# Certification and Go Live

Getting onto the TTDbooking API runs in three phases: **Build**, **Certify**, and **Launch**. Each phase has a clear exit condition, and you move to the next only once the previous one is complete.

## Phase 1: Build in the Sandbox

Do all of your development and testing against the TTDbooking sandbox environment. Working in the sandbox lets you build out your application, exercise failure paths, and walk the full booking flow end to end without creating real reservations or incurring real charges.

See the [QuickStart guide](./quick-start.md) for setup, credentials, and your first request.

Before you leave this phase, confirm that you have:

- Wired up the core booking flow end to end: HotelSearch → HotelRates → CheckAvail → Book → Cancel
- Built error handling and retry logic around every API call
- Removed hardcoded values, so your integration reads identifiers and rates dynamically from API responses

## Phase 2: Certify Your Integration

When your integration is stable, move on to certification. Certification is a validation pass: you execute a defined set of test scenarios and submit the evidence, and we confirm the integration behaves correctly before it touches production.

1. **Download the test scenarios**

   Start with the [required certification test cases](./certification-cases.md). That document lists the exact booking situations you need to run, covering both successful bookings and error simulations.

2. **Submit for review**

   Once every test case passes in the sandbox, send your integration test scenarios to our team for review. To open the process, email [integrations@ttdbooking.com](mailto:integrations@ttdbooking.com) using the subject line `Integration Review Request`.

## Phase 3: Launch to Production

Once certification is complete, your integration is cleared to go live. Our team issues your production API keys, and you then work through the following steps.

- **Send us your server IPs** so they can be added to the production whitelist.
- **Switch the API base URL** from the sandbox host to the production host.

  | Environment | Base URL                  |
  | ----------- | ------------------------- |
  | Sandbox     | `api-test.ttdbooking.com` |
  | Production  | `api.ttdbooking.com`      |

- **Swap your API keys**: replace the sandbox credentials with the production keys we issue you.
- **Run test bookings in production** carefully. After development is finished you may place test bookings against the live environment, subject to these rules:
  - Only create cancellable test orders, and cancel them promptly once they succeed (free cancellation).
  - Keep test order volume low. Non-cancellable test orders in particular can produce real losses in the live environment.

## Support

Questions during any phase go to [integrations@ttdbooking.com](mailto:integrations@ttdbooking.com). Full API reference documentation is published at [developer.ttdbooking.com/hotel-api/docs](https://developer.ttdbooking.com/hotel-api/docs).