OCTO (Open Connectivity for Tours, Activities, and Attractions) is the open standard API that booking systems, resellers, and online travel agencies (OTAs) use to exchange products, availability, and bookings. Instead of building a custom connection for every partner, each side builds to one shared specification and connects to anyone else who does the same. TripWorks is OCTO certified, which means a reseller can connect to TripWorks operators the standard way.

This article explains why OCTO exists, how the protocol works, what TripWorks supports, and what OCTO looks like in practice. To connect as a reseller, see Connect as a reseller or OTA with OCTO.

What problem does OCTO solve?

Every connection between a booking system and a reseller used to be a separate project. Each partner had its own way of describing products, checking availability, and sending a booking, so each new connection meant new engineering, new testing, and new things to break when either side changed.

OCTO replaces those one-off connections with a shared specification. A booking system implements OCTO once and can then connect to any reseller or technology partner that also supports it, without rebuilding the connection each time. For an operator, that means new sales channels can be switched on faster and with fewer technical delays. For a reseller, it means one integration works across many suppliers.

Who maintains OCTO?

OCTO is developed and administered by OCTO Standards NP Inc., a member-based not-for-profit formed by technology providers, distributors, and other organizations in the tours, activities, and attractions industry. The specification is free to use. It isn't owned by any one booking system or reseller, which is why it can act as a neutral meeting point between them. Membership is optional and lets organizations help shape how the standard evolves.

How does the OCTO protocol work?

OCTO is an HTTP API defined in the OpenAPI format. A reseller sends requests to a supplier's OCTO address and gets structured responses back. The protocol is built from a small set of shared concepts.

• Supplier. The company that provides the products a reseller connects to. For TripWorks, that is the operator.
• Product. An activity, tour, or attraction the supplier sells.
• Option. A variant of a product, such as a morning or afternoon departure or a different language. Every product has at least one.
• Unit. A ticket type, such as adult or child.
• Availability. What can be booked, and when. A reseller can ask for a calendar view over a long date range, or check availability for specific days or departures. A booking is made against an availability the reseller has checked.
• Booking. A reservation of one product option plus one or more unit items, one for each ticket in the party.

What is the booking flow?

A booking moves through a short, standard sequence that the reseller drives:

1. List the products the supplier offers and check availability for the dates the customer wants.
2. Create the booking. This reserves the spots and puts the booking on hold while the reseller collects payment and contact details.
3. Confirm the booking. Confirmation finalizes the reservation. If the customer needs more time, the reseller can extend the hold before it expires. If the hold runs out, the spots are released.
4. Cancel the booking if the customer changes their plans. Cancellation is allowed while the booking is marked cancellable and is still inside the supplier's cutoff window.

What are capabilities?

The core endpoints are required. OCTO also defines optional capabilities that add more detail when both sides support them, such as richer product content, detailed pricing, pickups and dropoffs, and notifications, which tell a reseller when something changes so it doesn't have to keep checking. A reseller asks for the capabilities it wants on each request, and the supplier returns only the extra fields those capabilities add.

What does TripWorks support?

TripWorks acts as an OCTO supplier. A reseller or OTA connected over OCTO can:

• Read the operator's supplier details and list their products.
• Check availability for specific dates, or get a calendar view across a range.
• Reserve spots, confirm a reservation, and extend a hold that hasn't expired yet.
• Update a booking, cancel it, and find or look up bookings.
• Subscribe to notifications so changes reach the reseller as they happen.

TripWorks supports the optional content, pricing, and notifications capabilities. Bookings that arrive over OCTO are recorded as normal trips with the Reseller booking method and the reseller's name, so they appear on your calendar and manifest alongside every other booking. Payment, commission, and invoices follow the reseller's settings in TripWorks.

How is TripWorks OCTO certified?

OCTO provides a certification process so that a supplier's implementation can be checked against the specification instead of taken on trust. OCTO's Self-Certification Tool runs automated tests against a supplier's endpoints. The tests check that responses match the specification's structure, that every required field is present, that requests are accepted in the correct form, that headers and paths are right, and that errors are returned the way the standard expects.

TripWorks has achieved OCTO certification, which means its OCTO connection conforms to the specification. In practice, this tells a reseller that TripWorks will behave the way the standard says it should: the same shapes, the same required fields, and the same error responses as any other certified supplier. That removes much of the guesswork and custom testing that connections used to need.

What are sample use cases?

• A reseller adds TripWorks operators to its marketplace. The reseller already speaks OCTO, so it connects to TripWorks the same way it connects to any other supplier, and starts listing the operator's activities.
• A customer books while a reseller collects payment. The reseller creates the booking, which holds the spots, takes payment, and confirms. If payment fails or the customer walks away, the hold expires and the spots return to your availability.
• A customer needs a few more minutes at checkout. The reseller extends the hold on the booking before it runs out.
• A customer cancels. The reseller cancels the booking, and as long as it is inside your cutoff window, the spots return to availability.
• A reseller keeps its listings accurate without polling. It subscribes to notifications and is told when availability or a booking changes.
• An operator reaches more channels. An operator who is connected over OCTO can be sold by any reseller that supports the standard, without a separate project for each one.
• A technology partner builds tools on standard data. Because availability, pricing, and bookings move through a common structure, tools that work with OCTO data work across every supplier that supports it.

Frequently asked questions

Related

• Connect as a reseller or OTA with OCTO
• How OTA and reseller bookings connect to TripWorks
• Set up a reseller
• Supported OTAs
• Does TripWorks have an API?