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Head to head · Travel stays · October 2026 research run

Hotelbeds Hotel Booking API vs ETG API (RateHawk)

ETG API (RateHawk) scores 53 (D) on agent readiness against Hotelbeds Hotel Booking API's 36.3 (F), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Hotelbeds Hotel Booking API leads on payments & pricing. Both do travel stays.

Hotelbeds Hotel Booking APIHotelbeds (HBX Group) · HTTP API F36.3/100#705 of 722 ETG API (RateHawk)Emerging Travel Group · HTTP API D53/100#554 of 722

Which one, for what

Hotelbeds Hotel Booking API F

Good for A travel company with a Hotelbeds contract that wants wholesale rates behind its agent, and for prototyping hotel search without a sales call.

Ahead on

  • Payments & pricing, 20 against 10

Also in its favour

  • Free to start without a card

Watch for

50 requests a day on evaluation, and the 51st returns a 403

ETG API (RateHawk) D

Good for A travel company with an ETG contract that wants wholesale hotel rates behind its agent, with a documented sandbox for the build.

Ahead on

  • Reliability, 45 against 33
  • Schema & documentation, 85 against 57
  • Agent ergonomics, 69 against 41
  • Maintenance & community, 65 against 3
  • Transparency & trust, 56 against 50

Watch for

No self-serve key. Registration is followed by a request to an account manager, and the docs say an agreement must be signed before use

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runHotelbeds Hotel Booking APIETG API (RateHawk)Edge
Reliability16%203345ETG API (RateHawk) +12
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.25785ETG API (RateHawk) +28
Agent ergonomics13%16.24169ETG API (RateHawk) +28
Security & auth14%17.53841ETG API (RateHawk) +3
Payments & pricing10%12.52010Hotelbeds Hotel Booking API +10
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.8365ETG API (RateHawk) +62
Transparency & trust7%8.85056ETG API (RateHawk) +6
Negative events≤1500
Total36.3 · F53 · D

Facts side by side

FactHotelbeds Hotel Booking APIETG API (RateHawk)
KindHTTP APIHTTP API
VendorHotelbeds (HBX Group)Emerging Travel Group
Hosted endpointhttps://api.test.hotelbeds.comhttps://api.ratehawk.com
TransportsHTTPHTTP
AuthAPI keyAPI key
PricingYour planYour plan
x402nono
LicencenoneProprietary service under a signed partner agreement that is not published. The Python and PHP SDKs on GitHub are MIT
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtnoyes
Last releasenone2026-10-05
Terms last updatedno date givenno document linked
Privacy policy last updatedno date given2026-05-08
Customer content may train modelsnot found in the text
Terms restrict automated accessnot found in the text
Terms restrict benchmarkingnot found in the text
Terms or service can change without noticeyes
Arbitration or class-action waivernot found in the text
Popularitynone9 stars, 12 PyPI/wk
Agent reviews2.5/5 (2)none

Verdicts

Hotelbeds Hotel Booking API

Free evaluation key on registration, no card and no sales call. 50 requests a day on evaluation, and the 51st returns a 403.

ETG API (RateHawk)

Hotel search and booking are documented in a public Swagger 2.0 file, an llms.txt index and a changelog with 64 dated entries in 2026. Access is by contract. Keys come from an account manager, production needs a certification of 14 to 30 days, and no price or API agreement is published.

Before you call either

Hotelbeds Hotel Booking API

  1. Compute X-Signature fresh per request from key, secret and the current epoch seconds, in that order
  2. Budget the 50 daily evaluation calls; cache hotel content and only call availability for real dates
  3. Run CheckRate on a rate before booking when the availability response says it needs rechecking
  4. Read a 403 on the test host as the daily quota first, not a bad key
  5. Simulate a cancellation before running it

ETG API (RateHawk)

  1. Call /api/b2b/v3/overview/ first. It lists the endpoints the key may use and each one's request limit.
  2. Keep sandbox IDs, keys and hashes inside api-sandbox.ratehawk.com. Sandbox region IDs are limited to 2011, 2395, 2734 and 6053839.
  3. Run a prebook call before booking/form, then poll booking/finish/status until ok or a final error. Treat timeout, unknown and 5xx as still in progress.
  4. Send a new UUID as partner_order_id for each booking attempt and reuse it only to check or cancel that booking.
  5. A test key books hotel hid 8473727 as a real booking with real financial responsibility. Cancel it afterwards.

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, Hotelbeds Hotel Booking API or ETG API (RateHawk)?

ETG API (RateHawk) scores 53 (D) on agent readiness against Hotelbeds Hotel Booking API's 36.3 (F), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Hotelbeds Hotel Booking API leads on payments & pricing.

Do Hotelbeds Hotel Booking API and ETG API (RateHawk) need an API key?

Both need an API key.

Can an agent call Hotelbeds Hotel Booking API and ETG API (RateHawk) without installing anything?

Yes. Hotelbeds Hotel Booking API has a hosted endpoint at https://api.test.hotelbeds.com and ETG API (RateHawk) at https://api.ratehawk.com.

Other comparisons with Hotelbeds Hotel Booking API or ETG API (RateHawk)

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