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Create a metadata Transaction Message

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If you use room bundles, typically you create a Transaction message that contains only room and package data. Using a separate message for the metadata is better than including it in the same message with itinerary data since it doesn't change as often as the itinerary data, and it frees up space for the itinerary data.

Transaction messages are limited to 100 MB of uncompressed data or 10 MB of compressed data (using GZip compression). To reduce network traffic, you should send compressed data.

The transaction message should contain only the metadata that you're adding or updating — do not include metadata that has not changed since the last time you sent a message.

The document must use UTF-8 encoding and must conform to the Transaction XSD.

Important

You must read and follow all Hotel Price Ads policies. For the list of policies, see Pilot programs policies.

Note

Bing does not support all Transaction XSD elements. Bing ignores any element or attribute in the message that it does not support. The Transaction Message Reference includes only those elements and attributes that Bing supports.

Note

The message must specify the elements in the order defined in the Transaction XSD (or as shown in the reference).

Important

Although you may specify room and package inline with an itinerary, it is not recommended because it's inefficient, likely redundant, and decreases the amount of space available for itineraries.

The top-level Transaction element

To provide Bing your room and package data, create an XML document that contains a Transaction message. The message contains a single, top-level Transaction element.

<Transaction timestamp="2017-05-25T20:44:56-04:00" id="de0be689-d094-406e-
8027-724309deb373">

You must specify the timestamp and id attributes.

The timestamp attribute should identify the time that you submit the message. Bing uses the time stamp to ensure that it processes only the latest metadata. For example, if Bing processes a message with a time stamp of 14:10 and then processes a message with a time stamp of 14:09, Bing only processes the metadata in the 14:09 message that were not included in the 14:10 message.

The id attribute is a user-defined ID that uniquely identifies the message to the advertiser. The advertiser uses the ID to identify the message in the list of hotel feed status reports.

Specifying the metadata

The Transaction element contains a list of PropertyDataSet elements, one for each property you're defining metadata for. The message should include only new metadata or those that have changed.

The following shows a PropertyDataSet element for property 12345. The Property ID must match the ID of a property in your hotel feed file. You may specify any number of RoomData and PackageData element.

  <PropertyDataSet>
    <Property>88888</Property>
    <RoomData>. . .</RoomData>
    <RoomData>. . .</RoomData>
    <RoomData>. . .</RoomData>
    <PackageData>. . .</PackageData>
    <PackageData>. . .</PackageData>
  </PropertyDataSet>

Specify a RoomData object for each type of room and capacity that's available at the property. The following example shows all the elements that you can specify. The more information you can provide the better, but the only required elements are RoomID and Name. Although optional, you should always include Capacity, too. In most cases, you also include Occupancy unless the package specifies it (for example, a honeymoon package that's for two).

  <RoomData>
    <RoomID>12345</RoomID>
    <Name>
      <Text text="Double queen room - Non-smoking" language="en" />
    </Name>
    <Description>
      <Text text="A spacious, non-smoking room with two queen beds" language="en" />
    </Description>
    <PhotoURL>
      <URL>https://mydomain.com/pic1.jpg</URL>
      <Caption>
        <Text text="Desk with USB outlets for charging your devices" language="en" />
      </Caption>
    </PhotoURL>
    <Capacity>4</Capacity>
    <Occupancy>4</Occupancy>
    <OccupancyDetails>
      <NumAdults>4</NumAdults>
    </OccupancyDetails>
  </RoomData>

Specify a PackageData object for each package of amenities you define. Although you can specify Capacity and Occupancy in the package, you typically include them in RoomData. However, you would include Occupancy in PackageData if the package is based on occupancy, such as a honeymoon package that's for two. The only amenity that's required is Refundable. This example shows the multiple ways that you may specify Boolean values.

  <PackageData>
    <PackageID>67890</PackageID>
    <Name>
      <Text text="Standard" language="en" />
    </Name>
    <Description>
      <Text text="Standard room package that applies to most rooms" language="en" />
    </Description>
    <Capacity>4</Capacity>
    <Occupancy>2</Occupancy>
    <OccupancyDetails>
      <NumAdults>2</NumAdults>
    </OccupancyDetails>
    <ChargeCurrency>Web</ChargeCurrency>
    <Refundable available="true" refundable_until_days="2" refundable_until_time="17:00:00" />
    <BreakfastIncluded/>
    <ParkingIncluded>true</ParkingIncluded>
    <InternetIncluded>1</InternetIncluded>
    <MembershipBenefitsIncluded>
      <ProgramName>
        <Text text="Holiday" language="en" />
      </ProgramName>
      <ProgramLevel>
        <Text text="Platinum" language="en" />
      </ProgramLevel>
      <NightlyValue currency="USD">50.00</NightlyValue>
    </MembershipBenefitsIncluded>
    <CarRentalIncluded/>
    <MilesIncluded>
      <NumberOfMiles>1500</NumberOfMiles>
      <Provider>
        <Text text="Contoso" language="en" />
      </Provider>
    </MilesIncluded>
    <OnPropertyCredit currency="USD">25.00</OnPropertyCredit>
  </PackageData>

Next steps

Before sending transaction messages, make sure your hotel feed file is up to date. To update the feed files, contact your TAM. After the TAM imports the data into Bing, you may begin sending transaction messages. Transaction messages sent before the data is imported will fail.

Validate the transaction message before sending it to Bing. For information, see Validating your Transaction Message.

For information about sending Bing your transaction message, see Pushing Transaction Messages to Bing or Having Bing Pull Transaction Messages.

For information about using the metadata in your itineraries, see Using Room Bundles.