Use this 10-step troubleshooting guide when your SiteMinder direct booking engine shows a different rate, price, or availability than your SiteMinder Inventory grid. This covers cases where a value appears but is wrong, for example your SiteMinder booking engine shows a higher price, a lower price, or fewer available dates than your Inventory grid.
Important: if you connect a PMS, find where the difference begins first
If your PMS and SiteMinder show different values, follow "Troubleshoot inventory not syncing from your PMS/RMS/CRS to SiteMinder".
If your PMS and SiteMinder match but the Direct Booking Engine is different, work through the ten steps below.
⚠️ This guide does not cover third-party or online travel agency (OTA) booking engines like SynXis, Adrez, or WeChat.
Work through all ten steps in order, as more than one setting can affect the same rate.
Step 1 of 10: Reproduce the issue
Reproduce the issue so you can see exactly what the guest sees:
Use the exact check-in and check-out dates, room rate, occupancy, and guest-facing booking flow.
Compare the guest-facing Direct Booking Engine against your Inventory grid in Distribution > Inventory.
Step 2 of 10: Check the rate is active, not suspended
If the rate is not showing at all on your booking engine, check it is active. A suspended rate does not appear on your booking engine. If the rate is already showing, it is active, so move to the next step.
Go to Direct Booking > Rates > Rate status.
Check the rate appears under Active and not Suspended.
Step 3 of 10: Check the Inventory grid for restrictions or wrong rates
Check the Inventory grid to see whether a restriction or an incorrect rate is causing the difference:
Go to Distribution > Inventory.
Click the View by dropdown to open the menu.
Select Direct Booking.
Under Select a data type to display, click Rates, Stop sell, Close to arrivals, Close to departures, Min. length of stay, or Max. length of stay. The button you click turns blue, and the grid updates to show that data for each date.
If the price is different, click Rates and check the rate shown for the affected date is correct.
If availability is different, click Stop sell, Close to arrivals, Close to departures, Min. length of stay, and Max. length of stay one at a time. For each one, check the affected date in the grid and remove any restriction that should not be there.
Step 4 of 10: Check your rate plan settings and Direct booking controls
Your rate plan settings and Direct booking controls can stop a rate showing, limit it to certain dates or devices, or change its price. Check them on the rate plan:
Go to Rooms and rates > Rate plans.
Find the affected rate plan and click Edit.
Under Restrictions and inclusions, check:
Minimum stay and maximum stay: the rate does not show if the guest’s stay is shorter or longer than these limits.
Release period: the minimum number of days before check-in that a guest can book. If a release period is set, the rate does not show for arrivals within that many days.
Scroll to Direct booking controls and check:
Applicable dates: the rate only shows when the guest’s check-in and stay fall within these dates. Check the stay date is within your Applicable dates and not within an excluded date range.
Advertised dates: the booking window when guests can book the rate. Check today’s date is within your Advertised dates and not within an excluded date range.
Maximum advance booking dates: the earliest a guest can book before check-in. If this is set, bookings further ahead than the limit are blocked.
Dynamic discounts: length of stay, package, and stay-pay discounts can lower the price shown on your booking engine.
Restrict rate to mobile device: if this is on, the rate only shows on mobile devices.
Step 5 of 10: Check your minimum rate
A minimum rate lifts any price that falls below it, including discounted and derived rates, so it can make your booking engine price higher than expected. It can be set at three levels, and the lowest level that is set applies: room rate first, then rate plan, then property.
To check your property minimum rate:
Go to your property name > Property settings.
Click the General information tab.
Click the pencil edit icon next to Inventory and check the Minimum rate value.
To check a rate plan or room rate minimum rate, go to Rooms and rates > Rate plans, edit the rate plan or room rate, and check the Minimum rate value under Pricing details.
Step 6 of 10: Check your Direct Booking rate configuration
Check your direct booking rate’s configuration is not blocking availability or changing the price:
Go to Direct Booking > Rates.
Find the affected rate, click the ellipsis button (three dots), then click Edit rate.
In the General tab:
Check whether a Same-day cutoff time is restricting bookings for today past a certain hour.
Check whether Restrict rate is enabled, which hides the rate from anyone without the assigned promotion code.
If the rate is linked to a promotion code, check the dates fall within the valid stay and sell windows, and check the discount percentage if the price is different.
In the Occupancy tab:
Check the number of guests booked fits within your occupancy limits for adults, children, and infants. Included occupancy covers the guests in the base price, and maximum occupancy caps the total group size.
In the Pricing tab, if the price is different:
If using Derive daily rates, check the Adjust daily rates by setting is correct.
If Maximum occupancy exceeds Included occupancy, check the extra adult, child, or infant fees, as these increase the total price shown when extra guests are added.
Step 7 of 10: Check guest and age settings
Your guest display options control which guest counts and ages are allowed, and how children and infants are counted. These can change whether a rate shows, and the price, for a given guest mix. Check them in Direct booking > Configuration > Guest display options:
Maximum room occupancy: check Maximum adults, Maximum children, and Maximum infants are high enough for the booking. Check Include children and infants in maximum occupancy. If this is not ticked, children and infants are counted on top of the maximum occupancy. By default, only adults count towards maximum occupancy.
Occupancy age settings: check your Maximum child age and Maximum infant age. These set the age ranges guests choose from and decide whether a guest is treated as a child, infant, or adult, which can change the price.
If guests cannot add children or infants at all, check whether Hide child selector or Hide infant selector is ticked in the Maximum room occupancy section.
Step 8 of 10: Check yield rules
Yield rules (automatic closure, selling limit, and availability limit) control availability across your channels, including your direct booking engine. An active yield rule can reduce or close availability on your booking engine. To check:
Go to Distribution > Yield rules.
Check whether any active rule applies to the affected dates and your direct booking engine.
Adjust or remove the rule if it should not be limiting your direct booking availability.
Step 9 of 10: Check auto-replenishment
Auto-replenishment automatically restores room availability when a reservation is cancelled or modified. If you connect a PMS, RMS, or CRS, it can cause availability to differ between your grid and your booking engine, and lead to overbooking. Disable it when a PMS, RMS, or CRS manages your availability.
To check auto-replenishment:
Go to your property name > Property settings.
Click the General information tab.
Under Inventory, check the Auto-replenishment setting.
If you connect a PMS, RMS, or CRS, set it to Disabled.
Step 10 of 10: Check other price-related settings
If the price is still different after the earlier steps, check the remaining settings that can change the final price shown in the booking engine:
Check whether a Rate Multiplier is active and set below or above “1” under Direct Booking > Configuration > Rate Multiplier, which can lower or raise your price.
Under Payment > Taxes, check your tax settings are correct, including whether Inventory grid rates already include taxes or service charges. Fixed taxes are always added separately. Check for credit card surcharges under Accepted payments.
Under Direct Booking > Extras, check that mandatory extras were not added to the room rate by mistake, as these inflate the final price.