A travel API is the programmable surface a travel portal uses to talk to airlines, hotels, transfer operators and activity providers. The right travel API lets a portal search availability, hold prices, confirm bookings and process tickets through one connector instead of dozens of per-supplier integrations. This page covers what makes a modern travel API stack work, what content categories it carries, and how adivaha's travel API is delivered.
For deeper coverage see travel APIs, travel API integration, flight API, hotel API.
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What a modern travel API actually carries
Flight content - three sources, one response
GDS content from Amadeus, Sabre and Galileo is still the backbone of network-carrier inventory. NDC has matured: 30+ carriers now publish modern fare bundles, ancillaries and brands directly through NDC connections. LCCs (IndiGo, AirAsia, Ryanair, Wizz, easyJet, SpiceJet, JetBlue) distribute through their own APIs or specialist aggregators - GDSs historically did not carry them. A modern travel API surfaces all three in one normalized response so the portal can rank them together for the traveler.
Hotel content - aggregators plus chain direct
Hotel inventory is more fragmented than flight. Multi-aggregators (HotelBeds, Expedia Partner Solutions, RateHawk, Agoda Affiliate, TBO Holidays, Booking.com Affiliate) pool wholesaler and direct-contract content. Specialist aggregators (Hotelston, Stuba) cover regional gaps. Chain APIs (Marriott, Hilton, IHG) carry member rates but require chain-by-chain contracts.
Transfers
HotelBeds Transfers covers most worldwide markets via a single API. Specialist providers (Hoppa, Welcome Pickups, Suntransfers) fill regional gaps. Most modern travel APIs include transfers as part of the activity / ground layer rather than a separate product.
Activities, excursions, tours
Viator, GetYourGuide and Klook are the three big aggregators. Each carries 200,000+ products with live availability, photos and descriptions. OTAs blend aggregator inventory with their own DMC content for destination-specific tours.
Payments
Stripe, Adyen, Razorpay, PayU for cards globally; UPI for India; regional gateways elsewhere. Travel API integration usually 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.
What makes a travel API actually usable
Normalized response shape
The biggest hidden cost of multi-supplier travel APIs is the per-supplier glue code teams end up writing because each upstream system has its own response shape. A good travel API normalizes at the API boundary - /search-flights returns the same JSON whether the underlying source is Amadeus, Sabre, an NDC carrier or a Travelfusion LCC. Fare rules, baggage policy, refundability flags, ancillaries: all unified.
Price-quote TTL
Search results are not bookable forever. Prices change as inventory shifts. The API exposes a TTL on every quote (typically 5-15 minutes depending on supplier) and the portal must re-quote before booking once the TTL expires. Cache-Control headers on the quote endpoints let the portal share quotes across users within the TTL.
Booking lifecycle
Search → quote → hold (some suppliers) → book → ticket → reconcile. Each step has its own latency profile and failure modes. Production-grade integrations handle ticketing-queue async patterns (especially Amadeus/Sabre BSP).
Refunds and changes
Each supplier exposes refund/change endpoints differently. The integration layer normalizes them into one /bookings/{id}/refund call. Void window (24h for most GDS flights) is free; outside that, fare rules apply.
Webhooks
Booking events (confirmed, ticketed, refunded, cancelled, schedule-changed) fire HMAC-signed webhooks to the portal. The portal does NOT need to poll - it receives push events as state changes.
How adivaha's travel API is structured
One REST/JSON connector (XML supported for legacy clients) covers flights + hotels + transfers + activities + payment + post-booking servicing. The platform manages:
- One normalized response across all supplier types
- Multi-supplier search with deduplication
- Fare-rule parsing for refundability, change fees, baggage allowance, ancillaries
- Multi-currency at search and book time
- Booking ledger with PNRs, voucher IDs, supplier invoices
- HMAC-signed webhooks on booking events
- Sandbox environment with realistic test data
- Scoped Bearer-token auth (read / write / admin; sandbox vs live)
- Per-key rate-limit dashboard
- 99.9 percent uptime SLA on production
Getting access
Travel API access at adivaha follows a short onboarding flow to make sure your integration is aligned with our supplier-partner requirements. You register your business, share incorporation documents along with a compliance contact, and our team completes verification in 24 to 48 hours. Once approved, a dedicated account manager helps you scope the commercial agreement; sandbox plus production keys release within a few hours of signature.
Standard plan: USD 999 one-time setup + USD 99 per month for platform access. No booking fees, no transaction fees, no per-supplier surcharges from us - your subscription covers the platform, everything you sell stays yours. Custom pricing for enterprise scopes with bespoke suppliers, dedicated infrastructure or multi-brand setups.
Why adivaha
Amadeus Global CAP Licence. The credential required to distribute Amadeus GDS content commercially. Held directly, not sublicensed - lower per-transaction cost and faster supplier setup for our customers.
ISO 9001:2015 certified. International quality management standard required by many enterprise procurement processes.
IATA accredited. Direct flight-ticketing capability via IATA BSP for portals that want to ticket without going through a consolidator.
2,400+ travel brands on the platform. Supplier negotiation, integration maintenance, ongoing API-version migrations are amortized across the customer base.
Normalized response. No per-supplier glue code. /search-flights returns the same shape whether the source is GDS, NDC or LCC.
No booking or transaction fees. Subscription covers the platform; everything you sell stays yours.
FAQs
Q1. What is a travel API?
A programmable interface to airline, hotel, transfer and activity supplier systems. Lets a portal search, price, book, ticket and refund programmatically.
Q2. What does the adivaha travel API include?
Flights (Amadeus, Sabre, Galileo, NDC, LCC via aggregators); hotels (HotelBeds, EPS, RateHawk, Agoda, TBO, Booking.com Affiliate); transfers (HotelBeds, Hoppa); activities (Viator, GetYourGuide, Klook).
Q3. What protocols and formats are supported?
REST/JSON primary; legacy XML supported for clients migrating from older suppliers. Bearer-token auth with scoped keys. HMAC-signed webhooks.
Q4. How do I get a sandbox key?
KYC verification (24-48 hours), commercial agreement, sandbox + production keys release within hours of signature.
Q5. What is the pricing?
USD 999 one-time setup + USD 99 per month. No booking or transaction fees. Custom for enterprise.
Q6. How is content normalized?
The API boundary returns one schema regardless of supplier. Fare rules, baggage, ancillaries all unified.
Q7. What about rate limits and SLA?
60 RPS default, 200 RPS burst, 99.9% production uptime SLA.
Q8. How do refunds work?
One /bookings/{id}/refund call fans out to the supplier. Void window (24h for most flights) is free; outside that, fare rules apply.