What is Open API?
To learn about open API, you have to first understand what is an API.
The full form of API is the ‘Application Programming Interface’. It is basically a software intermediary that lets two applications connect for a specified task. You can also say that it is a middleman that helps two applications communicate and function in sync.
How Do APIs Work for Hotels?
Let’s understand this with an example.
Mr. Smith has recently bought a property management system for his hotel. Impressed by the capabilities of the system, he has also done a hotel booking engine integration. Every time the hotel acquires a reservation through the booking engine, they don’t have to update it on the system. It happens automatically and has become possible because of the hotel booking API that is used to integrate the booking engine with the PMS.
APIs provide a means of connecting different systems to help promote a more streamlined business operation. As hotels increasingly continue to incorporate and rely on technology, the use of APIs becomes more diverse and important. APIs can connect many different aspects of a hotel’s technology. By allowing businesses to have the best of each aspect of their desired technologies, hotels are not losing the ability for these to be interconnected.
With several different types of technology, the teams are using it is of the utmost importance that these systems communicate. This is where the benefit of APIs comes in for hoteliers. Hotel API integrations offer an opportunity for all of this information to connect across systems.
Advantages of an Open API?
So why an Open API? What are they and why are they special? When an API is open, it means that the externally-facing part of the application is more or less public. It is designed in a standard manner that allows for easy integration with other programs. In such a complex environment, all these systems need to have a clear and seamless API layer so that the communication and synchronization between them happens efficiently. The better and “cleaner” this API layer is, the less time and money is needed to connect systems and maintain them.
An API that is well-designed and properly integrated with your other systems will help you provide better experiences for your guests and will make your team’s jobs easier. A system with a great API can even be leveraged for building your own reports or entire applications on top of it. The final, and most crucial advantage, administratively speaking, is you can change hardware or software as needed, because your old data is easily accessible. In other words, as you grow, the API can grow with you.
Numerah is built with internal APIs and provides flawless synchronization between products to make sure your hotel operations are running smoothly. Try it out for free!