Hotel booking creates a hotel reservation based on the room and rate results from a Hotel Rate and Rule Search response. The number of guests, rooms, or both, can be added to a Hotel Booking request to book available rooms that meet the criteria.
The GuestInformation element is used to indicate traveler numbers and type for both the booking request and response.
Request
In addition to the minimum required data for a standard Hotel Booking request, the GuestInformation child of HotelCreateReservationReq is used to book a specific number of rooms, number of adults, and number of children. Universal API supports a maximum of nine travelers per room (four adults and five children). Individual hotel properties and room rates may also limit the number of travelers for a room based on the property policy or related requirements such as local fire safety laws.
Number of Adults
NumberOfAdults is used to indicate the number of additional adult travelers in the booking.
The baseline number of adults for a specific room and rate option can vary, and this number of adults is included in the base rate for the room.
Individual hotel properties and room rates may also limit the number of travelers for a room based on the property policy or related requirements such as local fire safety laws. Therefore, extra adults may not be supported. However, some suppliers may permit additional extra adult guests to be added to the room.
Typically, additional fees for extra adults are charged at checkout. However, some hotel suppliers may charge this fee at the time of booking. In this case @Amount and @Content data is returned in the response to indicate the fee and associated text instructions.
@Amount is the fee charged by the supplier for the extra adult traveler optional service. This amount is populated only if a fee is charged for additional adults; @Content is not populated if the hotel supplier includes the charge during check out.
@Amount is supported only for:
- Hotel Booking
- Universal Record Retrieve
- Universal Record Import
- Universal Record Modify (HotelAdd and HotelUpdate)
@Amount is present, but not supported, for Hotel Search (HotelSearchAvailabilityReq), Hotel Rate and Rules Search (HotelDetailsReq), Hotel Description (HotelDetailsReq), and Hotel Rules (HotelRulesReq).
@Content is additional free-text information that may be included to explain the fee in @Amount. Used in combination with @Amount for Hotel Booking only.
@Content are supported only for:
- Hotel Booking
- Universal Record Retrieve
- Universal Record Import
- Universal Record Modify (HotelAdd and HotelUpdate)
@Content is present, but not supported, for Hotel Search (HotelSearchAvailabilityReq), Hotel Rate and Rules Search (HotelDetailsReq), Hotel Description (HotelDetailsReq), and Hotel Rules (HotelRulesReq).
NumberofChildren and ExtraChild
Some suppliers and properties permit additional child travelers to be booked beyond the baseline maximum of travelers for a room rate. For example, a room rate with a baseline number of four travelers (Adult and/or Child), may permit two additional Child travelers to be booked for an additional charge per child.
Two elements can be used to identify additional children:
- Most suppliers use NumberOfChildren to indicate additional children in the booking.
- A few suppliers in Worldspan use ExtraChild.
- Some suppliers use both NumberOfChildren and ExtraChild.
The number of children must be entered first in @Count followed by the child age. The number of children in a request can be 1 to 5. The child count must include one age for each child listed in the number of children.
Note: If a one or more children are added to a request, additional bed types, such as adult and/or child rollaway beds and/or cribs, may also be required.
Note: ExtraChild is not supported for Hotel Booking responses only, and cannot be included in the request, but ExtraChild is supported in Universal Record Modify requests for an existing Universal Record.
Response
In the response, the element used to indicate the number of children in the booking may vary depending on the provider.
Response data is returned in HotelCreateReservationRsp/UniversalRecord/HotelReservation/GuestInformation.
Specific response data varies by provider and supplier. See the following table and Exceptions for details.
Supported Response Data for Children
The following chart indicates which response values are supported by the various providers. The presence of specific response data from any provider is always subject to its return by a specific supplier or hotel property.
| GuestInformation Booking Data | Galileo (1G) | Apollo (1V) | Worldspan (1P) |
|---|---|---|---|
| /NumberOfChildren | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| @Count | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| @Amount (Response only) | Yes | Yes | No |
| /Age | Yes | Yes | No |
| /ExtraChild | No | No | No |
| @Count | No | No | Yes |
| @Content (Response only) | No | No | Yes |
Universal Record History
NumberOfChild and ExtraChild data are returned in Universal Record History under ElementType "GuestInformation".
Errors and Warnings
For hotel suppliers do not support additional children for a room (NumberOfChildren and/or ExtraChild), the booking request returns and error.
Exceptions
Galileo (1G)
Galileo returns number of children data in NumberOfChildren only. Galileo does not support ExtraChild in the response. If applicable, an additional fee per child is indicated in @Amount.
Apollo (1V)
Apollo returns number of children data in NumberOfChildren only. Apollo does not support ExtraChild in the response. If applicable, an additional fee per child is indicated in @Amount.
Worldspan (1P)
Worldspan may not support @NumberOfChildren in the request. If it is submitted but not supported, an error is sent in the response.
Worldspan does not support child ages.
Number of children data may be returned in either NumberOfChildren or ExtraChild for Worldspan :
- If a fee is associated with an extra child, it is returned only in ExtraChild @Content and not NumberOfChild @Amount.
- If no fee is associated with an extra child, the response data may be returned in either NumberOfChild or ExtraChild, depending on the supplier and hotel property.
If the data is returned in ExtraChild:
- @Count indicates the total number of extra children.
- @Content may be empty or return free text from the supplier; this response varies by supplier may be used indicate the amount of the additional child fee, text that no additional fee is charged, or another text message from the supplier.
NumberOfChildren and ExtraChild are mutually exclusive, and are never returned in the same response from Worldspan (1P).
