Can I change the dates on a hotel booking through the API without cancelling it first?

Sometimes, but this depends entirely on the supplier behind that particular room, so it is not something you can promise a customer in advance. Some hotel suppliers allow a booking to be amended while it is still live, and where that is the case the change can be sent through and the booking keeps its original reference. Many other suppliers offer no amendment function at all, and the only way to change anything is to cancel the existing booking and make a new one.

Even where amendments are allowed, they are usually narrower than agents expect. A supplier may accept a small shift in the check in or check out date but refuse a change of room type, or allow a guest name to be corrected but not the number of guests. The room will normally be repriced at whatever rate applies to the new dates, and the cancellation terms are worked out again from the new stay dates, so the customer may end up on different conditions than the ones they originally agreed to.

Because of this, cancelling and rebooking remains the usual route in day to day work. The thing to watch there is that you are giving up a confirmed room before you hold a new one, and on a non refundable rate your customer may lose what they have already paid. If the stay is close or the booking is already inside its penalty period, a change may not be possible by any method.

Before you tell a customer a change can be made, open the booking and read the cancellation and amendment terms recorded against it, and ask us which of your connected suppliers support live amendments so your staff know where to expect flexibility.