This section explains the Request to Book (RtB) 2.0 changes that affect your Connectivity integration with Booking.com. It is intended for engineers at connectivity providers who already integrate with the Request to Book Connectivity API.
Today, you block provider-side availability when a request becomes BOOKED. With RtB 2.0, you also block it when an RTB request is created. Release it if the request is rejected, expires, or fails to process.
RtB now supports two types of booking requests, identified by the requestType field:
| Mode | Description |
|---|---|
INQUIRY | The RtB 1.x flow, where a pending request does not represent an availability block. |
RTB | The new 2.0 flow, where a pending request does represent an availability hold. |
Key ideas:
- In
INQUIRYmode, you continue to block availability only when the request becomesBOOKED(reservation created). - In
RTBmode, you must block and release provider-side availability based on the request status. See Availability management.
In addition to blocking availability, RtB 2.0 changes how payment and confirmation work for RTB requests:
- When a guest sends an
RTBrequest, Booking.com pre-authorizes the guest's payment method for the full amount of the stay. Funds are held but not yet captured. - If the partner approves an
RTBrequest, Booking.com immediately confirms the booking and settles payment. The guest does not need to come back to finish booking after approval. Partner approval directly turns the pending request into a confirmed reservation. - For
INQUIRY(RtB 1.0) requests, there is no pre-authorization at request time. After the partner approves, the guest still has to return to complete payment and finalize the reservation, which they may still abandon.
The following diagram shows how the approval flow differs between the INQUIRY and RTB request modes:
Access is controlled by the rtb_api_v2_enabled provider feature in Provider Portal. Enabling it is the final step of the migration. See step 7 of the migration guide for when and how to turn it on. Until it is enabled, all requests continue to use requestType = INQUIRY.
RtB 2.0 is version 2.x, so you must also send X-Booking-Api-Version: 2.0.0 to receive the RtB 2.0 fields. See Versioning.