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Roadmap for connecting new OTA partners

Preparatory work

All inquiries are handled by the Connectivity Team.

The onboarding process for a new channel manager can and should be relatively automated:

  • Need for new interfaces is analyzed
  • Estimation of the duration of the connection process

Documents

  • Contracts (e.g. partnership agreement)
  • Confidentiality Agreements
  • Questionnaire technology (optional)
  • [Questionnaire for new partners]/(/certification_questionnaire_new_partner)
  • [Roadmap - Getting started using the OTA - REST API]/(/roadmap_quickstart)
  • Developer Guide
  • [Technical online documentation for OTA partners]/(/messages_overview)

Roadmap - the 4 phases of the connection process

  • Phase 1 – Initiation Phase
  • Phase 2 – Development & certification
  • Phase 3 – Tests and production with pilot hotels
  • Phase 4 - Production / live operation

Phase 1 – Initiation Phase

The sales partner and Kurzurlaub.de discuss and sign contracts (e.g. partnership agreement, confidentiality agreements, etc.) if necessary.

Exchange of documentation

The technical team of the reseller and Kurzurlaub.de IT will read the documentation of the respective far end and confirm its technical ability to establish a connection.

Deviations from the OTA standard

Deviations from the OTA standard are listed and evaluated with an effort in hours or days.

  • Who is responsible for the adjustments?
  • Who is programming against whose interface?
  • Authentication with hotel ID (can the hotel ID be stored with the partner and then sent to us?)
  • Necessary workarounds for different attribute names or content (e.g. attribute name for login or a period (start - end) where end is the day after)

Phase 2 – Development & certification

The development process is divided into 4 steps

  1. Account creation 2nd kick-off meeting
  2. Development / adjustments for the agent
  3. Certification

Step 1: Account creation

For the OTA partner (agent) will

  • created an Agent record with AgentDutyCode, login/pwd etc
  • created a test hotel (with single, double and one offer)
  • new agent is integrated in the test hotel
  • Setting up the HTTP Basic Auth for the agent
  • Request / deposit of agent IPs in the IP-WhiteList

At the OTA partner

  • Setting up a test account (backend CM system) to check mapping etc. sending reservations

Step 2: Kick off meeting

The kick-off call/meeting is a basic explanation of how the interface and connectivity works.

How does 2-way connectivity work?

  • Hotel information, rates and room type information must be defined on the Kurzurlaub.de system and manually loaded into the OTA system with their details/descriptions.
  • Using the functionality described in the documentation (reading functions for rooms / offers), the partner calls up the room types & offers defined at Kurzurlaub.de (with their RoomTypeCode / RoomID / RatPlanId / RatePlanCode).
  • Each XML message (room data, avail data, reservations) must contain the codes/IDs

Explanation of real-time data processing:

  • OTA partner sends availability / restrictions in real time to Kurzurlaub.de
  • per combination of HotelCode / RoomTypes (RoomTypeCode)

  • per combination of HotelCode / Room Types and Offers (Room/Rate = RoomTypeCode + RatePlanCode)

  • data can be received for 2 years in advance

  • after connecting and mapping, only the data that is changed in real time (when changing a tariff, making a reservation, etc.)
  • if necessary, planning updates for period X are sent every night

Bookings in real time

  • OTA partner retrieves new / unsent bookings of connected hotels every X minutes e.g. OTA_ReadRQ (1-way only)
  • The Push Notification System from Kurzurlaub.de sends new bookings in real time to OTA partners,
  • when they occur. (2-way) These bookings are then retrieved from the partner using the reservation ID (OTA_HotelResNotifRQ)

Step 3: Development / adjustments for the agent

The connectivity team will coordinate and track the development of the customizations for the OTA partner - the same employee will certify the connectivity.

The connectivity model is determined:

  • 1 or 2 way connectivity (with/without push notification)
  • Push Notification Service with / without XML in the message
  • Room or Room/Rate based

Step 4: Certification

The OTA partner and Kurzurlaub.de submit the final interface for certification.

Each provides the test plan documentation and specific test cases.

  • Booking 2 people / 1 room / 2 nights
  • Booking 2 people / 1 room / 2 nights with 2 services (1x and 2x service)
  • Booking 2 people / children
  • Booking 2 x 2 people / 2 same rooms / 2 nights
  • Booking 2 x 2 people / 2 different room types / 2 nights
  • Booking 2 x 2 people / 2 different room types / 3 nights + 2 x extension

bookings with RoomStays are to be tested

  • Conversion offer price in RoomStays e.g. prices per person for 2 people on 2 / 3 nights of RoomStays
  • Conversion extra nights in RoomStays

Stage 1: Test basic XML exchange: to check if everything works globally.

This is always only for the test hotel at Kurzurlaub.de on DEV / TEST or LIVE Stage and a test environment at the partner.

What Kurzurlaub provides and requires from the partner:

  • URLs of the individual XML services (retrieve data / send bookings)
  • DEV / TEST Stage URL
  • Live/production system URL
  • Is it always the same URLs or can it be different URLs for each method (like REST API)
  • A configured test hotel with typical hotel configuration: Multiple room types and types of rates/offers that the partner can support
  • An extranet access on the partner (or similar) to check the sending
  • A possibility to generate reservations/cancellations (and eventual changes if possible)

What to do with errors? If errors occur, our log and/or the standard OTA ErrorCodes will help.

Links to the documentation

Stage 2: If phase 1 is successful, Kurzurlaub.de and the partner uses a connector in the production environment and connects the test hotel.

What is being tested: XML exchange in real time during live operation (inventory update / postings)

Phase 3 – Test/Production with pilot hotels

Kurzurlaub.de and the OTA partner agree on a maximum of 3 pilot hotels, which are first connected in the production environment.

It is best for all parties if these hotels are existing users of Kurzurlaub.de and the partner.

Requirements for pilot hotels:

  • existing users of Kurzurlaub.de and the partner
  • Contact person in the hotel known, competent and accessible
  • regular page views
  • regular bookings
  • with / without PMS in the hotel (transmission of booking data in the hotel)

The lead time for the complete configuration of the pilot environments in live operation (mapping & synchronization) is usually 2-3 days.

Kurzurlaub.de internal:

OTA partner is set and visible in the reception but cannot be selected by the hotel itself.

Phase 4 – Production / live operation

As soon as the OTA partner is certified and the tests with the pilot hotels have been running successfully for about 2 weeks, further hotels can be added to the connection.

Kurzurlaub.de will provide the common connectivity process as well as the contact to the hotel team and the partner.

Kurzurlaub.de internal:

OTA partner is set and visible in the reception can be selected by the hotel itself.