Check car rental availability 3.2 Beta

Use the 3.2 /cars/availability endpoint to retrieve detailed availability, pricing, and policy information for a specific car rental offer returned by the /cars/search endpoint.

Overview

The /cars/availability endpoint returns real-time availability, including:

• Current price (base and total)
• Policies (cancellation, mileage, fuel, deposit, insurance)
• Optional extras and their prices
• Deal information (discounts or promotions)

When to use this endpoint

Use /cars/availability:

• After using the search endpoint - After completing a car search, each offer in the response includes an offer ID and a search_token.
  • These values are required to retrieve accurate details for that specific offer.
• Before booking, to allow the traveller to review the policies, prices, and available extras.
• When displaying offer details, such as cancellation terms, terms and conditions, or included insurance.

Request parameters

Example request:

{
  "offer": 740171366,
  "search_token": "eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJwIjp7InNlYXJjaF9rZXkiOiJleU...",
  "currency": "GBP" // This must be the booker country currency. 
}

Example for currency request:

• If booker country in cars/search request is "no" and currency is "EUR". You will need to include currency NOK in the availability call, otherwise it returns a 500 error.

Response structure

A successful response (200 OK) includes:

Key objects

Policies

Describes the rules and terms that apply to the rental.

• cancellation – type and conditions (for example, free_cancellation, non_refundable)

  • details.context – when the rule applies (e.g., before_pickup)
  • details.duration – time window (ISO 8601 duration, e.g., "PT48H")

• deposit – pre-authorised amount blocked on the traveller’s card.

• damage_excess, theft_excess – maximum payable amounts in case of damage or theft.

• fuel – fuel return policy (for example, return_same, prepay_refunds)

• insurance_package – insurance included (e.g., inclusive or basic)

• mileage – allowed distance limit and excess fee details.

  • type – limited or unlimited.
  • distance_limit – numeric limit.
  • distance_unit – miles or kilometers.
  • amount – excess fee per unit if exceeded.

• payment.timing – indicates when payment occurs (for example, pay_online_now, pay_at_pickup)

Price

Contains pricing information for the rental.

Example fields / values:

• base – base rental price.
• total – full price including fees and mandatory extras.

Products

Lists optional extras available for the booking.

Example fields / values:

• type – product type (e.g., baby_seat_included, gps)
• mode – pricing model (for example, per_day, per_rental)
• maximum_available – maximum number of this item available.
• price.amount – cost of the product.
• price.prepayment – whether prepayment is required (true/false)
• extra_charges - whether there is an extra cost.

Deal

Provides details about applied discounts or special offers.

Example fields / values:

• tags – type of deal (e.g., black_friday, mobile_rate)
• discount_percentage – numeric discount applied.
• public_price – original price of this product, before applying any discounts.

Example response

{
  "request_id": "01k1deq3e5b41da80f28yybhz0",
  "data": {
    "offer": 740171366,
    "currency": "GBP",
    "policies": {
      "cancellation": {
        "type": "free_cancellation",
        "details": {
          "context": "before_pickup",
          "duration": "PT48H"
        }
      },
      "deposit": { "amount": 1500 },
      "damage_excess": { "amount": 1500 },
      "theft_excess": { "amount": 1500 },
      "fuel": "return_same",
      "insurance_package": "inclusive",
      "mileage": {
        "type": "limited",
        "distance_limit": 200,
        "distance_unit": "miles",
        "amount": 0.3
      },
      "payment": { "timing": "pay_online_now" }
    },
    "price": {
      "base": 74.4,
      "total": 194.4,
      "extra_charges": [
        { "charge": "aged_driver_fee", "total_amount": 120 }
      ]
    },
    "products": [
      { "type": "baby_seat", "mode": "each_per_rental", "price": { "amount": 33.98, "prepayment": false } },
      { "type": "gps", "mode": "per_rental", "price": { "amount": 31.98, "prepayment": false } }
    ],
    "supplier": 3486,
    "depot": 38566
  }
}

Best practices

✅ Validate tokens and offers:

• Always pair the offer ID with the search_token from the same /cars/search response. Tokens are time-limited (90 minutes) and search-specific.

✅ Localise currency and units:

• Use the currency parameter to match the booker’s country used in the search request.
• Mileage units (miles, kilometers) should also be displayed in the format used at the pick-up location (e.g., kilometers in Greece). If you display a different unit (e.g., miles), show it in addition to the original policy units, since the contract is based on the pick-up location’s units.

✅ Interpret cancellation rules:

• Use the context and duration fields to generate user-friendly cancellation messages (for example: “Free cancellation up to 48 hours before pickup”).

✅ Log the request_id:

• Include request_id in your logs or when contacting support for troubleshooting.

Common errors

Next steps

Once availability is confirmed and shown to the user, proceed to present the car rental terms and conditions and create the order using the /orders/preview and /orders/create endpoints.