# ETG API (RateHawk) vs Skyscanner Travel APIs

> ETG API (RateHawk) scores 53 (D) on agent readiness against Skyscanner Travel APIs's 45.6 (E), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Skyscanner Travel APIs leads on security & auth and payments & pricing. Both do travel stays. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes…

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ratehawk-vs-skyscanner
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ratehawk-vs-skyscanner.md (~2,450 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ratehawk-vs-skyscanner.min.md (~630 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ratehawk-vs-skyscanner.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 Skyscanner Travel APIs's 45.6 (E), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Skyscanner Travel APIs leads on security & auth and payments & pricing. Both do travel stays.

- 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
- Skyscanner Travel APIs: grade E, 45.6/100, rank #655 of 722. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/skyscanner.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/skyscanner.json

## Which one, for what

### 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 35
- Schema & documentation, 85 against 56
- Agent ergonomics, 69 against 50
- Maintenance & community, 65 against 60

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

### Skyscanner Travel APIs (E)

Good for: An established travel site or app with a large audience that wants metasearch prices across flights, hotels and car hire and is content to send users to suppliers to book.

Ahead on:
- Security & auth, 48 against 41
- Payments & pricing, 25 against 10

Watch for: Keys are issued only after an application review and a commercial agreement, with a stated minimum of 100,000 monthly active users


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | ETG API (RateHawk) | Skyscanner Travel APIs | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 45 | 35 | ETG API (RateHawk) +10 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 85 | 56 | ETG API (RateHawk) +29 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 69 | 50 | ETG API (RateHawk) +19 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 41 | 48 | Skyscanner Travel APIs +7 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 10 | 25 | Skyscanner Travel APIs +15 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 65 | 60 | ETG API (RateHawk) +5 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 56 | 52 | ETG API (RateHawk) +4 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **53 · D** | **45.6 · E** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | ETG API (RateHawk) | Skyscanner Travel APIs |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Emerging Travel Group | Skyscanner Limited |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.ratehawk.com` | `https://partners.api.skyscanner.net` |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | API key | API key |
| Pricing | Your plan | Free |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary service under a signed partner agreement that is not published. The Python and PHP SDKs on GitHub are MIT | Proprietary service. The API terms are in the partner contract and are not public |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | no |
| Last release | 2026-10-05 | 2026-10-01 |
| Terms last updated | no document linked | no document linked |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-05-08 | no date given |
| Customer content may train models |  | yes |
| Terms restrict automated access |  |  |
| Terms restrict benchmarking |  |  |
| Terms or service can change without notice |  |  |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver |  |  |
| Popularity | 9 stars, 12 PyPI/wk | none |

## Verdicts

**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.

**Skyscanner Travel APIs.** Thirteen documented search APIs cover flights, hotels and car hire behind one `x-api-key` header, with default rate limits published per endpoint and no usage fee. Access needs an approved application, an audience above 100,000 monthly users and a commercial agreement, and the usage guidelines bar live-price calls made without a user action. Booking happens on supplier sites.

## Before you call either

### 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.

### Skyscanner Travel APIs

1. Send the key in the `x-api-key` header on every call to `https://partners.api.skyscanner.net`. CORS is not supported, so call from a server
2. Create a live search only when a user has given origin, destination and exact dates. Use the indicative price endpoints for open-ended questions
3. Poll `/search/poll/{sessionToken}` until `status` is `RESULT_STATUS_COMPLETE`, and replace earlier results only when `action` is `RESULT_ACTION_REPLACED`
4. Start a new session when a poll returns 400. Flight session tokens last about an hour and hotel sessions at most 15 minutes
5. Pass each `deepLink` to the traveller unchanged, since altered encoding breaks Impact tracking, and never put personal data in `subid2`

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, ETG API (RateHawk) or Skyscanner Travel APIs?

ETG API (RateHawk) scores 53 (D) on agent readiness against Skyscanner Travel APIs's 45.6 (E), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Skyscanner Travel APIs leads on security & auth and payments & pricing.

### Do ETG API (RateHawk) and Skyscanner Travel APIs need an API key?

Both need an API key.

### Can an agent call ETG API (RateHawk) and Skyscanner Travel APIs without installing anything?

Yes. ETG API (RateHawk) has a hosted endpoint at https://api.ratehawk.com and Skyscanner Travel APIs at https://partners.api.skyscanner.net.


## For agents

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

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