Error Responses

When returning an error response to a webhook request, use the format described below. This allows Booking.com to log and monitor errors from your endpoints.

Error Response Fields

Field	Type	Description
errorCode	Integer	The HTTP status response code (e.g. 400, 401, 503)
errorMessage	String	A human-readable message explaining the error

Example Error Responses

HTTP 4xx - Client errors

{
    "errorCode": 401,
    "errorMessage": "The authorisation token is invalid"
}

{
    "errorCode": 400,
    "errorMessage": "Required field 'bookingReference' is missing"
}

HTTP 5xx - Server errors

{
    "errorCode": 503,
    "errorMessage": "The server is down for maintenance, please retry the request"
}

Error handling guidance

HTTP Code	Meaning	Booking.com behaviour
400	Bad Request — invalid payload	Logged as supplier error, not retried
401	Unauthorized — token invalid/expired	Token cache evicted, new token requested, call retried
403	Forbidden — access denied	Logged as configuration error, not retried
404	Not Found — endpoint not available	Logged, not retried
408	Request Timeout	Logged as timeout
429	Too Many Requests	Logged, may back off
500	Internal Server Error	Logged as supplier error
503	Service Unavailable	Logged, not retried