy remarketing objects: all hrental_* objects and return_from_payment.

Data location

Within the dataLayer object, all e-commerce data moves into the ecommerce object.
Booking details will be in a separate top-level booking object.

Data	Old location	New location
Items	`items`	`ecommerce.items`
Currency	`currency`	`ecommerce.currency`
Value	`value`	`ecommerce.value`
Booking details	Purchase compatibility fields	`booking`

Old:

{ event: 'purchase', currency: 'EUR', value: 450, items: [...] }

New:

{ event: 'purchase', ecommerce: { currency: 'EUR', value: 450, items: [...] }, booking: { ... } }

Event flows

Every event is triggered at a certain step within the user journey. Since we offer multiple types of websites at Booking Experts. Below are some examples of a typical event flow.

1. Booking site

Step	Event	Where
1	`search_results_loaded` (Planned)	Search results
2	`view_item_list`	Search results
3	`view_item`	Rentable type page
4	`add_to_cart`	When add to cart button is pressed
5	`begin_checkout`	Checkout portal → stay step
6	`checkout_progress` (Planned)	Checkout portal → stay step when guest group or license plates change
7	`add_to_cart` / `remove_from_cart`	Checkout portal → Upgrades
8	`checkout_progress` (Planned)	Details step
9	`checkout_progress` (Planned)	Confirm step
10	`add_payment_info` (Planned)	Payment portal
11	`purchase`	Thank you page, after a successful payment

2. Site search

search → search_results_loaded

3. Sales sites

Visit property detail page → propertyDetail

GA4 enhanced measurement (avoid duplicates)

If you rely on BEX events, disable overlapping GA4 Enhanced Measurement features in the data stream settings to avoid duplication while tracking.

Form interactions: disable if you use the BEX form_submit event.
Site search: disable if you use the BEX search event.

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