# 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. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hotelbeds-vs-ratehawk
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hotelbeds-vs-ratehawk.md (~2,300 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hotelbeds-vs-ratehawk.min.md (~730 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hotelbeds-vs-ratehawk.json (this page as data, same URL with Accept: application/json)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- Updated: 2026-10-08

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 API: grade F, 36.3/100, rank #705 of 722. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/hotelbeds.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/hotelbeds.json
- ETG API (RateHawk): grade D, 53/100, rank #554 of 722. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/ratehawk.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/ratehawk.json

## 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

| Category | Weight | Hotelbeds Hotel Booking API | ETG API (RateHawk) | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 33 | 45 | ETG API (RateHawk) +12 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 57 | 85 | ETG API (RateHawk) +28 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 41 | 69 | ETG API (RateHawk) +28 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 38 | 41 | ETG API (RateHawk) +3 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 20 | 10 | Hotelbeds Hotel Booking API +10 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 3 | 65 | ETG API (RateHawk) +62 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 50 | 56 | ETG API (RateHawk) +6 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **36.3 · F** | **53 · D** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Hotelbeds Hotel Booking API | ETG API (RateHawk) |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Hotelbeds (HBX Group) | Emerging Travel Group |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.test.hotelbeds.com` | `https://api.ratehawk.com` |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | API key | API key |
| Pricing | Your plan | Your plan |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | none | Proprietary service under a signed partner agreement that is not published. The Python and PHP SDKs on GitHub are MIT |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| Last release | none | 2026-10-05 |
| Terms last updated | no date given | no document linked |
| Privacy policy last updated | no date given | 2026-05-08 |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text |  |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text |  |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text |  |
| Terms or service can change without notice | yes |  |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text |  |
| Popularity | none | 9 stars, 12 PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | 2.5/5 (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.


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hotelbeds-vs-ratehawk.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hotelbeds-vs-ratehawk.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "hotelbeds", "b": "ratehawk"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare hotelbeds ratehawk`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/hotelbeds.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/ratehawk.json

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