[api] Travel/Hotel API's?

I am working on a large project involving creating a worldwide hotel database with rich data such as Addresses, Images, Descriptions, Policies, Coordinates, Facilities, Reviews, Local area descriptions and their amenities etc.

I am looking for a public hotel API where I can both retrieve the data and run (preferably RESTful) real-time queries for specific locations and available rooms, and where I can subsequently let my customers make bookings.

Can anyone share experience, knowledge and possible guidelines for such a project, which APIs are suitable and what are the best practices?

You could probably trying using Yahoo or Google's APIs. They are generic, but by specifying the right set of parameters, you could probably narrow down the results to just hotels. Check out Yahoo's Local Search API and Google's Local Search API

Check out api.hotelsbase.org - its a free xml hotel api No images as of yet though

HotelsCombined has an easy-to-access and useful service to download the data feed files with hotels. Not exactly API, but something you can get, parse and use. Here is how you do it:

1. Go to http://www.hotelscombined.com/Affiliates.aspx
2. Register there (no company or bank data is needed)
3. Open “Data feeds” page
4. Choose “Standard data feed” -> “Single file” -> “CSV format” (you may get XML as well)

If you are interested in details, you may find the sample Python code to filter CSV file to get hotels for a specific city here:

http://mikhail.io/2012/05/17/api-to-get-the-list-of-hotels/

Update:

Unfortunately, HotelsCombined.com has introduced the new regulations: they've restricted the access to data feeds by default. To get the access, a partner must submit some information on why one needs the data. The HC team will review it and then (maybe) will grant access.

After several days of searching found the EAN API - http://developer.ean.com/ - it is a very big one, but it provides really good information. Free demos, XML\JSON format. Looks good.

In my search for hotel APIs I have found only one API giving unrestricted open access to their hotel database and allowing you to book their hotels:

Expedia's EAN http://developer.ean.com/

You need to sign for their affiliate program, which is very easy. You get immediate access to their hotel databases plus you can make availability/booking requests with several response options, including JSON, which is more convenient and lightweight than the (unfortunately) more widespread XML.

As you immediately access their API, you can start developing and testing, but still need their approval to launch the site, basically to make sure it provides the needed quality and security, which is reasonable.

They also offer "deep linking", i.e. you may customize your requests by adding parameters. Then if it sufficient for your purpose (for mine it is not), you don't even need to store their content on your server.

I have also signed for HotelsCombined program: (link removed as this site doesn't seem to let me put more links)

However, they do not immediately allow you to use their API even for testing. From their answer:

"Apologies for the inconvenience caused, but it’s simply a business decision to limit access to our rich hotel content. Please kindly check back within the next 2-3 months, where we will be able to judge your traffic, and in turn judge your status on standard data feeds."

I have also signed for Booking.com affiliate program: (link removed as this site doesn't seem to let me put more links)

Unfortunately, again, they limit access, from their answer: "Please do note that, since there's a high amount of time and cost involved in the XML integration, we are only able to offer the XML integration to a small amount of partners with a high potential."

I did not explore Tripadvisor as they seem only to offer top 10 hotels and only as widgets, but most importantly for me, they wouldn't allow booking through them.

I've checked the hotelbase.org mentioned above, they have very extensive list but not as rich as by Expedia, also they don't seem to have images and don't allow booking either.

I've used the TripAdvisor API before and its suited me well. It returns, per destination, a list of top-rated hotels, along with options to retrieve reviews, photos, nearby restaurants and a couple other useful things.

http://www.tripadvisor.com/help/what_type_of_tripadvisor_content_is_available

From the API page (available API content) :

* Hotel, attraction and restaurant ratings and reviews
* Top 10 lists of hotels, attractions and restaurants in a destination
* Traveler photos of a destination
* Travelers' Choice award badges for hotels and destinations

To expand upon @nstehr's answer, you could also use Yahoo Pipes to facilitate a more granular local search. Go to pipes.yahoo.com and do a search for existing hotel pipes and you'll get the idea..

Try Tixik.com and their API there. They have a very different data that big players, really good coverage mostly in Europe and good API conditions.