TTIcodes
Why TTIcodes?
Before the arrival of the Internet, when a travel company contracted a hotel, they set it up in their database and sold it through a limited number of distribution channels and that was that.
As the Internet began to evolve and the travel industry started to make use of it as a new distribution channel, the concept of dynamic supply began to appear. These same travel companies found themselves having to manually cross reference hotels from multiple dynamic supply channels against each other and their own contracts to provide a coherent product display within their sales channels – a hugely wasteful activity replicated across the entire industry.
This issue was raised by our members, leading to several workshops which aimed to investigate the problem and look for possible solutions. The resulting research showed that there was a surprising number of variations of a hotel’s name, caused through misspelling, wrong translations or simply being incorrect and that this was one of the major reasons why the supply of a hotel via multiple dynamic supply channels was proving so problematic.
It was identified that this could only be resolved by the introduction of a unique managed ‘Hotel Code’ against which individual companies could map their Hotel Code. It was also identified that basic hotel information would be required to enable this cross-referencing process to be undertaken, namely the definitive name, address and where possible it’s geo location. The final piece of the puzzle that remained was for travel companies to use this unique Hotel Code alongside their own code when distributing content within their supply chains.
Thus, the TTIcodes initiative as we know it today was born.
What is a TTIcode?
It was agreed at the outset that the sole purpose of a TTIcode is to act as unique hotel identifier and no more than that, enabling the common usage of building regional or other hotel information into the code to be set aside.
It was decided that the structure of a TTIcode should be a simple 8-digit number but to minimise the risk of poor accuracy , this number should be made up of a random seven-digit numeric number and an additional eighth check digit, created using a modulus 8 calculation. This straightforward format approach has maintained accuracy and allowed TTIcodes to be rolled out much faster than other types of unique hotel identifier commonly in use within the industry.
The need for a Service Provider
As TTI is an enabler rather than a fulfilment organisation, it was identified very early during the workshop phase that a partner was required to deliver and manage the TTIcodes service. A company with a considerable depth of experience in managing coding and cross-reference databases would be required. It soon became clear that GIATA GmbH with its MultiCodes dataset would fit the bill and following negotiations they came onboard as our Service Provider.
Since joining the TTIcode Initiative, this core dataset has expanded from 200,000 to over 900,000 accommodation properties with cross referencing to over 520 Tour Operators, Hotel Brokers, Bed Banks, OTAs, 3rd Party Distribution Partners, Global Distribution Systems and Representation companies around the world with updates being applied on a daily basis.
With more than 63 million cross references this is now the largest database of its kind in the world.
TTIcodes Services
Those wishing to use any of the TTIcodes services will contract directly with GIATA. Clients will be able to submit their hotel databases for an initial matching. These will be returned with the addition of TTIcodes and any other information purchased. Any hotels that did not already have a TTIcode will be added to the TTIcodes database and have codes issued to them. In this way, the TTIcodes database will quickly grow, with the aim of TTIcodes becoming the single unique identifier for all hotels across the globe.
After the initial submission of a client’s own hotels, there is access to the entire TTIcodes database via the web or an OpenTravel standard XML interface. On request, clients can be provided twice per year with the latest database information based upon their level of subscription i.e. Level 1 or Level 2.
There are Three TTIcodes Services
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TTIcodes Module (Level 1) – This is the basic TTIcodes service that, for each hotel, will provide a TTIcode and detailed address information including contact numbers (if available).
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TTIcodes Module (Level 1) with Geo-coding – In addition to the above, hotels’ latitude and longitude coordinates will be provided together with an accuracy indicator.
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TTIcodes Plus (Level 2) – In addition to both of the above, this module will also provide hotel group and chain affiliations (where available) as well as GIATA MultiCodes – a unique GIATA code plus booking codes of approximately 250 tour companies, hotel brokers and other channels for each hotel.
Licence Types
There are a number of TTIcodes licence types as defined below:
There are Three TTIcodes Services
-
TTIcodes Module (Level 1) – This is the basic TTIcodes service that, for each hotel, will provide a TTIcode and detailed address information including contact numbers (if available).
-
TTIcodes Module (Level 1) with Geo-coding – In addition to the above, hotels’ latitude and longitude coordinates will be provided together with an accuracy indicator.
-
TTIcodes Plus (Level 2) – In addition to both of the above, this module will also provide hotel group and chain affiliations (where available) as well as GIATA MultiCodes – a unique GIATA code plus booking codes of approximately 250 tour companies, hotel brokers and other channels for each hotel.
Hotel Participation
TTI is keen that hotels participate in the TTIcodes initiative and has devised a very simple low cost pricing structure for both individual properties and hotel chains that wish to participate in the TTIcodes services.
To discuss pricing please contact pete.hazel@tticodes.org
For More Information about TTIcodes
For more information, please complete the form below and we will get in touch with you.