Expedia error 2996 — "Only Expedia Traveler Preference rate plans can be created for this property"

When you create or update a rate plan on Expedia and the property is contracted under Expedia Traveler Preference (ETP), Expedia rejects the request with error code 2996 and the message "Only Expedia Traveler Preference rate plans can be created for this property."

This occurs when the rate plan being sent contains only a single distribution path — for example an Expedia Collect distribution rule on its own. For an ETP-contracted property, Expedia requires the rate plan to carry both distribution models: Expedia Collect (where Expedia Group is the merchant of record and collects payment from the guest at the time of booking) and Hotel Collect (where the property manager collects payment from the guest). A rate plan offering only one of the two cannot be created against an ETP property while it is managed through Expedia's Product API.

In practice this means that for an ETP property you cannot publish an "Expedia Collect only" rate plan via the Product API, even when the property manager only wants to receive Expedia Collect bookings — the rate plan must include both collect paths. Whether a given property is contracted for ETP (and therefore subject to this rule) can be confirmed by reading the property's setup through Expedia's property-read endpoints.

Scope: this behaviour is specific to the Expedia channel and to properties contracted under Expedia Traveler Preference; it does not apply to other channels. Expedia has indicated the constraint is tied to the current Product API and is expected to be relaxed once their newer Product Management (GraphQL) interface is adopted.