A RateHawk hotel rate is only guaranteed for a short time after it is pre-booked. TravelFlow makes that guarantee explicit: each booking attempt holds exactly one pre-booked rate, with a visible countdown, and the system refuses to place a booking once the countdown has run out. Understanding when the clock starts — and what to do when it stops — saves you from surprises at the last step of a booking.
One pre-book per booking attempt
A booking attempt gets a single pre-book, and it is fired at the last step you control before the supplier payment approval gate:
- For a booking you start yourself, when you click Send to Booking Queue on
Bookings > GDS Search. - For a forwarded or guest request, when you Claim it in the Booking Queue.
It is not fired when you pick a rate in search results, when you add a hotel to the basket, when you generate a quotation, or when a client checks out on the portal. Adding an item to the basket does not hold a rate.
How long the window lasts
The window is stamped on the server the moment the pre-book succeeds, so it does not depend on your computer's clock. Its expiry is the earlier of two things: 40 minutes from the pre-book, or the supplier's own expiry time for that rate. If the supplier gives a shorter guarantee, the shorter one wins.
The clock is anchored to the pre-book, not to when you selected the rate or when the client submitted the request. A request that sat in the queue for an hour before you claimed it still gets a full window from the moment you claim it.
Reading the countdown
A small badge shows the state of the window. It appears on request cards in the Booking Queue and on the finalisation page:
- Rate valid mm:ss in cyan — the window is live and ticking down each second.
- Rate valid mm:ss in amber — five minutes or less remaining. Finalise now.
- Rate EXPIRED — re-selection required in red — the window has lapsed, or the stored expiry is unreadable. Either way the rate is treated as untrustworthy.
No badge at all means the request holds no pre-booked rate yet — for example a request that has not been claimed, or one converted from a quotation with no bookable rate attached.
What happens when it expires
Expiry is a hard block, not a warning. Opening the finalisation page with a lapsed window lands you on Rate re-selection required instead of the guest form, and the server refuses both booking calls with the message “The prebooked rate has expired. The consultant must re-select a current rate before this booking can be placed.”
Nothing is booked with the supplier when this happens, and the client's payment hold is deliberately left untouched — releasing it would force a needless re-authorisation if the price turns out to be unchanged.
Re-selecting a current rate
- On the Rate re-selection required panel, click Select a current room & rate.
- A dialog loads live availability for the same hotel, dates, occupancy and residency, and lists today's rooms with their meal plan, cancellation terms, non-included taxes and price. Click Select on the one you want.
- The system verifies the rate with the supplier (“Verifying rate…”) and saves a new pre-book with a fresh window. If the rate has gone, you are told to select a current room and rate again.
- If the new supplier price matches what the client authorised, you continue straight into the guest-name step.
When the re-selected price differs
If the fresh supplier price differs by more than about R1 from the amount the client's hold is anchored to, you get a comparison of the authorised supplier amount, the new supplier price and the difference, and you decide what happens next:
- Re-authorize client at new price — the existing hold is reconciled and, where needed, the client is asked to authorise the new amount before the booking proceeds.
- Proceed on current authorization — you absorb the difference and book on the hold you already have.
- Cancel — back to the Booking Queue, nothing booked.
The booking is never placed at a new price against an old authorisation without you choosing one of those options.
Price changes flagged at pre-book
Separately from expiry, the supplier can report that the price moved at the moment of pre-booking. When you send a booking to the queue you are warned that “Supplier price changed at pre-book — the finalize step will ask you to confirm it.” At finalisation a Price has changed panel shows the original and new price and you must click Accept new price & continue before any guest details are collected. The client may need to approve the change first.