Hotel Payment Type: Guarantee, Deposit, Pre-Pay

There are several types of payment options available. The availability of a specific payment type depends on the hotel provider and supplier, as well as the specific booking code (RatePlanType).

Payment Types

Guarantees, deposits, or pre-payments are payments that may be required to reserve a hotel booking in advance of the hotel stay. These rates must be booked with a deposit. Do not book these rates improperly with guarantee or passing prepayment, as this results in booking failures. For example, passing the value HotelCreateReservationReq/Guarantee/@Type as "PrePayment" returns an error "Guarantee @Type Prepayment not supported."

• Guarantee
  

  A charge is not made to the credit card. Rather, the card number is held against a cancellation that violates the hotel's cancellation policy.

• Deposit
  

  Credit Card: A charge is made to the credit card (typically one night's stay). If the booking is canceled, the deposit is forfeited to the supplier.

  Check: Travelport Universal API has standardized the handling of deposits with a check form of payment for hotel reservations in Worldspan (1P), Galileo (1G), and Apollo (1V). In both the request and response, when a check is used as a deposit, data is sent and returned in the Guarantee element:

  <Guarantee Type="Deposit" >

  <OtherGuaranteeInfo Type="Deposit Taken">CHECK</OtherGuaranteeInfo>

  </Guarantee>

• Pre-Payment
  

  Requires payment at the time of booking for part or all of the hotel stay at the time of booking.

  If the booking is canceled, the amount or availability of a refund varies according to the rules associated with the specified booking code (RatePlanType).

Some hotels do not require a credit card guarantee or deposit. Typically, these hotels will guarantee the room for a specific arrival time, such as 6:00 PM. If the traveler does not check in by the guarantee time, the room will not be held for them.

Requests

HotelCreateReservationReq/Guarantee

The Guarantee element is used to indicate and pay for guarantees, deposits, and prepayments used for Hotel Booking as well as adding or updating a Hotel segment in an existing Universal Record. This element is also used for Vehicle guarantees and deposits.

Guarantee, deposit, and pre-payment status cannot be included as a Hotel Search or Hotel Rate and Rules Search modifier for Galileo, Apollo, and Worldspan.

Child Elements and Attributes

All Guarantee element and attributes are optional, and are returned only if provided by the supplier.

Element/Attribute	Description
@Type	Indicates "Deposit" or "Guarantee". Used for both CreditCard and OtherGuaranteeInfo forms of payment.
CreditCard	Accepts the credit card code, number, and expiration date, which are included as optional fields, up to a maximum of 25 characters. Some hotels do not support @Name, /BillingAddress, and/or @CVV. An error message is returned in the response to indicate which values are not supported. See Credit Card Form of Payment - Hotel and Vehicle for commonly accepted credit cards for both hotels and vehicles.
/BillingAddress	Only the street address, city, and a 2-character state code are saved by Universal API. The zip/postal code may be sent to the supplier, but is not saved.
OtherGuaranteeInfo	Used for forms of payment other than credit card. Note that some hotel properties will not support any form of guarantee or deposit other than credit cards.
@Type	Indicates the type of non-credit card form of payment. Other Guarantee Types: Guarantee to agency with IATA number in AAA (AGT) Guarantee to agency with the following IATA number (e.g., AGT98363822) Guarantee free-form text. Other Deposit Types: Guaranteed by the agency (AGT) Deposit has been taken (DPST) Deposit with free-form text. DepositTaken is used for check payments. For example: <Guarantee Type="Deposit"> <OtherGuaranteeInfo Type="Deposit Taken">CHECK</OtherGuaranteeInfo> </Guarantee> If OtherGuaranteeInfo @Type is not an IATA/ARCNumber, AgencyAddress, DepositTaken, or Others, an error is returned in the response.

Response

HotelCreateReservationRsp/UniversalRecord/HotelReservation//HotelRateDetail/GuaranteeInfo

The Guarantee element returns discrete guarantee, deposit, and prepayment information if it is populated by the supplier. If the hotel supplier does not support discrete data in the response, free text data continues to be returned in RoomRateDescription.

Recommendation: In some cases, the supplier may return some, but not all, data as discrete content in the Guarantee element. The client application should always consume all hotel populated values that apply to hotel room rates, payment, policy, guarantee, deposit, pre-payment, cancel penalty and other hotel rate descriptions. Cancellation, non-refundable and penalty information, when provided by the hotel supplier are found in HotelDetailItem, RoomRateDescription, and/or CancelInfo.

Child Elements and Attributes

All Guarantee element and attributes are optional, and are returned only if provided by the supplier.

Element/Attribute	Description
@AbsoluteDeadline	The date and time when a deadline for a payment goes into effect, based on the hotel property's location. As of July 2013, no hotels on Apollo, Galileo, or Worldspan populate the value.
@CredentialsRequired	Identification required at booking or check in. Credentials may be applied when a travel industry, military, or other association rate requires proof of membership. Not supported by Worldspan (1P).
@HoldTime	Expiration time for a room reservation if the guarantee/deposit/pre-payment is not provided. May also be returned as text in Hotel Rules.
@GuaranteeType	’Guarantee’ or ‘Deposit’ or ‘Prepayment’, when provided from the hotel supplier. Applicable only for Hotel Rate and Rules and Hotel Rules.
/DepositAmount	The amount required by the supplier for guarantee, deposit, or prepayment.
/DepositAmount @Amount	Amount required by the supplier for guarantee, deposit, or prepayment. ISO Currency Code and amount with decimal. Example: <DepositAmount>USD500.00</DepositAmount> 500.00 USD is required at booking. The approximate amount can be calculated either based on the number of nights of the stay (DepositNights) or as a percentage of the total amount of the stay (DepositPercent).
/DepositNights	The number of nights used to calculate for guarantee or deposit amount. The number of nights is multiplied by the base rate to calculate the Deposit @Amount or @ApproximateAmount. . Example: <DepositNights>2</DepositNights> The calculation varies depending on the provider: Worldspan: Deposit @Amount or @ApproximateAmount equivalent to two nights at the check-in stay rate. Galileo/Apollo: Deposit @Amount or @ApproximateAmount equivalent to two nights at the rate-by-date amount.
/DepositPercent	The percentage of the stay amount used to calculate Deposit @Amount or @ApproximateAmount . Example: <DepositPercent>25</DepositPercent>. 25% of the total stay amount.
@Description	Free text, if provided by the supplier. Suppliers that support discrete Guarantee data may not return text descriptions as discrete data. It is recommended to check HotelDetailItem, RoomRateDescription, and Hotel Rules for to ensure display of all guarantee, deposit, or pre-payment policy data.
@OffsetTimeUnit, @OffsetUnitMultiplier, @OffsetDropTime	Offset time attributes were added to indicate the deadline time associated with guarantee/deposit payment. These attributes indicate the time period of the deadline either after booking or before arrival at the hotel stay. @OffsetTimeUnit: "Year”, “Month”, “Day”, or “Hour”. @OffsetUnitMultiplier: The number of units for the deadline. @OffsetDropTime: "AfterBooking" or "BeforeArrival". For example: <GuaranteeInfo GuaranteeType="Deposit" OffsetTimeUnit=”Day” OffsetUnitMultiplier=”1” OffsetDropTime=”AfterBooking”/> A deposit is required one day after booking to reserve the hotel stay. Offset time is returned only for Galileo (1G) and Apollo (1V). Offset time is not returned for Worldspan (1P).