Error responses

The Hotspot API produces two kinds of result: an authentication failure (HTTP 401) and a successful response (HTTP 200). An empty guest list is not an error. Below are the situations you may run into and what to do in each.

HTTP status codes#

Code	Body	Meaning and what to do
`200`	`{"success": 1, "otelde": [...]}`	Success. Process the list.
`200`	`{"success": 1, "otelde": []}`	Success; nobody is in house. See the note on empty lists below.
`401`	`{"success": 0}`	`ApiKey` header missing or key not recognised. Do not retry; check the key and alert the administrator.
`404`	Error page	Wrong path. Verify the path is exactly `/public/json/customer/inhotel`.
`405`	Error page	A method other than `POST` was used (e.g. `GET` from a browser).
`5xx` / timeout	—	Temporary server or network error. Retry with increasing delays (30 s, 1 min, 5 min) and keep using the last successful list meanwhile.

Empty list#

otelde: [] means no checked-in guests are in house, which is normal for small hotels out of season. However, a list that was full on the previous query and is suddenly empty usually points to an operational mistake on the hotel side (a wrong bulk check-out, a reservation status change). Before closing every Wi-Fi account, confirm the list came back empty on two consecutive queries.

Retries and timeouts#

Use a 10-second request timeout; even for large hotels the list returns within that.
Retry on 5xx and network errors; do not retry 401, 404 or 405, which are configuration errors.
Keep the last successful list while a query fails. Close accounts only for guests who dropped off the list in a successful response.
Count consecutive failures and notify the administrator past a threshold (e.g. 15 minutes).

Common situations#

Situation	Likely cause	What to do
Guest not in the list	Reception has not checked the guest in, the reservation was cancelled, the guest is not flagged “in house”, or has checked out.	Show “room number and surname did not match” on the portal and refer the guest to reception. No need to refetch; the guest appears on the next sync.
Several records for the same room	More than one guest is staying in the room; each is a separate record.	Normal. Open accounts per guest (`unique`).
`identityNumber` empty	The guest was registered without ID details.	Fall back to surname + date of birth for matching; leave the field empty in the Law 5651 record and tie it to `unique`.
`roomName` does not match	The guest typed “0104” or “Room 104” instead of “104”; the value is a string.	Normalise both sides before comparing; do not convert to a number.
`checkout` in the past but guest still listed	The guest extended the stay or is checking out late and reception has not processed it yet.	Keep access open while the guest is in the list; update the session end when `checkout` changes.

Last updated: 8 September 2026Found a mistake? Let us know