Online Bookings and Online Distribution – Terms and Jargon
There are a lot of different terms used in relation to Online Distribution. Here are the definitions we use.
| Term | Definition | Synonyms |
| Booking Outlet | A website (or group of websites) where your inventory can appear. | Distribution Outlet Distribution Channel |
| Booking Exchange | A website where you can register your inventory and make it available to a network of Booking Outlets. | Distribution Management System Distribution Exchange |
| Booking Transaction Engine | Software that lets you accept a booking online – accepts payment, transfers funds and (sometimes) updates inventory. | Booking Engine Online Booking Engine Online Booking System |
| Booking System | A system (computerised or manual) that you use at your ‘front desk’ to record what inventory is available as well as record your own direct bookings. | Front desk system |
| Liquid Inventory | Tourism operator defines inventory availability once, this is shared across multiple Booking Outlets. Whenever a booking is made, available inventory is reduced and automatically flows to all other Booking Outlets to avoid over bookings. | |
| Allocated Inventory | Tourism operator manually allocates a level of inventry to a Booking Outlet. If a booking is made elsewhere, operators may have to manually the reduce allocation to avoid over booking. |