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Use of Rate Comments

The rate comments (also called contract comments) are provided by hoteliers and must be displayed to the customer before confirming a booking.

Where is the Rate comment returned

The availability response returns a rate comment ID; while a description is returned in the other steps of the booking process.

In the availability response it is possible that certain rates have a comment associated that the hotelier wants to disclose to the final passenger before they book.

Examples of rate comments are: "Minimum age of registration 21 Years Old"; "The Key for the apartment needs to be collected at 522 Main Street”, etc.

These rate comments are returned in the Availability Response and are identified with a code, for example in the XML response will be returned like this: rateCommentsId="1|92088|3"

In order to obtain the description of the rate comments you have two options:

  1. Online Solution: using the rateCommentDetails operation:

    You will need the rateCommentsId and the check-in date used in the Availability Request. This solution is to be used once the hotel and room are selected, as you can't send a rateCommentDetails per each rateCommentId returned in the Availability Response.


  2. Offline Solution: using the rateComments operation:

    You can download all the rate comments of all the hotels that we have in the system.

    In order to identify which description to show to your client first you will need to split the rateCommentsId in three parts (they have the character "|" as division).

    The first part corresponds to the Incoming field of the rateComments operation, the second part corresponds to the internal code of the rate and the third part corresponds to the rate to which the comment is applied.

    Once you have determined which rate comments are applied for the rateCommentsId you will have to use the check-in date to determine (using the dateStart and dateEnd) which specific rateComment you will use.


    Example:

    rateCommentsID = "1|92088|3"

    Incoming: 1

    Internal rateCode: 92088

    Rate: 2

    Check in date: 13th October 2016

    In APItude CONTENT we could have:
Incoming Code Rates Date Start Date End Description
1 92088 1,2 1st May 2016 1st Sep 2016 "Minimum age of registration 19"
1 92088 3 1st May 2016 1st Sep 2016 "Minimum age of registration 21"
1 92088 1,2,3 2nd Sep 2016 1st Dec 2016 "Minimum age of registration 21"


Reviewing the incoming, the code and the rates, we could have 2 possibilities, "Minimum age of registration 21" and "Minimum age of registration 19", but as the check in date is 13th October 2016 the rateComment to display is "Minimum age of registration 21".

NOTE: In the case that you find more than one description applicable to the check in date then you would have to concatenate each rate comment and show it to the final passenger.
Ratecomments and checkrate usage

When receiving an availabilityRS, you'll find some rates contain a tag named "rateCommentsId". This is important information given on the AvailabilityRS about the rate.

You can retrieve the ratecommentid description using ratecommentdetails operation from content-api. More information here


Below you'll find an example:

<rate
        rateKey = "20201205|20201207|W|256|217516|DBL.DX|GC-ALL|RO||1~2~1|6|N@05~~20c65~107727977~N~~~C8707DE2DC8C4F4159912750444500AAUK0200059001000021020c65"
        rateClass = "NOR"
        rateType = "BOOKABLE"
        net = "101.12"
        allotment = "37"
        rateCommentsId = "256|24524|3"
        paymentType = "AT_WEB"
        packaging = "false"
        boardCode = "RO"
        boardName = "ROOM ONLY"
        rooms = "1"
        adults = "2"
        children = "1"
        childrenAges = "6">
        <cancellationPolicies>
                <cancellationPolicy amount = "75.54" from = "2020-12-02T23:59:00-08:00"/>
        </cancellationPolicies>
</rate>
<rateComments>
        <rateComment dateEnd = "2023-12-31" dateStart = "2015-12-15">
                <description>
                        ***POOL CLOSURE UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE***
                        A valid government issued ID and credit card  deposit is required to check-in and secure any incidental charges.Parking is available at an additional fee, payable locally.
                </description>
        </rateComment>
</rateComments>

However, when retrieving CheckrateRS you'll get a tag "rateComments" that contains more information than the one contained on the content-api.

This behaviour is due to the rateComments delivered on CheckrateRS are build by concatenating different strings. The main ones and how to recover them are:

  • Issues
    • Those can be retrieved from content-api using hotels or hoteldetails operations under <issues> tag. More info here
  • Some facilities
    • Those can be retrieved from content-api using hotels or hoteldetails operations under <facilities> tag and are identified using the value true on "voucher" tag. More info here
  • Contract comments (those are the rateComments that you can see in the availability step)
    • Those can retrieve the ratecommentid description using ratecommentdetails operation from content-api. More information here

Disclaimer: There's a few more items that might be on the ratecomment description on Checkrate depending on the hotel/contract set-up.

Below you'll find examples:

From Checkrate RS, this is the full ratecomments for this rate:

<rate
        rateKey = "20201205|20201207|W|256|217516|DBL.DX|GC-ALL|RO||1~2~1|6|N@05~~20c65~107727977~N~~~C8707DE2DC8C4F4159912750444500AAUK0200059001000021020c65"
        rateClass = "NOR"
        rateType = "BOOKABLE"
        net = "101.12"
        rateComments = "***POOL CLOSURE UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE***A valid government issued ID and credit card  deposit is required to check-in and secure any incidental charges.Parking is available at an additional fee, payable locally.  Estimated total amount of taxes &amp; fees for this booking:64.06 US Dollar payable on arrival.  Check-in hour 15:00-00:00.Car park NO.Identification card at arrival.Deposit on arrival.Minimum check-in age 21.As a result of local government measures and guidelines put in place by services providers – including hotels and ancillaries – guests may find that some facilities or services are not available.Please visit https://static-sources.s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/policy/index.html for further information. (15/05/2020-31/12/2020) The outdoor pool is closed. (08/07/2020-30/12/2020) "
        paymentType = "AT_WEB"
        packaging = "false"
        boardCode = "RO"
        boardName = "ROOM ONLY"
        rooms = "1"
        adults = "2"
        children = "1"
        childrenAges = "6">
        <cancellationPolicies>
                <cancellationPolicy amount = "75.54" from = "2020-12-02T23:59:00-08:00"/>
        </cancellationPolicies>
</rate>

From Hotels / Hoteldetails RS on content-api you receive the issues for the hotel

<issues>
        <issue
                issueCode = "COVID"
                issueType = "COVID"
                dateFrom = "2020-05-15"
                dateTo = "2020-12-31"
                order = "2"
                alternative = "false">
                <description>As a result of local government measures and guidelines put in place by services providers – including hotels and ancillaries – guests may find that some facilities or services are not available.Please visit https://static-sources.s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/policy/index.html for further information.</description>
        </issue>
        <issue
                issueCode = "OUTDOORPOOL"
                issueType = "CLOSED"
                dateFrom = "2020-07-08"
                dateTo = "2020-12-30"
                order = "4"
                alternative = "false">
                <description>The outdoor pool is closed.</description>
        </issue>
</issues>

From Hotels / Hoteldetails RS on content-api you receive the Voucher = True facilities for the hotel

<facility
        facilityCode = "320"
        facilityGroupCode = "70"
        order = "1"
        indFee = "false"
        indYesOrNo = "false"
        voucher = "true">
        <description>Car park</description>
</facility>
<facility
        facilityCode = "260"
        facilityGroupCode = "70"
        order = "1"
        timeFrom = "15:00:00"
        timeTo = "00:00:00"
        voucher = "true">
        <description>Check-in hour</description>
</facility>
<facility
        facilityCode = "561"
        facilityGroupCode = "85"
        order = "1"
        indLogic = "true"
        voucher = "true">
        <description>Deposit on arrival</description>
</facility>
<facility
        facilityCode = "557"
        facilityGroupCode = "85"
        order = "1"
        indLogic = "true"
        indFee = "false"
        voucher = "true">
        <description>Identification card at arrival</description>
</facility>
<facility
        facilityCode = "564"
        facilityGroupCode = "85"
        order = "1"
        number = "21"
        voucher = "true">
        <description>Minimum check-in age</description>
</facility>

From ratecommentdetails RS on content-api you receive the ratecomments for the hotel

<rateComments>
        <rateComment dateEnd = "2023-12-31" dateStart = "2015-12-15">
                <description>
                        ***POOL CLOSURE UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE***
                        A valid government issued ID and credit card  deposit is required to check-in and secure any incidental charges.Parking is available at an additional fee, payable locally.
                </description>
        </rateComment>
</rateComments>

It is not possible to get the full ratecomment description in AvailabilityRS as you would get it from CheckrateRS.

However, you can show the more important pieces by reading the issues, facilities and ratecommentsid