The following provides information on the set up and use of the CARS+ interface for receiving reservations from the Tulsa Reservation Center. This chapter assumes that you are familiar with manual entry of reservations and the corresponding reservation reports.

Simply stated, reservations sent by the Reservation Center to the rental location are accepted by CARS+ and placed in a temporary file. This data is then merged into the CARS+ Reservation file along with all other reservations. A report of the data received and its status is generated so that a complete trail is maintained. For CARS+ Internet users, these reports come as e-mail messages to the Group E-Mail account or to another designated e-mail address. For stand alone systems these reports are printed, emailed, or written to disk.

Reservations are transmitted from DTAG to the client server over a Virtual Private Network (VPN). Unless instructed otherwise, Thermeon will request that reservation information be transmitted as soon as it is received -- as opposed to holding the data until 7 or 14 days prior to pickup.

I. SETUP

Before the reservation interface can be activated, set up of various CARS+ control files is required. These are listed below:

1. User Access File

A record must be created in the Edit User Access Fileprogram. If receiving reservations into multiple companies, a unique record must be created for each company. The fields that need to be filled in are shown below:

Employee:            RESINT (or RESIN2, etc. for multiple comanies)
Password:            RZMRG8
Menu Type:           ALL
Create Bill-to:      Y
Prompt CHGENV:       N
RW Initials:         RW
Company ID:          00 (or appropriate number)
RW Password:         (blank)
Fleet access Page 2: N
Default drawer:      (blank)
Allow bad cust:      Y
Allow rate edit:     Y
  -------
Password Exp Date:   01010000 (EARLIEST)
Account Exp Date:    12319999 (LATEST)

2. Terminal Records

A record must be created in the Edit Terminal Records program for each UAF record created in step #1 above. Fill in the fields as shown below:

Terminal Name:        RESINT (or to match field 1 of UAF record)
Terminal Type:        VDT
RA Printer:           /dev/null
CARS+ Report Printer: (see below)
Acctg Report Printer: /dev/null
Acctg Forms Printer:  /dev/null
Remote RA Type:       (blank)
Remote Report Type:   (blank)
Remote Acct Rpt Type: (blank)
Remote Acct Frm Type: (blank)
Default Location:     (enter "main" location code)
Default Drawer:       (enter drawer number for "main" location)
Shared Usage?:        N

Setting the CARS+ Report Printer (field 4) in Edit Terminal Records:

In all cases above, the device or printer name must also be defined in a separate Terminal Record where field 1 contains the name and field 2 contains the printer type, such as HPLASER or FIXEDFMT.

NOTE: In situations where a franchise dual-brands with Dollar Rent A Car, some of the setup procedures noted below may need to be modified. For details, please refer to the manual chapter Overview - Thrifty-Dollar Dual Branding.

3. Class, Location and Rate Codes

The following codes in your data files MUST MATCH the codes used by the Thrifty Reservation Center or a Conversion Record must be created to convert the Res Center codes to codes set up in your system. Conversion Records can be set up for Class Codes, Location Codes, and Rate Codes.

a. Class Codes.

Class Codes for vehicles should be the codes used by the Thrifty Res Center, such as 2D for a 4-door compact or 5 for a 2-door fullsize, etc. Franchises that dual-brand with Dollar may wish to use the Dollar class codes, such as CDAR and FCAR (using the preceding examples). In this case, Conversion Codes will need to be set up for the Thrifty location only.

b. Location Codes - owned locations.

Owned locations should be set up using the "official" Thrifty location code.

Examples:

Yuma, Arizona Airport
 YUM
Ridgecrest, CA (City)
Note: Closest airport is Inyokern, CA
 IYKE01

Note: Franchises that dual-brand with Dollar may need to precede the Thrifty location code with the letter "T" in order to distinguish between a Dollar location with the same code. Using the example shown above, the Yuma, Arizona location would be set up as TYUM.

c. Foreign Locations - Foreign location codes are defined in the Customer File.

d. Rates
A rate needs to be set up in CARS+ for each rate on file with the Thrifty Reservation Center. The Rate Product in CARS+ must match the rate type used by Thrifty (and which will be sent in the reservation), otherwise a Conversion Record will need to be set up. When a reservation is received from Thrifty, the process of building a complete rate in the CARS+ reservation proceeds as follows:
  1. The interface program attempts to find a rate in CARS+ whose Product matches the rate type sent by Thrifty on line 15 of the reservation (see Correspondence Chart below). If a matching Rate Product cannot be found, then the appropriate Rate Template is used. Please see the discussion on Rate Templates below.
  2. All pricing elements found in the CARS+ rate are loaded to the appropriate fields in the reservation.
  3. All pricing elements found in the Thrifty reservation are subsequently loaded to the appropriate fields in the reservation. This data will overwrite any existing data from the "local" CARS+ rate.
The scenario above accomplishes two things:
  1. It ensures that pricing sent by Thrifty in the reservation is always honored.
  2. It ensures that any pricing not sent by Thrifty is filled in, if desired.
Example: A four-day reservation is booked through the Thrifty Reservation Center. As such, Thrifty may send only daily and hourly rates in the reservation. If this data was used "as is" and after picking up, the customer decides to keep the vehicle for 10 days, the only pricing available on the rental is the daily rate and CARS+ will charge 10 times the daily rate. However, by first loading all pricing elements from the CARS+ rate (daily, weekly, monthly, etc.) and they overwriting the CARS+ daily rate with the daily rate sent in the reservation, the problem noted above is avoided. CARS+ is now able to charge 1 times the weekly rate and 3 times the daily rate.

Rate Templates

The reservation interface program will attempt to locate a rate product in CARS+ which matches the rate type sent in line 15 of the reservation (see Correspondence Chart below). If no match can be made, the fields for Daily, Weekly and Monthly Count along with the Package Count found on lines 8 and 9 are used to select an appropriate reservation template as listed below:

CARS+ Rate Product

Used For

RES-D

 Daily rental (less than a week)

RES-W

Weekly rentals

RES-M

Monthly rentals

RES-E

Weekend rentals. Note: This rate must have the "weekend controls" turned on.

RES-P

Package rate rentals. Can be either a weekend package or a period rate depending on local application.


It is recommended that all templates contain all pricing elements. In other words, the RES-D (daily) template should contain daily, weekly, hourly and possibly monthly pricing. This covers the eventuality that a reservation may be booked for only 3 days but when renting, the client may decide to keep the car longer. Any price element not sent in the reservation will by supplied by the template.

The Rate Rules for these templates should be defined in accordance with the rental period that they cover. Examples:

  • the rules for templates RES-E must include the weekend rules.
  • All of these templates should be defined as "Editable" so that corrections can be made at the time of rental if needed.
  • The rate amounts entered should be the standard walk-up rates.

4. Conversion Records

The Edit Conversion Records program may be used to convert codes used by the Thrifty Reservation Center to codes that are being used in CARS+. When a direct match cannot be made, the reservation interface program will attempt to look for a conversion record for the following items:

  • Vehicle Class
  • Location
  • Rate Product

For example, the Reservation Center may list Class 1 (Economy) cars at your location. In reality, however, there may not be any Class 1 vehicles in the fleet -- the intention is to give the customer a Class 2 (Compact). A Conversion Record should be created to convert Class 1 reservations received to Class 2 reservations in CARS+.

Another example may be that the Reservation Center uses the Location Code TUSC01 for your location. However, in CARS+ you have it set up as Location Code TUSTIN. A Conversion Record can change the location code through the Reservation Interface program.

Conversion records can also be created for Rate Codes. Before using the Template Rates mentioned in the section above, the Reservation interface program examines the Conversion Record file. If a Conversion Record is found for a rate, that is used rather than the template rate.

5. Edit Miscellaneous Control Fields.

Page 1, Field 25, "Print Res Int Rejects Only" (Print Reservation Interface Rejects Only). This field controls the content of the Interface Report.

Y = When a reservation is successfully merged, the report is a summary-only report. When a reservation is rejected, the full text of the reservation is printed.

N = The full text of the reservation is always printed regardless of whether the reservation was accepted or rejected.

II. OPERATIONS

All activities are automatic when the interface is operating. That is, reservations are automatically received into your system and merged into your Reservation File.

The Data

The transmission sent by the Thrifty Reservation Center consists of 27 lines of ascii text for reservation data plus a header and footer line containing batch data. Each data line contains multiple pieces of information. The various data items are parsed by character position. An example of the "raw" data as sent by Thrifty is shown below:

00:THRIFTYCAR TUL TO TUS 01/20/10 10:15:35 - BATCH NO:  13313
SSSSSSSSSS
01:R F3WT7Y   TUS               01/24/10 1300 01/29/10 0730  US/2845
02:SMITH/JOHN D                   THERMEON CORPORATION
03:
04:
05:
06:                                          0010227906 N                  USD
07:
08:MO:                  0.00 WK:  1             154.00 WE:                  0.00
09:DA:                  0.00 HR:                  0.00
10:XD:                 25.00 XH:                 15.00 FB:                  0.00
11:  1 2     W     G  DC:         0.00  CPM:      0.00 FBCPM:      0.00
12:MO:                  0.00 WK:                  0.00 WE:                  0.00
13:DA:                  0.00 HR:                  0.00
14:XD:                  0.00 XH:                  0.00 FB:                  0.00
15:  1                DC:         0.00  CPM:      0.00 GOVT        0.00
16:CARLSON WAGONLIT TRAVEL INC    49506741 GDS_DS
17:HENDERSON HALL BLDG 29 RM 302  (703) 979-2750                   N
18:1555 S GATE RD                 ARLINGTON            VA 22214      US
19:                                                              NNNN
20:
21:
22:
23:
24:
25:
26:
27:ZT AA 2A 01/20/10 09:17 GDS_DS
99:BATCH NO:  13313 TO TUS COMPLETE AT 01/20/10 10:15:35   1


When printing reservations in detail, the same data is shown minus the header and footer lines. The report will also contain a summary of the number of reservations processed by category: New Res's, Alters (modification to existing reservations), Cancels, and Rejects. An example of an interface report for a rejected reservation is show below:

11-25-09 08:47:55 RESIN2 RESIN2     00   THERMEON RENT A CAR                                  /dev/tty      Report #3402   Page 0001
 
                                    T H R I F T Y   R E S E R V A T I O N   I N T E R F A C E
 
SELECTIONS----------
Batch Name:         REAL_BCH
Rejects only:       Y
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SSSSSSSSSS
01:R F3053R   YUM               12/03/09 1228 12/06/09 1215  US/2845
02:JONES/MARTHA
04:                                                    NJ
06:                                                     N  000             USD
08:MO:                  0.00 WK:                  0.00 WE:  3              48.49
09:DA:                  0.00 HR:                  0.00
10:XD:                 60.99 XH:                 22.00 FB:                  0.00
11:  1 6D    D     G  DC:         0.00  CPM:      0.00 FBCPM:      0.00                    ** INVALID CLASS **
12:MO:                  0.00 WK:                  0.00 WE:                  0.00
13:DA:                  0.00 HR:                  0.00
14:XD:                  0.00 XH:                  0.00 FB:                  0.00
15:  1                DC:         0.00  CPM:      0.00 LCUE3       0.00
16:REGINAS TRAVEL AGENCY INC      31823724 GDS_1P
17:5 SCOTT ST                     (856) 764-0300                   N
18:                               RIVERSIDE            NJ 08075      US
19:                                                              NNNN
27:ZT 1P 2T 11/25/09 10:12 GDS_1P
                                                                                           ** RESERVATION REJECTED *
====================================================================================================================================
   1 REJECTS,    0 NEW RES'S,    0 ALTERS,    0 CANCELS
====================================================================================================================================

Rejected Reservations

Note that the reservation in the example above was rejected due to an invalid class code. This means that the reservation was sent with a class code that does not exist in CARS+ for the pickup location. This situation can be remedied by either setting up the class code in CARS+ or by creating a Conversion Record. The table below lists the various rejection notices that can print on the interface report and a brief description of the problem.

Message on Report Description
Duplicate Res A new reservation was received with the same confirmation number of an existing reservation.
Res Not Open A modification or cancellation was received for a reservation that is either filled or already canceled.
Res Not Available A modification or cancellation was received for a reservation that is "locked" by a user. typically this is because it is being displayed on a user's screen.
Res Not On File A modification or cancellation was received for a reservation (confirmation number) that cannot be found in CARS+.
Invalid Location The pickup location in the reservation cannot be found in CARS+.
Invalid Return Loc The return location in the reservation cannot be found in CARS+.
Invalid Pickup Date The pickup date on the reservation is either in the past or is not properly formatted.
Invalid Class The class code on the reservation does not exist in CARS+ for the pickup location.


Thrifty Reservation to CARS+ Correspondence Chart

In the following table, the Thrifty data fields are shown along with the corresponding CARS+ field. Note that few, if any, transmissions will contain all the fields listed below.


Thrifty
Line Number
 Thrifty Data Field CARS+ Data Field
01
 Tranx type

Confirmation number
 Res. confirmation number

Pickup location
 Pickup location

Drop location
 Return location

Pickup date
 Pickup date

Pickup time
 Pickup time

Return date
 Return date

Return time
 Return time

Flight Arrival
 Airline code and flight number
02
 Customer name
 Customer last name and first name

Company name
 Employer name
03
 Customer address line 1
 Customer street address 1

Customer telephone
 Customer home phone

Customer extension

Frequent Flyer Carrier
 Res Notes

Frequent Flyer account
 Res Notes
04
 Customer address Line 2
 Customer street address 2

Customer city
 Customer city

Customer state
 Customer state

Customer zip code
 Customer zip code

Customer country
05
 Local comments
 Local contact

Credit card code
 FOP Code in reservation and customer record

Credit card number
 Credit card number in reservation and customer record

Credit card expiration
 Credit card exipiraton date in reservation an customer record
06
 Promotional code
 Res Notes line 6

Discount percent
 Discount percent

Car options
 Desired options (Main window field 9b)

Corporation discount number
 Corporate ID

Special provisions

Package rate count
 (used for rate lookup)

Minimum applicable days

Maximum applicable days

Currency type
07
 Grace period allowed (in minutes)

Rental restriction notes
 Res Notes
08
 Monthly title

Monthly count

Monthly free miles

Monthly rate
 Monthly rate

Weekly /Package title

Weekly/Package count

Weekly/Package Free Miles

Weekly/Package rate
 Weekly rate

Weekend title

Weekend count

Weekend free miles

Weekend rate
09
 Daily title

Daily Count

Daily Free Miles

Daily rate
 Daily rate

Hourly title

Hourly count

Hourly free miles

Hourly rate
 Hourly rate
10
 Extra daily title

Extra daily count

Extra daily free miles

Extra daily rate
 XDay rate

Extra hourly title

Extra hourly count

Extra hourly free miles

Extra hourly rate

Fallback title

Fallback count

Fallback free miles

Fallback rate
11
 Car quantity

Car type
 Vehicle class

Rate type

Rate status

Drop charge title

Drop charge amount
 Drop charge

Charge per mile title

Charge per mile rate
 Mileage rate

Fallback charge per miles title

Fallback charge per mile rate
12
 Monthly title
 Res Notes

Monthly Count
 Res Notes

Monthly free miles
 Res Notes

Monthly rate
 Res Notes

Weekly/Package title
 Res Notes

Weekly/Package count
 Res Notes

Weekly/Package free miles
 Res Notes

Weekly/Package rate
 Res Notes

Weekend title
 Res Notes

Weekend count
 Res Notes

Weekend free miles
 Res Notes

Weekend rate
 Res Notes
13
 Daily title
 Res Notes

Daily count
 Res Notes

Daily free miles
 Res Notes

Daily rate
 Res Notes

Hourly title
 Res Notes

Hourly count
 Res Notes

Hourly free miles
 Res Notes

Hourly rate
 Res Notes
14
 Extra daily title
 Res Notes

Extra daily count
 Res Notes

Extra daily free miles
 Res Notes

Extra daily rate
 Res Notes

Extra hourly title
 Res Notes

Extra hourly count
 Res Notes

Extra hourly free miles
 Res Notes

Extra hourly rate
 Res Notes

Fallback title
 Res Notes

Fallback count
 Res Notes

Fallback free miles
 Res Notes

Fallback rate
 Res Notes
15
 Car quantity
 Res Notes

Car type

Requested rate category

Rate status

Drop charge title

Drop charge amount

Charge per mile title

Charge per mile rate

Requested rate product
 Rate Product

Fallback charge per mile rate
16
 Travel agency name
 Vendor name

IATA Number
 Vendor number

Reservation made by
17
 Travel agency address line 1
 Vendor address 1

Travel agency telephone
 Vendor phone

Travel agency extension

Commissionable flag

Commission percentage
 Commission percent
18
 Travel agency address line 2
 Vendor address 2

Travel agency city
 Vendor city

Travel agency state
 Vendor state

Travel agency zip code
 Vendor zip code

Travel agency country
19
 Blue chip number
 Other ID

Gender

Driver license number
 Driver license number

Driver license state
 Driver license state

Driver license expiration
 Driver license expiration date

Driver license birthday
 Customer's date of birth

PDW
 Customer coverage flag 1

SLI
 Customer coverage flag 2

PAI
 Customer coverage flag 3

Pre-paid gas
 Customer FPO flag

Language

Tour flag

Driver license expiration - Extended
20
 Blue chip residence address line 1

Blue chip residence telephone

Blue chip residence extension
21
 Blue chip residence address line 2

Blue chip residence city

Blue chip residence state

Blue chip residence zip code

Blue chip residence country
22
 Blue chip corporate address line 1

Blue chip corporate telephone

Blue chip corporate extension

Blue chip corporate address line 2

Blue chip corporate city

Blue chip corporate state

Blue chip corporate zip code

Blue chip corporate country
24
 Comment line 1
 If first 4 characters are YBC or ZBC, the following 6 characters are interpreted as a CARS+ customer number. Data from that customer record is loaded in to the Reservation.
25
 Comment line 2
 Res Notes
26
 Comment line3 Res Notes
27
 Company ID

Booking source

Source referral

Processing date

Processing time

Originator/Locator