Insurance excess information is now available in the Direct Connect availability and reservation XML responses - see the Technical Documentation tab for more details.
New Reference Data files are now live for Special Equipment (Extras) availability by Avis location and pricing and for lookup of UK Delivery and Collection location by UK postcode - see the Reference Data tab for more details.
Please be informed that the telephone number and the support hours of the IT Service Desk have been changed.
The new telephone number is +44 844 544 7373.
The new support hours are:
Weekdays:
On call Priority 1 support between 06:00 and 07:00
Normal office hours between 07:00 and 17:00
On call Priority 1 support between 17:00 and 22:00
Saturdays and Sundays:
On call Priority 1 support between 06:00 and 22:00
Please note all times quoted are UK times.
IT Service Desk
e-mail: ITServicedesk@avis-europe.com
Avis Europe is excited to present the updated XML specification document from Avis Budget Group, the service provider for the Avis Direct Connect XML interface, featuring an upgraded OTA (Open Travel Alliance) XML schema from version 2003A to 2008A.
This update is required to support several key new projects including Paperless (electronic) Vouchering. This change is reflected in the latest Direct Connect Message Spec. (July 2008 version), which is available on the Technical Documentation tab.
This schema change should be seamless as the new schema is an expansion of the current schema and is backward compatible. No changes are required on your part and we don’t expect any impact to current transactions. However, in order to ensure a smooth transition, we are asking for your assistance in performing some regression testing against our QA environment.
Partners still using the OTA 2001B schema will still be able to use this version of the standard but will not benefit from the support for new projects including Paperless Vouchering and are encouraged to consider moving to the 2008A schema as soon as is practical.
The intention is to put the 2008A schema into production on Tuesday night, October 14, 2008. We would appreciate you completing testing by October 7, 2008 and reporting any issues. The recommendation is to check samples of the existing OTA messages currently being used in production against the qaservices.carrental.com test web service.
If you are interested in using the new Paperless Vouchering functionality please contact your Avis Account Manager.
From 1 October 2008, please send any technical questions on your Avis Europe Direct Connect development to the following mailbox:
Direct.Connect@avis-europe.com
Please include the words Technical Query in the subject line of the email, and include the name of the development partner
either in the subject line or text of the email.
Whenever possible please include any XML requests and responses relating to your query.
Use of this mailbox will enable Avis Europe to monitor and distribute these queries internally and ensure cover for Direct Connect developments.
The Reference Data section of this website has been updated with information on new data extract files
that are being produced daily from the new Avis Europe website platform (see avis.co.uk) for Avis Europe B2B partner use.
These files cover:
- Avis Locations data – including services and Special Equipment availability at each Avis rental location, geo-coding and full address and contact information
- Avis Regions data – helping partners to map Avis regions to Countries / Continents
- Avis Location Opening Hours – please note that we also already provide data on holiday dates and times
- Credit Card requirements for rental by location and car group
- Driver age requirements for rental including charges text in all languages currently supported by the new web
The Avis Budget Group and Avis Budget EMEA Ltd are engaged in a new IT project called Constraint Relief that includes the expansion of our Location Mnemonic code from the current 3-characters to 5-characters. These changes apply to both Avis and Budget locations.
While we understand that a vast majority of reservations occur for airport locations, which will very likely retain the 3-character pattern, as new locations are created it is probable that these location codes will be created using 4 or 5 significant characters. After Constraint Relief, valid Location Mnemonic codes will be present in 3, 4, and 5-character form. Therefore, in order to place reservations at these locations, the reservation message sent through Direct Connect will have to contain a location code of 3, 4, or 5-characters. For example:
Location Name | before Constraint Relief | after Constraint Relief |
 | | |
JFK Airport, Jamaica NY | "JFK" | "JFK" |
East 43rd Street, NYC | "E43" | "E43" |
New Location 1 | n/a | "W78A" |
New Location 2 | n/a | "NYRK4" |
(new location examples are non-airport locations)
Likewise, data files you may receive from Avis Europe of valid locations will expand to accommodate this change.
After project completion, existing codes like "JFK" will be internally represented by Avis as "JFKbb" ("bb" represent trailing blank characters).
No changes will occur to existing message flow and processing as currently outlined in the Direct Connect Message Specification.
Target timeframes for these changes to Direct Connect and reservation processing:
- Development Start: April 2008
- User Acceptance Testing: May 2008
- Production Implementation: end of May 2008
The Constraint Relief changes for Direct Connect have now been succesfully implemented.
Retirement of services.avis.com and qaservices.avis.com domains on 1 March 2008
As advised in 2005, the Avis Direct Connect web services were moved from the services.avis.com (production) and qaservices.avis.com (test) domains to the current services.carrental.com and qaservices.carrental.com domains.
The services.avis.com and qaservices.avis.com web services will be inaccessible from 1 March 2008.
Avis Europe Service Desk change - new telephone number and email address from Tuesday 18 July 2006 10:00
Please note the change of phone number and email address for Direct Connect Production Support from Tuesday 18 July 2006 at 10:00.
Phone: +44 (0) 1344 417373
Email: ITServiceDesk@avis-europe.com
Full details are given under the Support tab - Production Support link
OTA 2003A Avis Message Specification - July 2008 version
A new version of the Avis OTA Message Specification document is now available and supercedes the previous February 2008 version. This version has been updated to add details of the recent enhancements in functionality including support for a new Location Search message from the OTA 2005B specification, upgrade to OTA 2008A specification, Paperless Vouchering and Counter Products changes.
SOAPtester utility released - October 2005
An HTML SOAPtester utility is now available to downlad from this site - see the Testing section.
Support for OTA 2003A Message Specification
Since Q4 2003 Direct Connect has included support for the OTA 2003A Message Specification including the new Modify Reservation functionality. The previous 2001B specification is still supported and it is the intention to support this version as long as partners are using it. Direct Connect will also allow partners to use, say, the Modify Reservation request for 2003A alongside the 2001B version of the Create Reservation and other messages.
On Request email changes
From Q1 2004, the emails issued by the ‘On Request’ car group functionality to confirm or deny an ‘On Request’ reservation can now return a partner’s booking reference or other text specified by the partner in the email text. Direct Connect will now include the contents of the EchoToken attribute in the email confirmation as a remark (i.e. Remark: "Contents of EchoToken")
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