For the complete documentation index, see llms.txt. This page is also available as Markdown.

VacanceSelect

This guide walks through creating a channel connection between Channex and VacanceSelect over the API: discovering the adapter, validating the 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 VacanceSelect 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, VacanceSelect, Open Channel–based OTAs and others); the payloads shown are the VacanceSelect 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 VacanceSelect needs.

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

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

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

  5. Build the mapping structure.

  6. Create the connection.

  7. Activate it.

1. Get the adapter descriptor

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

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

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

Response (abridged):

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, password, 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 5), described the same way.

For VacanceSelect, the only setting to collect from the user is token — the VacanceSelect API token. 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:

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

Response:

success: true means the credentials are correct and the property is ready for connection on the VacanceSelect 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 property exposes on the VacanceSelect side:

The payload is the same as for the test connection:

Response (abridged):

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

pricing_type — the property'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 VacanceSelect side.

title

Room title.

rates

Rates of the room.

Each rate carries:

Field
Description

id

Rate ID on the VacanceSelect side.

title

Rate title.

4. Collect the Channex side

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

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 VacanceSelect mappings need.

5. Build the mapping structure

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

rate_plan_id — the Channex rate plan UUID (from step 4).

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

Field
Description

room_type_code

Room ID on the VacanceSelect side.

rate_plan_code

Rate ID on the VacanceSelect side.

occupancy

The occupancy option this mapping serves.

pricing_type

The property'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.

readonly

Whether the rate is read-only on the VacanceSelect side.

Mark exactly one mapping of each room + rate pair as primary, and create one mapping per occupancy option you want to sell.

A full mapping for one VacanceSelect rate sold at occupancies 1 and 2:

6. Create the connection

The payload is wrapped in a channel key:

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 VacanceSelect.

settings

The connection settings built from params — the same object the test connection validated.

rate_plans

The mapping structure from step 5. Optional — mappings can also be added later by updating the connection.

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

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.

7. Activate the connection

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 VacanceSelect and begins receiving bookings.

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

Updating a connection

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

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

Actions

The VacanceSelect adapter declares no connection actions — actions is empty on the descriptor and on every VacanceSelect connection.

VacanceSelect settings reference

The full set of connection settings for VacanceSelect:

Setting
Description

token

The VacanceSelect API token. Required.

send_email_notifications

When true, Channex sends a notification about each booking.

email

The email address the notifications go to.

min_stay_type

How the minimum stay restriction is applied: Arrival (counted from the arrival date) or Through (applied to every stayed-through date). Default Arrival.

Last updated