Reservation API
The Booking Channel uses the OTA_HotelResNotifRQ to push Reservations, Modifications and Cancellations to SiteConnect.
SiteConnect responds with OTA_HotelResNotifRS to confirm the request was delivered.
EchoToken
EchoTokens are essential for all requests (namely OTA_HotelResNotifRQ) being made over the SiteConnect. EchoTokens ensure that each request can be uniquely identified for troubleshooting purposes in both testing and production environments.
All requests you receive from SiteConnect will contain an EchoToken and the booking channel response must include the same EchoToken as received in the request.
Required Information
SiteConnect follows the OTA reservation specification and allows a lot of information to be sent through regarding reservations. Not all of that information is mandatory for SiteConnect to be able to process the reservation. Refer to the Reservation Specification to see what information is mandatory.
Reservation Delivery
The state of the reservation is determined by the OTA_HotelResNotifRQ ResStatus attribute for which values Commit, Modify and Cancel are allowed.
SiteConnect only allows ONE hotel code per reservation. If a channel booking allows multiple hotels per reservation, one reservation per hotel must be sent. Multiple rooms and rates are allowed in one reservation request.
Also, reservation IDs (UniqueID ID) MUST be unique among all properties connected at all time. If a reservation is received with an ID already used, it will be ignored regardless if it arrives for a different hotel.
Reservation Confirmation
It's important to note that SiteConnect does not act as an authority on allowing or denying a reservation to take place. SiteConnect responds (OTA_HotelResNotifRS) with 'Success' or 'Error' and this will simply indicate whether SiteConnect is able to receive the reservation delivery message/notification request or not.
With the above in mind, the OTA_HotelResNotifRQ ↔ OTA_HotelResNotifRS pair carrying the reservation message/notification to SiteConnect should not be linked to your front end customer booking process. The customer/agent making a reservation on your booking channel should be able to make a reservation irrespective of the response (or lack thereof) being received back from SiteConnect.
Reservation Delivery will be Region Dependent
In production, SiteConnect has two instances that our customers will exist on. These two regions are APAC (Asia Pacific) and EMEA (Europe Africa Middle East & Americas). The different regions are detailed in the maps below. For reservation delivery, you will need to ensure that you consider the likelihood that your customers may be located in either the APAC or EMEA instance of SiteConnect.
The maps below are a general rule and exceptions can be made for customers who may request to be deployed in a region of their choice (for support or routing reasons):
The hotel or our Support team can also assist to specify the region in which the property is set up (APAC or EMEA & Americas) so that you know which endpoint to push reservations to. Please ask your team to request the region if needed.
Error Handling
If the response is type OTA_HotelResNotifRS with an Error message then the reservation can not be processed because some data is invalid. This could be for example if required data is missing or if the credentials or hotel code is incorrect and the reservation will not process until the error is fixed. If the error is that required element or attributes are missing the implementation will need to be adjusted to send the required data. If the error is to do with credentials, check that the correct username/password is sent. If the error is an invalid hotel code, contact the hotel to make sure they are setup in SiteMinder to receive reservations.
If the response is a http error response code in the 500 range then it is expected that the connecting channel will retry the sending of the reservation until it is successfully delivered or a pre-defined timeout period is reached example 60 minutes. In the case that a reservation cannot be delivered within the timeout period a problem case should be raised with SiteMinder's Support team. For the live production SiteConnect service you will be informed when there are scheduled outages.