What Is the Expedia API (Expedia QuickConnect)?
The Expedia API, in its supply-side form, is the set of lodging APIs connectivity providers use to send a property's availability, rates and restrictions to Expedia Group and receive its reservations. In 2007 Expedia opened it to independent hotels and small to medium-size chains as Expedia QuickConnect, linking their property management and central reservation systems to Expedia (Lodging APIs Overview (Expedia Group Connectivity Portal)) (Expedia Adds Direct Connections with Hotels in More Than 35 Countries in First Year Since Launching Expedia QuickConnect Solution (Expedia, Inc., June 2008)).
Last updated: November 2026
How the Expedia API works
Every connectivity provider must adopt three core lodging APIs, which are designed to work together (Lodging APIs Overview (Expedia Group Connectivity Portal)). The Availability and Rates API sends availability, rate and restriction updates to Expedia. The Reservation Management API delivers notifications of reservation events and lets the provider retrieve and update reservations. The Product API reads, creates and edits room types and rate plans without the property using Partner Central or contacting a market manager (Lodging APIs Overview (Expedia Group Connectivity Portal)).
Availability and rate updates reach all Expedia points of sale, and they can carry closed-to-arrival and closed-to-departure dates and minimum and maximum lengths of stay. Room counts per room type can be set up to two years in advance. Rates can go in as sell rates, the gross rate the guest pays, or as net rates, which are the sell rate excluding compensation (Intro to the Availability and Rates API (Expedia Group Connectivity Portal)).
The Availability and Rates API cannot be implemented alone, so a provider pairs it with a booking API. Expedia also warns that an integration launched without its project and certification process may perform poorly or fail (Intro to the Availability and Rates API (Expedia Group Connectivity Portal)).
Around the core three, Expedia offers Messaging, Reviews, Deposit and Image APIs to help list, onboard and market properties across its brands. Its documentation now lists Booking Retrieval, Booking Confirmation and the Property API as legacy APIs (Lodging APIs Overview (Expedia Group Connectivity Portal)).
Why the Expedia API matters for hotel distribution
The API replaced manual work. At its 2007 launch, Expedia QuickConnect let hotel partners automate the exchange of room availability, rate and booking information with Expedia sites, and it removed the need to key in bookings that arrived by fax (Expedia targets independent hotels (Breaking Travel News, June 2007)). It was built to be lighter than standard web services architecture and was open to all qualified Expedia Special Rate hotel partners, with searchable specifications and sample XML code (Expedia targets independent hotels (Breaking Travel News, June 2007)).
Adoption was international from the start. One year after launch, nearly 1,000 hotel partners in more than 35 countries were live through just under 50 reservation systems, and over 90 percent of those hotels were outside the US (Expedia Adds Direct Connections with Hotels in More Than 35 Countries in First Year Since Launching Expedia QuickConnect Solution (Expedia, Inc., June 2008)). Large hotel chains used a separate product, Expedia Connect, which supported more than 18,000 properties in 2008, and the same release described Expedia as the first online travel agency to offer an open API for hotels (Expedia Adds Direct Connections with Hotels in More Than 35 Countries in First Year Since Launching Expedia QuickConnect Solution (Expedia, Inc., June 2008)).
Today the connection usually runs through software the property already uses. Over 400 connectivity software providers integrate Expedia's lodging APIs (Hotels (Expedia Group partner site)). Through a property management system, channel manager or central reservation system, a hotel can manage rooms, rates, availability and reservations in one place without logging in to Expedia Partner Central (Hotel Connectivity Solutions (Expedia Group partner site)).
The providers carry obligations of their own. Each must accept the Expedia Group API License Agreement, keep its connection healthy and, when required, implement mandatory updates (Expedia Group's Connectivity Partner Program (Expedia Group developer site)). Expedia recognizes its top connectivity partners in two tiers, Elite and Preferred, and decides at its sole discretion which partners join or stay in the program (Expedia Group's Connectivity Partner Program (Expedia Group developer site)). For a property, the provider it picks decides how complete and how reliable its Expedia connection will be.
Expedia API compared with Rapid API and Partner Central
The same search often brings up Rapid API, a different Expedia product. Rapid API lets travel sellers offer their own customers more than 800,000 Expedia lodging properties, Rapid API (Expedia Group partner site) and Expedia reviews each application case by case (Rapid API: Join us (Expedia Group partner site)).
| Expedia lodging APIs (Expedia QuickConnect) | Rapid API | Expedia Partner Central | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Side of the market | Supply: properties send inventory to Expedia | Demand: travel sellers book Expedia inventory | Supply: the property's own login |
| Who connects | Connectivity providers (PMS, channel manager, CRS) | Agencies and other travel sellers | Property staff |
| What moves | Rates, availability, restrictions, room types and reservations | Shopping and booking requests | Manual rate, room and booking updates |
| Access | API License Agreement and certification | Application reviewed case by case | Property account |
Frequently asked questions
How do you use the Expedia API?
Is an OTA connectivity API free to use?
What does a property still manage outside its connectivity provider's rate updates?
Can a property change connectivity providers?
Related terms
See all termsWhere Jetstream fits
The Expedia API is one of several supply connections a property depends on to sell its rooms. Jetstream builds an AI channel manager that connects a property's systems to the channels where guests book and keeps rooms, rates and availability accurate on each one, managed from one place.