Hotel Review API: Tripadvisor, Booking.com and Google Reviews

To get Tripadvisor, Booking.com and Google reviews into hotel software, you either connect to each site's own partner API one by one, or use a review API that combines them in one format. Tripadvisor, Booking.com, Expedia and Google each publish their own review APIs, with their own access rules, credentials and rating scales. A combined review API trades those separate integrations for one.

This guide covers what each site's official developer docs say about reviews, what building it yourself involves for a platform with many properties, and how to plan the integration.

Option 1: Connect to each site's own API

The big travel sites each have a partner program with a reviews API. They are built for different partners and work in different ways, so it helps to look at them one at a time.

Tripadvisor: the Terra platform

Tripadvisor's older Content API now shows a notice on its documentation page: "This API is deprecated." It asks developers to migrate to Terra, Tripadvisor's newer API platform. What Terra's docs say about reviews:

• What you get: the Location Reviews endpoint returns a page of traveler reviews for one location: title, body, overall rating and sub-ratings, trip type, travel date, reviewer profile, photos and any owner response.
• How many reviews: the same page says Terra "does not search all reviews for a Location." Each request draws from a pool set by your contract: either the most recent reviews up to a set number, or every review published in a set number of months.
• Packages and limits: Terra's access and rate limits page lists packages (Discover, Growth, Scale, Innovate), each with its own requests per second and daily quota. Your package decides which endpoints your key can call. The daily quota runs on a rolling 24-hour window.
• Owner replies: Terra documents a Submit Owner Response endpoint. It needs the listing owner's OAuth token, and Tripadvisor moderates the response before publishing it beneath the review.
• Storage and display: Terra's caching policy says that, except as your contract allows, caching or storing content is not permitted, apart from the Location ID. Its review implementation policy says review text must load through an external JavaScript call that is blocked in robots.txt, not sit in the page source.
• Pricing: the self-service Discover package is usage-based. See Tripadvisor's usage-based pricing page for current rates.

Booking.com: the Guest Review API

Booking.com's Guest Review API is part of its Connectivity APIs. The docs say you can use it to "retrieve a property's reviews, render them in your interface, and let the property reply." Key points from the docs:

• The API "is for internal use by properties," and reviews retrieved through it "may not be used on your public page."
• Your machine account needs permission to access the Review API.
• Access goes through Booking.com's connectivity partner program. Its partner page currently says it is "pausing integrations with new connectivity providers until further notice."
• The retrieve reviews page says a request returns ten reviews by default, with a limit parameter and a next_page link for more. Sample reviews include an overall score plus category scores such as clean, location, staff and value.
• On the reply page, Booking.com says a reply "will not instantly appear" because it goes through internal moderation, and you can't reply to reviews that have a score but no written comment.
• Before going live, the go-live requirements list a self-assessment exercise and PII compliance for the Guest Review API.

Expedia and Hotels.com: the Lodging Supply GraphQL API

Expedia Group's reviews capability is part of its Lodging Supply GraphQL API, which is for connectivity providers. It lets lodging partners retrieve approved reviews, get aggregated ratings by review category and respond to reviews. From the docs:

• Webhooks report when a traveler leaves a review, when a review is approved, and when a partner response is approved or rejected.
• Only approved reviews can be retrieved. Reviews may be pending for up to 14 days, and travelers have 180 days after their stay to write one.
• Up to 100 reviews come back per page. The API has a 50 transactions-per-second limit per connectivity partner, plus operation-based limits.
• A review can have one pending or approved response at a time. Responses must not include contact details or encourage travelers to book direct.
• Vrbo and Expedia reviews can't be retrieved in one call. Vrbo reviews need Vrbo credentials and a Vrbo property ID.
• Certification requires showing your software can query reviews by ID, respond to reviews and tell answered reviews from unanswered ones.

Google: Business Profile and Places APIs

Google has two routes. The Business Profile APIs return every review and let you reply, but only for locations you have access to, and only after Google approves your project. The Places API works for any public place but returns a maximum of 5 reviews, with display and storage rules. We cover both in detail in our guide to adding Google reviews with an API.

Option 2: Use a review API that combines the sites

A third-party review API connects to many review sites and gives your product one feed. Instead of one partner program, credential type and data model per site, you build against one API. Providers differ in which sites they cover, how fresh the data is and whether they can post replies, so ask each one. Our explainer on what a review API is covers the basics, and what a review management API costs covers pricing models.

What building it yourself involves

A hotel platform with hundreds or thousands of properties runs into the same problems whichever route it takes. Plan for them up front.

1. Mapping each property to each site

Each property in your system has a different ID on every site: a Tripadvisor location ID, a Booking.com property ID, an Expedia ID, a separate Vrbo property ID, a Google location or place ID. Keep your own property ID as the main key and store each site's ID against it. Chains and groups make this harder, with similar names and duplicate listings.

2. Credentials per channel

Each site has its own access model: a Terra API key plus the owner's OAuth token for replies, a Booking.com machine account, Expedia Group OAuth tokens, Google OAuth or manager access. Track which properties are connected on which site, and handle expired or revoked access.

3. Ratings on different scales

Sites don't score the same way. Google's review reference uses a star rating out of five. Expedia's docs say ratings on Expedia sites are displayed on a 10-point scale, travelers submit on a 5-point scale through that integration, and Hotels.com ratings are collected on a 10-point scale. Store each rating with its site and scale before you average across sites, or your overall score will be wrong.

4. Freshness and pending reviews

Use webhooks where a site offers them and a scheduled sync as a backstop. Expect delays you don't control: Expedia's pending period, moderation of replies on Booking.com, Tripadvisor and Expedia, and daily quotas.

5. Replies and moderation

Replies are moderated on several sites, so a reply your user sends is not live straight away. Show the status in your product, and surface rejected replies instead of letting them fail quietly. Each site has its own rules on what a reply can say.

6. Terms on use and storage

Read each site's terms before you design your data model. Some limit where reviews can appear, how long you can store them and how they must be displayed. Our checklist before you build review integrations covers more questions to ask.

For platforms: hotel reviews through one API

Shout About Us is the review management API for marketplaces and platforms. The Review Data API gives your product reviews and ratings from Google, Yelp, Facebook and 80+ sites in one format. Our supported review sites page lists Tripadvisor, Booking.com, Expedia, Hotels.com, Airbnb and Vrbo, along with other travel sites. Here's how it maps to the problems above, based on our API docs and product pages:

• Per-property mapping: you create accounts and locations through the API and can pass your own IDs, which most endpoints accept in place of ours. A location gets reviews for a site once that site's URL is set. A spreadsheet import creates up to 100,000 accounts and locations in one upload.
• Many travel sites, one format: every review arrives with the same fields: reviewer, site, date, rating, review text and owner response, plus the location it belongs to. The site comes with every rating, so your product can apply each site's own scale before it averages across sites.
• Freshness and webhooks: how often reviews are collected is set by your plan, from real time to once per month. Webhooks report new, updated and deleted reviews immediately or in batches every 1 to 12 hours, and an updated_since filter supports incremental sync.
• Replies: the Review Response API posts replies, including AI drafts, to supported sites. For Tripadvisor, Booking.com and Expedia, replies post once the business owner connects the account through the connection page. Each review shows whether posting is available for it.
• Removal requests: the Review Removal API requests removal of reviews that break a site's own policies and tracks each request. The site makes the final decision.

One limit to know: our docs say that what a site doesn't show publicly can't be collected. The same API also covers Review Insights (AI reports on themes, praise and complaints) and Review Solicitation (email and SMS review requests). Pricing is $0.50 to $3.00 per location per month plus usage.

For site-specific details, see our pages for the Tripadvisor, Booking.com, Expedia, Hotels.com and Google reviews APIs, or browse all review site APIs.

FAQ

Is there one official API for all hotel reviews?

No. Tripadvisor, Booking.com, Expedia Group and Google each run their own reviews API with separate access, credentials and rules. A third-party review API is the way to get them through one integration.

Can hotel software reply to Booking.com and Expedia reviews by API?

Yes, for connected properties. Booking.com's Guest Review API and Expedia Group's Lodging Supply GraphQL API both let partners reply, and both moderate replies before they appear.

Is the Tripadvisor Content API still available?

Its documentation page says it is deprecated and no longer being updated, and points developers to Tripadvisor's Terra platform.

Can I show Booking.com reviews on my public website through its API?

Booking.com's docs say reviews retrieved by the Guest Review API may not be used on your public page. The API is for properties' internal use.

Why do hotel ratings look different across sites?

Sites use different scales. Google uses stars out of five, while Expedia's docs say Expedia sites display ratings on a 10-point scale. Keep the source scale with each rating before comparing or averaging.

Get started

See how the Review Data API brings Tripadvisor, Booking.com, Expedia, Google and the rest of our 80+ supported sites into your hotel software. Request an API key to try it, or book a demo to talk through your integration.