HOBIC is a generic term that is used in the telecom industry to define, as a standard, the format of the data sent to the PMS. It generally looks like this:

 

0001 HTL 03/01  7110 10:54 0002 $003.47 805-688-1000 L
^    ^   ^      ^    ^     ^    ^       ^------------- Phone Number
^    ^   ^      ^    ^     ^    ^--------------------- Charge Amount
^    ^   ^      ^    ^     ^-------------------------- Duration of Call
^    ^   ^      ^    ^-------------------------------- Time of Call
^    ^   ^      ^------------------------------------- Extension Number
^    ^   ^-------------------------------------------- Date of Call
^    ^------------------------------------------------ Hotel Identifier
^----------------------------------------------------- Sequence Number

When we at RDP speak of and use the term HOBIC, we mean this above.

 

However TEL electronics also used the term HOBIC to distinguish one communication protocol from another. The Inn-Form XL PMS/HB (Hobic) frames the message string with the Line Feed character (10) at the start of the message and a Carriage Return character (13) and Line Feed char. (10) as the end of message marker.

If the property has an HB chip, we need to change the Receive BOM character to a blank space, and the Receive EOM to (10).  For example, if they are using the PMS/HB (Hobic) chip:

 

The Inn-Form XL PMS/HX (Holidex) frames the message string with the Start of Text character (2) as the beginning of message marker and uses the End of Text (3) as the end of message along with a block check character.

 

So it can be confusing when we say "Hobic" to TEL electronics and their vendors because Hobic can mean two things. We actually prefer the Holidex format as it is cleaner - the HB format uses the Line Feed character at both the beginning and the end of the message and may cause a conflict. Often times when we tell the phone guy that we want "Hobic" they think the HB format and they have to go order a different chip.