Who it is for
Booking platforms and travel tech that tour operators already use to sell and to look after their guests.
Booking engines
Where tour operators take bookings online, on the phone and at the desk.
Channel managers
Tools that pass products, availability and bookings between operators and sales channels.
Payment and messaging tools
Tools that touch the booking before or after the tour: payments, messages, guest information.
What is the OCTO API
OCTO (Open Connectivity for Tours, Activities and Attractions) is an open API standard for the tours and activities industry. It describes products, availability and bookings in one common format, so two systems that speak it can work together without a custom build for every pair.
An OCTO API is the set of endpoints a booking platform offers in that format: the products and their options, availability, and the bookings that are made, changed and cancelled. Webhooks tell a connected system the moment a booking changes.
Automate Travel is a Technology Member of OCTO. For your platform this means one connection instead of a separate build for every operator: we read products and bookings through your OCTO API, and every change reaches the operator's day on our side.
Your platform does not support OCTO yet? Tell us about your own API on the call and we look at the connection together.
What we do together
The same four steps for every platform. Scroll down: the picture shows the step you are reading about.
Show us your platform
On a 30-minute call you show us your platform, your API and the tour operators who sell through you.
Share a test environment
You give us an API endpoint and a key for a test environment. Nothing touches live operators at this stage.
We connect and test every change
We register the webhook, import products and bookings, and check that new, changed and cancelled bookings land live in the right day.
First shared operator
We switch it on for one operator you both work with. When it runs well, every operator on your platform can ask for it.
What you get
- Your operators get the day after the booking run for them: day plan, guides, guest messages
- One connection instead of a separate build for every operator
- We build and test the connection with you on a test environment
- A joint announcement when the first shared operator goes live
Tell us about your business
Like a demo, the other way round: you talk first, we listen. Thirty minutes on Google Meet, in English.
Selected: Booking platform or travel tech (integration)
Questions booking platforms ask
OCTO and the connection
What is the OCTO API?
An open API standard for booking systems in tours, activities and attractions, looked after by OCTO (Open Connectivity for Tours, Activities and Attractions). It describes products, availability and bookings in one format.
How does a booking platform connect to Automate Travel?
You share an API endpoint and key for a test environment. We register the webhook on our side, import products and bookings, and test that new, changed and cancelled bookings arrive live.
Our platform does not support OCTO. Can we still connect?
Yes. Tell us about your API on the call and we look at the connection together.
Operators
What do operators get from the connection?
Every booking from your platform lands in their day in Automate Travel: the day plan, guide scheduling, guest messages and settlements. Nobody retypes bookings.
Do operators stop selling through our platform?
No. Automate Travel runs the work after the booking. Your platform keeps selling, and we do not replace it.
Is Automate Travel a member of OCTO?
Yes. Automate Travel is a Technology Member of OCTO.
Other ways to partner
Not quite you? See the other kinds of partnership, or all of them on one page.
Thirty minutes is enough to see if we fit.
Book the call and show us your platform.
Book a call as a platform