Why hotel groups need a PMS with an open API

The PMS is the source of truth, or it is a silo

In a single hotel, the PMS mostly talks to people. In a group, it has to talk to other systems: the accounting package at head office, a BI dashboard, the CRM, door locks, the channel manager. If the only way out is a manual CSV export, someone spends hours every week moving data, and the numbers are always a day old.

What an open API should offer

• ●Read access to reservations, guests, rooms, folios and rates.
• ●Write access where it makes sense: creating bookings, posting charges.
• ●Webhooks: the PMS calls your system when something happens, a new booking, a check-in, a cancellation, instead of you asking every five minutes.
• ●Keys per property or per integration, revocable one at a time.
• ●Public documentation you can read before signing.

Questions to ask a vendor

1. Is the API included in the price, or an enterprise add-on?
2. Can I see the documentation today, without a sales call?
3. Are there webhooks, or only polling?
4. What are the rate limits?
5. If I leave, can I export everything, including history and invoices?

A vendor that cannot answer the last question clearly is telling you something about how hard leaving will be.

What groups typically build

• ●Nightly export of revenue per property to the accounting system.
• ●A live dashboard that combines PMS data with budget and payroll.
• ●Pre-arrival messages triggered by a booking webhook.
• ●Keycards issued at check-in from the booking itself.

In FrontDesk

FrontDesk has a public REST API and webhooks included in every plan, with keys managed per account. The documentation is open at API docs. For consolidated numbers without building anything, see multi-property reporting.