HotelBeds

Intro HotelBeds is a worldwide used API to get access to 300,000 hotels around the globe (they also have a tours & activity API, but here we’ll focus on the hotel API).

API Key Features HotelBeds API consists of 2 key APIs; booking & content API.

The booking API’s capabilities are all around search, book and servicing type capabilities, while the content API is used to retrieve back static content (think of images, hotel descriptions… elements that don’t really change all that often).

With those 2 APIs, as a travel seller you will get a true end to end experience on selling hotel content. This is probably one of the better hotel based APIs out there, and we’ll look to uncover the reason why in the following sections.

You won’t want to miss our overall score of the API right at the end.

Logistics (API keys, certification, etc) Logistics are key here, as many APIs in travel tech offer a painful service when it comes to API documentation, access to API keys and other steps throughout the integration timeline.

HotelBeds is super simple:

They offer all the API documentation, references and overview well described on their website, you can also check it out here.

To get access to API keys, which often means having to go through commercial agreements and discovery calls, HotelBeds just requires you to sign up using a valid email & unique password, and there you have it, API keys are in your (virtual) hands.

The only tedious part of the start & integration process is the certification process, but understanding from HotelBeds’ standpoint, they want to make sure that all is set up right for you to succeed. HotelBeds have meticulously set out the certification guidelines, which makes it easier to know what to do right, in order to get production access asap.

You can find the certification guidelines here.

Logistic score: 9.2/10

Commercials Ah yes… it’s all about the Benjamins!

Now, on the commissions side of things, it’s tricky to give you an exact number, as that can be negotiated directly with HotelBeds based on the business you will be providing HotelBeds, as a travel seller. However, what they do offer is two key models:

Net: This is where you can add your own mark-ups. This is incredible for scale-ups and enterprise businesses wanting to make sure they can control their margins.

Commissionable: This is where the commission is pre-set by HotelBeds. Easy for you to manage, but of course means you can’t add the mark-ups you desire. This is a perfect starting point for a start-up or early stage scale-up wanting to focus on selling, and come back later to improve margins.

You can find more information about these two options here.

From a costing standpoint, similar to commission, we don’t have exact costs, and thus it would be better to understand this directly from HotelBeds. However, something to consider is that usually APIs will take a cut off of each booking, which means they only ‘charge’ once you make a sale, and you don’t have to pay it, it comes directly out of the total price your customer pays on your product.

Costs to consider are also look to book ratio. This is basically gauging how many searches are done on your platform to convert into 1 booking made. Usually, once you start getting into the 4 digits look to book ratio, an API provider may start charging you for excess searches. There are always ways to mitigate this, by caching results, but in order to get concrete costs please make sure to contact the HotelBeds team and they will be able to provide more accurate information.

Commercials score: 8.2

Tech HotelBeds is a REST API with a large selection of GET, PUT, DEL and POST endpoints. The response speed is slightly slower than average in the sandbox environment, but overall, a well structured API.

Who is this for? HotelBeds is actually such a great API that it is for all. Whether you are a startup looking to get going or an enterprise business, HotelBeds makes it easy to get set up, with no up front commercial requirements or assessment, but also offers true breadth of content and customisation, with over 20 API capabilities available via their APIs (especially on the servicing side)!

So whether you are a start-up, scale-up or enterprise business, we believe HotelBeds is a top tier hotel API.

At Trapi, we have simplified the integration process for you. Even a great API like HotelBeds will generally take weeks, if not months, to integrate to. At Trapi, we use AI to fully customise the integration based on your custom needs of your platform, while contextualising the API documentation of HotelBeds.

HotelBeds is available today to integrate to, you can find it in our marketplace today. We hope you enjoy a swift HotelBeds integration with us today.

Overall score: 7.5