Top 8 International Hotel Booking API Providers

Integrating a hotel booking API is the perfect way to provide your users a seamless booking experience. But with so many API options out there, how do you choose?

With our travel industry experience, we’ve put together a list of the top hotel booking API providers based on their inventories, ease of integration, and number of properties. Whether you’re looking for a global powerhouse or a smaller player, this list will point you to an API partner that meets your needs.

Read on to find the best solution to take your travel agency to the next level.

What is a hotel booking API?

A hotel booking API, or Application Programming Interface, is a set of rules and protocols used to allow different software applications to communicate with each other. When a developer integrates a hotel booking API into a travel app or website, travel agents and customers gain access to a broad range of hotel options, making the booking experience more streamlined, efficient, and convenient.

Here's how it works: when a user enters their request for a hotel on a third-party website (and selects their preferences on things like location, check-in date, and duration of stay), the booking platform sends an API request to the data providers. This returns real-time (sometimes cached) data on hotel information, availability, pricing, and more. Think of the API as a bridge, connecting users with the necessary hotel information.

Best hotel booking API providers

Once you've decided to integrate a hotel booking API into your website or app, the next step is to choose a provider. There are lots of excellent options available, so you'll want to evaluate them based on your specific needs and priorities.

Expedia Rapid API

Expedia is a leading name in the travel industry. This API is a testament to Expedia's commitment to innovation, providing a platform that integrates seamlessly with various systems and applications. It makes travel planning more efficient, customizable, and user-friendly.

Expedia uses RESTful API, which is lightweight, fast, and versatile, designed to suit your unique business needs thanks to its modular architecture. With a simple API path, your requests are targeted, delivering only the necessary data.

Inventory

Expedia Rapid API offers dynamic property content, connecting users to more than 700,000 accommodations with competitive rates. It includes more than 400,000 intelligent geography definitions to match travelers with accommodations in popular destinations. The platform also covers more than 35 property categories, from hotels to treehouses. It features over 13 million property images and 7.5 million room images, along with 75 million traveler ratings and 58 million reviews.

Pricing

The cost of Expedia Rapid API varies for each partner. It’s dependent on market, coverage, and booking volumes.

How to apply

Expedia, a market leader, is selective with partner integrations, favoring larger businesses over startups due to the engineering resources required. The process from contract negotiation to API connection can take months.

Booking.com API

This API lets you send and retrieve data for the content available on Booking.com, one of the largest and most popular online travel agencies. It's a great solution for businesses seeking to incorporate Booking.com's vast array of accommodation options into their own platforms or services.

Inventory

Their inventory includes around 400,000 establishments such as hotels, motels, and resorts, as well as 2.3 million homes and apartments. These properties span more than 220 countries and the platform is accessible in more than 40 languages.

Pricing

Like many other APIs providers, Booking.com discusses pricing options only after you sign up with them.

How to apply

Access is granted exclusively to Connectivity partners, meaning you need Booking.com approval first. Submit your details through the online form to see whether you qualify. Once you've completed the form, Booking.com may request specific documents, agreements, checklists, and account information from your company. Do note that Booking.com has temporarily halted integrations with new Connectivity providers, but they plan to reopen the process soon.

Priceline Hotel API

When Priceline came into existence in 1998, it aimed initially at helping people book unsold airplane tickets. They’ve now broadened their services to include car rentals, cruises and accommodations.

Inventory

Priceline is owned by Booking Holdings, but provides a separate selection of travel deals, including more than 1 million properties in 155,000 destinations across 220 countries and territories.

The company also offers a variety of competitive rates and discounts that cater to a global audience. Public rates are available worldwide and come with enticing promotional savings. For those looking for an even better deal, Priceline's private rates offer huge discounts of up to 60%. These rates, which are available to B2B partners and membership groups, or as part of a bundled product, apply to more than 70,000 properties across the globe.

Pricing

Priceline maintains a veil of secrecy on their pricing conditions. You'll only know them after you apply to work with them.

How to apply

Becoming a Priceline partner begins with a simple application process. You’ll need to fill out the form on their website with your company details, then wait for their team to review it. They’ll get back to you with their decision or any further questions.

Amadeus Hotel Search API

Amadeus, a major global distribution system, includes a Hotel Search API in their Self-Service subscription. It can be integrated with the Amadeus Hotel Booking API to create a full-scale hotel booking engine.

Inventory

The Hotel Search API sources good deals on more than 150,000 hotels around the globe. It provides a list of inexpensive hotels in specific locations, along with comprehensive details about each hotel. Users also have the option to filter their search by categories like chain, facilities, or budget range.

Pricing

The Self-Service subscription allows free development with a certain quota of free calls. Post-launch, the same number of free calls is maintained, but any excess will come with a small fee per transaction, ranging from €0.0008 to €0.025 or $0.00078 to $0.024.

How to apply

To kick things off, you just need to make an account and confirm your status as an authorized developer by creating an access token. This will provide you with the necessary credentials to begin incorporating the API.

Tripadvisor Content API

Tripadvisor is one of the world's largest and most trusted travel services. Typically, travel companies use the Content API to display ratings and reviews as social proof.

Inventory

Content API gives access to reliable and comprehensive data from more than 1 million hotels and motels worldwide.

Pricing

You can use Content API for free, and every month you'll get 5,000 API calls at no cost. After that, calls will cost from $0.01 to $0.0082, depending on the total number you set.

Also, you must credit Tripadvisor when using their API products. Make sure to follow their Display Requirements and use the attribution images, like logos and bubble ratings, that come with the JSON results they send you.

How to apply

The whole process is pretty straightforward. Sign up for a new Tripadvisor account, set your maximum daily budget and input your payment details to kick off your pay-as-you-go plan. Once your subscription is active, you'll get your API key and can begin using their data.

Hotelbeds APIs

Hotelbeds is one of the largest bed banks in the travel industry, offering a wide range of accommodations globally. It buys rooms in bulk from providers at reduced prices and sells them to businesses like online travel agencies, travel agents, and airlines.

Hotelbeds features three different APIs. The Booking API manages the hotel booking process, the Content API delivers both static and dynamic hotel information, and the Cache API gives snapshots of hotel pricing data and availability.

Inventory

You can access a vast portfolio of 300,000 hotels in nearly 200 countries. Their hotel room booking APIs provide flexible check-in data, instant booking confirmation, and direct upgrade options. They also provide the ability to find hotels by geolocation or keywords, and advanced filtering for a streamlined search experience.

Pricing

Hotelbeds don’t publicize costs for using their travel APIs. Given that their service incorporates several APIs and an extensive choice of data requests, the final price may vary significantly depending on requirements.

How to apply

Get started by registering for a free API Key. Then, complete your profile to allow Hotelbeds to tailor their services to your specific commercial needs.

HPro Travel API

HPro Travel, formerly known as HotelsPro, serves tour operators and travel agencies, offering everything from budget hotels to luxury resorts. HPro Travel prioritizes the needs of its partners with an array of cutting-edge technology products developed in-house and round-the-clock customer service support. The platform caters to a global audience, supporting multiple languages and currencies.

Inventory

HPro Travel presents a selection of 1 million hotels and apartments in 70,000 destinations. Right now, most of its hotels are based in Europe, but the company is expanding globally.

Pricing

Exact pricing details are available to partners after signing up and are dependent on the parameters of your business.

How to apply

First, you'll need to visit their website and complete the registration process. This involves providing your contact details and essential information about your company. Then you’ll have to wait for their response. With no upfront requirements and a user-friendly process, it’s easy to initiate your relationship with HPro Travel.

MakCorps API

MakCorps Hotel Price API is a versatile hotel comparison tool that gathers real-time hotel prices from hundreds of OTAs worldwide. This data helps you monitor competitors, reduce your prices, and boost bookings on your hotel website.

Inventory

MakCorps brings you prices from more than 200 online travel agencies worldwide with just a single request. It delivers the most affordable prices available in an easy-to-understand JSON format. You can search for any hotel, no matter where in the world. MakCorps also provides reviews, details of amenities, budget filters, currency filters, and much more, giving you a comprehensive overview of the hotel market.

Pricing

MakCorps’ pricing ranges from free for 100 API calls, up to $7,000 per year for 50,000 calls a month, with additional calls costing just $0.008 each. They also have a 30-day free trial that doesn't require a credit card.

How to apply

There are no complicated forms or waiting for approval — simply register on their website, input your billing information, and follow their instructions.

Conclusion

So there you have it, a rundown of some of the best APIs for hotel booking out there. If you’re big enough, you can apply for Expedia or Booking.com access. For smaller companies and startups, consider Hotelbeds, Priceline and other flexible options. If you’d like to enrich your platform with social proof, apply for TripAdvisor’s Content API.

At the end of the day, the best option for you depends on your travel agency business. Pick your API partner based on your company’s requirements, budget and technical skills, and start building the travel experience of tomorrow, today.

FAQs

What is a hotel booking API?

A hotel booking API is a tool that enables different software applications to communicate with each other, simplifying the process of booking hotel rooms. These APIs are typically provided by online travel agencies (OTAs), hotel aggregators, and individual hotel chains.

How does a hotel booking API work?

A hotel booking API works by facilitating the exchange of data between different systems. When a user enters their desired hotel details, such as location and dates, on a website or app, the booking platform sends a request to the hotel booking API. The API processes the request and retrieves real-time or cached data on hotel information, availability, and pricing.

What should I consider when choosing an online hotel booking API provider?

When choosing a hotel booking API provider, consider the scale of their inventory, ease of API integration, and number of properties. Budget is also key, as each provider has a different pricing strategy. If you're an OTA or travel company, think about the provider's geographic coverage, languages they support, and their approval process. Remember, the best provider depends on your company's unique needs and goals.