The Guide to The Best APIs for the Travel and Hospitality Sector

As more consumers turn to online platforms for their travel bookings, businesses must adapt to meet their needs. Travel APIs are at the heart of this evolution, the backbone for integrating travel-related data and services into various applications. 

What exactly are travel APIs,  why are they essential in reshaping how we experience travel, and how important is artificial intelligence in travel and hospitality industry? In this guide, we'll explore the fundamentals of APIs, their significance in streamlining travel processes, and how they empower businesses to meet the demands of modern travelers. Let’s start this journey on the way to the best travel API. 

What is API in the Travel Industry?

Travel APIs, short for Travel Application Programming Interfaces, are protocols, routines, and tools that let developers access and integrate travel-related data and services within applications. Travel APIs let travel companies give customers access to flight, hotel, and car rental booking services on their websites. 

Here's how travel APIs work: the company sends a request to the service provider's server. The server then finds the needed data and returns it to the company. The company uses this data to show customers customized options, like flights, hotels, and rental cars, along with prices and availability. The customer can book on the travel company's site while the API handles the behind-the-scenes transaction.

Why do You Need API?

The travel industry is going through some major changes thanks to new technology. According to statistics, by 2028, 76% of travel revenue will come from online sales. In this increasingly crowded digital marketplace, businesses must deliver their services with speed, affordability, and data-driven decision-making to stand out. This is where travel APIs and artificial intelligence in hospitality industry come into play, offering some benefits:

• Cut costs and increase efficiency. Manually tracking reservations and customer information often leads to errors and inefficiencies. Travel APIs connect different systems, so data flows seamlessly, eliminating redundant data entry. This reduces overhead and man-hours spent on tedious admin work.
• Stay ahead of customer demands. Launching new customized travel products typically requires significant development time. Yet, APIs give on-demand access to real-time travel data and pre-built tools to quickly prototype and validate fresh offerings.
• Personalized convenience from start to finish. APIs aggregate all the relevant booking info, so customers can filter options by budget, location, brands they like, and more – then book their ideal, customized package all in one place.
• Monetization through additional services. Beyond flights, hotels, and cars, APIs integrate add-ons like travel insurance, local activities, and ride-shares into the booking process. This upsells customers on more services, driving higher transaction values.
• Future readiness. Technology keeps evolving at warp speed. Tapping into flexible, scalable API platforms, future-proof business growth by simplifying the integration of new data sources or third-party services.
• Sell more. With API-ready systems, you may integrate with potential distributors and increase sales.

Best Travel APIs For Airlines, Hotels, and Travel Businesses

We've done the hard work for you and compiled a list of the best travel APIs. Whether you need hotel bookings, information on tours and attractions, hotel pricing details, or anything related to flights, we've got you covered. Look at our roundup to find the travel API that fits your needs and get started.

Flight Pricing, Schedule, Status, Review, and Booking APIs

Flight APIs are game-changers for travel businesses. They connect your clients to flight information from airlines, agencies, and data providers, giving them a wide range of travel options. The API handles all the complex booking details behind the scenes, so customers can easily browse and book flights through your platform.

For smaller travel agencies, APIs are crucial for competing with advanced online booking systems. APIs let you offer modern, user-friendly flight booking. Beyond staying competitive, APIs help you retain customers by providing the convenient travel services they expect – all in one place. Let’s explore some of the most popular flight APIs for now. 

Flight API

FlightAPI makes it easy for travel companies to add real flight data to their websites. It connects you to flight info like prices, schedules, and status updates across multiple airlines. Instead of manually tracking down all that data yourself, FlightAPI does the work for you. It automatically gathers and sends the info, saving you time and effort.

With FlightAPI, you get access to different tools for all your flight needs:

• Flight Prices API (compare flights fares)
• Flight Status API (get live flights updates)
• Airport API (provide details on airports worldwide)

The good? FlightAPI delivers accurate, real-time flight data to give customers the latest details. And it's simple to integrate into your travel site.

The downside? It doesn't handle bookings, just provides the flight data itself.

Amadeus Flight APIs

Amadeus Flight API is a solid AI-powered tool that simplifies finding and comparing flight locations and fares. It enables businesses to track the lowest fares, most booked destinations, and more effortlessly.

This API is also handy for booking flights, analyzing pricing trends, predicting delays. The enterprise package gives you access to nearly 200 APIs – including new RESTful ones as part of the self-service suite and legacy SOAP APIs that use XML and offer deeper functionality.

On the plus side, developers get a complete portal with all the tools, resources, and support they need to build and launch applications quickly.

The downside? You can only do ticketing through consolidators, so you don't have access to negotiated corporate rates.

Skyscanner Flight Search API

Skyscanner is a big name in the travel API game for finding cheap flights. What makes Skyscanner so clutch? It lets people search for flights with the lowest prices on their travel dates.

Now, let's talk about using their Travel API. On the plus side, integrating it is a breeze. The API speaks multiple languages – JSON, XML, JSONP, you name it. It plays nicely with all the popular programming languages, too. Developers dig that flexibility.

But here's the catch: Skyscanner's API is only available in certain countries and regions worldwide. So, if you operate outside those areas, you might be out of luck.

Sabre Flight APIs

Sabre's Flight API allows users to search for alternate dates, airports, basic fares, rules, and other essential travel information in real-time. They can also handle flight bookings, ticketing, payments, pricing, and reservation management (like itineraries and PNRs). Need seat maps? Check. Need reporting and data analytics? They've got that, too.

One of Sabre's biggest strengths is itinerary management. With its API, you can add or remove flight segments, change dates, and adjust – a major benefit for customizing travel plans.

Using Sabre's API for commercial purposes might come with additional fees. So, businesses looking to integrate it should factor those costs into their budgets.

Aero API

Aero API is a tool that provides access to millions of flight status updates using REST/JSON. What makes it so appealing? It's easy to integrate and highly flexible. You can scale it up or down as needed. Plus, it offers both current and historical flight data. Users can quickly retrieve flight details through the API, such as tail numbers, aircraft types, origin/destination airports, and the last time a position was recorded.

Yet, accuracy can be a bit of an issue. Since flight details change constantly, the data from the API may not always be 100% up-to-date.

Hotel Pricing, Availability, and Booking APIs

This kind of API bridges hospitality businesses and travel booking websites or applications. It lets users search for hotels by location, dates, budget, guests, and preferences. Users can also see amenities, room availability, up-to-date prices, and fees and book rooms.

Online travel agencies (OTAs) and travel agencies access hotel rooms through channel managers, which connect them to multiple hotels. By listing on various sites, hotels get more visibility and bookings.

Hotel property management systems (PMSs) are critical too. They help hotels manage operations and offer valuable features.

On a larger scale, global distribution systems (GDSs) and aggregators distribute hotel info worldwide. They connect consumers to thousands or millions of hotels globally.

However, GDSs focus more on corporate hotels, leaving out smaller ones. They may lack detailed photos and amenity info. Aggregators combine data from GDSs, PMSs, OTAs, and other sources for a wider selection.

MakCorps Hotel API

MakCorps Hotel Price Comparison API allows access to pricing data from over 200 online travel agencies (OTAs). So, users don’t need to do tedious manual searches. MakCorps API simplifies and speeds up the process. It provides real-time pricing, plus historical data, to help businesses make informed decisions. Whether you're an OTA, hotel chain, or any company needing hotel price comparisons, this API has got your back.

The best part of this API is its easy-to-use documentation and access to real-time and historical pricing. However, it doesn't offer hotel booking functionality.

Hotelapi.co

API delivers real-time rates from all major OTAs in a simple GET request. Hotelapi.co empowers businesses with data-driven insights, seamless integration, and accurate pricing data. Plus, they offer transparent pricing options to suit companies of any size and budget. 

One of its most significant strengths is real-time rates from major OTAs, which enables data-driven decisions and easy integration. However, it doesn't support hotel booking integration.

Booking.com API

Booking.com API is a handy travel tool for developers. It provides insights into room availability, prices, facilities, policies, and other hotel data to enhance your website or app.

If you're looking for the best API to book hotels directly, Booking.com's hotel booking API might be worth integrating into your portal. Just be sure to weigh the pros and cons.

Its significant strength is its ability to book hotels and accommodations, including retrieving, creating, and modifying bookings. Yet, using the Booking.com API may incur fees, which can be a significant cost.

Hotelbeds API

Hotelbeds created their Booking API to simplify hotel reservation integration for websites and apps. Partners can tap into real-time access to Hotelbeds' vast global accommodation inventory. This makes it easy for users to search options, confirm bookings, manage reservations, and more.

Getting started is straightforward: register for a free API key, provide your business details, get certified with one-on-one support from their API experts, and go live to start facilitating bookings.

In addition to the Booking API, Hotelbeds offers a Hotel Content API packed with descriptive details, photos, amenities, and other rich hotel information.

Together, these APIs empower travel agencies, tour companies, and travel tech startups to offer customers a comprehensive selection of accommodations.

The best part is real-time access to a vast global accommodation inventory. Yet, you should remember that integration may require technical expertise.

Cloud Beds API

Cloudbeds is a leading hospitality software provider offering a robust API (Version 1.1) to streamline hotel operations. With a global reach across 157 countries and integration with over 600 partners, Cloudbeds' API is a reliable resource for tech partners and property managers.

This powerful API acts as a bridge, granting access to critical guest data, reservations, and other essential information. It supports standard HTTP methods like GET, POST, and PUT, delivering responses in JSON format over secure HTTPS connections.

Designed for developers and hoteliers seeking to digitalize customer experiences, the Cloudbeds API offers comprehensive documentation on available methods, parameters, and response examples. It incorporates rate limits to maintain optimal performance during high-demand periods and includes a dedicated Reporting API for valuable insights.

A standout feature is its adjustment management functionality, allowing users to easily manage reservations by adding, deleting, and retrieving adjustments. However, rate limits may affect high-demand access.

Tours, Attractions, and Experiences APIs

These APIs give developers access to information, including details about local tours, attractions, and immersive experiences. Through these interfaces, developers can seamlessly integrate features such as booking services, user reviews, and interactive maps into their applications. This integration streamlines travel planning, enabling users to discover, evaluate, and reserve activities.

Ticketmaster

Ticketmaster is a heavyweight when it comes to scoring tickets for live events. We're talking concerts, sports, theater shows, you name it. And for developers building travel apps or services, Ticketmaster has your back with its Discovery API.

Recently rolled out in Version 2, this API gives devs better access to Ticketmaster's massive database of live events happening across the globe. The goal? To allow websites and apps to integrate Ticketmaster's event data and power their search and discovery tools.

So, what kind of goodies can developers expect? Well, the API lets you search for events by keywords, dates, locations, and genres. You can also explore the details of specific events, venues, and attractions to create a more personalized discovery experience for users.

The best is the extensive event database access through Ticketmaster's Discovery API V2 for seamless platform integration and event search/discovery. However, potential complexity, data coverage limitations, or update frequency challenges for some developers integrating the API.

Get Your Guide API

Get Your Guide isn't just a website for finding excellent excursions and activities – it's also a goldmine for travel partners. How? Its nifty API gives access to a vast inventory of bookable experiences worldwide.

We're talking real-time availability, pricing details, and booking cancellation data that partners can directly incorporate into their sites and apps. The aim is to help travel companies increase their offerings and deliver an epic customer experience.

Imagine showing users all the best tours and activities happening in their dream destination, with up-to-date pricing and availability. Get Your Guide's API puts that kind of power in your hands.

The most prominent strength of this API is the vast global inventory of experiences with real-time availability and booking. Yet, API complexity for customized user experiences can be challenging.

How to Choose the Right API for a Travel Website?

When choosing a travel API for your business or app, there are some key things you'll want to look out for to ensure you get the right fit. These include:

Data Coverage

First, check what kind of travel data the API gives you access to. Some APIs focus on flights or hotels, while others cover a wider range of travel services. Figure out what specific data you need for your app or business model, and go for APIs that can provide that.

Data Quality

It's not just about having the data – you require it to be high-quality and accurate. Your app is only as good as the information powering it. Pick APIs that ensure their datasets are routinely updated and carefully curated so your customers get trustworthy travel intel.

Pricing Structure  

APIs can charge you in different ways – maybe a flat subscription fee, per API call charges, or based on data usage. No model is inherently better, but ensure the pricing structure works for your budget and expected scale.

Easy Integration

Finally, look for APIs that are simple to integrate and set up. Excellent documentation, good developer tools, and solid customer support will simplify plugging the API into your app. Avoid overly complex options.

Considering the various travel API options, these four factors will help you cut through the noise and choose the API that genuinely fits your travel or hospitality app's needs.

Conclusion

In summary, travel APIs are digital tools that help travel businesses offer better online services. They connect different pieces of travel information, like flights and hotels, so customers can easily book trips. Picking the proper API is essential, though. You need to consider what kind of data it provides, how good that data is, and how much it costs.

With travel APIs, businesses can improve their online services, making it easier for travelers to plan and book their trips. These APIs are essential for keeping up with the fast-paced digital world of travel. By picking a suitable API, companies can provide smoother customer experiences and stay competitive in the travel industry.

Looking to improve your hospitality or travel business? Svitla Systems would be delighted to help you explore the possibilities of API integrations and implement new solutions like AI in the hospitality industry. Contact us, and we’ll get back to you promptly.