Hotel API Integration
Hotelbeds API Integration Guide for OTA and Travel Portals
How to connect Hotelbeds hotel inventory to your booking engine — search, rates, booking and management
By Project OTA | 8 Aug, 2026 | 8 min read
Hotelbeds is one of the world's largest hotel aggregators with 300,000+ properties. This integration guide covers the full API flow from availability search to booking management for OTA and travel portal developers.
What Hotelbeds provides and why agencies use it
Hotelbeds is one of the leading B2B hotel aggregators globally, providing travel agencies, OTAs and tour operators access to over 300,000 hotel properties in 185 countries through a single API. The inventory spans independent hotels, international chains, apartment properties and resort complexes — many available at net rates that agencies mark up to their own customers.
Hotelbeds operates on a B2B model: the API is not available to direct consumers and requires a commercial agreement through their partner programme. This makes it particularly well-suited for travel agencies building B2B agent portals, tour operators packaging accommodation with flights, and OTAs wanting a high-volume hotel supply without managing direct hotel contracts.
Hotelbeds API authentication and setup
Hotelbeds uses signature-based API authentication. Each request requires an Api-key header containing your API key and an X-Signature header containing a SHA256 hash of the API key, API secret and the current UTC timestamp in seconds. This signature must be computed fresh on every request — pre-generated signatures will fail because the timestamp changes.
Hotelbeds provides a test environment at test.xmltravelgate.com and a production environment at api.test.hotelbeds.com (test) and api.hotelbeds.com (live). Test credentials are available after partner registration and the test environment returns simulated responses using a subset of real content. Move to production only after your integration passes end-to-end booking tests.
Hotel availability search and rate retrieval
The availability endpoint accepts destination, check-in, check-out, occupancy (rooms, adults, children) and optional filters such as accommodation type, board basis and rate class. The response returns a list of hotels with available rooms, rates and cancellation policies. For performance, the availability response is paginated and supports filtering by radius from a geopoint, destination zone or specific hotel codes.
Each rate in the response has a rateKey — a signed token that must be used verbatim in the booking request. Rate keys have a short validity window (typically 15–30 minutes) and must not be modified. Your booking engine should handle expired rate keys gracefully by re-checking availability before presenting the booking form to the customer.
Creating and managing hotel bookings
The booking endpoint accepts the rateKey, holder details (lead passenger name and contact), occupancy and a unique clientReference for your internal tracking. A successful response returns a Hotelbeds booking reference, status, cancellation policy details and the total amount payable. The booking is immediately confirmed — no pre-booking or hold step exists in the Hotelbeds flow.
For post-booking management, the API supports booking retrieval by reference, cancellation and amendment. Cancellation returns a cancellation reference and any applicable fee based on the cancellation policy. Your admin panel must store the Hotelbeds booking reference alongside your internal order ID and expose cancellation functionality within the policy deadline.
Hotelbeds Content API for property pages
The Content API provides hotel details including name, address, coordinates, star rating, category, facilities, images, descriptions and room type specifications. This data is essential for building hotel detail pages and search result cards. Content is available in multiple languages and can be cached locally since it changes infrequently.
For SEO, hotel content pages should include the property name, destination, amenities and nearby attractions with structured data markup. Fetching and caching Hotelbeds content enables you to build static or server-side rendered hotel pages that rank in search results, driving organic traffic to your booking funnel.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I get access to Hotelbeds API?
Access requires a commercial partnership agreement with Hotelbeds. You register as a technology partner or sub-agent through their website and receive test credentials after approval. Production credentials require financial setup and compliance checks.
Does Hotelbeds require a minimum booking volume?
Hotelbeds does have commercial thresholds for their partner agreements. Volume commitments and commercial terms vary by market and partnership type. Contact their partnerships team for specific requirements.
Can Hotelbeds be combined with direct hotel contracts?
Yes. Most OTAs combine aggregator inventory from Hotelbeds with direct hotel contracts and other aggregators such as RateHawk or Expedia Partner Solutions to maximise coverage and rate competitiveness.
Key Takeaways
- Hotelbeds provides access to 300,000+ properties across 185 countries through one API.
- The core flow is availability search → rate check → booking → confirmation.
- The Content API provides hotel descriptions, images and amenities for display pages.
Project OTA integrates Hotelbeds API into OTA platforms and travel agency portals — delivering hotel search, booking and management workflows ready for production.
Talk to Project OTA