I'm curious about how online travel agencies (OTAs), such as Expedia and Booking.com, are able to compare hotel prices from various platforms. Do they leverage special access to APIs, or are they scraping data from different sites? I'm working on a travel-related project and want to understand the process behind fetching accurate hotel prices. Any insights or experiences would be really helpful!
4 Answers
From what I know, these OTAs primarily use APIs to access data rather than scraping. The travel industry was one of the first to go digital, with systems dating back to the 60s. Given that Expedia and similar platforms have a lot of market influence, they can require hotels to provide data through APIs rather than relying on unreliable screen scraping, which can be problematic if the site changes.
Thanks for clarifying! It’s good to know APIs are the way to go.
It’s probably more about partnerships than scraping. They likely have agreements with different hotel providers to share data, making API access a smoother process.
Appreciate the feedback! It helps to know I'm on the right track.
You could have found this by just searching "how does Expedia get travel data" on Google. Always try searching before asking; it might save you time!
OTAs mainly rely on APIs and Global Distribution Systems (GDS). If you're developing something, consider using APIs like Makcorps or Amadeus; they’re way better than scraping.
It's interesting to hear about the history! I've noticed that airlines still use mainframes, so it makes sense hotels might be in a similar situation.