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Flow

2.1 Flow Description

Important! Adding lodging products to a PNR is available only via API. It is not possible to create lodging segments using only host commands.

Booking Transactions

The following Booking Transactions are initiated by an agent’s inputs:

Sell

Initiates a new booking.

  • This can be initiated with CreateReservationRQ or UpdateReservationRQ (stateful).
  • Each booking is placed in a pending status until it is committed or ignored.
  • Suppliers will discard pending bookings if neither Ignore nor Commit is received within a defined timeframe.

Modify

Modifies a previous booking done by the agent and changes parameters, such as date range and number of guests.

  • Only previously committed or confirmed segments can be modified.
  • After first modify, no consecutive modifies may be sent prior to Commit or Ignore.
  • Suppliers will rollback pending modifiers if neither Ignore nor Commit is received within defined timeframe.

Cancel

Cancels a booking previously made and committed by the agent.

  • This operation can be initiated with UpdateReservationRQ (stateful).
  • Each cancel operation is placed in a pending status until it is committed or ignored.
  • Suppliers will roll back a pending cancel if neither Ignore nor Commit is received within a defined timeframe.
  • If a booking was committed at least once, Ignore/rollback results in reverting the booking to the last committed state.

Ignore

Rolls back an earlier Sell or Cancel request.

  • This operation can be initiated with UpdateReservationRQ (stateful) or using the host command, I.
  • An uncommitted (pending) booking is discarded after Ignore.
  • If Ignore is sent after Cancel, the booking shall be reverted to the last committed state.
  • Cancel for an uncommitted (pending) booking is sent as an Ignore operation.

Commit

Commits an earlier Sell or Cancel request.

  • Commit can be performed with UpdateReservationRQ or by using the host command, commit.

Basic Flow for GDS

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Basic Flow for Aggregator

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Adding and cancelling a lodging product is a two-phase process:

  1. Initiate (sell or cancel initiate) – one or many operations
  2. End transaction (sell commit)

These two steps should always happen as separate requests.

The diagrams in the following sections highlight how each operation is performed.

2.1.1 Sell

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The first stage (Initiate) is "artificial" for aggregators; the status of the lodging product is set as PN (Pending), and a dummy confirmation number is retrieved.

The "real" reservation takes place during the commit process, when the status is set as HK (assuming that no problems occur during the booking process) and the current confirmation number from the aggregator’s system is retrieved.

For GDS reservations, communication with the hotel's reservation system takes place in both phases. After the initiate phase, the confirmation number is retrieved and the lodging product status is set to HK.

Other statuses are also possible if the reservation was not successfully confirmed.

To view other possible statuses when an error occurs during booking, refer to 2.1.2 Possible Segment Statuses.

2.1.2 Possible Segment Statuses

Lodging segment statuses differ at each stage of the process, depending on whether the particular action ends up with a success or fail.

These statuses may also differ depending on the reservation source: GDS (Sabre) or Aggregator (i.e, Booking.com). See the tables below containing possible status transitions:

GDS

Status after initiate Status after commit Comments
HK - Successful response with CF HK - Successful ET response
HK - Successful response with CF HK - Error/timeout ET response from CRS Type-b sent
SS - Response without CF HK Type-b sent
NN - Response without CF PN Type-b sent
UC - Unable to confirm. The segment must be removed before ET. N/A Unable to commit PNR with a segment in UC status.

For more information about Type-b communication, refer to 3.5.1 Type B Message.

Aggregators

For aggregator rates, there is no communication with the aggregator during sell initiate; instead, a segment is added in PN status based on data cached during pricing. The call to the aggregator takes place during sell commit.

Status after initiate Status after commit Comments
PN No communication with CRS, dummy CF number HK - Successful ET response
PN - No communication with CRS, dummy CF number PN - Error/timeout ET response, CF not received Contact supplier directly
PN - No communication with CRS, dummy CF number UC - Unable to confirm response, no CF

2.1.3 Cancel

Cancelling lodging segments is similar to the booking process in that it is divided into Initiate and Commit phases.

After a cancel is initiated, the agent may commit the transaction or ignore the cancellation.

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