All GDS booking will have a similar confirmation number. Something like 9M519LP2AN1W (a mix of letters and numbers). The GDS entity that makes the booking usually has no reference to this booking number and instead reference their own internally created booking confirmation number. GDS bookings should not be canceled in the software in order to avoid a out of channel cancellation fee. They should always be canceled by the guest where the guest made their original reservation.

1). Why do bookings come in without any guest information such as phone number, email or address?

• You will never get this information in the booking. These booking are made in distribution and these independent companies that make these reservations do not send this information with the booking as they wish to retain the guest as their customer.  If you need to get ahold of a guest please contact the IATA agent who made the booking.

2). We need to find out once a guest has made a booking do they get a confirmation letter from our property?

• No email is sent to the guest from you or BookingCenter. The booking is made on an independent companies website or through a travel agent. The guest belongs to this company and the company that made the booking will send the guest their own confirmation letter. BookingCenter and your property have no control of this process. 
  
  

3). Are all of our policies and instructions disclosed to the guest? 

• Your master cancellation policy is sent, but all written policy information may or may not be picked up by these distribution companies.  Any channels that you have a merchant agreement with you can define additional marketing or policy information in your extranet.

4). I do not see IATA number in the reservation system, to even call the travel agent directly.

• For MyPMS: This is attached to the original booking located in Setup --> Bookings Tab. Click on the Agent link on the booking in question. 
• For Management Tool: This is attached to the original booking located in Bookings -> Online Bookings.  Click on the Agent link on the booking in question. 
• For Desktop: First located the booking via Room Bookings -> Find.  Make a note of the numerical agent id and then click the Agents button at the top of the software or via BookingCenter -> Agents.

5).  I called the IATA agent and they said they cannot find the reservation.  What do I do?

• When calling the Agent or OTA who created the booking please give them as much information as possible including: Property Name, Guest first and last name and arrival date.  You may also give them your property identifier for the specific channel (Pegasus, Sabre etc).  Your property identifiers were sent to you in your GDS activation email.  If can not locate your property identifiers please put in a support ticket and we will provide them for you.

6). We have very specific requirements for all or part of the year that aren't covered by any of the master policy settings.  How do we make sure these policies are enforced?

• For any channel you have a merchant agreement with you may put these restrictions in place within your extranet.  Specific policies or restrictions not covered under your master policy/restriction settings are not enforceable via the regular GDS channels.

Examples for specific restrictions or policies that cannot be enforced via the regular GDS channels include but are not limited to:

     a) Guests must be 21+ for reservations between X and Y dates.

     b) Guests must call the property to confirm their reservation.

     c) Differing Cancellation periods by date range.  I.e. 'Between Jan - April Cancellation Period is 2 days, Between May - June Cancellation period is 7 days, Between Dec - Jan Cancellation period is 14 days'.