Hi there, 
&nbsp; 
We totally understand your desire to tap into the cruise line industry, as it&rsquo;s a rapidly growing sector within the global tourism market. However, it&rsquo;s not that simple. You must have noticed that there are significantly fewer APIs for cruises than for flights, hotels, and car rentals as it&rsquo;s a quite reserved space. Still, we&rsquo;re not agitating for web scraping as it&rsquo;s a quite unreliable way to aggregate data.&nbsp;&nbsp; 
&nbsp; 
Out of all <a href="https://www.altexsoft.com/blog/travelport-vs-amadeus-vs-sabre-gds/">global distribution systems</a>, only Amadeus provides APIs to access 53 connected lines. Have a look at their SOAP <a href="https://developers.amadeus.com/enterprise/category/cruise/api/search-and-shopping">Enterprise Cruise APIs</a>. Their Fare Availability API can respond with available prices from a particular cruise provider on a certain date. You can <a href="https://developers.amadeus.com/support/contact-us-enterprise">ask Amadeus for access</a> to try it out. 
&nbsp; 
Also, there are technology partners in the distribution of cruises. They offer cruise aggregation platforms you can connect to and have access to the integrated suppliers (e.g. <a href="https://www.travelopro.com/cruise-api.php">Travelopro</a>, <a href="https://www.traveltek.com/providers/cruise-api-partners/">Traveltek</a>, <a href="https://www.trawex.com/cruise-api.php">Trawex</a>, <a href="https://ist-cruisetech.com/en/api-integrations/">IST</a>). But of course, none of them are free. 
 You can also go your own way of partnering and making XML connections with each cruise supplier separately. For example, <a href="https://otaportal.msccruises.com/I_Authentication/HomeSite.aspx">MSC Cruises</a> offers its partners an API Technology allowing for prices, availability, and bookings. Alternatively, they have a catalog with their routes and rates suitable for a "search tool" and a "quick request function", as they claim. It&rsquo;s called Flat File and you&rsquo;ll need to download it daily from their database. But not many cruise lines are as integration-friendly as MSC. If you're interested in any specific integrations, contact our sales team and we can advise you on the best approach.

Answer for Cruise prices API (no booking)

Copywriter/Editor

Thanks for the reply.  I can't find any links to Cruise Direct API or Expedia Cruise Ship Centers API.  Would you have these links available?  Also, what is the cost of these APIs and are there any limitations to their use?

There are several APIs available that provide pricing information for major cruise lines offering Cruise Price API like Cruise Direct API, Expedia Cruise Ship Centers API which offers real-time data on cruise pricing and availability from multiple cruise lines, including Carnival, Royal Caribbean, and Norwegian Cruise Line, among others. The API provides access to up-to-date pricing information, making it easy to compare prices from different cruise lines and find the best deals. Additionally, the <a href="https://www.etraviax.com/cruise-booking-engine/">Cruise Booking Engine</a> offers a simple and easy-to-use interface, allowing you to quickly retrieve pricing information for your desired cruise itinerary.

Is there an API out there that would provide cruise prices for the major cruise lines? Or is web scraping my only alternative?

Cruise prices API (no booking)

Hi there, 
&nbsp; 
Unfortunately, as of January 23rd, SAP Concur terminated this travel metasearch turning down its co-founders&rsquo; buyback offer. While there might be some efforts taken to revive the brand, in the meantime, we suggest looking at some other alternatives.&nbsp; 
&nbsp; 
The first substitutes that come to mind are <a href="https://www.partners.skyscanner.net/affiliates/travel-apis">Skyscanner</a> and <a href="https://www.kayak.com/affiliates">Kayak</a>. Both offer flights, hotels, and car rental APIs while Kayak also distributes trains and package tours data.&nbsp; 
&nbsp; 
But getting access to these APIs might be hard for small businesses. Kayak doesn&rsquo;t permit integration unless your platform has more than 100,000 monthly visitors. In case of no response, we advise considering APIs of <a href="https://www.altexsoft.com/blog/travelport-vs-amadeus-vs-sabre-gds/">Global Distribution Systems</a> like Amadeus. Their <a href="https://developers.amadeus.com/self-service">self-service air and hotel APIs</a> are free for test environments, while fees apply when you exceed the number of free calls. 
 You may find more providers to consider in our extensive article on <a href="https://www.altexsoft.com/blog/engineering/travel-and-booking-apis-for-online-travel-and-tourism-service-providers/">travel APIs</a>.

Answer for How to integrate the Hipmunk API with my travel website?

How to integrate the Hipmunk API with my travel website?

You can use <a href="https://www.flightapi.io/">Flight Price Comparison API</a>, which will help you to get prices from more than 70 vendors&nbsp; &amp; airlines. You can search for any route or for any cabin class(Economy, Business, First , etc) and for any type of journey(One-Way or Return). It also offers a FREE pack with 100 requests. Definitely check it out.

Answer for What&#039;s the best flight fares API for getting started quickly and cheaply?

As per my outlook The best flight API are :-
<ol>
<li>Amadeus</li>
<li><a href="https://www.flightapis.com/">&nbsp;Flightapi</a></li>
<li>Sabre</li>
<li>Mystifly</li>
<li>TravelPort</li>
<li>Travelfusion</li>
</ol>
These are the api that I would suggest . Hope this information will help you . To know more about<a href="https://www.flightapis.com/"> flight api</a> go through this following link .

Hello Todd,
We can tell you’ve done quite a research on this topic. And we feel you.
The functionality of Amadeus’ self-service API has a number of limitations. But the reality is that it’s the only self-service API available among the global distribution systems. Other GDS solutions are truly legacy cumbersome systems. And that’s one of the key hindrances to smooth airline distribution.
As for Skyscanner, you’re right. On a case by case basis they accept only those businesses <a href="https://www.partners.skyscanner.net/affiliates/affiliate-products">capable of generating traffic and attracting users</a>. So if you’re only setting your foot in the travel industry, chances are you might not hear from them soon, if at all. In addition, Skyscanner API won’t allow for facilitating bookings as it’s a metasearch.
Now, regarding ATPCO, the main fares provider. In terms of the traditional flight distribution, ATPCO is an intermediary that transmits tariffs from an airline to a GDS.
<a href="https://www.altexsoft.com/media/2019/12/answer-flight-distribution.png"><img class="wp-image-11241 size-large aligncenter" src="https://www.altexsoft.com/media/2019/12/answer-flight-distribution-1024x504.png" alt="answer-flight-distribution" width="1024" height="504" /></a>
ATPCO’s JSON <a href="https://resources.routehappy.com/hc/en-us/categories/201339878-For-developers">Routehappy API</a> has direct connections with GDSs and some airlines. Akin to Skyscanner, they won’t enable booking capabilities. The API access involves monthly payments starting from $2,500, which may not fit into the budget.
If your distribution market isn’t too big, you may try connecting to each airline directly avoiding GDS. If you decide to follow this path, you’ll need to adopt the <a href="https://www.altexsoft.com/blog/travel/new-distribution-capability-ndc-in-air-travel-airlines-gdss-and-the-impact-on-the-industry/">New Distribution Capability</a> XML standard.
As you can see, many scenarios are possible in your case. As we have extensive <a href="https://www.altexsoft.com/case-studies/travel/altexsoft-enhances-front-back-office-and-builds-a-marketing-website-for-an-ota/">experience in building OTAs</a>, we surely can give you good advice, to say the least. But for this purpose, we’ll need to dive deeper into your situation. So why don’t we keep our communication in DMs? Contact our sales team and they’ll sync you with our best experts.

Answer for What's the best flight fares API for getting started quickly and cheaply?

Editor

I'm just getting started building a prototype for a OTA startup and I want to incorporate real-time flight fare data. I've read the overview article on travel APIs and have gotten started using the Amadeus self-service API. However the Amadeus API seems limited in how the flight offers are bundled—it appears that flight offers are a bundle of departing a returning flights instead of allowing the user to select which flights they want for each segment.
I've briefly looked at the other GDSs to what their APIs offer but it appears that neither of them offer self-service. Does anyone have experience getting access to their APIs for prototyping purposes? Additionally, their APIs seem to be a bit dated in terms of the tech (SOAP vs REST, XML vs JSON).
I've also considered "downstream" flight fare APIs like Skyscanner. I applied for a Skyscanner account but have not received any response after a week. I'm curious whether they have revenue requirements that need to be met in order to get access. Are their other non-GDSs APIs worth considering?
Another thought was to look at ATPCO for flight fare data. I'm not exactly sure where ATPCO fits into this picture in terms of the data they have.
Any advice or direction is welcome. I'm just getting started in the flight API space. I have significant tech experience but the travel tech space is completely new to me. Also, it might be worth mentioning that I'm US-based and would be looking to start with domestic flight data to begin.
Thanks!

What&#039;s the best flight fares API for getting started quickly and cheaply?

Well, you can use <a href="https://www.makcorps.com/">Hotel Price Comparison API</a> for that purpose. It compares more than 200 Hotel OTAs like Booking.xom, Exoedia, Agoda, Priceline, Orbitz, TripAdvisor, ZenHotels, Hotels.com, MMT, HRS, etc. It provides JSON response with all the hotels in a city with top 6 cheapest vendors. You can either search for a city or a particular Hotel. This API will help you get what you are looking for.

Answer for Price Comparison Widget - Booking.com Expedia

Hi there,
Unfortunately, there’s no shortcut for building a price comparison tool.
You may think of web scraping - extracting prices using crawlers. But be aware that it will entail a lot of headache such as inventory consistency and even lawsuits.
A legal way of doing so is to get OTAs’ permission to source their prices. By <a href="https://expediapartnersolutions.com/become-a-partner">partnering with Expedia</a>, you’ll get access to its <a href="https://developer.expediapartnersolutions.com/documentation/rapid-shopping-docs-3/">EPS Rapid Shopping</a> API that returns available rooms with live rates and other details like promos, rate refundability, cancellation penalties, etc.
As for Booking.com, they offer <a href="https://developers.booking.com/api/commercial/index.html?version=2.5&amp;page_url=usage-information">Demand API</a> that allows for retrieving live rates and availability. However, they prohibit the affiliates to <a href="https://developers.booking.com/api/commercial/index.html?page_url=permitted-use">use their property content for price comparison</a>. But maybe you’ll manage to find a way around that through the direct communication with the OTA.
After you’ve affiliated with these hospitality giants, next comes inventory mapping. And here <a href="../../blog/cloud/hotel-mapping-tools-how-giata-gimmonix-databindr-and-other-solutions-work/">hotel mapping providers</a> may be of help to you. They’ll take care that the prices are correct and all the hotel-related data is aligned eliminating any duplicates.
Once you connect to a hotel’s <a href="../../blog/engineering/hotel-channel-managers-key-providers-and-how-to-choose-a-channel-manager/">channel manager</a> and the OTAs via their APIs from one side, and to a hotel mapping provider’s API from the other side, you’re all set to build your price comparison widget. Alternatively, you can turn to a tech company like AltexSoft, so that we can do it for you.

What is the best way to build or source a price comparison widget/plugin for WordPress that shows booking.com and Expedia price alongside a hotel direct price in real time?

Price Comparison Widget - Booking.com Expedia

Thanks for the answer

Booking.com-owned OTA, Priceline has <a href="https://pricelinepartnernetwork.com/world-class-api">Partner Network’s API</a> set for retrieving dynamic rates and availability as well as booking hotels, cars for rent, flights, and bundle packaging. You don’t have to integrate everything but can opt for a certain product. Besides the HTTPS-based API, Priceline partners can also get an adaptable <a href="https://pricelinepartnernetwork.com/privatelabel">private label</a> solution. Note that they only consider partners who produce no less than five bookings per day. You’ll also have to tell about your company, its target customers, and make predictions as to your bookings growth. So if you meet the entry requirements and would like to make use of the Priceline API, fill out their <a href="https://pricelinepartnernetwork.com/contact?type=affiliate">contact form</a>.

Answer for How to integrate Priceline API?

How to integrate Priceline API?

Thanks Alex Soft team for providing a comprehensive response.
Furthermore, all three Flight APIs you've highlighted appear to hold great potential as alternatives to the Google Flight API for both developers and travel businesses. I recently came across this <a href="https://www.flightapi.io/blog/google-flight-api-history-and-alternative/">in-depth article on Google Flight API</a> that not only elucidates the entire journey from the inception to the discontinuation of the Google Flight API but also presents an alternative solution. I believe this alternative could prove highly valuable to businesses seeking reliable flight-related data.

Hi there, 
&nbsp; 
That&rsquo;s actually the question small partners of QPX Express asked themselves in 2018 when the API was ceased. Modeling on Google Flights API, what we seek in substitutes are: 
&nbsp; 
1. search for multiple airlines, including <a style="text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.altexsoft.com/blog/travel/low-cost-airline-distribution-channels-direct-distribution-ndc-gdss-and-low-cost-airline-consolidators/">low-cost carriers</a> 
2. diverse filtering options 
3. easy-to-use interface 
&nbsp; 
Booking processing isn&rsquo;t first on our list, as it&rsquo;s not what a metasearch engine like Google Flights is aimed at. Now, to the candidates. 
&nbsp; 
Skyscanner. Another metasearch engine, Skyscanner offers a suite of subscription-free <a style="text-decoration: none;" href="https://partners.skyscanner.net/affiliates/travel-apis/">flight search APIs</a>. It pays commissions according to your conversion and traffic quality. The APIs aggregate over 250 airlines and compare them using powerful search algorithms to retrieve the cheapest prices, routes, and dates. This also includes Inspirational search features. Use <a style="text-decoration: none;" href="https://skyscanner.github.io/slate/?_ga=1.104705984.172843296.1446781555#flights-browse-prices">Flights Browse Prices API</a> for cached content and <a style="text-decoration: none;" href="https://skyscanner.github.io/slate/?_ga=1.104705984.172843296.1446781555#flights-live-prices">Flights Live Prices API</a> for real-time queries. Besides flights, Skyscanner also provides APIs to connect <a style="text-decoration: none;" href="https://skyscanner.github.io/slate/?_ga=1.104705984.172843296.1446781555#car-hire-live-prices">car hire</a> and <a style="text-decoration: none;" href="https://skyscanner.github.io/slate/?_ga=1.104705984.172843296.1446781555#hotels-live-prices">hotel</a> fare data. You can request the API access <a style="text-decoration: none;" href="https://partners.skyscanner.net/contact/affiliates">here</a>.&nbsp; 
&nbsp; 
Travelfusion. Over 150 low-cost carriers are in your pocket if you connect to the <a style="text-decoration: none;" href="http://xmldocs.travelfusion.com/">Travelfusion Direct Connect XML API</a>. This API also supports fully automated booking processes. So you can either book from your side or redirect to the supplier's website. If you aim at packaged tours, consider Travelfusion <a style="text-decoration: none;" href="http://fastdocs.travelfusion.com/">Fast API.</a> Prior to using the XML APIs, you&rsquo;ll have to <a style="text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.travelfusion.com/corporate/register">register</a> and sign the license agreement with set fees. 
&nbsp; 
Kiwi.com. The coverage of <a style="text-decoration: none;" href="https://docs.kiwi.com/#top">Kiwi&rsquo;s API set</a> is about the same size as the Travelfusion&rsquo;s. It includes both legacy and low-cost carriers. The booking is processed on the OTA&rsquo;s side. Besides the general flight API capabilities, there&rsquo;s an API that offers travel tips to customers helping them save time and money. To use the Kiwi API, <a style="text-decoration: none;" href="https://tequila.kiwi.com/portal/login/register">register for their partner portal Tequila</a>. You&rsquo;ll get a 3 percent commission on every processed booking. 
&nbsp; 
Kayak. If your traffic exceeds 100,000 visitors a month, you&rsquo;re able to integrate Kayak searches and results into your platform. You can do so by enrolling in their <a style="text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.kayak.com/affiliates">affiliate program</a>. You select the data you need among flights, cars, hotels, trains, packages.&nbsp; 
For more options, check out our article on <a style="text-decoration-line: none;" href="https://www.altexsoft.com/blog/engineering/airline-flight-booking-apis-gdss-specialized-data-providers-otas-and-metasearch-engines/">flight booking API providers</a>.

Answer for Are there any alternative solutions for Google Flights API?

Are there any alternative solutions for Google Flights API?

You can use&nbsp;<a href="https://www.flightapi.io/">Flight Price Comparison API</a>, which will help you to get prices from more than 70 vendors&nbsp; &amp; airlines. You can search for any route or for any cabin class(Economy, Business, First , etc) and for any type of journey(One-Way or Return). It also offers a FREE pack with 100 requests. Definitely check it out. Not just that it also provide Flight tracking API with coordinates, speed, weather, altitude and other stuff. It provides Autocomplete API, Airport Schedule API and IATA code API. It's the last Flight API you will ever need.

Answer for How do I integrate flight API into my flight website?

In order to integrate <a href="https://www.flightapis.com/flight-api-integration">flight api integration</a> in your website, you need to contact to GDS or wholesaler for getting the flight api.
a) api can be either JSON or WSDL Format.
b) you can check api in postman and create a structure
c) then you can create classes in your project and then start implement in the website
d) once integrated you can go for certification for getting live details.

Hello Clio, 
&nbsp; 
Thanks for asking.&nbsp; 
&nbsp; 
In the API integration, there are two parties. So how you establish the connection will depend on what you are attempting to achieve and the API you pick.&nbsp; 
&nbsp; 
First, you. What&rsquo;s your flight website? Do you want to enable booking or only provide flight-related information to your users? Are you targeting specific regions or want to service worldwide? Not in the last place are such constraints as budget and resources. Based on these facts you&rsquo;ll be choosing an API with the corresponding capabilities and coverage.&nbsp; 
&nbsp; 
Whether you choose to integrate with a GDS, a tech service provider, an OTA, or a metasearch, the process will differ. For instance, GDS will feed you pools of raw airline data, while OTAs and metasearch have it sorted out but in their own way. If you haven&rsquo;t settled on the API provider yet, read our article about <a style="text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.altexsoft.com/blog/engineering/airline-flight-booking-apis-gdss-specialized-data-providers-otas-and-metasearch-engines/">flight booking APIs</a>.&nbsp; 
&nbsp; 
Once you know the platform you&rsquo;d like to pull data from, go through its API documentation and play around with its test version, if it&rsquo;s available. You&rsquo;ll need an HTTP client to make calls to the API.&nbsp; 
&nbsp; 
Now that you&rsquo;re sure your website will benefit from using this API, obtain the API key for access and find out if the provider assists with integration or offers a pre-built API connection. If not, you may involve a third-party integrator. Prior to the release, make sure to <a style="text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.altexsoft.com/blog/api-testing/">validate the API responses</a> from your side.&nbsp; 
&nbsp; 
We at AltexSoft specialize in travel APIs integration. Only recently, we&rsquo;ve <a style="text-decoration-line: none;" href="https://www.altexsoft.com/case-studies/travel/altexsoft-enhances-front-back-office-and-builds-a-marketing-website-for-an-ota/">rebuilt an OTA&rsquo;s booking engine integrating Amadeus GDS</a> into it. So you can specify your situation to us and we can give you more tailored advice.

Integrating a flight API into your flight website involves a series of steps. First, select a suitable <a href="https://www.etraviax.com/flight-api-integration/">flight API provider</a> and sign up to obtain API credentials. Familiarize yourself with the API documentation to understand the available endpoints, request/response formats, and authentication methods. Plan your integration based on the desired features, such as flight search and booking. Set up server-side integration using a programming language and any necessary SDKs. Implement flight search functionality by making API requests and displaying the results on your website. If desired, enable flight booking by integrating the provider's booking API. Implement proper error handling for API requests and consider edge cases. Thoroughly test your integration before deploying it to your live website. Stay updated with the API provider's documentation for any changes or updates. Remember to comply with the provider's terms of use and usage limitations.

You can use <a href="https://www.flightapis.com/">flight api</a> &nbsp;which will provide you request and response in json format, you will also get addtional baggage details, meal option and will get seat map. You do not need to hava IATA to use the api.

How do I integrate flight API into my flight website?

Thank you for your question. 
&nbsp; 
We haven&rsquo;t found any proof that the GDS has stopped supporting e-Power. Moreover, we communicated with Amadeus representative who also confirmed that they do sell e-Power as usual.&nbsp; 
&nbsp; 
Have a look at a non-customized standardized e-Power instance on staging at <a style="text-decoration: none;" href="https://staging.epower.amadeus.com/noramstarterbase/">https://staging.epower.amadeus.com/noramstarterbase/</a>. Amadeus warns that it might work slowly which doesn&rsquo;t reflect the real response time in production. 
&nbsp; 
If you still have any questions regarding e-Power left, we advise addressing them <a style="text-decoration: none;" href="https://amadeus.com/en/contact/contact-sales">directly to Amadeus</a>.&nbsp; 
&nbsp; 
For those who don&rsquo;t know, here are a few words about the product.&nbsp; 
&nbsp; 
<a style="text-decoration: none;" href="http://www.amadeus.com/web/amadeus/es_1A-corporate/Travel-agencies/Our-portfolio/Serve/Sell-to-travellers/Amadeus-e-Power/1319476470189-Solution_C-AMAD_ProductDetailPpal-1319560218703?industrySegment=1259068355825&amp;level2=1319608963678&amp;level3=1319609097018">e-Power</a> is an online booking engine fully integrated both with the Amadeus system and a travel agency website. e-Power enables OTA customers to book flights, cars, and accommodations. OTAs can customize e-Power design, including banners and logos. The e-Power platform also includes:&nbsp; 
&nbsp; 
1. marketing tools to manage customer relations and conversion rate, 
2. technical tools to expose content on metasearch engines, 
3. set of service fees and mark-up rules to resell services with benefit, 
4. mobile-friendly interface, 
5. available ancillary services to upsell.

Answer for Why Amadeus no more sells   Amadeus Epower whitelabel?

Why Amadeus no more sells   Amadeus Epower whitelabel?

Hello Mayur, 
&nbsp; 
Thank you for your interest. First, we&rsquo;d like to specify that further by a car hire aggregator we&rsquo;ll mean a metasearch that aggregates car rental offers from multiple suppliers. Please let us know if you had another idea in mind so that we can advise you accordingly.&nbsp; 
&nbsp; 
So, building the infrastructure of a car rentals aggregator, you&rsquo;ll have to take care of:&nbsp; 
&nbsp; 
Inventory connection via APIs. Global distribution systems can give you access to a large car rental inventory. But car rental companies are increasingly switching to direct connect solutions rather than traditional distribution channels. Deciding on suppliers to connect to, our<a href="https://www.altexsoft.com/blog/engineering/car-rental-apis-integrations-with-gdss-otas-and-tech-providers/"> car rental APIs catalog</a> should be of use to you.&nbsp; 
&nbsp; 
Crawlers for web scraping. Sometimes suppliers don&rsquo;t allow for direct connection, so aggregators resort to web scraping. They launch a program that mimics human activity to extract data from the supplier&rsquo;s website. 
&nbsp; 
Data mapping. Each provider you distribute has its own way of presenting data. So you&rsquo;ll need to group and process data first and then display it comprehensively on your side while keeping it up-to-date.&nbsp;&nbsp; 
&nbsp; 
Meta ranking. You need to compare car rental prices using business rules aka algorithms. 
&nbsp; 
Database. Integrates with all the suppliers, database stores all the fetched data, that later can be used for tracking, reporting, and statistics. Such modules as a background sync process for static data and data cache control will help you manage the up-to-dateness of your DB.&nbsp; 
&nbsp; 
Search engine. The core of any aggregator system, search engine handles queries and searches through the databases. From the backed, it crunches data. From the front end, it provides the customer with the search results - cars for rent, in our case.&nbsp; 
&nbsp; 
If you plan to distribute car rental offers worldwide, you&rsquo;ll need language and currency functions. Since aggregators don&rsquo;t facilitate booking, you don&rsquo;t have to worry about accounting and payment processing modules. 
&nbsp; 
AltexSoft has <a href="https://www.altexsoft.com/case-studies/travel/altexsoft-fareboom-co-building-innovative-travel-and-booking-solution-to-outperform-the-competition/">expertise in building booking platforms</a>. So, you can <a href="https://www.altexsoft.com/contact-us/">consult our team</a> to get more specific recommendations.&nbsp;

Answer for What do I need to start a car hire aggregator?

If I wanted to start car hire aggregator business. Where do I start and what would I need? I'm more interested in knowing what would I need in terms of Backend System, booking system etc.. I know I would need access to API to get the car, location etc But would love to know where to start apart from access to API. Many thanks in advance for your help.

What do I need to start a car hire aggregator?

Hello Roman,
Thank you for your feedback. We assume you’re considering which database to integrate with: a metasearch or a GDS. Let us know if we misunderstood your request.
Now to the point. The flow you describe is indeed common for metasearch engines aka aggregators like Skyscanner, Google Flights, or Kayak: they answer queries using formatted and ranked results from third-party search engines or directly from airline and OTA partners. Once travelers proceed with booking, a metasearch redirects them to the actual owner of the deal. And that’s how they make money - for every click on their link.
A metasearch engine’s business model is to provide the richest flight options that exactly match the traveler’s needs. They are able to reach more precise fare returns for a lower cost than GDS. They achieve that by aggregating data from millions of flights both past and present and comparing prices using strong search algorithms.
Some metasearch engines tap into <a href="../../blog/travel/new-distribution-capability-ndc-in-air-travel-airlines-gdss-and-the-impact-on-the-industry/">New Distribution Capability</a> to enable direct bookings through their websites. An example is Skyscanner’s direct booking platform. They can connect directly to the airline’s Central Reservation System via an NDC API to aggregate flight data.
As per your question, a metasearch engine pulls information from the <a href="../../blog/engineering/airline-flight-booking-apis-gdss-specialized-data-providers-otas-and-metasearch-engines/">APIs by flight data providers</a>. Airlines and OTAs are usually the ones to initiate a connection with metasearch, as they want to broaden their customer base. Besides direct partners, aggregators integrate with:
<ul>
<li>GDSs,</li>
<li><a href="http://www.innovata-llc.com/data/flight-schedules-database/">Innovata</a> or <a href="https://www.oag.com/airline-schedules-data">OAG</a> for flight schedules, and</li>
<li><a href="https://www.atpco.net/">ATPCO</a> for fare classes.</li>
</ul>
Some airlines don’t provide direct access, though. Low-costers are the majority of them, as they strive for direct bookings. In this case, aggregators have the practice of mimicking human activity on airline websites aimed at extracting fare info. It’s called web scraping and it’s semi-legal so aggregators had better agree on that with an airline first.
For <a href="../../infographics/how-airline-distribution-works/">a full picture of airline distribution</a>, check our infographic.
Speaking of the metasearch APIs capabilities, they don’t enable booking on your website. For this purpose, you’ll have to redirect users to either the aggregator itself or directly to the deal owner.

Answer for how does these commission based search engines works

Hello. I was reading lot of your articles, they are super informative and helpful, so thanks you for that!! So, I am trying to understand how all of these commission based flight search engine works? you giving them some parameters, based on this parameters they return you wide range on flights. and when you trying to actually book a flight, they are sending you to some travel agents/ carrier companies with their affiliate link (am i wrong?). so, I registered to Amadeus API, as i understood its like the widest data source for that, so now i have the access to the most of the flights data. but the only option that given there is to book right trough the GDS itself- what makes you the agent by yourself (in case you allowed to book though GDS of course). But what is the source these search engines are using to take all of this info of prices of agencies and carriers for each flight? or am I wrong with all of my assumption? Thanks!

how does these commission based search engines works

Currently, Moovit doesn’t provide a public API for their services. Instead, they <a href="https://www.developers.moovitapp.com/">suggest</a> using their widget, links, and buttons. So, you should contact them directly to access the API.
And there’s another thing you can try. Since November, 2018, Movit is a partner of Microsoft’s Azure and their transit data is available through <a href="https://azure.microsoft.com/en-gb/services/azure-maps/">Azure Maps</a> service. It supplies developers with a variety of APIs and a rich customization toolset. To start using Azure Maps, you must create an account, sign into the Azure portal, choose subscription, pricing options to start working with APIs.  You may check <a href="https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/azure/azure-maps/">their documentation</a> first.
Still, working with Azure maybe more expensive than getting access to the API directly.

Answer for What is the process of Moovit API integration?

What is the process of Moovit API integration?

Well, if we’re comparing a reservation system to an Excel spreadsheet or even a paper notebook, it has all the pros, and the costs pay off in the long run. Reservation will basically automate main booking operations like:
<ul>
<li>Showing room status (booked/vacant)</li>
<li>Collecting payments made online</li>
<li>Managing inventory</li>
<li>Sending confirmation emails, etc.</li>
</ul>
Besides, it’s not always fair to talk about reservation software as a separate unit - often, hotels would purchase this functionality within a <a href="../../blog/travel/hotel-property-management-systems-products-and-features/">property management system</a>, so the whole hotel can be managed via a single platform.
The pros would be are those, usually addressed to software - sometimes, you will need the help of support, but they won’t be available, or the price may appear too high (though, often, it depends on the hotel size), or your staff would have to learn a new workflow, which always takes time. Also, in case of a power outage or if your Internet is slow, you may have problems checking in clients, but that’s manageable if you choose a provider who has offline access or simply use a backup solution.

Answer for What are the pros and cons of using an online hotel reservation system?

What are the pros and cons of using an online hotel reservation system?

You should use <a href="https://www.makcorps.com/">Hotel Price Comparison API</a> for Hotel and <a href="https://www.flightapi.io/">FLight API</a> for Flights. They both compare prices from several vendors to provide Hotel and flight prices respectively from multiple vendors.

Answer for What&#039;s the best REST API for fare pricing / fare class availability (no booking)?

Hi there!
Yes, ATPCO would be the first place to go to get fare classes. Unfortunately, we haven’t worked with their API directly. Also, have you checked <a href="https://docs.kiwi.com/">Kiwi API</a>? They provide fare basis, fare family, and fare class info.

Answer for What's the best REST API for fare pricing / fare class availability (no booking)?

I'm working on a project that needs access to availability by booking class. I've looked at the free REST APIs from Amadeus and Sabre and neither offer what I need. A couple of years ago I would have used QPX Express. These days, what's my best bet for fare class availability accessible via REST (preferably)? atpco seems compelling.

What&#039;s the best REST API for fare pricing / fare class availability (no booking)?

Hello Dipali,
Thank you for your question. If we’re on the same page, you’re a property owner whose properties are listed on the Booking.com platform. So you’d like to sync the data regarding your bookings there with other services like a cleaning company.
For this purpose, Booking offers its partners a property management interface to retrieve and modify data for their properties - <a href="https://connect.booking.com/user_guide/site/en-US/">Connectivity APIs</a>.
But if you leverage multiple channels, you may want to use the help of a channel manager. It will connect you with every platform you expose your properties on. If that’s your case, read our article that will help you choose a <a href="https://www.altexsoft.com/blog/engineering/hotel-channel-managers-key-providers-and-how-to-choose-a-channel-manager/">channel manager product</a> for your hospitality business.
Please let us know if we addressed your point.

Answer for Can Booking.com API use to import bookings?

Is it possible to get booking details from booking.com through API? I want to process those records further like sending emails to the cleaning company, etc. For that, I would need to get booking information for my properties.

Can Booking.com API use to import bookings?

Travelport GDS (Global Distribution System) is a leading platform that provides travel content, technology, and services for the travel industry. Here are some of the benefits of using Travelport GDS:
<ol>
<li>
Access to a vast inventory of travel content: <a href="https://www.etraviax.com/travelport-gds/">Travelport GDS</a> provides access to a vast inventory of travel content, including airline, hotel, car rental, and other travel services. This makes it easy for travel agents to search and book the best travel options for their clients.
</li>
<li>
Improved efficiency and productivity: With Travelport GDS, travel agents can automate their workflow and reduce manual processes, which improves their efficiency and productivity. This means they can spend more time providing personalized service to their clients.
</li>
<li>
Customizable solutions: Travelport GDS offers customizable solutions to meet the unique needs of travel agents and their clients. This includes customized booking tools, travel policies, and reporting.
</li>
<li>
Enhanced customer service: Travelport GDS allows travel agents to offer their clients personalized service, including travel recommendations, itinerary changes, and travel alerts. This improves customer satisfaction and loyalty.
</li>
<li>
Real-time availability and pricing: Travelport GDS provides real-time availability and pricing information, which helps travel agents make informed booking decisions and provide accurate quotes to their clients.
</li>
<li>
Global reach: Travelport GDS has a global reach, which means travel agents can access travel content and services from all over the world. This makes it easy for them to book travel for clients who are traveling internationally.
</li>
</ol>
Overall, Travelport GDS offers a range of benefits to travel agents and their clients, including access to a vast inventory of travel content, improved efficiency and productivity, customizable solutions, enhanced customer service, real-time availability and pricing, and global reach.

GDS industry is monopolized by three players, Travelport included. So we’ll compare it with the other GDS - Amadeus and Sabre.
First, we have to admit that Travelport is less popular among OTAs than Amadeus and Sabre. Still, it has strong sides and we’ll tell about them.
Industry coverage. It all depends on what travel service you want to integrate. The table below shows that Travelport is a good choice to reserve airplane seats, hotel rooms, and cruises. But when it comes to railways and car rentals, they don’t cover that much.
<img src="../../media/2019/09/GDSs-in-numbers.png" />
Market share. Using the most popular GDS for a region means better seating options and pricing from carriers. Amadeus is the best fit for Europe but it’s weaker in the US. Sabre suits the needs of North America. Travelport’s advantage over the rivals is that its coverage is more evenly distributed across the world. It outperforms in Eastern Europe and Africa while growing in Asia and America.
API functionality. Actually, Travelport comprises three GDSs: Galileo, Worldspan, and Apollo, which are combined into a single <a href="https://support.travelport.com/webhelp/uapi/uAPI.htm">Travelport Universal API</a>. Unlike Amadeus and Sabre, the universal API is a bundle of functions and you can <a href="https://developer.travelport.com/web/developer/">easily try it out</a> with no strings attached. However, Amadeus certainly provides larger API variety.
<img src="../../media/2019/09/GDS-functionality-comarison.png" />
Travelport also was the first GDS to obtain level 3 compliance as a New Distribution Capability aggregator -  a required status to provide NDC services. Some consider <a href="../../blog/travel/new-distribution-capability-ndc-in-air-travel-airlines-gdss-and-the-impact-on-the-industry/">NDC</a> the future of communication in the travel industry. If you’re out of the loop, our article has all you need to catch up.

Answer for What are the benefits of Travelport GDS?

What are the benefits of Travelport GDS?

White label travel website is an online booking portal that allows travel agents to sell hotels, flights, holidays, buses and other travel products to their customers simply and quickly. They can also manage all their financial transactions online and run numerous reports to aid the smooth running of their businesses.
White label means there is no label and you can put your own label their. These websites can easily modify as per your need. For white label solution you don't even need a technical team. The company you take the white label from, does the work for you. You control very little or don’t control at all, the design and functionality of the product. You can also use <a href="https://www.makcorps.com/">MakCorps Hotel API</a> to compare your prices with other vendors like Booking.com, Expedia, Priceline, etc to show your clients that your offer is cheaper than those OTAs. This will provide you with more bookings and ultimately leads to more commission. Just like this, you can also compare Flight Prices from multiple vendors using <a href="https://www.flightapi.io/">FlightAPI</a>. This API will provide you prices from Expedia, CheapTickets.com, etc.

Answer for What is white label travel API?

White label and an API are two different solutions which serve a similar purpose - communication between the two platforms.
White label is a ready-made unbranded template that you can deploy on your website and it will link you to the provider of certain services. So now your customers won’t need to leave your site as they can access what they need from your page. Additionally, you can tailor a white label to match your brand. This way your customers won’t tell that it’s not a part of your website but a third-party template.
An example of a travel white labeled product is a template solution by Expedia that allows for adding their accommodation bookings to your website. You can read more about it in our article about <a href="https://www.altexsoft.com/blog/travel/expedia-taap-rapid-api-partner-solutions/">Expedia Partner Solutions</a>.
Working in the back end, an API pulls out the requested data from external servers and displays it on your side in your way. This means that you design your own interface and use the data only. When deciding on a travel API, you can check our article with the <a href="https://www.altexsoft.com/blog/engineering/travel-and-booking-apis-for-online-travel-and-tourism-service-providers/">major APIs on the travel market</a>.
Of two options, API involves a more sophisticated integration but at the same time, it’s more adjustable. Prior to getting at it, answer yourself whether you do need an API for this specific product. Oftentimes it turns out that a white label solution will do for you. And with minimal tech resources (the company you take the white label from, does the work for you) you can quickly include a travel solution in your platform.

What is white label travel API?

Hi there,&nbsp; 
 Have you tried contacting Amadeus support with this challenge? Perhaps, they will be able to help. You may also connect with our experts via <a href="mailto:solutions@altexsoft.com">solutions@altexsoft.com</a> or using the chat in the bottom right corner. It may take several hours to solve the issue.&nbsp;

Answer for How to establish relationship in b/w groupofflights and recommendation in amadeus Fare_MasterPricerTravelBoardSearch soap response

I'm implementing amadeus-ws-client , and using Fare_MasterPricerTravelBoardSearch to search flights with fare . 
And successfully getting response ,
In response I got multiple flights with multiple recommendations , but not able to establish relationship b/w flights and recommendations
https://1drv.ms/u/s!AtLdCoXzKiS-gTsNgBeQF6XExYup
you can see response on this url.
Could you please help to associate each flights with there respective fare
Thanks

How to establish relationship in b/w groupofflights and recommendation in amadeus Fare_MasterPricerTravelBoardSearch soap response

Klook is a travel activities (<a href="https://www.altexsoft.com/blog/travel/tours-and-attractions-distribution-approaches-to-travel-supplier-listing-and-customer-experience-management/">tours and attractions</a>) platform. It allows travelers to book tours, diving activities, park visits, even train tickets, and more. It mostly targets travel in Asia.
From the inside, it works just as most big online travel agencies do. From the end-customer side, it has a mobile app and their website to book activities. And it connects with activity suppliers either via a SaaS interface (extranet) or an API. To get the idea, you can read how <a href="https://www.altexsoft.com/blog/travel/managing-an-online-travel-agency-how-back-office-system-of-an-ota-works/">OTA back office</a> works.

Answer for What is Klook? How does Klook work?

What is Klook? How does Klook work?

Expedia is the second largest player in the online travel agencies market with about 32 percent market share, according to 2018 data. It’s second to Booking.com, which has 41 percent of the market. Actually, we’ve compared these companies in our <a href="https://www.altexsoft.com/infographics/largest-travel-technology-market-players/">infographic</a>. Keep in mind that it uses 2017 data.

Answer for What's Expedia market share?

What&#039;s Expedia market share?

Hello Smail,
At the current moment, nearly all the largest low-cost airlines signed distribution agreements with GDS’s. You may contact their sales managers to get an API connection to some of the low-cost carriers.
As a matter of fact, the first GDS to consolidate only low-cost carriers was <a href="https://www.navitaire.com/">Navitaire</a>, currently owned by <a href="https://amadeus.com/en">Amadeus GDS</a>.
Or, you can contact dedicated platforms, that consolidate low-cost only airlines. These are <a href="https://pyton.travel/en/the-pyton-flight-hub/">Pyton Flight Portal</a> that offers over 100 low-cost carries via an XML API, and <a href="https://www.travelfusion.com/corporate/page/tf-flight-api">tfFlight</a> platform owned by travel content aggregator <a href="https://www.travelfusion.com/flight">Travelfusion</a>.
You can learn more about the available low-cost API’s in our <a href="https://www.altexsoft.com/blog/travel/low-cost-airline-distribution-channels-direct-distribution-ndc-gdss-and-low-cost-airline-consolidators/">dedicated article</a>.
We hope it answers your question!

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