Booking Confirmation reference
Booking Confirmation provides a traveler’s booking information so that you can move forward with the booking. The service then provides a confirmation number to Expedia Group and the traveler.
When a traveler returns to their Expedia Group point of sale to review their reservation or when they receive updates for their booking by email, Expedia Group uses the property’s confirmation number. Partners using the Booking Retrieval integration must use the Booking Confirmation integration to provide these confirmation numbers.
- To understand how Expedia Virtual Card impacts the booking process, see What is Expedia Virtual Card?.
- For an overview of the Booking Retrieval API, see the Booking Retrieval API introduction.
- For an overview of BookingConfirmation API, see the Booking Confirmation API Overview.
The Booking Retrieval and Booking Confirmation APIs are RESTful and all requests and responses must be sent over a secure connection. All request and response bodies, including errors are encoded in XML. The Booking Retrieval API is part of the Expedia Group XML schema definition, so be sure to download the latest version and use it to validate your responses.
Workflow
Unconfirmed bookings will revert to email once the booking expiration time is reached. The email address used for fallback communication are configured in Partner Central. Once a booking falls back to email, it won’t be available for electronic retrieval anymore.
Expedia Group’s booking expiration strategy is based on booking window:
- Same-day arrival (based on midnight in property’s local time zone): bookings will expire 30 minutes after their creation by customer.
- Next-day arrival (any bookings created between midnight and 23:59:59 the day before arrival, based on property’s local time zone): bookings will expire 60 minutes after their creation by customer.
- For any longer booking window, bookings will expire 24 hours after their creation by the traveler.
Booking confirmation numbers can be updated for previously confirmed bookings up to 8 days after the guest's departure date.
Booking Confirmation response messages contain a success or error message for the confirmation of new, modified, or cancelled bookings. Booking Confirmation sends one response per booking update, though each response may include multiple nodes that represent different errors or warnings that apply to that booking, modification, or cancellation. Error codes in the warnings indicate what issue occurred. Requests and responses are sent in XML.
Note: Success messages may include warnings that require action by you. You need to monitor these warnings and make any necessary corrections to the booking confirmation request parameters.
Request
The Booking Confirmation request message (BC RQ) allows you to send property confirmation numbers for new, modified, and/or cancelled bookings on Expedia Group points of sale.
Booking Confirmation uses its own secure Expedia Group endpoint. You then call https://services.expediapartnercentral.com/eqc/bc to supply the property’s confirmation numbers.
Booking Confirmation request schema overview
BookingConfirmRQ element
This is the root container for fields passed from you to Expedia Group to submit booking confirmation numbers. The <BookingConfirmRQ> element is the root element, and it requires the xmlns attribute, which is the namespace to which this message belongs. This namespace is used to validate the version of the schema the message is based on. Current namespace for requests is http://www.expediaconnect.com/EQC/BC/2007/09.
Syntax
1<BookingConfirmRQ xmlns="namespace">2 <Authentication username="username" password="password"/>3 <Hotel id="id"/>4 <BookingConfirmNumbers>5 <BookingConfirmNumber bookingID="id" bookingType="type" confirmNumber="number" confirmTime="time"/>6 </BookingConfirmNumbers>7</BookingConfirmRQ>
Child elements
Name | Description |
|---|---|
<Authentication> | Information used to validate and grant access to the API interface. Note: ‘Username exists' means the user is allowed to access the API. Attributes:
|
<Hotel> | Information about the property. If a property is not specified, Expedia Group will return all the bookings linked to the authentication username. If this user has access to more than one property, bookings for all the properties the user has access to will be returned. Attributes:
|
<BookingConfirmNumbers> | This is a container element for booking confirmation numbers. Child element:
Specified booking must have the same “new,” “modify,” or “cancel” status as described by this booking type. Data type: enum.
|
Response
The Booking Confirmation response message (BC RS) contains a success or error message for the confirmation of a new, modified, or cancelled booking.
There is one response per booking update. If a Booking Confirmation request sends a confirmation update that includes 5 bookings, then there will be a single response message returned with additional nodes for any errors or warnings.
Note: Success messages may include warnings that require action by you. You need to monitor these warnings and make any necessary corrections to the booking confirmation request parameters.
Booking Confirmation response schema overview
bookingConfirmRS element
This is the root container for fields passed from Expedia Group to the partner to indicate whether or not the booking confirmation numbers submitted with the Booking Confirmation request (BC RQ) have been successful or not. The <BookingConfirmRS> element is the root element, and it requires the xmlns attribute, which is the namespace to which this message belongs. This namespace is used to validate the version of the schema the message is based on. Current namespace for requests is http://www.expediaconnect.com/EQC/BC/2007/09.
Syntax
1<BookingConfirmRS xmlns="namespace">2<Success>3<Warning code="integer" bookingID="id" bookingType="type" confirmNumber="number">4</Warning>5</Success>6</BookingConfirmRS>
Child elements
Name | Description |
|---|---|
<Success> | This element appears in the Booking Confirmation response if the request to update availability and rates was successful. The node will be empty. If this element is present, the <Error> element cannot be present. |
<Warning> | This element appears in the Booking Confirmation response if the update request was successfully received by Expedia Group, but the update could not be made. Example: if the requested booking ID does not match the specified property, a warning will be sent indicating that the update was refused. Maximum length: 1024 characters Attributes:
Specified booking must have the same “new,” “modify,” or “cancel” status as described by this booking type. Data type: enum.
|
Examples
- Booking Confirmation Request: New/modified/cancelled booking confirmation
- Booking Confirmation Response: Successful update with warning
Booking Confirmation Request: New/modified/cancelled booking confirmation
The following is a sample booking confirmation request for one new booking, one modified booking and one cancelled booking at a property.
1<BookingConfirmRQ xmlns="http://www.expediaconnect.com/EQC/BC/2007/09">2 <Authentication username="testuser" password="testpass"/>3 <Hotel id="3546"/>4 <BookingConfirmNumbers>5 <BookingConfirmNumber bookingID="848483849123" bookingType="Book" confirmNumber="8675309" confirmTime="2008-04-25T09:30:47Z"/>6 <BookingConfirmNumber bookingID="848485436753" bookingType="Modify" confirmNumber="8675310" confirmTime="2008-04-25T09:30:48Z"/>7 <BookingConfirmNumber bookingID="848485410078" bookingType="Cancel" confirmNumber="8675311" confirmTime="2008-04-25T09:30:50Z"/>8 </BookingConfirmNumbers>9</BookingConfirmRQ>
Booking Confirmation Response: Successful update with warning
The following is a sample booking confirmation response for a new booking. The message states that it was received successfully by the API, but a warning states that the update could not be made because of an inconsistency in the content of the request.
1<BookingConfirmRS xmlns="http://www.expediaconnect.com/EQC/BC/2007/08">2<Success>3<Warning code="10081" bookingID="9123" bookingType="Book" confirmNumber="7605309"> Update refused. Hotel ID and Booking ID mismatch: the Hotel ID specified in the BC RQ doesn't match up with the hotel to which this booking belongs.</Warning>4</Success>5</BookingConfirmRS>