RateHawk API integration for agencies and OTAs

What RateHawk is

RateHawk is a B2B-only hotel booking platform operated by Emerging Travel Group. Rather than contracting every hotel directly, it aggregates inventory from a mix of direct contracts, bed banks and other wholesale sources into a single API and web interface, and sells exclusively to travel professionals: agencies, OTAs, tour operators and corporate travel companies. The API is RESTful, documented publicly under the Emerging Travel Group developer portal, and exposes multilingual hotel content alongside net-rate, commission and affiliate commercial models.

Agencies often meet RateHawk first through its agent website, then move to the API when they want the same rates inside their own brand. That move, from booking on someone else's interface to selling through your own hotel booking engine, is exactly the project we deliver.

Why add RateHawk alongside other suppliers

Because it is an aggregator of many upstream sources, RateHawk behaves differently from a classic single-source bed bank. In practice it is strong in some regions and property types where a traditional wholesaler is thin, and vice versa; two portals with the same suppliers can still see different winners depending on their markets. The sensible strategy is not to bet on one source but to run several and let a comparison layer pick the best confirmable rate per room.

That is why we usually implement RateHawk as one lane of a multi-supplier setup, for example next to a Hotelbeds integration or direct contracts, behind a single search interface. If you are building for sub-agents rather than consumers, the same supplier mix powers a B2B travel portal with agent-specific pricing tiers.

Getting API access

RateHawk API access comes from your own registration with RateHawk: you sign up as a travel professional, agree the commercial model with their team, and receive an API key and documentation. There is no charge from us for advice on this stage, and no shortcut through us either; we are a development partner, not a distributor, so rates, credit terms and contract questions sit between you and RateHawk. What we need to start building is your key for their test environment and a decision on which commercial model (net rate, commission or affiliate) your business will run.

Plan the payment side at the same time as the technical side. How bookings are settled, whether by deposit, credit line or card, shapes the checkout flow we build and the reconciliation reports your accountant will ask for later, so it is worth agreeing those terms with RateHawk before development reaches the payment step rather than after.

What we build on the RateHawk API

• Content pipeline: initial load of the hotel database (a large dump of properties, descriptions, images and amenities) plus scheduled incremental updates
• Search: region, hotel and coordinate-based availability searches with guests, residency and currency handled correctly, since residency can affect which rates are returned
• Rate detail and prebook: re-checking a selected rate before payment so cancellation policies and taxes shown to the traveller match what will be confirmed
• Booking lifecycle: order creation, status polling, voucher retrieval, cancellation inside and outside penalty windows, and failure recovery
• Back office: bookings pushed into your admin panel or travel agency software for accounting and reconciliation

Making RateHawk content comparable

An aggregator brings its own identifiers, so before RateHawk rates can compete with another source on your site, properties have to be matched to your master hotel list. We reuse the same master-record approach we apply to every supplier: match on location and normalised names, attach the RateHawk identifier to the master property, and route ambiguous cases to human review. Where RateHawk is your first and only supplier this step is light, and we simply adopt its property database as your baseline, which shortens the project noticeably.

Comparison also has to respect commercial reality, not just the headline price. Our selection logic can weigh cancellation flexibility, payment timing and your negotiated terms per supplier, so the "best" rate is the one that is best for your business, not merely the cheapest number on screen.

Caching strategy for an aggregated source

RateHawk's static content is designed to be held locally and refreshed, while availability and prices are queried live. We build accordingly: the hotel database lives in your own storage and powers browsing, filtering and SEO landing pages instantly, while availability calls are made at search time with short-lived result caching for busy destination pages. Because prices from an aggregator can move between search and checkout, the prebook re-check is mandatory in our builds, and price-change events are surfaced to the traveller honestly instead of being absorbed silently.

Project process and timeline factors

1. 01

   Scope and model

   We confirm your commercial model, target markets, languages and currencies, and whether RateHawk joins existing suppliers or launches the platform.

2. 02

   Sandbox development

   Content pipeline, search, prebook, booking and cancellation built and tested against test credentials.

3. 03

   Test bookings and review

   End-to-end test scenarios including cancellations and price changes, plus any checks RateHawk requires before production access. [TO CONFIRM: current RateHawk go-live checklist]

4. 04

   Launch and monitoring

   Production keys, staged rollout, and monitoring for booking failures, content update jobs and response times.

Timeline depends mostly on what already exists: adding RateHawk to a portal we built is quicker than integrating into an unfamiliar codebase, and multi-language content or agent pricing tiers add scope. You receive a fixed written quote after discovery, and ongoing support is available under our travel API integration maintenance plans.

RateHawk and Emerging Travel Group are trademarks of their respective owners. Globitude Travels & Tech is an independent software integrator and is not affiliated with, endorsed by or acting as an agent of RateHawk or Emerging Travel Group. We build integrations; inventory access and commercial terms are agreed directly between you and the supplier.