This article explains what to do when RMS emails you that it could not cancel or change a reservation for a connected channel.

Overview

When a connected channel such as Booking.com, Expedia or SiteMinder cancels or changes a booking, RMS applies that change to the matching reservation automatically. If RMS cannot find the matching reservation, or cannot apply the change to it, RMS leaves the reservation as it is and emails your property instead. The email is a fallback: it asks someone at the property to apply the change by hand.

The subject line of the email shows which kind of change failed:

• URGENT - Unable to CANCEL [Channel] Reservation: [booking reference] - the channel cancelled a booking, and RMS could not find a reservation to cancel. RMS sends this email from bookings@ibe.rmscloud.com.
• Booking Modification Failed: [Online Confirmation Number] - the channel changed a booking, and RMS could not apply one or more of the changes to the reservation.

Before you begin, you will need sign-in details for the channel's own extranet, and access to Reservation Search in RMS.

Applies to: properties with a Channel Connection to an Online Travel Agent (OTA) or other channel. RMS sends the "Unable to CANCEL" email for connected channels such as Booking.com, Expedia and SiteMinder.

Please Note! RMS is highly configurable. Some Terminology, User Access & Permissions, Images, Labels, and Functions used in these articles may differ from your setup. CLICK HERE to find out more.

Quick Checks

The quick checks below show which of the causes in this article applies to the email you received. Start with the booking reference shown in the email.

1. Look up the booking reference in the channel's own extranet, and note whether the channel shows the booking as cancelled, changed or still active.
2. In RMS, open Reservation Search, select Voucher Number, tick every Reservation Status, and search for the booking reference.
3. If that search finds nothing, search on Guest Name using the guest named in the email, and compare each result's arrival date and Voucher No with the channel's booking.
4. For a Booking Modification Failed email, search on Online Confirmation Number using the number in the subject line.

Please Note! The "Unable to CANCEL" email shows the booking reference as Voucher No or Reference No. In RMS the reference is held in the Voucher No field, which your property may label differently.

Important! Match the booking reference, not only the guest's name. A guest can hold more than one booking with the same channel, and a reservation that shares the guest's name may be a different, valid booking that you must not cancel.

Possible Causes

Cause 1: The cancelled booking never reached RMS

An "Unable to CANCEL" email can refer to a booking that never arrived in RMS. RMS can only cancel a reservation that exists, so when the channel's original booking was never delivered to RMS, its cancellation has nothing to match. In this case neither the Voucher Number search nor the Guest Name search finds a reservation with the booking reference from the email.

Fix:

• The channel shows the booking as cancelled: no action is needed. There is no reservation in RMS to cancel, and RMS is holding no inventory for the booking.
• The channel shows the booking as still active: confirm the booking's status with the channel. If the guest is still expected, the booking failed to arrive in RMS. Enter it by hand as described in Manually enter a channel booking that did not arrive in RMS, and use Troubleshooting: Reservations Not Arriving from a Channel to find out why it failed.

Cause 2: The reservation is not linked to the channel booking

RMS also sends an "Unable to CANCEL" email when the reservation is in RMS but RMS did not receive it from the channel. RMS matches a channel's cancellation to a reservation through the record it keeps for each booking the channel delivers. A reservation that did not arrive through the channel connection has no such record, so RMS cannot match the cancellation to it. This usually affects:

• reservations imported from a previous system when the property moved to RMS
• channel bookings that were entered by hand because they failed to arrive

The reservation stays active in RMS, and keeps holding its inventory, until someone cancels it.

Fix:

1. Confirm in the channel's extranet that the booking is cancelled.
2. Open the reservation in RMS and select the Change Status icon.
3. Confirm the cancellation, choose a cancellation Reason and select Apply. If a cancellation fee or refund applies, see Cancel a Reservation with a Fee & Refund.

Please Note! If RMS asks whether to report the cancellation to Booking.com, choose No when Booking.com has already cancelled the booking. Reporting a cancellation tells Booking.com that you are cancelling because the guest's credit card is invalid, and RMS only allows it once a credit card token on the reservation has been marked invalid.

Cause 3: A change from the channel could not be applied

A Booking Modification Failed email means RMS could not apply one or more changes the channel sent for a reservation. The email lists the Online Conf Id, the Reservation Id and a Failure Reason, followed by each field that failed, with its new value and old value. Where the reason is not one RMS shows to properties, the Failure Reason reads "An unexpected error occurred".

For example, the Failure Reason "Unable to modify departed reservation" means the channel sent a change for a guest who has already departed. RMS does not apply channel changes to a departed reservation.

Fix:

1. Open the reservation using the Reservation Id in the email, or search on Online Confirmation Number in Reservation Search.
2. Compare each field listed in the email with the booking in the channel's extranet.
3. Update the reservation by hand wherever the channel's change still needs to apply.
4. For a departed reservation, check with the channel why it sent a change after the guest departed.

Prevent Future Cancellation Emails

RMS is less likely to send an "Unable to CANCEL" email when it can link each channel booking to a reservation in RMS. Two steps help:

• Record the channel's references on reservations RMS did not receive from the channel. On each imported or hand-entered reservation, enter the channel's booking reference in the Voucher No field and set the channel as the Travel Agent. RMS uses the two together to match a later change from the channel to the reservation. For channels such as Booking.com, Expedia and SiteMinder, a cancellation that arrives before any change from the channel still cannot be matched, so RMS emails you instead.
• Set up a fallback mapping. With a Fallback Category & Rate Type Mapping in place, RMS creates a channel booking that has an unmapped room or rate code under the fallback Category and Rate Type instead of rejecting it, so fewer bookings fail to arrive in RMS.

Still Not Working?

If the email keeps arriving, or none of the causes above matches what you see, contact RMS Support and include:

• The property name and the channel.
• The subject line of the email and the date you received it.
• The booking reference and the guest name from the email.
• What the channel's extranet shows for the booking.

Related Articles

• Manually enter a channel booking that did not arrive in RMS
• Troubleshooting: Reservations Not Arriving from a Channel
• Managing Bookings from Online Channels
• Reservation Search
• Cancel a Reservation with a Fee & Refund