QueryControl Messages

NOTE: Query Control messages will be discontinued on June 7, 2018. After that date, partners will have default maximum itinerary settings.

Query Control messages define the maximum itinerary boundaries that Google uses for pricing updates.

Google updates prices for hotels that are defined in your Hotel List, and uses the settings in a Query Control message to determine the "size" of the updates. By defining the boundaries of pricing updates in a Query Control message, you can limit the amount of bandwidth that Google uses to update pricing data.

Specifically, Query Control messages do the following:

• Define the number of days in advance of check-in for each stay that will be queried by Google.
• Override these values for certain properties.
• Exclude properties from being repriced. (To remove a hotel from inventory immediately, use a <Transaction> message).

Each Query Control message replaces the values of the previous message. As a result, if you make any changes to your Query Control message, you must include all data when you create a new Query Control message.

You can use Changed Pricing to greatly reduce the size and number of repricing updates. With Changed Pricing, you specify only those hotels and itineraries that have changed since the last pricing.

For Changed Pricing, Google fetches pricing data using 5 nights of stay as the default unless you override it in the Query Control message. For more information, see HintRequest Messages.

Frequency and location

The location that the Query Control messages are sent is defined by you and given to your Technical Account Manager (TAM) during configuration.

By default, Google fetches a new Query Control message every 24 hours from your server, so settings can be changed once per day with this method.

Structure

You define default itinerary settings with a top-level <ItineraryCapabilities> element. You can then define one or more overrides with <PropertyOverride> elements, also in the <ItineraryCapabilities> block.

If you use hints, you can instruct Google to allow multiple hotels for each itinerary with the <HintControl> element. For more information, see Hint Response Messages.