Know About Agoda as a Supplier – Types, Steps, Time for API Integration, & Business Models
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Overview about Agoda?
Agoda, a part of Bookings Holding Group, is an Asia-based OTA that has multiplied since its inception in 2005. Though perceived as OTA, Agoda is also one of the largest and most recognized suppliers of inventory and rates to travel agencies. It primarily focuses on and is strong in the Asian market, predominantly Southeast Asia, but offers listings worldwide, with over 2 million properties available. Agoda caters to various accommodations, including hotels, hostels, vacation rentals, and guesthouses.
Since Agoda is an online retailer and is self-service oriented, it offers APIs related to all those functionalities, which helps its partners to resemble the look and feel of the Agoda website. This modular architecture allows you to integrate the functionalities that your business requires.
So, if you want to include Agoda as a supplier to your inventory and offerings, below are things you should keep in mind as they will guide you –
Different Types of Agoda API ?
1. Content API
Agoda provides hotel content in 2 different forms – Data File and Data Feed. Your account manager shall provide the URL to download.
Data File
- Content is in CSV format provided in the preferred currency and language
- Content covers only hotel-level information
- Used for collection of the hotel data to store in the database
- Hotel-level content included in the data file
Data Feed
- Content is in XML format that covers whole hotel and room-level information
- Used to fill hotel content initialized in the data file
- Hotel-level content included in the data feed
2. Search API
Availability Search API sends the availability and rates for all room types of specified hotel(s) based on the search criteria, like number of passengers, time duration of stay, currency, etc.
Currently, Agoda provides two forms of search API:
- Short Search API
Short Search is optimized for that function if you require minimum room information. You should use the Agoda URL landing in the response to make bookings. This API will be suitable for the MSE or Online Affiliates model.
- Long Search API
If you plan to display complete room information, including surcharges and cancellation policies, then Long Search provides in-depth information on rates and availability at room level.
Searching for a single hotel and a list of hotels can be done through both the APIs.
3. Book API
This API offers you a gateway to make bookings in the Agoda system. There are two URL endpoints: PreCheck API, optional, and Book API, a must to make bookings.
Agoda’s rates and availability are dynamically generated, and constant changes in prices and allotments may fail bookings; therefore, it is recommended to implement the PreCheck API for verifying if the previously selected offer is applicable right before booking.
- PreCheck API
The PreCheck service is designed to improve the booking success pace by offering to pre-check the rates and allotments before sending the booking request. This PreCheck API can work in the background while the end customer enters their details in the booking form.
If the PreCheck response is successful, the room booking process will be completed without any issues, but when there is a failure, you could warn the end customer to look for a new offer.
This API can fail in two circumstances – when price changes, especially during peak seasons, and when the selected room is no longer available.
There are also other auxiliary APIs like –
Post-book API – This is meant for all post-booking activities, like retrieving bookings, sending special requests, canceling a booking, and filtering the booking list by date, tag, & DateTime.
NHA API – Non-hotel Accommodation is a popular option, but partners couldn’t directly reach the property owner or receptionist. Therefore, this new “GetHostContact” feature is developed to connect to the host or property owner through the given email address.
CDS API – This one is meant to improve the accuracy of cache data and visibility of updated properties.
Agoda’s Commission Range & Partnership Models
Talking about commissions, Agoda typically charges around 10 to 20% commission based on your contracts, service offerings chosen, and inventory consumption. So, for example, each $200 booking at a commission rate of 5% earns you $10.
But here are the different partnership models that you must consider based on your requirements:
- MSE Model or Online Affiliates
This is the simplest integration model. If you compare and aggregate hotel prices from many other online travel agencies on your website, then the MSE model will suit you better. This model speedily offers detailed information about availability or rate API that can be displayed on your website with simple integration and minimal development. Search Short API should be used here.
- Agoda Fulfill Assisted Model
If you wish to integrate your booking form with Agoda’s API but do not have post-booking customer services, then this model suits you. Through this model, Agoda will provide post-booking customer services and directly charge and send hotel vouchers to your customers. Search Long API and Book API are used in this model.
- Partner Fulfillment Model
This model would fit you if you fully want to handle the post-booking flow with customer services. Through this model, you can handle cancellations and special requests. It will also help to process the payment and offer post-booking customer services to travelers.
The Search Long API, Book API, and Post Book API are used in this model.
Reasons to Integrate Agoda API With Your Hotel Booking Engine
- Global property access with daily content refreshing.
- Allotments and prices are pretty dynamic.
- Retrieve available rooms and rates at each property with a proper breakdown in the smaller sections.
- Get details of the room you want from the search response and complete guest & payment information.
- Any special requests can be submitted after the booking, subject to the property’s serviceability.
- Double-check the cancellation policy to see if it is confirmed.
Technical Requirements to Integrate Agoda API
Certain requirements are crucial to starting the API integration process.
Below are the key things to keep in mind –
Environment Testing
For creating test bookings, you can use Agoda’s sandbox environment. The servers behind it are identical to the production servers & have limited capacity. Before trying in the live setting, you should test only in the sandbox environment. Testing on the live environment is not allowed until you have approval from the account manager assigned to you.
It is essential to note that any unauthorized test booking on the live environment can lead to a non-refundable cancellation fee.
TTL Setting
The TTL (time to live) on DNS servers and apps connecting to the Agoda API URLs should be set to less than or equal to 5 minutes. This allows Agoda to handle failovers quickly and utilize other data centers if one becomes unavailable.
HTTP Setting
Having an authorization header and setting the HTTP request header enabling compression to accept encoding is necessary. To comply with the PCI Security Industry Standard, verify that your production system uses TLS v1.2.
Credential Setting
The test site credential is set up and enabled for every available feature of the API. This site credential is allowed to access the Agoda Sandbox environment only. You will have to contact your account manager for more details.
Those who are existing partners can already have a site credential and use it to start making requests against Agoda’s sandbox endpoints. After the certification is done, they can easily switch the request endpoints to the production endpoints without any extra code changes.
As you can see, this process is time-consuming and cost-consuming, even if you have a skilled in-house development team. So, travel businesses looking for suppliers like Expedia often choose supplier connectivity platforms like Zentrum Connect to quickly yet efficiently integrate the API and manage all its complexities.
The Time and Steps Required to Become an Agoda API Affiliate
Till now, you must have realized that API integration is a tricky process and requires a lot of expertise, but here are the surface-level steps that you will have to follow to become an Agoda API affiliate-
- Decide which partnership model will best suit your business.
- Study the Agoda API and get help from their team.
- Acquire your site credentials to plug Agoda’s inventory and offerings into your system.
- Complete the form to submit a certification request to their team.
- After the final step, testing, and approval, connect to their live environment.
There may be only 5 or 6 steps, but integrations take extreme time and effort. Each API has its intricacies, and every action involves multiple other sub-steps.
Regarding the cost, contacting Agoda’s team is advisable to get a personalized quote. Several aspects, like desired content and services, monthly transaction volume, and customer or tech support, influence the cost.
Conclusion
If you want to become a partner, you can either contact Agoda’s account manager and take all these decisions every step of the way while letting your developers figure it out without a complete guarantee of success or choose the easier option – contacting ZentrumHub, which already has a unified platform with APIs of 50+ global top-rated suppliers like Agoda, HotelBeds, TBO, etc.
With our solution, Zentrum Connect, you can go live on day 1 with Agoda API. Our experienced team can own the process, ensuring hassle-free supplier integration.
