Techtalks: Traveltech

Hi Vanika,

As of today there are no car rental APIs in the Self-Service framework. For this you will need to use Enterprise.

Kind regards,
Mat

Hi there,
It’s not unusual for PMS providers to separate their Revenue Management module from the base software. With providers such as Protel and eZee Absolute, you will have to either pay extra for RM features, while others like Little Hotelier have simple tools for integrating with third-party revenue management software. Both of these options are normal in the industry and are not complicated to set up.
 
If you still require RM to be included in the base PMS package, consider these products:

• OPERA 5 and OPERA Cloud have rate management functionality and flexible inventory control features out-of-the-box, plus numerous add-ons. Read more about Oracle’s proposition here.
• Maestro PMS has an integrated dynamic rate and yield management module.
• Hotelogix has dynamic pricing features and offers price recommendations.
• IQware provides occupancy forecasts and calculates five levels of yield.

We have a more detailed overview of these and other PMSs in a separate article, so make sure to check it out. Hope it helps!

With the use of Channel Manager, simply when a guest makes a reservation on an online channel, it will automatically update the corresponding availability through other online booking channels that the hotel is distributing.
When you update room availability and rates on Channel Manager, it syncs with all the hotel distribution channels you're selling. 
Benefits of using Channel Manager
- Help you sell the most rooms through many distribution channels without worrying about overbooking
- Reduce the time of managing room availability and rates on many different channels by using only a single management point

Thank you for your kind words. https://y2koutfits.store/

Hello!
 
Concerning the first part of a question:
 
It’s a rule of thumb that in travel no data can be accessed for free. In most cases, you’ll need to contact either a booking platform, or a metasearch to access travel data API, if there is one. 
 
Which is currently a big question: few platforms offer such APIs. 
 
For example, Scyscanner has an API for sourcing pricing data dynamically. Scyscanner states that the API includes flight, hotel, and car rental data. So you may request the access by contacting them. 
 
There is also an unofficial API on KAYAK that also offers hotel information. 
 
So, to wrap it up, the best way is probably reaching out to other meta searches/hotel websites, to gain access to their APIs, source rates, and probably get the deeplinks.
 
A less recommended way is web scraping. You can monitor web pages to receive pricing and other information on booking using crawler programs. However, this isn’t reliable, as prices won’t be updated dynamically. Moreover, the use of a crawler may cause legal issues, as travel content providers forbid the use of such programs. 
 
As for the second part of the question. The secret prices, or “Private Rates” are usually visible for authorized partners of a given hotel. These rates are shipped via a paid subscription or membership in the private rate group. 
 
So for entering such a group, there is no other way then contacting the provider directly. 

But, pay attention that private rates are not allowed to be publicly exposed. So for the metasearch business model, it’s probably not possible to use them. They are primarily intended for bed banks and other types of distributors.

Hi Muhammed,
We don’t have a confirmation that any GDS provides bus booking capabilities. But you can look into software providers such as Travelopro or Etravos to integrate bus APIs. Alternatively, you can contact Sabre, Amadeus, or Travelport for more information.

Hello,

To store multiple travelers' information during booking using a loop, you can use a data structure like a list in Python. Here's a basic example using a loop to collect information for multiple travelers:

# Initialize an empty list to store traveler information
travelers = []

# Define the number of travelers
num_travelers = int(input("Enter the number of travelers: "))

# Loop through each traveler
for i in range(1, num_travelers + 1):
    print(f"Enter information for traveler {i}:")
    name = input("Name: ")
    age = int(input("Age: "))
    passport_number = input("Passport Number: ")
    
    # Store the traveler information as a dictionary
    traveler_info = {
        "Name": name,
        "Age": age,
        "Passport Number": passport_number
    }
    
    # Append the traveler information to the list
    travelers.append(traveler_info)

# Print the collected traveler information
print("\nTraveler Information:")
for traveler in travelers:
    print(traveler)

We are India based searching ePower API for our travel website. In Indian Amadeus office nobody knows details of ePower.

does someone know if ElAl has open api of flights and others..
and how to access it?

So I will recommend the best flight api from which you can book flights and Simply get the seating information and details about number of flights .

The best flight api I would suggest are -

1. flightapis.com
2. Amadeus
3. Sabre
4. Mystifly
5. TravelPort
6. TravelFusion

These are the top 6 Flight API I would suggest.

Hope this information will help you. To know more details about API integration go through this link .

Hello Everyone ,

The Hotel Search Api I would recommend are -

1. Amadeus
2. Sabre
3. HotelBeds
4. Bedsonline
5. Travellanda
6. Travel Boutique Online

These are some of the hotel Search API I would suggest. If anybody wants to know more about HotelApi go through this link  .

Hello Massimo,

Thank you for your interest.

First, let’s unravel the payment processing flow.

You described the business model where a travel agency is accepting direct payments from customers and functions as a merchant of record. Adding a commission to the net-price, an OTA charges the client. Usually, an agency integrates a payment gateway to process payments.

In more detail, payment processing works like this:

When the money is on the agency’s account, it pays the supplier its share. In the case of flights, OTAs must be IATA-accredited to pay airlines directly. Small OTAs aren’t usually certified, so they leverage a consolidator as a payment mediator between them and an airline.

But if an OTA doesn’t function as a merchant, usually, it redirects to a supplier (in case of a direct distribution) or a larger OTA like Expedia or Booking.com for a transaction. According to this business model, OTAs get paid their percentage of the total price at the end of the month. Payment processing isn’t on their shoulders so they don’t owe commissions to payment gateways.

Expedia, for instance, provides EPS Checkout - a white-label solution that collects credit card data and then transmits it to EPS servers where the data is validated and stored.

Distributing hotels, some agencies list the rooms and allow customers only to book but pay already at the property. So that the hotel will pay back the OTA the contracted commission after the check-out.

Your second inquiry was about cost-efficient payment processors.

Setting up a payment gateway is lucrative in case your OTA has a large payment volume:
The more transactions a gateway processes, the less percent it charges per card. Hence, an OTA with about 5000 transactions per month will pay a higher commission per transaction than an OTA with 50000 transactions.

There’s a great number of payment gateways but they offer a similar set of services for a fairly similar price. So, we wouldn’t say that looking for a cheaper payment gateway can save you a lot of money. What really can be a game-changer is negotiating competitive rates and deals with end-product suppliers. Besides leveraging GDS generic deals, it’s necessary to extend your own pool of providers ready to work with you on exclusive conditions. You can read more marketing tips for travel agencies in our article.

All in all, defining a payment processing strategy is a complex task. So, you may want to get in touch with our sales team for further discussion.

Starting an OTA (Online Travel Agency) can be a complex process, but it is definitely achievable with careful planning and execution. Here are some steps that you can take to get started:

Research and Define your Niche: Before starting an OTA, you should define your niche and identify the type of travelers you want to target. Some examples of niches include adventure travel, luxury travel, budget travel, etc.

Identify your Suppliers: After defining your niche, you need to identify your suppliers. These include airlines, hotels, car rental companies, and other travel-related services. You will need to negotiate contracts with them to get access to their inventory.

Build a Website: You will need to build a website for your OTA that is user-friendly and easy to navigate. You can hire a web development company to create a custom website or use a pre-built platform such as WordPress or Shopify.

Good evening all
Please how do i create a flight booking, after getting data from flight offers, will i use the array i got from flight offers into "flight-orders"?
I have done all the process of flight search and my challenges now is the process of booking, please help

Hi there,
 
Thank you for this insightful question.
 
Every flight search API has access to airline schedules that include connecting airports. But not always this API is capable of processing stopover requests.
 
Pulling flight data from Global Distribution Systems, you can set a stopover airport as an additional search parameter. So the API will return you only the flights with the leg in the selected airport.
 
Also, you can do it from your side: Once the itineraries are retrieved via the API, сreate a business rule for this data that will execute filtering by the stopover airport.

Hi there,
 
Thank you for the question. 
 
Airlines used to pay commissions to travel agencies for reselling their tickets but they rarely do it today. Commission cuts started in the 2000s and these days they’ve been brought down almost to zero. Though, airlines still give agencies a productivity-linked incentive of two percent on average. 
 
If not commissions than what?
 
These days, OTAs rather make money by topping the flight price with markups. OTA’s commission engine adjusts markup sizes depending on a number of factors like current demand, competition, season, etc. 
 
Agencies have other income streams like service fees, consultation or planning fees, insurance costs. In addition, OTAs provide other services like hotels or car rentals where the commission situation is more favorable.
 
Besides that, OTAs have agreements with some airlines that allow them to negotiate more favorable terms for selling their tickets. Usually, it means aligning with a host agency or consortium.

Hi Rob,

Yes, generally it’s better to become a travel agent, more expensive, but if you get returns they will be way higher than those of an affiliate. As an agent you’ll must be able to do all customer service (e.g. cancellation management), which isn’t the case for an affiliate. 
 
You can start off with contacting wholesalers (or bed banks) if you plan on working with hotels. Check Hotelbeds, WebBeds, and there are a whole lot of other niche wholesalers. They provide access to content, availability, pricing, and booking capability. And it’s easier for newcomers to work with hotels rather than flights as usually you get higher commissions and can test your hypothesis and marketing strategy.  
 
Then you can try flights using either the affiliate model or by working with flight consolidators. In fact, there are very few ways you can start selling flights and ticketing them without the IATA agent certification.

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?