UK TravelTech Firms Streamline API Connections for Booking Websites

On the surface, booking a hotel online appears simple and straightforward. But behind the scenes, numerous technically mediated interconnections between booking websites and hotels are in play as customers browse rooms, check availability and compare prices.

And as convenient as it might seem, there isn’t a universal intermediary connected to every booking website at one end and every hotel at the other.

To further complicate matters, many booking websites don’t directly deal with hotels but with so-called bed banks — specialized business-to-business (B2B) online accommodation wholesalers that buy rooms in bulk at a discounted rate and then resell them to consumer-facing travel companies.

For travel agencies and booking websites, this creates a challenge. To provide their customers with a wide choice of options, they end up plowing resources into building and maintaining their connections to bed banks and other room suppliers, usually in the form of application programming interfaces.

One API vs. Multiple

In the world of hotel booking then, any way booking websites can streamline the way they book hotel rooms would dramatically improve their efficiency.

London-based travel company HotelPlanner is one website looking to streamline its API connections thanks to a recently announced partnership with Indian TravelTech firm ZentrumHub.

ZentrumHub’s business model is simple. It has built an API solution that travel companies like HotelPlanner can connect to, which is integrated with over 40 room suppliers, giving its clients access to thousands of rooms and prices through a single API.

Another U.K.-based software developer, Intuitive, has also thrown its hat into the ring with its iVectorOne product.

Like ZentrumHub’s platform, iVectorOne is looking to attract customers with the basic proposition that one API is better than dozens. In fact, through a single API, travel companies can plug into the booking systems of over 70 bed banks, hotel chains and other suppliers without having to integrate with each one separately.

Overall, the more efficient connectivity provided by a single API, the more advantages for booking websites besides easing integration.

For example, when websites connect to each room supplier individually, the chances of customers viewing the same room twice are increased. As well as being confusing, if rooms are advertised with different prices, that can affect a customer’s confidence that they’re getting the best deals.

Another major drawback of the multi-API approach is that it multiplies complexity when programming how websites rank and sort accommodation options for their customers.

Beyond hotels, the need for simplified booking flows that require fewer integrations extends to air and rail travel. There, equally complex ecosystems have created an opportunity for companies like RateHawk, an online B2B travel booking service provider, to streamline the way booking websites connect to suppliers, helping them to process demand faster and maintain their systems more efficiently.

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