FAQ

Authentication

Can authentication occur at the connection level as opposed to the hotel level?

Yes, if you have a centralised endpoint you can manage each PMS via this endpoint. The HotelCode will distinguish each property in the requests you make to pmsXchange.

What is the difference between Hotel Code and Username?

Hotel Code is the Property Code/ID supplied by the SiteMinder Onboarding team to setup a new hotel connection. This is used to identify the hotel to update availability, restrictions and rates. Username is created by the SiteMinder Onboarding team for individually deployed PMSs to send inventory updates. Username must be attached together with Password in the messages' SOAP Header for authentication at the hotel level.

What is HTTP Error 405?

Because the web service is expecting a specific type of request, it will 405 when there is regular http requests from a browser. Please use the OTA_PingRQ to verify that the test web service is up and running and that it is able to connect.

What is TSL Error: Authentication failed because the remote party has closed the transport stream?

We have recently updated our security requirements in our Test and Production environments which mean TLS protocols (1.0) are no longer accepted (TLS v1.0 and all versions of SSL have become obsolete and no longer comply with PCI regulations). Ensure you’re using TLS 1.1 or TLS 1.2 protocols.

PMS Mapping Codes

What is the difference between Room Type Code and Inventory Type Code?

Room Type Code = The code used to identify the room in reservation messages Inventory Type Code = The code used to identify the room when Inventory updates are received from your system.

It is common that for the PMS the Room Type Code and Inventory Type Code are the same.

Inventory Type Code (InvTypeCode) is used in OTA_HotelAvailNotifRQ and OTA_HotelRateAmountNotifRQ. Room Type Code (RoomTypeCode) is used in OTA_ResRetrieveRS.

Availability and Restrictions

How many dates in advance do SiteMinder support?

SiteMinder's Inventory Grid supports updates for up to 750 days in the future.

How often should we send Availability updates to pmsXchange?

Availability updates should be sent when they are updated in your PMS system (delta updates) in real time as possible. Additionally you can send one full flush dataset per day to ensure all dates have synced correctly.

Will SiteMinder Platform make changes to 'Availability' for all reservations message types delivered via pmsXchange?

SiteMinder Platform will only reduce Availability on newly created reservations in the 'Book' status. However, Modifications (Modify) and Cancellations (Cancel) to existing bookings will not have their 'Availability' changed/updated in Platform. It is expected that the PMS process Modifications and Cancellations messages and provide the relevant 'Availability' changes via the OTA_HotelAvailNotifRQ.

What is a delta update?

Delta updates contain only the information for a specific room rate and specific dates that have been updated. Only information that has changed should be sent.

When Availability or Restrictions change for a date, do I need to include all availability and restrictions of the date in the message?

No, the message must ONLY CONTAIN data relevant to the action being performed in your PMS. Please refer to Delta Changes in our Message Structure page.

Do you support Minimum/Maximum Stay Through?

pmsXchange API does not currently support Minimum/Maximum Stay Through. Minimum Stay Through is the minimum number of nights the guest must stay if any part of the reservation touches the specific date. SiteMinder does not currently support Minimum Stay Through.

Do you support Patterned Length of Stay (for example that a reservation can only be made for 7, 14, 21 or 28 days)?

This is related to our MinLOS and MaxLOS functionalities. Room and Rate codes can manage MinStay updates for different room stays for a specific room type and also have a specific rate for each room stay. Sample Room type with different Room rates: King Room - BAR 2-4 nights (Set MinLOS to 2) - BAR Short Term 5+ (Set MinLOS to 5) - BAR Long Term 14+ (Set MinLOS to 14)

Can we send Availability greater than 0 for a date that is closed (StopSell)?

Yes, you can. Please note that the rooms availability still remain with a Close StopSell. As soon as StopSell is Open, the rooms availability are back for sale.

Why can't I see my Availability, Restrictions and Rates changes reflected on SiteMinder Platform Inventory Grid even though I receive a successful response?

If the XML is parsed correctly following the SOAP OTA standards, you will always receive a Success response.

Reasons the data is not shown in SiteMinder:

  • Check that you are pushing the requests to our test environment. Our test web service endpoint is: https://tpi-pmsx.preprod.siteminderlabs.com/webservices/INSERT-REQUESTOR-ID-HERE

  • Check that the InvTypeCode and RatePlanCode are mapped in SiteMinder Platform and match the codes you are sending in the request. Data sent for unmapped codes will not reflect in SiteMinder.

  • Check to see if you received an Error response back from SiteMinder for that specific EchoToken request.

If I receive an Error back from pmsXchange, will any valid parts of my message be processed?

If you receive an Error message back from pmsXchange, the entire message is failed and none of the data contained will be processed. Please review the Error text in the response for further troubleshooting.

Is it possible to PULL 'Availability' or 'Restriction' data from the pmsXchange API?

The API does not support a PULL model. Once a PMS is integrated to the property's SiteMinder Platform, it becomes the master of all certified ARI data PUSH.

Rates

Do you support Weekly, Monthly or Package Rates?

SiteMinder currently only supports Daily Rate, and not Weekly or Monthly Rate.

SiteMinder does support Package Rates. However, this Package Rate must be a Daily Package rate. All extras / discounts must be included in the rates being sent.

Do you support Seasonal Rates?

SiteMinder currently does not support Seasonal Rates. However, you may utilise Restriction functionalities (Stop Sell) to set the seasons.

How do I send Extra / Supplement / Discount rates to SiteMinder?

SiteMinder currently does not support Extra / Supplement / Discount rates being sent separately from Room Only Rates. The rates that you're sending must include all charges as a daily rate.

How many dates in advance do SiteMinder support?

SiteMinder's Inventory Grid supports updates for up to 750 days in the future.

Why can't I see my Rate changes reflected on SiteMinder Platform Inventory Grid even though I receive a successful response?

If the XML is parsed correctly following the SOAP OTA standards, you will always receive a Success response.

Reasons the data is not shown in SiteMinder:

  • Check that you are pushing the requests to our test environment. Our test web service endpoint is: https://tpi-pmsx.preprod.siteminderlabs.com/webservices/INSERT-REQUESTOR-ID-HERE

  • Check that the InvTypeCode and RatePlanCode are mapped in SiteMinder Platform and match the codes you are sending in the request. Data sent for unmapped codes will not reflect in SiteMinder.

  • Check to see if you received an Error response back from SiteMinder for that specific EchoToken request.

If I receive an Error back from pmsXchange, will any valid parts of my message be processed?

If you receive an Error message back from pmsXchange, the entire message is failed and none of the data contained will be processed. Please review the Error text in the response for further troubleshooting.

Is it possible to PULL 'Rates' data from the pmsXchange API?

The API does not support a PULL model. Once a PMS is integrated to the property's SiteMinder Platform, it becomes the master of all Rates data PUSH.

Retrieve Reservations

What would happen if the reservations are failed to be delivered to the PMS?

SiteMinder has implemented a timeout feature for reservations that the PMS has repeatedly requested from pmsXchange without sending back a confirmation.

In such cases:

  • An email will be sent to the hotel notifying them that pmsXchange could not confirm delivery of the reservation.

  • The email will advise the hotel to contact their PMS provider for further assistance or inquiries.

Rates

Do we always receive both Reservation, Room Stay and Room Rate Total Amounts Before and After Tax?

SiteMinder forwards reservation details exactly as received from the channels. If both Amount Before Tax and Amount After Tax are provided by the channel, we will forward both to you. However, if the channel only provides one of these amounts, we can only forward the information we receive.

Why have I received Daily Rates in the reservation XML that do not match with the Daily Rates that were sent/pushed?

There are a few scenarios where booked rates don't match:

  1. Reservation with Discounts or Promotion

    • The guest booked the reservation as part of a channel's discount or promotion so the final booked RoomStay Total could be different from the rate pushed by the PMS.

  2. Channels Do Not Provide Daily Rates

    • Some channels only send the total cost of the stay without specifying the rate for each day. In such cases, SiteMinder calculates the daily rate by averaging the RoomStay Total across the number of stay days.

  3. Daily Rates Missing for Specific Dates

    • Occasionally, channels may omit daily rates for certain dates due to specific business reasons (e.g., free stay promotions). In these instances, SiteMinder will also average the RoomStay Total across the number of stay days to determine the daily rate.

Multiple RoomStays

Reservations with multiple RoomStays with broken stay date ranges. If your PMS splits the reservation to create 1 booking per RoomStay, how can you send back multiple PMS reference ID's in the OTA_NotifReportRQ message?

Each UniqueID can only be assigned a single ResID_Value in our system. For example, if a reservation is received with the UniqueID WTF-001, it can only have one ResID_Value, even if it includes multiple dates.

That said, channels typically do not send multiple dates within a single reservation. If such a scenario arises, the channel usually creates separate reservations, each with its own UniqueID. Consequently, each reservation would receive its own distinct ResID_Value in our system.

I got this error when sending multiple ID's under ResID_Value (Ex: 048734, 048735, ...) in the OTA_NotifReportRQ. Could not validate the schema: cvc-complex-type.2.4.d: Invalid content was found starting with element 'tag0:HotelReservationID'. No child element is expected at this point.

The ResID_Value we received contains either comma, space or both. If you would like to return multiple numbers within one ResID_Value, please have a dash (-) in between the numbers, Ex: "048734-048735".

Occupancy / Guests / Customers

The reservation RoomStay does not contain <ResGuestRPHs> section. Does the fact it is missing have any significance?

The <ResGuestRPHs> section is used to link specific guests to specific room stays, especially in cases of multiple-room, multiple-guest reservations. However, when a channel delivers only one guest per reservation, there is no need to include this link, as the single guest is implicitly associated with the single room. In such cases, the <ResGuestRPHs> element can be omitted to simplify the XML structure.

What are the differences between Guests & Customers?

The Customer refers to the contact person for the reservation or the individual who made the booking. They should be included under the ResGlobalInfo/Profile section with the Type attribute set to "1" (Customer).

If the Customer is also a Guest, they will additionally appear in the ResGuests/Profile section. Guests are the individuals who will check in and stay in the room.

Extras

Why do all extra types that I receive get classified with only one "EXTRA" category?

We can only classify an extra if the channel classifies it when sending the reservation to us. For the Direct Booking test account, extras are always categorized as 'EXTRA' because the Direct Booking's current functionality does not allow hotels to categorize extras. Similarly, it is likely that you will receive EXTRA from most OTA channels, as it is uncommon for them to categorize their extras in alignment with this table.

How do we identify which Extras are booked for which room?

The ServiceRPH element within each RoomStay node corresponds to a ServiceRPH attribute in the @Service element within the Services node. This mapping allows you to associate each service with the appropriate room booked (RoomStay) in the reservation data.

Fees / Commission

Do you forward us the commissions that the channels charge for the booking?

This depends on whether we receive the commission information from the channels. If the channels provide commission details, we include them under the Fee section:

  • The fixed commission amount is included in Fee @Amount.

  • The commission percentage on the total charge is specified in the Fee Description

Payment / Credit Card

We saw that SiteMinder is now delivering Partial Credit Card under PaymentCard@MaskedCardNumber. Do you still support Full Credit Card number?

SiteMinder continues to deliver full credit card numbers where provided by the channel. However, if a channel only provides partial credit card information (typically consisting of 3-4 digits), we will deliver this partial credit card data to your PMS.

The hotels can obtain the full credit card details via the channel/OTA extranet or via the email/fax from the Channels/OTA.

We currently only get the CardNumber back in the PaymentCard element. Is there also the possibility to get the CVC/CVV code?

To comply with PCI regulations, we cannot include both the CardNumber and the CVC code in the same reservation XML. Hotels can retrieve the CVC code directly from the booking source's (channel/OTA) extranet.

Error Responses

Test Account

I am already a SiteMinder Certified Partner and I would like to request access to the test environment, how can I do that?

Please complete our SiteMinder Test Environment Access Form and a member from the Partner Integrations Team will action your request.

Can we have a permanent test environment access?

Unfortunately, we do not provide permanent access to our test environment as we do not have any support team that looks after it. Our tech analysts in the Partner Integration's team are assigned to help a number of partners that are currently developing and certifying to our API.

Our test environment is specifically built for testing purposes and thus the infrastructure is less robust than the live environment. Also, the traffic needs to be controlled to make sure that the test environment remains consistent for all partners running tests.

We do give the opportunity to our partners already live to have temporary access to it.

Last updated