Reservation API

Introduction

SiteMinder will push reservations to SiteMinder Exchange (SMX) Partner Applications based on the partner's subscription set-up. New reservations, reservation modifications and cancellations will be sent to partner applications using an OTA_HotelResNotifRQ.

The request will be sent as a SOAP message as per the SMX SOAP Envelope sample provided here.

Communications

Communications between both systems is via the exchange of SOAP messages over secure HTTP (HTTPS). Operations are synchronous request/response pairs. A message is considered to be atomic and is either processed entirely or not at all by the Web Service.

Supported Functions

OTA_HotelResNotifRQ - Used to PUSH reservation notifications to the SMX Partner Application.

OTA_HotelResNotifRS - Returned by the SMX Partner Application to confirm receipt or failure to process the reservation message.

OTA

The SMX For Applications Reservation API is based on the Open Travel Alliance (OTA) specifications for 2017A. Although this document attempts to be technically comprehensive it is expected that the connecting system’s developers be somewhat familiar with the OTA specifications found here.

Endpoint Requirements

Partners will need to provide SMX with a single web service endpoint to be used for message delivery. This endpoint must be global for all hotels using the connection, not for each individual hotel.

The endpoint must also accept incoming SMX requests with header 'Accept' with value application/xml.

Security

Encryption is provided by the transport layer via HTTPS. Each message contains a WS-Security (WSSE) UsernameToken SOAP header for authentication/authorization purposes. Each connecting SMX Partner Application will need to provide a webservice endpoint to receive the reservation notifications.

SSL/TLS

SMX supports TLSv1.2 and above.

SiteMinder does not support self-signed SSL certificates.

Content-Type

The ‘Content-Type’ for all SOAP XML messages must be application/xml; charset=utf-8.

Response Time

Reservations Historical Data

SiteMinder Exchange is able to send a flush of historical reservations data for a selected time period: 3 months, 6 months, 1 year etc. The time period is only based on the creation date (booked-on date) of the reservation so the flush might include future reservations that were created (booked) in the selected time frame. All ResStatus values are expected to be sent in the flush.

Process Flow

When a reservation is created, modified or cancelled in the partner PMS application (Reservation Uploader/Data Publisher) and is pushed to SiteMinder’s SMX platform, SiteMinder will generate a notification for each reservation event and PUSH reservation notifications to subscribing SMX partner applications. Partner applications will need to provide a webservice endpoint to receive the reservation notifications. The subscribing SMX partner applications can then use these reservations to offer value added solutions for the hospitality and travel industry.

Scenarios for Reservation delivery to subscribing SMX partner applications:

• If the OTA_HotelResNotifRQ message is delivered successfully by SiteMinder to the SMX partner application, the partner application's web service endpoint will need to respond with an OTA_HotelResNotifRS success message.

• If the OTA_HotelResNotifRQ message delivery flags an error in the SMX partner application, the partner application's web service endpoint will need to respond with an OTA_HotelResNotifRS error message, which should include an error string. The reservation will be retained in SMX's retry cycle and resent once the error is resolved. The message resend process may need to be done manually upon expiry of retry cycle time period.

• If the OTA_HotelResNotifRQ message is unable to be delivered to SMX partner application due to a network outage or similar connectivity issues, the reservation will be retained in SMX's retry cycle and resent once the error is resolved. The message resend process may need to be done manually upon expiry of retry cycle time period.