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My list of travel APIs

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Alex Olson
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7 min read

If you are reading this article you probably already know what an API is. But just in case you were wondering, here is a quick explanation. API (Application Programming Interface) is a software medium that allows two programs to interact. So Travel APIs can do various sorts of things such as retrieving information about hotel and flight bookings and presenting it in different forms according to your needs. The same goes if we talk about restaurant reservations, public transport timetable, travel itineraries and other things. Basically it collects vast amount of data from one place, structure it and pass it on to other applications to use. In this article we are going to look at some of the best APIs to date.

Amadeus

Amadeus APIs are available in two options: Self-Services APIs and Enterprise APIs. Each of them is comprised of several categories:

Self-Service APIs

  • Air (searching and booking the flights, prediction and analysis, schedule and seat maps, airport information and more)

  • Hotel (searching and booking the hotels, hotel ratings)

  • Destination content ( safety rated locations, COVID restrictions, tours and activities)
  • Trip (trip parser, predictions and recommendations)
  • Enterprise APIs
  • Air (customizable search, calculating, shopping and ticketing services)
  • Booking Management (booking interactions)
  • Car & Transfers (searching and booking)
  • Cruise (searching and booking)
  • Customer Profile (personal preferences, payment details and more)
  • Hotel (searching and booking)
  • Insurance (travel insurance booking and shopping)
  • Payment (virtual cards)
  • Queue Management
  • Rail (searching and ticketing)

So you can see that the set of APIs is different and the choice depends on your needs. While Self-Service APIs seem to be more traditional, Enterprise APIs allow for a customized experience.

Sabre

The variety of APIs offered by Sabre is divided into three categories:

  • The Sabre Platform (Travel Solutions APIs)
  • The Sabre GDS (Airline Solutions APIs)
  • SynXis Central Reservations (hospitality APIs)

But for a more suitable fit, you can filter the 465 existing APIs by target audience, category, function, and product type.

Travelport

Typically Travelport would offer its classic Travelport Universal API (SOAP based), covering such services as: air, car, and rail search and booking, hotel search and booking, customers’ profiles and reservations management. But recently they’ve appeared to launch a pilot program Travelport Trip Services, which is REST based and optimized specifically to be used for mobile apps. The APIs are divided into “kits” for convenience (Air APIs, Trip Change Kit, Hotel Kit, Car APIs Kit, Payment Card Services API Kit). Even though it’s a pilot program not available for everybody, it seems very promising.

AwardWallet

AwardWallet offers several APIs to choose:

  • Email Parsing API
  • Web Parsing API
  • Account Access API

Email Parsing API allows you to retrieve the information from booking confirmation emails and use it (for example for itinerary planning). It can also scan your email for any future (or previous) bookings to adjust the data. Web Parsing API extracts information from users’ online loyalty accounts and structures it in a needed format. Account Access API gives access to users’ AwardWallet account (if authorized) and shares the necessary information.

Skyscanner

Skyscanner API will allow you to search flights, compare the prices, and find the cheapest ticket and the best route. It started as a flight searching engine, but now its services include car rental and hotel search. You can get Skyscanner APIs for free, but to achieve full functionality you will have to go through a vetting process.

Flightstats

Flightstats APIs provide us with all the necessary information concerning flights, airports and aircrafts. This includes, but not limited to: weather forecast, flight ratings (time accuracy), flight amenities, delay index, connections, schedules and changes alerts. Essentially, Flighstats APIs are divided into two categories – Flex APIs and Trip Data Services. The first category delivering comprehensive data on commercial flights and airlines, whereas the second one focusing more on itinerary management.

Tripit

Tripit API collects information about users’ hotel and flight bookings to build an itinerary. Tripit is a free platform and it can be integrated into any travel websites or apps. It promises the process to be easy for travelers as one of the features available is the button “Add to Tripit”. By clicking the button on your site users automatically add their booking confirmations to their Tripit account.

Concur

Concur API is similar to TripIt, but it is mostly used with business travelers. It helps with planning the itinerary, tracking the expenses, thus providing easier reimbursement.

Booking

Booking API shares the information about real-time pricing and availability, as well as property descriptions, names of cities and hotels, facilities, photos. As far as the booking process is concerned, it can be done in two ways: you can either confirm the booking by redirecting the user to the site or you can become partner and process the booking on your site.

Tripadvisor

Tripadvisor Content API provides access to Tirpadvisor content which is one of the richest in terms of hotels and restaurants reviews and photos. Each item contains a set of details, such as:

  • name and location
  • reviews
  • rating
  • pricing
  • attraction type
  • cuisine

The API is free, but you have to register and go through minor evaluation process.

Google

The APIs offered by Google are grouped into three products: Maps, Routes and Places, each containing a set of APIs.

  • Maps (Maps SDK for Android, Maps SDK for iOS, Maps JavaScript API, Maps Static API, Street View API, Maps Embed API)
  • Routes (Maps JavaScript API, Directions API, Distance Matrix API, Roads API)
  • Places (Places API, Places Library, Maps JavaScript API, Geocoding API, Geolocation API, Time Zone API, Elevation API)

If you are not sure which API is better to use in your case, you can have a peek at API Picker. It is made to help you choose by showing the functions each API will bring to you.

Travelopro

Travelopro provides you with car hire search and booking API. Once the API is integrated into your site, you get access to a full inventory of car hire offers. You can search the available cars by price, number of passengers and level of comfort. Travelopro supports several languages and has a car fleet from more than 190 countries. They also offer Travel, Flight, Hotel, and Cruise APIs.

Windy

Windy API gives access to a vast collection of webcams around the world. It is available in two plans – Free and Professional. Free plan allows you to either link your site to the site or embed a player. Professional plan allows you to get unlimited API access without any in-player ads or size restrictions. The webcams can be filtered by country, category, nearby location and other features.

Expedia

Expedia API is a hotel booking API with a huge number of functions. It has got standard features, such as searching and booking, as well as some extras:

  • Hold & Resume – this feature lets you pause the booking and get back to it with price staying unchanged
  • Property Collect Deposits – lets the client leave a deposit and pay the rest of the sum at the hotel
  • Cross-Sell Recommendations – interaction between different types of APIs for more desirable experience
  • Notifications – let you know if any changes occur
  • User-Generated Content – gives you access to reviews and ratings

To integrate with this API you will have to become a partner and get approval.

Tiqets

Tiqets API is dealing with tickets to museums, galleries, concerts and other places of interest. It provides full booking experience divided into three stages:

  • Content Discovery – allowing you to find the place you want to visit
  • Product Availability – checking if there are tickets available for the chosen date
  • Booking Order – finalizing the booking by purchasing the tickets

The ticket itself contains the information about the venue, cancellation policy, disability access, “Skip the Line” option and many other details.

Numbeo

Numbeo API provides you with all kinds of information about cost of living, property prices and quality of life in different countries. Numbeo gather information about local prices (housing, utilities, food, transportation, education, etc.), salaries, healthcare availability, crime rates, pollution and many more. The API boasts vast collection of cities with cost of living and life quality indexes. The API is available by purchasing a subscription, but you might get it free you want to use it for academic and not commercial purposes. And a bonus discount of 40% if your company is not very big.

RoadGoat

RoadGaoat Cities API shares data about various destinations around the globe. It covers 232 countries and more than 4 million cities. Each destination features such details as:

  • Photo
  • Known for tags
  • RoadGoat community info
  • Budget, safety and COVID ratings
  • Geodata
  • Booking links
  • The API is available for free or by purchasing the subscription.
  • OpenWeather

Weather API does what it is supposed to do – it gives you weather forecast. On top of that you get information about solar radiation, road risk information, historical weather, weather maps and national weather alerts. The API is available in different variations with flexible payment plans.

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