Improved Transparency in Booking Availability Timing

With the 25C update, a new capability has been added to enhance visibility into the timing of booking availability data. A server side timestamp field, actualAtTime, is now returned in the responses of the GetBookingOptions, showBookingGrid, and findMatchingResources API operations. This field captures the exact moment the application completed processing the request, marking the point in time when the availability or resource data was finalized.

This enhancement is especially important in high concurrency environments. For example, a booking agent may retrieve available slots, see one open, and attempt to book it, but meanwhile, another booking might be processed for that same slot. Since both actions happen close together, this can result in overbooking, especially if availability was assumed to be exclusive based on the earlier response.

With actualAtTime, customers and integrators can now trace when the response was finalized, helping to understand whether a conflicting booking occurred after their data was generated. This allows for more accurate diagnostics of availability issues in high traffic scenarios.

Get Booking Options, Show Booking Grid and Find Matching Resources API Operation Changes

Response changes: Actual at time

In the response of GetBookingOptions, showBookingGrid, and findMatchingResources API functions a parameter actualAtTime was added. It is a timestamp of the request processing completion on the server side.

"actualAtTime": {
    "description": "UTC timestamp in format YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS for which the response was calculated.",
    "type": "string"
}

Business Benefit

• Enables customers to self diagnose booking inconsistencies and validate the sequence of events leading to potential overbooking.
• Reduces dependency on support teams, shortens resolution time, and increases trust in the accuracy of the booking system.

Steps to Enable

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