OwnerRez offers an API for Apps that has traditional GET and POST endpoints for communicating with an OwnerRez account on-demand and in real time.
However, our API for Apps is limited to building apps and working within an existing user's account. It does not handle channel distribution. For that, we have a special API that allows you to become a first-class integrated "channel" (like Vrbo, Booking.com, Airbnb, etc) and promotes you equally with those guys inside of OwnerRez.
To be clear, this API should be used if you are a channel, OTA or listing site and want OwnerRez users to be able to see your "channel" within their account and quickly be able to connect to it.
This API is predominantly based on a feeds structure and is comprised of these parts:
- Pulling XML feeds on a regular basis throughout the day (listing content, (photos, etc) and rates, rules, and availability) to keep your channel up to date
- Doing a "fast availability" check against our live quote and rates API when your website visitors are trying to book or get a quote (this ensures there is no lag time between changes)
- Pushing bookings across with credit card info via our OLB (online booking) endpoint, which accepts live card data and then creates bookings on our side. This requires documented PCI compliance for credit card information handling. Alternatively, you can use our quote redirect process to send the guest to OwnerRez with a quote to book, which allows them to enter their credit card information into OwnerRez, which is already PCI certified.
- Checking our BUS service (booking update service) to see if a booking was canceled or get status information from our side after the fact
For monetization using the Channel Integration API, you have a couple of choices:
- Bill the guest's credit card for a service fee prior to sending the booking over to us (which is what Vrbo does)
- Don't bill any fees inline, but keep track of bookings that are sent across and then bill the homeowner/PM for the number of bookings they have per month (like Booking.com or HomeToGo does)
- Create an annual subscription fee, where the number of bookings is irrelevant.
Ready to go? Follow our Setup & Configuration article, which covers the steps from getting started through testing.