When I book a hotel through your API, do I get the confirmation number straight away or does my customer have to wait?

Yes, in most cases the confirmation comes back straight away. For the large majority of rooms sold through a hotel booking API, the supplier holds live contracted stock, so when your booking request goes through successfully the response includes a booking reference and the hotel's own confirmation number within seconds. You can hand your customer a voucher the same minute they pay.

The exception is what the industry calls on request stock. Some hotels, often smaller properties or rooms during very busy periods, do not confirm automatically. The booking goes through as a request and the hotel has to accept it before it becomes real. How long that takes is entirely up to the hotel and the supplier you are connected to, so we cannot promise a fixed waiting time. It can be minutes or it can be the best part of a day.

What the software does is make the difference obvious rather than leave you guessing. Every booking carries a status, so you can see at a glance whether it is confirmed or still pending, and the status updates once the supplier comes back. Our advice is simple, do not send your customer a voucher while a booking is still pending, because if the hotel declines it you will have to go back to them and find something else.

Before you start selling, look at the booking status on a few test bookings so your staff recognise the difference, and ask us which of the suppliers on your plan carry on request stock so you know what to expect.