Distribution Solution Setup

Starting a new project is always a tricky task - it's often difficult to accurately estimate the resources and time required and this can lead to a possible inefficiency and ineffectiveness of the project, as well as a waste of time.

At TravelgateX we want to ease that process by providing you all the necessary information, roadmap and timings to effectively calculate the amount of resources that will require. That's why we've splitted the Distribution solution setup into 5 steps:

Activate your Sellers

You will find more information on our Auto-Activations process here. If you are going to start only with your own direct portfolio (static rates), you can jump straightly to the next step. 

Inventory Setup

You will find more information on Inventory Setup here. The Inventory setup step will be required in three scenarios:

1. Uploading your direct portfolio (static rates) - since it is your direct portfolio, you should keep availability and prices updated manually. 
2. Connecting Channel Managers
3. Both

You can skip this part if you are only going to connect with Pull Sellers.

Hotel-X Mapping

Our Distribution solution consists of multiple layers, and one of them is the Hotel-X API. It is the one that aggregates all your product (direct and third party), so you can then distribute it to your Buyers.

In order to do so, our Hotel-X API needs to know what is the relation between your own codes and the Seller codes. 

FTP access and credentials 

You can access our FTP from any FTP application by configuring the following information:

• Port: 21
• Host: ftp.xmltravelgate.com
• Credentials: Provided to the Organization owner at TravelgateX.com, along with the welcome email (we send them from jenkins-ci) 

Hotel-X Mapping files

There are six mapping files in Hotel-X (the more you map, the more accurate you can be in your aggregation). We recommend to start at least with the following ones:

• Hotel Map
• Board Map
• Room Map

Our mapping formats share a common structure, so you just need to follow the instructions below:

Create the mapping directory

Unfold your Organization folder and click on the "F0_" folder. Then click on the "HotelX_" folder and create the "Maps" folder:

The "Maps" folder will be the one where you will have to allocate all the mapping files.

Hotel-X mapping files format

You should follow the below format when generating the mapping files:

• • File Name: [Context Source]_[Context Destination]_[entity]_map.csv
    • Context Source: it corresponds to your own codes
    • Context Destination: it corresponds to the supplier code
    • 1 file for each supplier
  • Header Row: Code Source, Code Destination
    • Context Source: it corresponds to your own codes
    • Context Destination: it corresponds to the supplier codes
  • Delimiter: Comma (“,”)
  • Directory: /F[folder code]_[unique code]/HotelX_[unique code]/Maps/[entity]/

File names:

• Hotel Map: [Context Source]_[Context Destination]_hotel_map.csv
• Board Map: [Context Source]_[Context Destination]_board_map.csv
• Room Map: [Context Source]_[Context Destination]_room_map.csv 

Master files definition

Through the master files you will be able to configure the static content your Buyers will be downloading when connecting to you. That is, your own codes (hotel, room, board, etc.).

There are up to 10 master files, but we recommend to start at least with three of them:

• Hotels
• Rooms
• Mealplans

Master files directory

You should upload the master files into the Distribution folder as per below: 

Master files format

You should follow the format detailed for each of them:

• Master Hotels 

• Master MealPlan
• Master RoomList

Distribution setup

Before being able to connect your first Buyer, you should create the agency or agencies that will represent your clients in our Distribution extranet.

Once created, you'll be able to configure the distribution rules applicable for that agency.

Activate your Buyers and sell your product

The last step will be to request the activation of the Buyers you have an agreement with through our Connect Form:

1. In order to request the activation you will have to retrieve the user and the access token from our Distribution extranet:

• User: It is the ID of the agency you created for the Buyer you want to connect:
  
  
  
  

In case of multiple accesses for the same Buyer (e.g. B2B/B2C), you should repeat this process for each of them.

• Access Token: Automatically generated once you create the agency, it can be obtained by clicking the Token button:
  
  

 

2. Request the activation through our Auto-Activations form.

Once you click in New Connection (more information here), make sure you add to the form the user and access token:

 

2. Create a test hotel and set up your product!

Check out our articles How to connect to a Channel Manager via TravelgateX and How to set up and load product in Inventory for further information.