Sabre Hotels - Geo Code Procedures

GEOCODES Hotel Operations Documentation

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SABRE USERGUIDE

FOR GEOCODES & HOTELS

Process, Usage & Definitions

GEOCODES Hotel Operations

SABRE Hotel Ops/LW-ED March 2008

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

WHAT IS A GEOCODE? ............................................................................................. 3

GEOCODING HOTELS................................................................................................ 3

New Hotel Builds – Geocode Assignment and Storage:................................. 3

Updates/Changes to Geocodes: ....................................................................... 4

GEOCODING POINTS OF INTEREST (POI)............................................................... 5

Assignment & Storage ....................................................................................... 5

Updates/Changes ............................................................................................... 5

• The following Points of Interest will not be accepted:................................. 5 • POI Categories allowed: ................................................................................. 5

INDEXES AND HCC TABLE ....................................................................................... 7

HOTEL SHOPPING USING GEOCODES ................................................................... 8

HOT Qualifiers .................................................................................................... 8

Shopping by Location Code .............................................................................. 9

Shopping by Distance and Direction ................................................................ 9

Shopping by Points of Interest: ...................................................................... 11

Shopping using HOG and HOX Formats ....................................................... 12

DEFINITIONS............................................................................................................. 14

Geocode: ........................................................................................................... 14

Confidence Level (factor): ............................................................................... 14

Geoservices Team ............................................................................................ 15

Location Locator (LL): ..................................................................................... 15

Attraction(s): ..................................................................................................... 15

Point of Interest: ............................................................................................... 15

Indexes: ............................................................................................................. 16

FLOW CHARTS ......................................................................................................... 17

Document Overview: This document is designed to explain the relationships, usage, and data management of Hotels and Geocodes. NOTE: Please refer to the “Definitions” section beginning on page 12 for explanation of terms used within this document.


SABRE Hotel Ops/LW-ED

WHAT IS A GEOCODE? A Geocode is the assignment of latitude and longitude coordinates and Confidence Level to a location. Once a location has been assigned latitude and longitude coordinates, it can be plotted on a map or can be reference to another geocoded location. However, it will not display in a search without the Confidence factor. This is why a Geocode consists of all three pieces of information. The process of geocoding enables precision in mapping and referencing locations. The Geocode is automatically assigned to the hotel by the map provider through an internal application called Location Locator. Sabre geocodes all of its hotel properties so that:

• Shoppers can request properties near specific points of interest and/or latitude-longitude coordinates

• Shoppers can see a property, or list of properties on a map • Shoppers can determine what points of interest are near a specific property

GEOCODING HOTELS

New Hotel Builds – Geocode Assignment and Storage:

When a new hotel is added to Sabre, the hotel information is entered in eHotels or via the HOT mask in Sabre. This property information is sent to Location Locator (LL) nightly. LL sends the property address to the map provider to obtain geocodes. The map provider returns geocodes for each property. LL stores the newly assigned geocode in the LL database and also sends the information back to eHotels to be stored there.

If there is a problem with the automatic assignment of a geocode through the automated process, the property must be manually geocoded by the Geoservices Team. This manual assignment is similar to the process defined below for updates.

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Updates/Changes to Geocodes:

A hotel may request an update to a geocode, by going to the Sabre Hotel eServices website http://hoteleservices.sabre.com and following the guidance found in the Geocodes & Mapping section.

The update spreadsheet form, instructions, and other information relating to proximity searches are accessed from this page. Example below

The geocode update spreadsheet must be filled in by the associate with the following information:

1. Sabre property ID number e.g. 53918 2. Latitude e.g. 29.23845 3. Longitude e.g. 82.19800 4. Confidence factor e.g. 1 5. Country code e.g. US

The spreadsheet is then sent to [email protected] by the associate.

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http://hoteleservices.sabre.com/

mailto:[email protected]


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GEOCODING POINTS OF INTEREST (POI) Assignment & Storage The Point of Interest is geocoded by the map provider. Geoservices maintains the POI database for proximity searches. POI geocodes are kept in LL and in HCC table.

Updates/Changes

• The following Points of Interest will not be accepted: Local Businesses - restaurants, local amusements, department stores, miniature golf, bars Annual Events - golf tournaments, races, festivals, parades Generic Points - downtown, business district, individuals' Names, oceans, bodies of water • POI Categories allowed: Amusement Park – AMUSE City Center – CITY City Hall – CITYH Corporate Headquarters – CORP Historical Site – HIST Local Airport – LAIR Local Park – LPARK

Museum – MUSE National Park – NPARK National Rail – NRAIL Ski – SKI State Park – SPARK

University – UNIV



The submission tool for adding a Point of Interest to the HCC table is located on the Hotel eServices website http://hoteleservices.sabre.com.

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http://hoteleservices.sabre.com/



INDEXES AND HCC TABLE Indexes are points of interest which may or may not be geocoded, displayed with distance to the hotel property. They provide an additional way for Subscribers to search for hotel properties. Hotels may be indexed to:

• 3-letter city or airport Sabre code • US point of interest • Non-US point of interest

Associates may request changes, additions & deletions of points of interest on the HCC table via the POI submission tool on Hotel eServices. The HCC table (Hotel State Code and Country) contains all current indexes established in Sabre system for use within the hotel indexing package. The points of interest are listed by US state code and by non-US country code.

The Sabre system will allow indexing points of interest only if they are spelled exactly as they are listed in the HCC table. Therefore, when adding a point of interest to a property, an Associate must retrieve the HCC table to verify the exact spelling of index point. A maximum of 15 index points are allowed per individual property via TPF. eHotels has no limit in number of index points.

The sample below shows the HCC table for Florida for points beginning with the letter ‘A’.

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Points of interest are displayed as Indexes in an HOD like this:

Sabre does not validate the point of interest or the proximity to the hotel when displayed in the HOD Index. Addition of a new point of interest which is not listed on the HCC table requires the Associate to request that a new point of interest be added to the table via the POI submission tool on Hotel eServices website. These reference points are limited to maximum of 25 characters each.

HOTEL SHOPPING USING GEOCODES Shopping for hotels in or near a specific location requires the use of HOT formats, appended with appropriate qualifiers to identify proximity to that location. The example below shows a simple request for hotels in DFW:

Hotel Shopping goes through eHotels to Location Locator to get the corresponding property list. The system then filters with eHotels and responds with eHotels data. HOT Qualifiers There are many qualifiers which can be appended to HOT format e.g. location, directions, distances, points of interest etc. All qualifiers are listed in Format Finder. These qualifiers allow hotel shopping to be refined and results display only those hotels that meet the request. There is no maximum limitation and all qualifiers are appended at the end of the format, separated with a slash.

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Shopping by Location Code Hotel properties that have indexed themselves to a specific Airport Code may be searched by a location code. There are 4 locations codes: A = Airport Hotels within 0 to 10 miles of the airport C = City / Downtown Hotels within 11 to 35 miles of the airport S = Suburban Hotels within 36 to 50 miles of the airport R = Resort Hotels within 51 and above of the airport

(the system enforces a max of 255 miles from the airport) The example below shows a request for all hotels indexed to DFW displayed with their distance from the airport at a City/Downtown level:

Shopping by Distance and Direction To view only hotels which have been geocoded to a specific location, the G qualifier is used. We are able to do this because all hotels have a geocode. This entry asks the system to return all hotels that are geocoded to in the DFW area: HOTDFW/G.

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To specify the distance or the direction, the following indicators are used if there is a need to search for hotels in a particular direction from the point of interest, then /D code has to be used with distances and directions.

/D =distance radius (the default distance is 20 miles) /D-xx = distance radius of xx /D-xxyy = distance radius of xx; direction yy /*SD = display the locations in order of distance from a point of interest

Both /G and /*SD can be appended to the HOT request to display geocoded hotels in order of distance from the point of interest. This entry will search for geocoded hotels located up to 30 miles North from Dallas sorted in distance order: HOTTX-DALLAS/*SD/D-30N/G

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This entry will search for hotels near another specific hotel, in this case, property # 3360: HOTGEOP‡3360

This entry will search for hotels around specific latitude and longitude coordinates: HOTGEOC‡32.2050,-90.8125

Shopping by Points of Interest: HCC/HCCC entries may be used to help find points of interest as they are listed in the table by State or Country. State o To decode State code: HCC state name (ex: HCCTEXAS). The state code for

Texas is TX o To display all points of interest in the state that begin with the letter N: HCC state

code*N (ex: HCCTX*N). Country

o To decode non-US country code: HCCC/country name (ex: HCCC/POLAND. The country code for Poland is PL.

o To display all points of interest for this country which begin with letter K: HCCC/country code*K (ex: HCCC/PL*K/PL*K).

Beginning with a specific point of interest, searches may be made for hotel availability near that point:

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HOTTX-NASA This request will return results displaying a list of hotels near NASA:

Shopping using HOG and HOX Formats The HOG entry is used to display points of interest near a specific property as determined by the actual proximity of the geocoded property and the geocoded points of interest.

This format displays a list, based on geocoding of both the hotel and the points of interest which are located within a ten-mile (16 kilometers) distance from a specified hotel as determined by Location Locator. These results are based on the actual location of the points of interest, according to geocoded coordinates and are displayed with direction and distance from the property. In this case, the results show that University Park is 2 miles South East of the Hilton Dallas Park Cities. If a hotel is located in a remote area there may be no Points of Interest within the ten mile range. The mileage information is displayed either in kilometers or in miles, based on the shopping person preferences:

The HOX entry is used to display a list of points of interest which have been indexed to the hotel property chosen from the master index table (HCC table).

There is no validation of distance and direction by the Sabre system, either at the time of hotel updating or at the time of shopping. It includes those points to which the hotel has chosen to be indexed.

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In this case, the results show that Texas Stadium is 11 miles east of the hotel. For EPN properties, it is necessary to make an HOD entry first for the HOX to work. The HOX for EPN properties allows a TPF entry, but is actually pulling information from eHotels.

Note: For both HOG and HOX searches, the mileage information may be displayed either in kilometers or miles, based on the shopper’s preferences:

o in miles: HOX(property number)/DM-MI o in kilometers: HOX(property number)/DM-KM

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DEFINITIONS Geocode:

A Geocode is a geographical code to identify a specific location. A Geocode contains: Latitude (LAT), Longitude (LNG) and GEO Confidence Level (CF) e.g. [LAT 33.15670, LNG 36.12401, CF1]

Geocoding is the process of assigning geographic coordinates: Latitude and Longitude to addresses, as well as other points and features allowing it to be mapped correctly.

Confidence Level (factor):

The Confidence Level (CF) is a digit from 1 to 10 which indicates the accuracy of the Latitude and Longitude assigned to the property is, based on accuracy of the address provided and the current mapping and geocodes available from the provider. The accuracy of geocoding differs by country and can be different for regions within the same country. The lower the CF number is, the more accurate the location. There are 10 Confidence Levels:

Confidence Level

Description The Location Was Resolved to:

1 ADDRESS a discrete address 2 INTERSECTION a street intersection 3 STREET a range of street addresses 4 ZIP9 the 9-digit (ZIP+4) zip code 5 ZIP7 the 7-digit (ZIP+2) zip code 6 ZIP the 5-digit zip code level 7 CITY city level 8 COUNTY county level 9 STATE state level 10 COUNTRY country level

Example: The Confidence Level tells us the highest level of mapping available. If Mapquest provides street level detail for the country of Spain, then any property in Spain loaded in Sabre is validated at street level will have at least a CF of 3. The lower the Confidence Level, the more accurate the location is.

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Geoservices Team

Geoservices is the team who manages the assignment, maintenance and updates of geocodes. Geoservices maintains the relationship with the map provider.

Location Locator (LL):

Location Locator is an application used by Geoservices, where hotels, car rental locations, polygons and POI data are kept in a database and it allows programs such as Travelocity and/or GetThere to perform proximity searches based on this data. LL communicates with the mapping provider to geocode an address.

Attraction(s):

This is free descriptive text which may be entered in either in Sabre TPF or eHotels. It is not validated by Sabre and is not searchable.

Point of Interest: A Point of Interest (POI) is any specific location, such as airport, city center, historic site or other attraction, which is located within 10 miles of the hotel queried.

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Indexes:

The Index list displays points of interest (airports, theme parks, shopping areas, museums, etc) which the hotel has chosen to be indexed to, displayed along with the proximity and direction of each point of interest to the hotel. Mileage and direction are provided by the hotel and are not validated by Sabre but may be used as qualifiers in a shop. “Indexes” in Sabre are displayed as “Points of Interest” in eHotels and as “Nearby Attractions” on Travelocity.

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FLOW CHARTS

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Documents

Sabre Hotels - Geo Code Procedures