Can I tell whether a hotel booking is confirmed straight away or still waiting for the hotel to reply?

Yes, in most cases your portal can show you that straight away, because hotel booking APIs usually return a status with the booking. The common ones are confirmed, which means the room is held and you can send the voucher, and on request, which means the supplier has asked the hotel and is waiting for an answer. A third status you will see from time to time is rejected or failed, which means the room was not available after all and your customer needs to pick something else.

On request rates are normal in this industry, especially for smaller properties, apartments, and busy dates where the hotel keeps control of its last rooms. The reply can come back in a few minutes or it can take much longer, and that part is in the hotel's hands rather than yours. Your portal can keep checking and update the status by itself, so your staff do not have to sit and refresh, and you can have it email you or the customer once the answer arrives.

Where this gets limited is that not every supplier labels things the same way, and a few only give you a simple pending flag without saying much more. If you want to avoid the wait altogether, many setups let you show only instantly confirmed rates in search results, or mark the on request ones clearly so your customer knows before they pay that the room is not final yet.

It is worth deciding which of those two you prefer for your own business, then checking how your current supplier mix reports status so your confirmation emails do not go out before the hotel has actually said yes.