Let’s talk about wbeAPI – one endpoint for multiple travel APIs

The beginning of API development for the travel industry

It’s been almost 18 years since we’ve started developing the integrations for travel service providers via XML. It all started with some specific requests from our clients, which at that time wanted custom connections with hotel service providers. It was all new for the travel industry, to have a reliable, fast connection and not to search in all available systems or by e-mail, every single time when you had a reservation request from a traveler.

wbe.travel’s story began after just 6 years of doing custom integrations, as a desire of the mother company “SC DIRECTVISION SRL”, to offer more than just integrations and extend its software services and build a robust, tailor-made solution for the travel industry. Nowadays wbe.travel provides an end-to-end software suite, dedicated to travel companies, a portfolio of services and products that meets the modern needs of diversified selling channels, various inventory sources and a complex management system.

As the product suite is now stable and working beautifully, we’ve returned our focus on API connectivity. As of today, we have summed up more than 100 integrations of travel service suppliers and more than 50 third-party suppliers of services needed in running, active travel business.

For the travel inventory, we’ve developed wbeApi, a hub of multiple suppliers, for travel companies to easily source travel products from Wholesalers, Destination Management Companies, Bedbanks, aggregators, GDSs, consolidators and other providers.

What is wbeAPI?

It’s a multi-supplier travel resources hub, an endpoint for multiple connections of travel suppliers of hotel and flight services, delivering them in a unified JSON structure. The endpoint can be connected to any booking engine or web application and added to the current inventory or simply used just as the main inventory.

The API hub allows you to access the content, availability and rates from wbe.travel’s list of partners. You have just one endpoint for each type of travel service of hotels or flights with multiple suppliers already connected and integrated.

Multiple searches in the back. All for a deduplicated, clean answer

The hassle-free solution comes from the fact that the software we’ve designed does all the work for you. In just a few words, you can search through wbeAPI’s with just one call and we bring you the results of your search, from all the suppliers you’ve chosen, in just one simple and clean response. In the back, our system scouts through all the travel suppliers that you’ve activated, arranges the data and the IDs, then converts and aggregates it. Afterward, it adds the markup that you’ve set in the Mid & Back Office, it deduplicates the results, all automatically.

In the end, you receive the consolidated and deduplicated answer, with your net prices and the markup you’ve chosen. The results of the search you’ve done are then delivered filtered and organized.

 

Save time and cut costs with APIs

With only one connection to wbe.travel you save time and money simplifying simultaneous interaction with +100 already connected travel suppliers and 3rd party providers. You will not need to integrate internally each supplier separately and you can keep your existing website and technology while extending your inventory.

Besides the obvious shortest time to market and minimal need for testing, there is also a considerable advantage in cost saving in the long run. Our development team constantly ensures that the connections to all the suppliers in the wbeAPI hub are fully up to date with the newest offering and technologies. Having in mind that wbe.travel’s is taking care of the development you will not need your IT team by your side, to handle each integration and in the end, you will be cutting your investments in IT&C.

 

You control the prices and the mark-up

Due to our business model, you have full control of the prices, as the supplier’s agreements remain unchanged. You negotiate your own rates with each supplier to keep your price and commercial strategy unaltered. You simply add your mark-up and then you distribute your travel inventory via the chosen selling channels (B2B, B2C, B2E, Corporate or other).

 

Access to a premium network of travel suppliers

wbeAPI has gathered in just one endpoint hotels’ APIs from the world-renowned Bedbanks, Wholesalers and regional DMCs that have a rich inventory of directly contracted properties with some of the lower rates in the market. For the flights’ endpoint, we’ve carefully picked the air transportation partners that have a stable position in the travel market and a history of delivering professional services through the latest technologies. Some of those are the oldest GDSs in the market or the most innovative consolidators that do not require an IATA certificate and imply less to minimal investment.

 

One search in all suppliers or individual browsing in the preferred ones. It’s all your choice.

wbeApi offers you the possibility to determine how you do the search. For instance, you can search from just one endpoint in tens of suppliers to see the best available price or you can handpick the desired partners in which the system will look for.

For the second option, you can choose a destination and make a parallel search in all the selected suppliers to better analyze the responses. This feature can be used for commercial purposes or even by a company that wants to keep its particular aggregation process and specific criteria.

 

Ready to use API or Open Gateway API

There’s a regular pattern of requirements that all travel businesses have. Apart from the common grounds, there are particular needs in all companies and all industries. In ours, the travel businesses have some unique challenges that need to be surpassed with technology, especially for the competitive inventory sourcing.

For those distinctive requirements, we have created two types of APIs: Ready to use API to get the entire travel inventory from wbe.travel or the Open Gateway API to use when you already have inventory from other sources and you want to mix it with the inventory from our partners. The first API offers maximum efficiency whether the second one provides great flexibility.

 

If you are interested in finding out more, send us an e-mail with your particular request.