The hospitality industry is no more hotels alone. It includes Hostels, Motels, Flotels, Inns, Resorts, Serviced apartments, Vacation Rentals, and Bed & Breakfasts. Cruise ships and yachts are also now a part of this industry. As technology developments are moving at a higher pace, the hospitality providers are finding it difficult to catch-up with it. However hard the nut is to crack, decision makers should be able to harness these technologies and must utilize it to fuel the organization’s growth. Think about it: Technology is now a major game-changer of the hospitality industry and, the organizations that are adapting and improvising are flourishing. All the disruptive hospitality businesses which came recently, holds a major part of the industry revenue are digitally based like OTAs, Airbnb, even payment processing. API Technology is one among those.
API technology or Application Programming Interfaces is a technology shift you can’t afford to miss while in the hospitality industry.
Why API technology?
If you’re a decision maker at any of the above-mentioned organizations, you may not know what an API is or why it matters. But you should. APIs, or Application Program Interfaces, act like a data exchange layer between Softwares/programs. Hence, while selecting a new technology at your business, it’s critical you plan how the APIs will work. There are many companies even now who are very traditional and over protective of their data and hide their APIs which has valuable data. The good news is that trends are changing as more companies are moving towards being open. It essentially means that developers can freely access them, play around, and build something that matters. Many of the most powerful tech companies have already shown interest in sharing API, the more recent one to be Airbnb as it came along in the news. Airbnb to make their own API and share it with other brands.
How do API technology work in the hospitality industry?
The hospitality industry technology is designed in a layer-wise manner which has an internal Property Management Systems (PMS) at the core. PMS systems are surrounded by Price management tools like PriceMatch, Ideas, Duetto. Price Management tools layer is covered by distribution tools like Pegasus, iHotelier, SiteMinder and Global Distribution Systems like Sabre, Travelport, and Amadeus. Selling or Booking tools come on top of it like Booking.com, Travelocity, Expedia.com, Travel Management Company, Travel Agents, and Tour operators. This layer is covered by the final layer of marketing channels including social media websites Facebook, Twitter and search Engines like Google Bing, Meta Search Engines like Kayak, Trivago, and other booking tools. All of these systems are coordinated over by an API layer.
5 questions every hotelier should ask about API technology
- Does the API support PMS integrations, OTA channel integrations, and other integrations that your business might use?
- Does the API allow you to export data you might need for analysis?
- Does it have a developer portal and API documentation which explains everything in detail?
- Does the API follow standard best practices? (or Is it REST/JSON supported?)
- How do I plan to maintain our API?
There are highly reputable organizations like OpenTravel and HTNG who set standards for the hotel industry and associations like VRMA in the vacation rental industry, who can help you with the same.
How can Vafion help you in API management?
Vafion is an API technology expert in the hospitality industry and has been providing API integration services exclusively to the hospitality industry for the past four years. We have helped large organizations to plan, build and maintain their APIs. We have also helped some of the well-known players in the hospitality sector in their API integrations across businesses. As a result, we have the expertise integrating almost all players in this industry. Similar channel integrations for various customers urged our engineers to develop a reusable platform . After months of effort, our team has come up with a platform which can fast track integration efforts to nearly half. The platform uses adapters which are custom made for each channel.
In effect, it helps in reducing the integration efforts considerably. This makes Vafion a sensible option than your technical team or any other technology provider. We differentiate ourselves in terms of delivery time, cost effectiveness, error handling, performance, and support.
Would you like to know how API technology is going to benefit your organization? Fill out the form to have a discussion.
Write to info@vafion.com to know more about API Management in the hospitality industry.
Blog from Vafion | A preferred hospitality technology partner.
Follow us on Linkedin
Similar Posts:
- How supplier API integrations are done in travel booking platforms?
- Accelerate your API integrations in hospitality industry
- 20 best practices to consider while choosing the channel management technology
- Example Of Simple REST Client Using CXF WebClient API
- Vacation rental and Virtual reality – A unique buying expereince
- Vacation Rental Owners, Now you can accept payments Online! – Online payments for Vacation Rentals
- Advantages of working with OTA Channels
- HOW vREST API CAN BE USED FOR REST TESTING
- Earned Media Vs OTA Ranking?
- Things to know before buying vacation rental insurance
