First, review the Travel Feed Specification (or "Spec") for your offers category. The Travel Feed Spec can be found under the "View and Print Spec" step of the "Upload Feeds" process. You should also review the Yahoo! Travel. Advertiser Guidelines, which describe the general rules for being an advertiser and a list of items that you are prohibited from selling on Yahoo! Travel. All Yahoo! Travel advertisers are required to abide by these Guidelines, and your offers feed will be rejected if you do not comply.

Second, create your offers feed or feeds. You will need to create one feed for each category of offer, as defined in the Travel Feed Spec. The easiest way to create your travel feed is to download the customized Microsoft Excel spreadsheet template available for each travel category in Step 2 of the "Upload Feeds" process. However, you can also create a feed file using a spreadsheet program like Excel or a text editor like Notepad, or by writing a script that generates the file automatically.

If you choose to use the Travel Submit template, follow these steps:

1. In the first row, you will see all of the required and recommended fields for that Travel category.
2. Enter the appropriate information for one offer in each column. Describe only one offer per row. Please refer to the Travel Feed Spec for examples of acceptable data for each field, or see the sample travel feeds.
3. Check spelling and capitalization—use uppercase only when appropriate.
4. Be sure the row after your last offer contains the word "END"
5. Save the file as a tab delimited text file (.txt)*—NOT as a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet (.xls)—with a name that corresponds to the feed's type:
   

   Category	Filename
   Air	Air.txt
   Car Rentals	car.txt
   Cruises	Cruises.txt
   Destinations	Destinations.txt
   Lodging	Lodging.txt
   Rail	Rail.txt
   Vacation Package	Packages.txt
   Vacation Rental	Rentals.txt

   
   To save the file as a tab delimited text file:
   
   1. Make sure your Excel file is open, and choose "Save As" in the File menu.
   2. Locate the "Save as Type" drop-down menu and select "Text (Tab delimited) (*.txt)".
   3. Click "OK" to the warning that the selected file type does not support workbooks that contain multiple sheets.
   4. Click "Yes" to save as a tab delimited file, even though the file may contain features not compatible with this file type.

Note: A tab delimited text file is a list of words, phrases, or sentences separated by tabs. This format enables Yahoo! to read and separate out the offers and their attributes listed in your feed.

If you have experience creating flat feed files and wish to create your travel feed from scratch:

1. Open Microsoft Excel and create a new worksheet.
2. In the first row (the "header"), type the required field names, one per column. For optimal travel placement, you should also type the recommended field names outlined in the Travel Feed Spec.
3. Follow steps 2 through 5 above.

You are now ready to upload your offers feed for inclusion on Yahoo! Travel! Learn how.

Remember to update your feed regularly so that consumers see current information.