Travel API integration is how an OTA, travel agency, or B2B portal connects to upstream supplier systems—airlines through GDS or NDC, hotels through multi-aggregators, transfer operators, and activity providers—so that the portal can search, price, book, ticket, and refund travel programmatically. Done well, one integration replaces dozens of per-supplier projects and gives your platform comprehensive content from day one.
This guide covers the full surface: which content categories matter, how the modern travel API stack is structured (GDS + NDC + LCC + hotel aggregators), what onboarding looks like, the operational concerns (rate limits, reconciliation, refunds), and how the Adivaha platform delivers it. For related architecture pieces, see travel APIs, flight API, hotel API, and travel technology company.
Talk to our team for a 30-minute scoping call: supplier coverage in your priority markets, a sandbox walkthrough, and a tailored integration plan.
Book a scoping call
What "travel API integration" actually covers
The phrase gets used loosely. In practice a complete travel API integration is six things stacked together.
1. Flight content
Three sources: GDS (Amadeus, Sabre, Galileo, occasionally Travelport) carries the bulk of network-carrier inventory. NDC carries the modern fare bundles and ancillaries directly from airlines who have rolled NDC connections live. LCC content from low-cost carriers (IndiGo, AirAsia, Ryanair, Wizz Air, easyJet, SpiceJet, JetBlue) is distributed through carrier-owned APIs or specialist aggregators - historically GDSs did not carry LCCs at all. A modern integration must surface all three in one normalized response so the portal can rank them together for the traveler.
2. Hotel content
Hotel inventory is even more fragmented than flight. Multi-aggregators (HotelBeds, Expedia Partner Solutions, RateHawk, Agoda Affiliate, TBO Holidays, Booking.com Affiliate) pool wholesaler rates and direct-contract content. Specialist aggregators (Hotelston, Stuba, OctoRooms) cover regional inventory. Direct chain APIs (Marriott, Hilton, IHG) carry their member-rate content but require chain-by-chain contracts.
3. Transfers
Airport-to-hotel and intra-city ground transport. HotelBeds Transfers covers most worldwide markets via a single API; specialist providers like Hoppa, Welcome Pickups, and Suntransfers fill regional gaps.
4. Activities, excursions and tours
Viator (TripAdvisor), GetYourGuide, and Klook are the three big aggregators. Each carries 200,000+ products with photos, descriptions, and live pricing/availability. Bring-your-own DMC content is common in the activity layer because most OTAs blend aggregator inventory with their own destination relationships.
5. Payments
Card processing (Stripe, Adyen, Razorpay, PayU), wallets (Paytm, GPay), UPI for India, BNPL providers, regional gateways. Adivaha travel API integration typically expects the platform to handle payment separately from supplier booking—the booking goes through on credit, and the platform settles at month-end against supplier invoices.
6. Post-booking servicing
Refunds, voids, cancellations, schedule changes, re-issuance. Each supplier exposes these differently. The integration layer normalizes them into one /bookings/{id}/refund or /change endpoint and fan-outs to the supplier, returning a unified status.
How adivaha's travel API integration is structured
One REST or XML connector covers all six layers. The platform handles:
- Normalized response shape across supplier types (no per-supplier field gymnastics)
- Price-quote TTL (held until ticketed; refresh if expired)
- Multi-supplier search with deduplication (same flight via 3 GDSs returns once)
- Fare-rule parsing for refundability, change fees, baggage
- Multi-currency conversion at search and book time
- Booking ledger with PNRs, voucher IDs, supplier invoices
- Webhook events on booking, cancellation, refund (HMAC-signed)
- Sandbox environment with realistic test data
- Bearer-token auth with scoped keys (read, write, admin; sandbox vs live)
Onboarding and API access
To keep your integration smooth and aligned with our supplier-partner requirements, API access follows a short onboarding flow. You start by registering your business at adivaha.com and sharing your incorporation documents along with a compliance contact—our team usually completes the verification in 24 to 48 hours. Once you are approved, a dedicated account manager works with you on the commercial agreement, and as soon as that is in place, we release your sandbox and production keys, typically within a few hours—and you can start building with the APIs right away.
Operational concerns
Rate limits
Default plans get 60 requests per second with bursting up to 200 RPS. Enterprise scopes negotiate dedicated capacity. Limits are visible per key in your dashboard with real-time usage.
Caching and TTL
Price-quote endpoints carry Cache-Control headers; clients can reuse a quote until its TTL expires. Booking endpoints are never cached. Typical search results have a 5-15 minute TTL depending on the supplier.
Reconciliation
Each successful booking returns a supplier record locator (PNR for flights, voucher ID for hotels, and activities). At month-end the platform reconciles supplier invoices against your booking ledger—automatically via API where supported (Amadeus BSP, Sabre, HotelBeds), manually via CSV elsewhere.
Versioning
Path-level versioning (/v1, /v2). Breaking changes go to a new major version with at least 12 months of overlap. Non-breaking additions land in the current version with release notes published a week ahead.
SLA and support
99.9 percent uptime SLA on production endpoints. The status page at status.adivaha.com publishes regional and supplier-level availability. The priority support tier (included in the standard plan) covers email plus chat with a 4-hour business-hour response.
Common integration patterns
Pattern 1: White-label storefront on shared platform
You bring your brand, domain, and customer base; Adivaha hosts the storefront and API integration on shared infrastructure. Fastest path to live (2-4 weeks). Standard plan: USD 999 one-time setup + USD 99 per month for the platform.
Pattern 2: API-only consumption from your own storefront
You build (or already have) your own consumer-facing portal and just consume Adivaha APIs from the back. Useful for teams with strong frontend engineering capacity. Same pricing structure.
Pattern 3: Multi-brand / multi-tenant
One Adivaha instance, multiple brands. Each tenant has its own domain, theme, supplier credential set, and policy engine. Common for franchise operations or large agencies running sub-brands. Custom-priced scope.
Pattern 4: B2B sub-agent network
Your portal serves direct consumers AND a network of sub-agents. Agents log in to a branded portal, book on credit terms you set, and see consolidated invoicing. Included in the standard plan from day one.
What sets adivaha apart
Amadeus Global CAP License. The certification is required to distribute Amadeus GDS content commercially. Many platforms sublicense through partners; we hold the license directly, which means lower per-transaction costs and faster supplier setup.
2,400+ travel brands on the platform. The supplier negotiation, the integration maintenance, and the ongoing API-version migrations are amortized across the customer base, not paid for by you alone.
Single normalized response. Most platforms expose a different schema per supplier, leaving you to write per-supplier glue code. We normalize at the API boundary so /search-flights returns the same shape whether the underlying source is Amadeus, Sabre, NDC, or LCC.
No booking or transaction fees. Your subscription covers the platform; everything you sell stays yours. Supplier ticketing fees (where applicable) come from the supplier directly, not us.
Pricing
One plan for self-serve customers: USD 999 one-time setup + USD 99 per month. Custom pricing for enterprise programs with bespoke supplier integrations, multi-brand setups, dedicated infrastructure, or custom contracts. See full pricing.
FAQs
Q1. What is travel API integration?
The process of connecting a travel portal to supplier systems (airlines, hotels, transfers, and activities) so the portal can search, price, book, and refund programmatically. One integration replaces dozens of per-supplier projects.
Q2. What suppliers does Adivaha integrate with?
Amadeus, Sabre, and Galileo (GDS); 30+ NDC carriers; LCC content via Travelfusion/Mystifly aggregators; HotelBeds, Expedia Partner Solutions, RateHawk, Agoda, TBO, and Booking.com (hotels); HotelBeds Transfers and Hoppa (transfers); Viator, GetYourGuide, and Klook (activities).
Q3. How long until I am live?
2-4 weeks for standard integration. 4-12 weeks for custom scopes.
Q4. What is the difference between GDS, NDC, and LCC content?
GDS = legacy network-carrier inventory (Amadeus, Sabre, Galileo). NDC = modern carrier-direct fare bundles. LCC = low-cost carriers distributed via their own APIs. A complete integration surfaces all three.
Q5. How does reconciliation work?
Each booking returns a supplier record locator. End-of-month matching against supplier invoices is automatic via API where supported (Amadeus, Sabre, HotelBeds) and manual via CSV elsewhere.
Q6. What is the rate limit?
60 RPS default, 200 RPS burst, enterprise negotiates dedicated capacity. Per-key visibility in the dashboard.
Q7. How do refunds work via API?
One /bookings/{id}/refund call fans out to the supplier. A void window (24h for most flights) is free; outside that, fare rules apply.
Q8. What does the platform cost?
USD 999 one-time setup + USD 99 per month. No booking or transaction fees. Custom for enterprise scope.