For us, the presence of an API is a fundamental aspect of system design, akin to essential components in a car. Since the inception of our cloud-native project in 2013, our API has facilitated data exchange and custom workflow creation for hundreds of applications, ranging from industry-standard hotel technology apps to bespoke solutions developed by our hotel partners.
Unlike previous generations of hotel technology, where connectivity was often a complex and costly nightmare, our API has always been publicly available, enhancing accessibility and integration ease. Full documentation and support are readily accessible on our developer's pages.
The hotel tech API evolution
Before the era of OpenAPI, connecting with the main PMS systems, especially those from the most renowned branches of the previous generation, was frequently a technological challenge, often impossible or subject to exorbitant fees.
The landscape has significantly changed as we approach the third decade of the 21st century, and now, most hotel tech vendors offer such APIs.
Let's explore what sets Clock's API apart from others in the market.
1. Full API philosophy
Many tech providers offer specialised endpoints for specific tasks, but at Clock, this approach might limit our partners' potential. Instead, we adopted a 'full API' strategy, granting unrestricted access to our service's functionalities, thus enabling limitless customisation and integration possibilities.
By not confining our partners to predefined endpoints, we allow for the creation of customised solutions that are not only tailored to specific operational needs but also to unique guest service standards and market demands.
2. Full API strategy
Our vision was to create an API that could support the exchange of basic data and automation of standard processes and be robust enough to accommodate any conceivable operational need.
This approach allows partners to develop bespoke applications, like custom Property Management Systems (PMS) overlays, including tailored booking workflows, script management, or invoicing screens.
Such capabilities are essential for partners in niche markets where standard workflows do not meet their needs.
3. Scalability and reliability
The scalable architecture hosted on Amazon Web Services (AWS) supports the scalability and reliability of Clock's API. This foundation ensures the highest service uptime and minimal response times, making it suitable for business-critical applications requiring high availability and performance.
Top integration support
At Clock, we recognise that seamless integration and robust support are crucial for our partners' success. As part of our commitment to providing top-tier integration support, we offer a comprehensive suite of resources and assistance to ensure your smooth and efficient integration journey.
1. Extensive documentation and guides
Our developer portal offers detailed API documentation and best practices guides. These resources cover many integration scenarios, including popular hotel tech applications like POS systems, channel managers, payment providers, fiscalisation services, and door lock systems, ensuring you have the information you need to build effective integrations.
2. Free sandbox accounts
We provide free sandbox accounts to facilitate the development and testing of integrations. These accounts allow you to experiment with the API in a risk-free environment, ensuring your integration works perfectly before going live.
3. Personalised support and consultation
We understand that sometimes you need personalised help. Our team is available to answer specific questions and provide guidance on data modelling or workflow planning. We offer in-depth consultation services for complex issues at a reasonable rate, including examining and fixing error notifications, which ensures quick resolution of any issues.
4. Validation and certification
We offer validation and certification services to ensure your integration meets our standards and operates smoothly within the Clock ecosystem. This process includes up to three sessions of free validation, after which you can request additional sessions if necessary.
5. Pilot customer requirement
We recommend identifying a pilot customer before starting the integration process for custom project integrations to ensure that the integration meets real-world needs and avoids the risk of obsolescence from system updates.
6. API fair use policy
Our API infrastructure, hosted on Amazon Web Services, is designed to handle high loads with minimal response times and is suitable for business-critical applications. We provide a generous allocation of complimentary CPU usage each month to maintain this. A minor fee is applied to ensure sustainability for usage that exceeds this allocation. This policy encourages efficient API use, benefiting all parties involved.
With these support measures in place, our goal is to help you create powerful, reliable integrations that enhance the functionality and efficiency of hotel operations, benefiting both our partners and mutual customers.
Case studies: Demonstrating API flexibility and power
1. Improving and automating online distribution
Leading brands such as RateTiger, STAAH, YieldPlanet, and Katanox have achieved full integration of their channel managers and direct booking APIs with our platform, allowing hotels to manage inventory and rates across multiple distribution channels seamlessly. These integrations ensure real-time updates and minimise the risk of overbookings.
2. Enhancing the guest experience
Top providers like Duve, Intelity, Bowo, QuickText, Bookboost, Runnr.AI, Loopon, HiJiffy and Digital Guest have integrated their guest journey solutions with Clock's API to facilitate efficient communication between guests and hotel staff and elevate the digital services they provide to their guests. These integrations support automated messaging, upsells and personalised guest interactions, improving overall guest satisfaction.
3. Optimising revenue management
Revenue management tools like Flyr (ex Pace), Atomize, RoomPriceGenie, Hotellistat and Beon (ex Beonprice) have utilised our API to provide dynamic pricing strategies, revenue management reporting, and optimise revenue for hotels. These integrations allow for automated rate adjustments based on real-time market data and demand forecasts.
4. Improving guest room services
Hospitality TV providers like Eurodesign and Digital-vision have integrated their solutions with Clock's API. These integrations allow hotels to offer interactive in-room entertainment and information services, enhancing the guest experience.
5. Automating housekeeping and maintenance
Operations management tools like RoomChecking, HKeeper, and BetterSpace use our API to streamline housekeeping and maintenance workflows. These integrations help hotels manage tasks efficiently and maintain high cleanliness and operational efficiency standards.
6. Enriching business intelligence
Business intelligence and benchmarking platforms like Lighthouse (ex OTA Insight), STR, Benchmarking Alliance, PMI (D2O), Operandi and Key Data Dashboard have integrated our API to provide comprehensive analytics and reporting solutions. These integrations enable hotels to gain valuable business insights and make data-driven decisions.
Customer success stories
A multi-service custom booking engine
Impera, a company specialising in digital and web solutions, was commissioned by Yasuragi, a leading Nordic wellness resort, to develop a custom booking engine.
This engine integrates hotel room reservations with spa, dining, and activity bookings, offering a seamless and holistic guest experience within a single booking flow.
Using Clock's API, Impera centralised the booking creation and holistic status management process, linking all bookings to the main reservation in Clock.
Additionally, Impera implemented Clock's payment drop-in for tokenisations and payments, eliminating the need for Yasuragi to obtain their own PCI compliance or use third-party tokenisation services, thereby reducing transaction costs:
"At Impera Devops AB, our partnership with Clock Software stands out for a few important reasons:
Customer-First-Focus: Clock truly listens to what we and the customer need, prioritising an open and practical dialogue. This approach is straightforward and effective, helping us work together more successfully.
Open API Access: Clock's open API facilitates the development of systems that precisely match our client's requirements. This flexibility is essential for delivering products that meet customer needs, free from typical restrictions.
Reliable Genuine Support: The support team at Clock is always ready to assist us. They approach problems with a helpful and straightforward attitude, which is crucial for solving issues quickly and preventing them from recurring. The ability to quickly connect with key technical staff is invaluable.
In our experience, working with Clock means having the support and tools we need to do our best for our clients. To us, that's great!"
Johan Plate
CEO Impera Devops AB
Custom-flow group booking engine
Four Sisters Inns, a premier boutique hotel group from the U.S., leveraged Clock's API to design custom booking engines that enhance brand identity and streamline the booking process for their 19 properties, from rate availability checks to secure payment processing.
They also use the payment check-out by Clock for their payments and tokenisations, thus avoiding the need to maintain their own PCI compliance.
Group-level custom data lake, dashboards and reporting
Operandi, a business intelligence specialist, was commissioned by HappyCulture by Honotel, a French hotel group with more than 40 properties, to leverage Clock's API in developing a custom data lake.
This group-wide business intelligence tool enables efficient data extraction and analysis, facilitating insightful decision-making and optimised information use across the entire hotel group.
"Clock’s API provides comprehensive, rich, detailed, and valuable real-time data with the desired granularity, enabling full strategic and tactical analysis and decision-making. The API returns all reservation details, including demographic information and booking patterns across various sources, channels, and segments. We at Operandi leverage this data to deliver dynamic, detailed reports and dashboards that visualise historical and future data trends. This helps in on-demand forecasting and optimising pricing strategies, ultimately enhancing hotels’ operational efficiency and profitability."
Hatem Gasmi
President, Opearndi (Exante Analytics SAS)
Summary
Clock's API not only meets the basic requirements of data exchange and process automation but also empowers our partners to innovate and tailor their operations extensively.
Providing a robust, flexible API enables our partners to craft unique solutions that address their unique needs and challenges, enhancing guest experiences and operational efficiencies.
