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OpenTravel Newsletter March 2009
March 25, 2009
Events
OpenTravel will go on the road in 2009 to hold a series of half-day and day-long events during 2009 in various cities in the US and possibly western Europe in place of its annual Advisory Forum, previously scheduled for April 2009.
With the current state of the economy in the travel industry, this new format will help members and other interested individuals keep their travel costs down by attending an event closer to home, but still take advantage of the great networking and educational sessions that characterize OpenTravel events.
We’ll publicize these events as they are confirmed, which will be open to members and non-members. If you’d like to suggest a location, session topic or speaker, please contact Valyn Perini at valyn.perini@opentravel.org. Sponsorships are also available for these events.
In April, OpenTravel will launch FastRez, a connectivity solution for less complex hotels to use to connect to their trading partners.
Some FastRez facts:
- Easy implementation for robust two-way connectivity between trading partner applications, including property management systems, central reservation systems, booking engines and distribution companies
- Rapid time-to-market for new trading partners and new products because the schema are compact and defined
- Affordable direct-connect tool for broader inventory distribution or more targeted markets
- Based on an appropriately scaled version of the proven OpenTravel standard messages
- Includes messages for availability, reservation, cancel and retrieval, along with supporting documentation and tools
For more information, contact valyn.perini@opentravel.org.
Advertise Your Membership
All member companies of OpenTravel have the right to use the
OpenTravel logo on marketing materials, including online, in printed
materials, presentations and booth signage. There are three versions
available:
Logo with tagline
Logo with ‘member’
Logo for members with registered messages
All versions come in .EPS and .JPG formats, and the OpenTravel logo on websites must link back to www.opentravel.org. If you’d like a logo to
advertise your OpenTravel implementation and membership, please contact
Caliene Isaacs at caliene.isaacs@opentravel.org. Include your
preferred version and format, and we’ll get it out to you ASAP.
OpenTravel on Social Networks
Do you use LinkedIn or Twitter? OpenTravel does.
Visit the OpenTravel LinkedIn Group “OpenTravel Alliance” or click
here. Be sure to join the group to receive updates and news from
OpenTravel, and post your own questions and news related to OpenTravel.
On Twitter, you can keep up with OpenTravel by following ValynP (we’re working on acquiring the OpenTravel user name).
Webinars
OpenTravel continues to hold two webinars for members –
Introduction to OpenTravel, an overview of OpenTravel’s processes and
organization – and Introduction to OpenTravel Schema, an overview of
the structure and usage of our schema. For more information, including
dates and how to sign up, click here.
2008B Publication
OpenTravel released the 2008B version of our schema in December 2008. That release included our first dynamic packaging messages. For more information, click here.
2009A Member Review
The 2009A member review specification has been posted, and is available for download from the OpenTravel wiki (you must have a members-only account on the wiki).
The 2009A Member Review release introduces six new message sets:
Hotel Availability Search – OTA_HotelAvailGetRQ/RS – provides the ability to request availability details for hotel properties by specific criteria that may include dates, date ranges, rates, rooms, and products
Hotel Inventory Block Search – OTA_HotelInvBlockRQ/RS – provides the ability to request inventory block details for hotel properties by specific criteria that may include dates, date ranges, rates, rooms, and products
Hotel Inventory Count Search – OTA_HotelInvCountRQ/RS – provides the ability to request inventory count details for hotel properties by specific criteria that may include dates, date ranges, rates, rooms, and products
Profile Merge – OTA_ProfileMergeRQ/RS – provides for the merging of one or more profiles
Profile Modify – OTA_ProfileModifyRQ/RS – provides for modifying a profile identified by a UniqueID and is used for a full overlay of the profile
Vehicle Reservation Notification – OTA_VehResNotifRQ/RS – provides the ability to inform a trading partner of a confirmation or an update of an existing rental car reservation
In addition, OpenTravel has updated a number of Air and Authorization messages in response to submitted comments. Members should also be aware that OpenTravel plans to remove all default attribute values from the specification by the 2009A public release.
Please click here to enter a comment.
The member review comment period will end on Tuesday 14 April 2009.
Member Discount for TTI Spring Conference
TTI is offering a registration discount to OpenTravel members to its spring conference on 28 April 2009 in London. Click here for more information.
OpenTravel has Moved
Please note our new contact information:
OpenTravel Alliance
1740 Massachusetts Avenue
Boxborough, MA 01719
+1 978 263 7606
OpenTravel welcomes Caliene Isaacs to the staff. Caliene is responsible for general administration and accounting, and we’re glad to have her with us! You can reach Caliene at caliene.isaacs@opentravel.org.