HSP Flows: Step by Step Implementation Guide
Overview
This guide is intended to provide a comprehensive overview of the Hotel Sales Platform components, detailing the process for implementing the different API flows and facilitating integration among various components.
Components covered in this guide:
- HSP APIs Flows Implementation: Guidelines for selecting the desired API flow with comparisons, along with the Implementation Guide.
- Configurations and Settings: Guidelines for configuring and setting up different users to utilize the HSPs API effectively, along with Configuration Matrix.
- Mapping.Works Lite: Guidelines for integrating static content with the different HSP APIs flows for enhanced functionality.
- Glogs (Session Viewer): Guidelines for how to view, save and analyze any activity made in a session, including requests/responses to and from HSP API, and also requests/responses to and from supplier APIs.
- Support: HSP Support during and after the implementation.
Step by Step Implementation Guide
Step 1: Hotel APIs - Comparison matrix
HSP supports a wide array of flows, each with its own implementation guide, set of requests, and configuration requirements.
Select the flow that best suits your needs to access the relevant guide:
| Hotels API | B2C (Wrapper) API | Async (One) API | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Description | A standard Hotels flow, offers a comprehensive hotel booking flow, allowing users to search for hotels, retrieve room details, cancellation policies, and complete bookings. | An advanced version of the Hotels API that includes additional features such as detailed hotel filtering options and pagination, enhancing the user experience by facilitating easier navigation through large volumes of hotel data. | A "one-stop solution" for package bookings that utilizes asynchronous technology to provide the latest pricing information for all packages available at a single hotel, reducing the need for multiple separate requests. |
| Pros | 1) Standard Flow Provides a full suite and set of features for hotel searching and booking. 2) Easy Implementation: Leveraging a user-friendly standard flow, the setup is straightforward and intuitive, ensuring a smooth integration process. 3) Asynchronous support: Supports also a Async flow. Ensures fast and manageable data-sets. | 1) Hotels Filtering: comprehensive filtering options to tailor the hotel search experience. (* See note). 2) Pagination: Manage and navigate through large datasets effectively. 3) Hotel content - already been integrated and can be retrieved with a single request, without the need to store the data. 4) Enhanced User Experience: Designed with user experience in mind, ensuring a smooth and intuitive search process. 5) Asynchronous support: Supports also a Async flow. Ensures fast and manageable data-sets. | 1) Speed and Efficiency: Async API aims to be a “one stop solution” for booking a package, in any specific hotel. 2) Simplified Implementation: The request is made of a combination of some of our already existing requests, namely: (Search, GetPackages , CxlPolicy & PreBook). 3) Asynchronous: Ensures fast and manageable data-sets. |
| Cons | 1) Suppliers-Dependent response time: The response and speed of searches are contingent upon the responsiveness and efficiency of the supplier. 2. Hotel content - Integrating hotel static content involves a separate loading, storing and integrating with the Hotels API. | 1) Implementation: May require additional effort to integrate and utilize due to additional requests. 2) Supplier Support: Unlike other workflows, applying hotel filtering necessitates room information at the Search step. | 1) Single HotelID Search: Used for searches focused on individual properties, which may limit broader search capabilities. 2) Limited Scope: Best suited for package bookings within a single hotel. |
| Best For ? | Standard Booking flow. | User-Experience and B2C flows. | Fast response times. |
| Asynchronous Support | Available both in : (1) Standard Flow. (2) Async Flow. | Available both in : (1) Standard Flow. (2) Async Flow. | Available in Async Flow. |
After selecting the preferred workflow, please proceed to the Configuration & Settings section to begin setting up the user/s for the integration and/or testing with HSP's API.
Step 2: Configurations and Settings
Once the desired API Flow has been chosen - it is crucial to configure your users in a proper way.
This step is not just about enabling search or booking capabilities for hotels but also about fine-tuning user experience.
Through configurations available in the HSP System - you can adjust user permissions, manage timeouts, handle payments, and leverage both basic and advanced features to tailor the results to your preferences.
Configuring Users
Setting up users to conduct searches is essential for ensuring optimal user behavior. By comprehensively understanding the flow you plan to use, you can customize and configure a user experience specifically tailored to the desired functionality.
HSP offers a variety of API Flows, including the Hotels API, B2C (Wrapper) API, Async (One) API, among others. Each of these flows necessitates appropriate configuration before you can start making requests.
Please refer to the Configuration Matrix to identify the configurations that align with best practices.
User Permissions
Each user has it's own permission in the system, varying from which requests the user can initiate up-to what the user can see and perform in the system.
Every user in the system is assigned specific permissions, which dictate the range of requests they can initiate, as well as what they can view and actions they can perform within the system.
To provide a user with the minimal user permissions needed for conducting searches, making bookings, and viewing their own orders, please assign the following minimal permissions:
- Bookings
- Perform Search : Execute.
- Make bookings : Execute.
- Orders
- View : Execute.
You also have the option to extend permissions to allow a user to view orders placed by other users. Furthermore, admin users which can granted enhanced controls, enabling them to set markups, modify users settings, and much more.
For detailed information on User Permissions - Click here.
What's next ?
By this point in this Implementation Guide, you should have:
- Decided which workflow to follow & implement.
- You've configured a user as in the 'Configuration Matrix'.
- You've granted the user at least the 'minimal user permissions' (Search & Book).
What left to be done ?
All is left is to follow the Implementation Guide of your desired flow.
Step 3: Download the static files from - Mapping.Works Lite
Every HSP client will receive credentials to access the Mapping.Works Lite tool, enabling them to download static hotel data, including: Hotel Mapping file, Images, Amenities, and Descriptions.
This data can be utilized within the various flows to enhance and enrich content easily by matching the HotelIDs returned in the API responses to fetch the correct data.
For more information about how to use Mapping.Works Lite - Click here.
For Mapping demo files (Hotel Mapping file, Images, Amenities & Descriptions) - Click here.
Step 4: Glogs - Session Viewer tool
At HSP, our commitment to technical transparency and empowering our clients is paramount. In alignment with these principles, we are providing each HSP client with a session viewer tool.
This innovative tool offers the capability to view and analyze:
- API Requests and Responses between you and HSP.
- API Requests and Responses between you and your connected suppliers.
- Detailed insights into errors that occurred within the session.
- The ability to view, analyze, and download any request or response from the session.
This tool is designed to not only offer insights and analysis of your sessions but also to assist in identifying errors , evaluating response times, and much more, enhancing your operational efficiency and understanding of the system.
For more information about Glogs (Session Viewer tool) - Click here.
NOTE:
Up-to this section, you should know:
- Which API flow to implement, along with the corresponding Implementation Guide and postman API examples.
- Configuration of the user which will serve as Test user and/or Live user.
- How to integrate the static data (Mapping.Works Lite) into the HSP API flow.
- How to analyze and view session data, such as requests, responses and other files.
Support
Our support team is committed to providing support for swift and effective integration, as well as ongoing assistance post-integration.
Should you need help, have questions, or seek clarification either during or after the integration process, you have two options for support:
- Search in our Documentation for the information you need. (Recommended)
- Submit a ticket to our dedicated support team.
Updated 4 months ago