Developer Guide

Supported Messages

• OTA_HotelAvailNotifRQ/RS - used to update availability, stop sell, minimum stay, maximum stay, closed to arrival and closed to departure.

• OTA_HotelRateAmountNotifRQ/RS - used to update rates.

• OTA_ReadRQ/OTA_ResRetrieveRS - used to retrieve reservations, modifications and cancellations.

• OTA_NotifReportRQ/RS - used to confirm that reservations, modifications or cancellations have been processed.

• SM_HotelResPaymentReadRQ/RS - used to pull payment transactions.

  SM_HotelResPaymentResultRQ/RS - used to confirm the payment transaction has been processed and stored by the PMS.

Best Practices

Real-Time Updates

Updates must be sent to SiteMinder as close to real-time as possible, ideally within 2 minutes of the change occurring in the PMS. Sending updates promptly ensures accurate and timely synchronization across systems.

Responses and Timeouts

Ensure that your system waits for a response from SiteMinder before sending additional requests for the same site. Set an appropriate timeout duration, between 60 and 120 seconds, to allow requests to complete before retrying. This prevents unnecessary retries and ensures smooth communication.

Queuing Mechanism

Implement a queuing mechanism in the PMS to manage outgoing messages during periods of connectivity loss with SiteMinder, such as network disruptions or scheduled maintenance. Retain messages in the queue and resend them automatically once connectivity is re-established.

Mapping Extras / Services

When mapping extras / services received in the reservation XML, you can use the below suggestions:

1. Map the ID attribute if present. If not present, find and map the ServiceInventoryCode attribute which will always be present. You can combine this with Point 3.

2. If mapping ServiceInventoryCode, you can refer to the list here for the most common used codes or ask the hotelier to provide the specific ones that each of their connected channels are using.
3. You can also create a logic to detect keywords such as Parking, Breakfast, etc... from the <RateDescription><Text>. So if the OTA's/channels are sending the same extra under different codes (EXTRA, MEAL, OTHER, etc...), it should still be matched in your PMS.

Multiplicity (M)

In the Specification tables M refers to the number of instances or occurrences of an element or attribute that are allowed or required in a given context. It defines how many times a particular component (element or attribute) can appear within a specific structure.

M	Definition
1	The element or attribute must be present exactly once.
0..1	The element or attribute is optional; it can be present zero or one time.
0..n	The element or attribute can be present zero or more times, with no upper limit (where n represents an infinite number of occurrences).
1..n	The element or attribute must be present at least once and can be present any number of times, with no upper limit.
n..m	Specific range, the element or attribute must be present at least n times and no more than m times (where n and m are specific numbers).