Availability, Rates, and Inventory (ARI) XML Reference

This XML reference guide provides detailed reference content and code examples for the different messages, elements, and attributes available for Availability, Rates, and Inventory (ARI) feeds.

ARI is a pricing delivery mode that controls nightly rates, availability, and inventory, and provides constraints on how these can be combined. ARI also provides flexibility to include taxes, fees, and promotions.

ARI follows the standard protocols of OpenTravel Alliance (OTA) for some of the main message types for defining availability and inventory.

Using LOS-based pricing

LOS-based pricing allows you to specify rates per check-in date and length of stay, rather than per stay date. When you specify a <StatusApplicationControl> element for LOS-based pricing, the @Start and @End attributes signifies a range of check-in dates for which the LOS rates apply.

Although when using LOS-based pricing there are no longer nightly rates, all other ARI features (inventory, availability, rules, promotions, etc.) can still be applied to these rates and are specified at a nightly level. This means if your systems more closely align with an LOS-based pricing system, you can still take advantage of the rich ARI feature set, in addition to the bandwidth efficiency that is granted by making use of the nightly availability and restriction updates.

Key Point: Each property in your account should use either LOS-based rates or per-date rates.

To enable LOS-based pricing on your account, please contact your TAM or contact us.

Key Point: You must send the four message types (transaction, rate, inventory, and availability) before pricing is available.

ARI uses the following request messages:

• Transaction (Property Data). Defines the type and package (rate plan) information.

• OTA_HotelRateAmountNotifRQ. Defines the per-date or LOS-based occupancy rate amounts per product (room type and rate plan combination) for specific date ranges.

• OTA_HotelAvailNotifRQ. Defines availability and restrictions based on room type and rate plans. Inventory can also be updated using this message, but OTA_HotelInvCountNotifRQ is preferred.

• OTA_HotelInvCountNotifRQ. Defines the physical room inventory or number of rooms available to be sold.

• TaxFeeInfo. (Optional) Defines per-property taxes and fees. This message isn't required if AmountAfterTax is specified in the OTA_HotelRateAmountNotifRQ message.

• Promotions. (Optional) Defines promotional rates for certain bookings, stays, and users.

• RateModifications. (Optional) Defines rate modification rules for certain bookings, stays, and users.

• ExtraGuestCharges. (Optional) Defines how rates should be configured for children and additional adults.

Each message contains a subset of information that Google uses to compute the prices and availability displayed to users when they search for your properties with specific check-in and check-out dates and desired occupancy.

Key Point: ARI functionality is limited to the messages and elements described within this Inventory & Pricing (ARI) XML reference and the ARI guide. Any OTA message, element, or attribute not specifically documented here is not supported in our ARI implementation.

Also, other Transaction message elements not covered in this Inventory & Pricing (ARI) XML reference are not currently supported when using the ARI feed type.

We continue to update and improve our API. If you use additional pricing features in your system, notify us so we can prioritize these features or let you know if they are planned for release.

ARI XML Reference revision history

The following table lists documentation updates for feature changes only.

Date	Changes
August 14, 2020	Initial release.
October 21, 2020	Added the Promotions message type.
November 17, 2020	For Transaction (Property Data) messages, updated the endpoint and added the action attribute to PropertyDataSet elements.
November 24, 2020	For Transaction (Property Data) messages, added the <AllowablePackageIDs> and <AllowableRoomIDs> elements.
February 4, 2021	Added response messages.
February 25, 2021	Added OTA_HotelInvCountNotifRQ.
October 21, 2020	Added the Rate Modifications message type.