By default, a Vehicle Search returns all available rates that meet the request search parameters. Availability can be requested by the Rate Category qualifier. Rate Category is the general category of the rate. Many of these rates are associated with a negotiated rate for a specific organization or event.
Request
In Galileo, Rate Categories map exactly to the Universal API enumerations. The RateCategory attributes of the VehicleSearchAvailabilityRequest/VehicleSearchModifiers/ includes the following values:
|
|
With Vehicle v48.0 and greater, on Worldspan (1P), Travelport validates on the length of the rental for vendors that have supplied us with maximum rental days for prepay rates. For example one car vendor does not allow pre-pay for rentals exceeding 28 days. Rental car suppliers will receive less unnecessary traffic, which helps reduce performance items such as slower response times and timeouts:
- By Travelport limiting VehicleSearchAvailability “prepay” requests to only be sent to the vendor when the length of the rental does not exceed vendor specifications, such as if a rental request is 28 days or less, a significant amount of traffic is prevented from being sent to the vendor.
- Universal API customers, when sending a VehicleSearchAvailability request that includes rate category as prepay, it allows Travelport to validate the length of rental information being sent in the request, and if it is outside of what the vendor or supplier allows for pre-paid, an error returns to block unnecessary traffic that may be impacting supplier performance.
- If more than the set number of days, (for example, 28 days), the following error returns:
<faultstring>Prepay rates are not available for rental requests that exceed 28 days.</faultstring>
Corporate / Government Rate Category and Discount Number Best Practices
The following points are best practices when using Corporate Discount Numbers (CDN) witn Rate Categories, specifically Corporate and Government. For some car vendors, these best practices are requirements and if not followed, results in errors: U
-
Pairing Enforcement:
-
When a Corporate Discount Number (CDN) is provided, the Rate Category must be either Corporate or Government, or,
-
When Rate Category is Corporate or Government, a valid CDN must be included in the request.
-
For some customers:
-
If CDN is present, the RateCategory must be Corporate or Government, or this error message returns: "Rate Category is required when a Corporate Discount Number (CDN) is provided. Please include a Rate Category of Corporate or Government."
-
If the Rate Category is Corporate or Government, a CDN must be present, or this error message returns: "Corporate or Government Rate Category requires a Valid Corporate Discount Number (CDN). Please include CDN in your Request."
-
-
-
Vendor Scoping/Identification:
-
Corporate or Government rate requests must specify a vendor using either VendorLocation@vendor or PermittedVendors/Vendor@code.
-
If both are provided, the vendor codes must match.
-
If RateModifier@VendorCode is sent, it must align with the specified vendors. If not, the following error may return: "Corporate or Government Rate Category requires a vendor. Please include VendorLocation@VendorCode or PermittedVendors/Vendor@Code in your request."
-
-
Consistency Validation:
-
The system validates that vendor codes match across VendorLocation@Vendor, PermittedVendors/Vendor@code, and RateModifier@VendorCode (when applicable).
-
For some customers, if both VendorLocation@vendor and PermittedVendors/Vendor@code are present and the codes don’t match, this error returns: "VendorLocation@VendorCode, PermittedVendors/Vendor@Code and RateModifier@VendorCode does not match in your request. Please review."
-
-
Error Handling:
-
Universal API returns clear, actionable error messages when these requirements are not met, helping you quickly identify and resolve any issues.
-
Exceptions
Worldspan supports a maximum of one Rate Category.
Response
A standard Vehicle Search response is returned in VehicleSearchAvailabilityRsp.
Feedback / Support
