Is it normal for a hotel to disappear from my search results when I search again a short while later?

Yes, that is normal, and in most cases it means the room has been sold rather than that something is wrong with your search. Hotel availability is live, so every search goes out to the suppliers and comes back with what is actually bookable at that moment. If the last room of that type was taken by another agent or by a guest booking directly, the hotel will simply stop appearing until the supplier releases more rooms.

There are a few other reasons a property can come and go between two searches. The same hotel is often sold by more than one supplier, and each supplier has its own allocation, so if one of them runs out the hotel may show up with a different room type or a different board option instead. Suppliers also respond at different speeds, and if one of them is slow to answer, the results can be returned without its hotels so your customer is not left waiting. Small changes in dates, number of guests or rooms will also change what comes back.

What we cannot do is hold a hotel in your results or promise that a room you saw earlier will still be there later. That sits entirely with the supplier and the hotel, and it also depends on which suppliers are switched on for your account. Some suppliers allow a short hold before payment and others do not.

If a particular hotel keeps missing from your results, search again with the exact dates and room count, make sure no filters are narrowing the list, and pass the hotel name and search details to our support team so they can check it against the supplier.