Room mapping and duplicate bookings: the two hardest parts of hotel booking

I have built hotel booking platforms with a RateHawk integration and an admin system for entering our own hotels.

Two parts were harder than the rest: room mapping and duplicate bookings.

Room mapping

The same room can come from different suppliers.

Room mapping means matching that room across suppliers, so the guest sees one clear option instead of the same room again and again.

Duplicate bookings

One guest request must never create two bookings.

The platform has to make sure a single request becomes a single booking.

How the flow ends

The flow goes from hotel search to booking, and ends with a hotel confirmation number (HCN).