Expedia

This guide walks through creating a channel connection between Channex and Expedia over the API: discovering the adapter, validating the hotel credentials, reading the rooms and rates on both sides, building the mapping, and creating and activating the connection.

A channel connection (a channel) links rate plans of a Channex property to rooms and rates on the OTA side. Once the connection is active, Channex pushes availability, rates and restrictions to Expedia and receives bookings back.

Every OTA has its own API and data model, so the connection settings and the mapping settings differ per channel. The flow below is shared by most channels (Booking.com, Expedia, Google Hotel ARI, Open Channel–based OTAs and others); the payloads shown are the Expedia ones. Airbnb is the exception — it requires an OAuth authorization step and is covered by a separate guide.

All endpoints require authentication with an API key, sent in the user-api-key header.

The flow at a glance

1. Get the adapter descriptor — what settings and mapping fields Expedia needs.

2. Collect the settings from the user and run a test connection.

3. Get the mapping details — the rooms and rates on the Expedia side.

4. Get the connection details — the currency the hotel trades in.

5. Collect the Channex side — the property, its room types and rate plans.

6. Build the mapping structure.

7. Create the connection.

8. Activate it.

1. Get the adapter descriptor

Each channel is described by an adapter descriptor: the settings it needs (params), the per-mapping fields it needs (rate_params) and the actions it supports.

GET /api/v1/channels/adapter?code=Expedia

The full catalog of adapters is available at GET /api/v1/channels/list.

Response (abridged):

{
  "data": {
    "code": "Expedia",
    "title": "Expedia",
    "kind": "meta",
    "actions": [
      "load_future_reservations"
    ],
    "params": {
      "hotel_id": {
        "position": 0,
        "type": "string",
        "title": "Hotel ID"
      },
      "min_stay_type": {
        "default": "Arrival",
        "position": 1,
        "type": "select",
        "options": ["Arrival", "Through"],
        "title": "Min Stay Type"
      },
      "send_email_notifications": {
        "default": false,
        "position": 2,
        "type": "boolean",
        "title": "Send Property Notification"
      },
      "email": {
        "position": 3,
        "type": "string",
        "title": "Property Email",
        "rules": [
          {
            "apply": "hidden",
            "when": false,
            "influence_field": "send_email_notifications",
            "with_value": ""
          }
        ]
      },
      "booking_amount_settings": {
        "default": "Collect Amount",
        "position": 4,
        "type": "select",
        "options": [
          "Collect Amount",
          "Total Amount",
          "Total Amount Excluding Tax"
        ],
        "title": "Booking Amount"
      }
    },
    "rate_params": {
      "rate_plan_code": { "position": 0, "title": "Rate", "type": "string" },
      "room_type_code": { "position": 1, "title": "Room", "type": "string" },
      "occupancy": { "position": 2, "title": "Occupancy", "type": "integer" },
      "pricing_type": { "position": 3, "title": "PricingType", "type": "string" },
      "primary_occ": { "position": 4, "title": "Primary Occupancy", "type": "boolean" }
    }
  }
}

What to read from it:

• params — the connection settings to collect from the user. Each entry describes one field: title (English label), type (string, integer, boolean, select, hidden), position (ordering for a UI), default, options (for select fields) and conditional display rules.

• rate_params — the fields each rate plan mapping must carry (step 6), described the same way.

• actions — actions callable on an existing connection (see Actions).

For Expedia, the only setting to collect from the user is hotel_id — the Expedia Hotel ID. The remaining settings have sensible defaults; see the settings reference.

2. Test the connection

Before creating anything, validate the collected settings with a test connection:

POST /api/v1/channels/test_connection

{
  "channel": "Expedia",
  "settings": {
    "hotel_id": "8724231"
  }
}

channel is the adapter code from the descriptor; settings is the object built from params.

Response:

{
  "data": {
    "success": true,
    "errors": null
  }
}

success: true means the credentials are correct and the hotel is ready for connection on the Expedia side. On failure the response is still 200 OK with success: false — check the success field, not the status code.

3. Get the mapping details

Next, fetch the rooms and rates the hotel exposes on the Expedia side:

POST /api/v1/channels/mapping_details

The payload is the same as for the test connection:

{
  "channel": "Expedia",
  "settings": {
    "hotel_id": "8724231"
  }
}

Response (abridged):

{
  "data": {
    "pricing_type": "Standard",
    "rooms": [
      {
        "id": 218728301,
        "title": "Double Room, Ocean View",
        "max_children": 0,
        "rates": [
          {
            "id": "304182647A",
            "title": "Breakfast included",
            "derived_rate_plan_ids": ["308215490", "308215491"],
            "max_persons": 2
          },
          { "id": "304182912A", "title": "Half board", "max_persons": 2 },
          { "id": "308215466", "title": "Room Only", "max_persons": 2 },
          { "id": "308215468", "title": "Room Only non-refundable", "max_persons": 2 }
        ]
      },
      {
        "id": 218728415,
        "title": "Quadruple Room",
        "max_children": 1,
        "rates": [
          { "id": "304182648A", "title": "Breakfast included", "max_persons": 4 },
          {
            "id": "308215472A",
            "title": "Room Only",
            "derived_rate_plan_ids": ["308215474"],
            "max_persons": 4
          }
        ]
      }
    ]
  }
}

Every channel returns its own mapping-details shape; this one is Expedia's.

pricing_type — the hotel's pricing model:

• OBP — occupancy-based pricing: each rate carries a price per occupancy option.

• Standard — per-room pricing: one price per rate.

rooms — the rooms available for mapping. Each room carries:

Field	Description
id	Room ID on the Expedia side.
title	Room title.
max_children	Maximum number of children.
rates	Rates of the room.

Each rate carries:

Field	Description
id	Rate ID on the Expedia side.
title	Rate title.
max_persons	Maximum number of persons.
occupancies	Occupancy options of the rate. Present for hotels on the OBP pricing model.
derived_rate_plan_ids	IDs of the rates derived from this rate. Present only on rates that have derived rates.

The example above is a hotel on the Standard pricing model. For an OBP hotel each rate additionally carries its occupancy options:

{
  "id": "412083655A",
  "title": "Breakfast included",
  "occupancies": [1, 2],
  "max_persons": 2
}

Only parent rates are listed. Rates that Expedia derives from another rate do not appear as rates of a room themselves — their IDs are collected in the parent's derived_rate_plan_ids, and when the connection is created or its mappings updated, Channex records known mappings for them automatically, so bookings arriving on a derived rate are allocated to the parent's mapped rate plan.

4. Get the connection details

POST /api/v1/channels/connection_details

Same payload as the previous two requests. Response:

{
  "data": {
    "type": "connection_details",
    "attributes": {
      "currency": "EUR"
    }
  }
}

For Expedia this returns the currency the hotel trades in. Rate plans in any currency can be mapped: Channex converts prices to the channel's currency when pushing.

5. Collect the Channex side

Expedia connections are one-to-one: one connection maps exactly one Channex property to one Expedia hotel. Pick the property to connect, then fetch its room types and rate plans through the options endpoints:

GET /api/v1/room_types/options?filter[property_id]={property_id}
GET /api/v1/rate_plans/options?filter[property_id]={property_id}&multi_occupancy=true

Enable multi_occupancy on the rate plans request: for occupancy-based rate plans it expands each occupancy option into its own entry, which is exactly the granularity Expedia mappings need.

6. Build the mapping structure

The mapping is a list of rate_plans entries, one per (Channex rate plan occupancy → Expedia room/rate/occupancy) pair:

{
  "rate_plan_id": "5f8ae3a1-7c25-4b02-9d6e-3f1c08a4b7d2",
  "settings": {
    "room_type_code": 218728301,
    "rate_plan_code": "308215466",
    "occupancy": 2,
    "pricing_type": "Standard",
    "primary_occ": true
  }
}

rate_plan_id — the Channex rate plan UUID (from step 5).

settings — the fields declared by rate_params in the adapter descriptor:

Field	Description
room_type_code	Room ID on the Expedia side.
rate_plan_code	Rate ID on the Expedia side.
occupancy	The occupancy option of the Expedia rate this mapping serves.
pricing_type	The hotel's pricing model — copy it from the mapping details.
primary_occ	Whether this mapping is the primary one for its room + rate pair. The primary mapping sends availability and restrictions along with prices; non-primary mappings send prices only.

Mark exactly one mapping of each room + rate pair as primary. For an OBP hotel, create one mapping per occupancy option you want to sell; for a Standard hotel, one mapping per rate is enough.

A full mapping for the two Room Only rates of the double room:

[
  {
    "rate_plan_id": "5f8ae3a1-7c25-4b02-9d6e-3f1c08a4b7d2",
    "settings": {
      "room_type_code": 218728301,
      "rate_plan_code": "308215466",
      "occupancy": 2,
      "pricing_type": "Standard",
      "primary_occ": true
    }
  },
  {
    "rate_plan_id": "7d19c2f4-90b3-4a8c-8e5d-6a2f41c9e0b8",
    "settings": {
      "room_type_code": 218728301,
      "rate_plan_code": "308215468",
      "occupancy": 2,
      "pricing_type": "Standard",
      "primary_occ": true
    }
  }
]

7. Create the connection

POST /api/v1/channels

The payload is wrapped in a channel key:

{
  "channel": {
    "channel": "Expedia",
    "group_id": "60674dd6-1aeb-4c41-9e0c-8ffb378a4570",
    "title": "Opera",
    "properties": ["acb388d9-546b-42fc-9ae2-baf00e7f0d8c"],
    "settings": {
      "hotel_id": "8724231"
    },
    "rate_plans": [
      {
        "rate_plan_id": "5f8ae3a1-7c25-4b02-9d6e-3f1c08a4b7d2",
        "settings": {
          "room_type_code": 218728301,
          "rate_plan_code": "308215466",
          "occupancy": 2,
          "pricing_type": "Standard",
          "primary_occ": true
        }
      },
      {
        "rate_plan_id": "7d19c2f4-90b3-4a8c-8e5d-6a2f41c9e0b8",
        "settings": {
          "room_type_code": 218728301,
          "rate_plan_code": "308215468",
          "occupancy": 2,
          "pricing_type": "Standard",
          "primary_occ": true
        }
      }
    ]
  }
}

Field	Description
channel	The adapter code from the descriptor.
group_id	UUID of the group the connection belongs to. Required.
title	Connection title. Optional — generated from the channel and property names when omitted.
properties	UUIDs of the connected properties. One property for Expedia.
settings	The connection settings built from params — the same object the test connection validated.
rate_plans	The mapping structure from step 6. Optional — mappings can also be added later by updating the connection.

The response is 201 Created with the channel connection resource (abridged):

{
  "data": {
    "type": "channel",
    "id": "1b7de88a-2c4f-4d6e-a350-98f2ab1c5e73",
    "attributes": {
      "id": "1b7de88a-2c4f-4d6e-a350-98f2ab1c5e73",
      "title": "Opera",
      "channel": "Expedia",
      "is_active": false,
      "actions": ["load_future_reservations"],
      "properties": ["acb388d9-546b-42fc-9ae2-baf00e7f0d8c"],
      "settings": {
        "hotel_id": "8724231"
      },
      "rate_plans": [
        {
          "id": "e3c1a9f7-5b28-4d40-9c6e-2f81d0a4b356",
          "rate_plan_id": "5f8ae3a1-7c25-4b02-9d6e-3f1c08a4b7d2",
          "settings": {
            "room_type_code": 218728301,
            "rate_plan_code": "308215466",
            "occupancy": 2,
            "pricing_type": "Standard",
            "primary_occ": true
          }
        }
      ]
    }
  }
}

Note that the connection starts disabled: is_active in the create payload has no effect — a new connection is always created with is_active: false. Activation is a separate, explicit step.

Only one connection per Expedia hotel_id is allowed on Channex.

8. Activate the connection

POST /api/v1/channels/{channel_id}/activate

No payload. Activation requires the connection to have at least one property and at least one rate plan mapping; activating starts the synchronization — Channex pushes the full current availability, rates and restrictions to Expedia and begins collecting bookings, reviews and scores.

The counterpart is POST /api/v1/channels/{channel_id}/deactivate, which stops the synchronization but keeps the connection and its mappings.

Updating a connection

PUT /api/v1/channels/{channel_id}

The payload has the same shape as for create (wrapped in channel). Two rules matter:

• channel cannot be changed — a different adapter code is rejected.

• rate_plans, when present, replaces the whole mapping set. A stored mapping missing from the list is removed, and a mapping sent with settings: null is removed as well. Omit rate_plans entirely to keep the stored mappings.

Deleting a connection

DELETE /api/v1/channels/{channel_id}

An active connection must be deactivated first. Deleting removes the connection and all its mappings; bookings received through it are kept.

Actions

The actions list of the descriptor (and of every connection resource) names the actions callable on an existing connection:

POST /api/v1/channels/{channel_id}/execute/{action}

POST (or PUT) runs the action synchronously and returns its result. A GET variant of the same path also exists, but it only schedules the action asynchronously and always responds with 200 {"meta": {"message": "Success"}}.

For Expedia, load_future_reservations pulls the upcoming bookings from the OTA — useful right after activating a connection for a hotel that already has reservations.

Expedia settings reference

The full set of connection settings for Expedia:

Setting	Description
hotel_id	The Expedia Hotel ID. Required.
min_stay_type	Which of the two Channex minimum-stay restrictions is sent to Expedia, which supports a single minimum-stay value: Arrival sends min_stay_arrival, Through sends min_stay_through. Default Arrival.
send_email_notifications	When true, Channex sends a notification about each booking.
email	The email address the notifications go to.
booking_amount_settings	Which amount is recorded as the booking total: Collect Amount, Total Amount or Total Amount Excluding Tax. Default Collect Amount.