RateHawk White Label: Sell RateHawk on Your Own Site

RateHawk white label can mean three different things: RateHawk's own co-branded hotel product, your own website built on its API, or a ready-made platform connected to your RateHawk account. If you want to set your own price and take the customer's payment yourself, you are looking at net rates through the B2B API, built directly or through a platform.

The term causes confusion because vendors use it loosely. This guide separates the routes, says what each one requires, and tells you which questions to ask before you pay anyone.

What RateHawk offers

RateHawk is the B2B travel platform of Emerging Travel Group. At the time of writing it lists 3.3M+ accommodation options from 330+ suppliers across 220 countries and territories. Agents can join through a one-step registration that RateHawk says has no fees, and can work on a net model, where you pay the net price and manage your client's payment, or a gross model, where you earn a commission. Our RateHawk guide for agencies covers registration and login. This article is about getting those hotels in front of your customers under your own name.

The routes compared

Route	What your customer sees	How you earn	Who builds it	Suits
Agent portal only	Whatever you send them: a message or a selection link	Your markup on net, or commission on gross	Nobody; you use RateHawk's site	Agencies selling by phone and WhatsApp
Affiliate links and widget	A search form on your site or links to RateHawk pages	Commission on each stayed booking	You paste it in	Content sites and blogs
RateHawk's co-branded product	A RateHawk-run hotel product with your logo, banner text, search form text and background	Commission on each stayed booking	RateHawk	Sites with traffic and no wish to run bookings
Affiliate API	Your own product, on gross prices with commission included	Commission	You	Tech teams happy to earn commission
B2B API, built yourself	Your own site, your checkout	Your markup on net	You	Agencies with developers
B2B API, through a platform	A platform's site in your brand	Your markup on net, as the platform allows	The platform	Agencies with no developers

RateHawk's own white label

RateHawk's page for travel-related websites describes a full hotel product customised to your brand style, with development and servicing handled by RateHawk. Joining is free, and RateHawk says it covers the processing fee. You receive a commission per stayed booking. The page doesn't give a commission rate or say who is the merchant of record, so ask both before you sign up.

The appeal is that nearly all the work sits with RateHawk. The trade-off is control. You earn what the programme pays instead of setting your own margin, and the customisable items listed are branding items. You can't, on the evidence of that page, build your own checkout or mix in your other suppliers.

API access versus reselling

Reselling from the portal and connecting the API use the same inventory but give you very different businesses.

When you resell from the portal, a person searches, quotes and books. There is nothing to certify, and you can start the day your account is active. Your sales stop when your staff stop.

With the API, your website searches and books by itself, and ETG's integration requirements describe the pricing models clearly. B2B uses net prices and you calculate your own markup. Affiliate uses gross prices with commission included. The documentation also mentions a "fake gross" B2B model, which displays gross and pays net. You'll want to agree which model applies before anything is built, because it changes how your checkout and your accounts work.

What you need for the B2B API route

Commercial

• A signed agreement. ETG's documentation says the relevant agreement must be signed before you use the API. A 2022 RateHawk post said API access is free of charge, so confirm the current position with your manager.
• A way to pay RateHawk. If your website collects from the guest and you pay RateHawk the net amount, you will usually fund a prepaid deposit balance. The terms belong to your contract.
• Your own payment gateway. The guest pays you, so you carry card fees, refunds and disputes. See your margin against those costs using our travel agency markup guide.

Certification

ETG's certification page says the process usually takes about 14 to 30 days and that each product is certified independently. You run mandatory test bookings against named test hotels, including multi-room, child age, and price increase cases. You then give ETG access to your site or a video of the whole flow, plus a completed checklist. Production keys come after a final formal step.

Technical

Your developer or platform needs to meet requirements such as these:

• Hotel content is synced offline, ideally daily, and isn't requested during a live customer search.
• The guest's passport country is sent as residency, because prices can vary by it.
• Multi-tier cancellation penalties are parsed and shown correctly.
• Taxes the supplier doesn't include in the price are excluded from the final price and shown separately.
• Price changes at prebook are shown to the guest.
• An order shows as confirmed only after a final status, and unknown or timeout errors are retried instead of being treated as failures.
• Stated limits are respected: up to 30 nights, 6 adults and 4 children per room, and up to 9 rooms at one rate.

A 2022 RateHawk post talks about integration in a few hours, which is an optimistic reading of the whole job. The first API call is quick. Passing certification and handling the failure cases is the slow part.

Questions to ask any platform or developer

RateHawk's API page says 100+ platforms can connect to it, and vendors of white-label portals often sell one-off builds. The same questions apply to all of them:

1. Is the RateHawk contract in my name, and do the API credentials belong to me?
2. Do I need my own ETG certification, or does yours carry over? Get RateHawk to confirm the answer.
3. Can I add a markup, and on which payment model?
4. What happens to the guest's money if the booking fails after payment?
5. Who updates the integration when ETG changes its API?
6. Can I leave with my customer and booking data?

How this works on Travora Hub

We make Travora Hub, a white-label travel platform, so keep that in mind here. Travora Hub is independent and not affiliated with RateHawk or any other supplier. Your RateHawk contract stays between you and RateHawk under its terms.

You enter the API ID and key your RateHawk account manager sends you, along with your operations contact details. A sandbox switch is there for testing with sandbox credentials. One detail often surprises people: a RateHawk markup only exists with the B2B Deposit Method. With that on, the guest pays your website in full and the booking is paid from your prepaid RateHawk deposit, and you set your commission as a percentage. With it off, customers pay RateHawk's own price and you have no markup field. So if you plan to earn a margin on RateHawk through us, budget for a funded deposit.

We have run ETG's sandbox test scenarios on our integration, but ETG certifies each product independently, so ask your RateHawk manager what your account needs before you set a launch date. RateHawk then sits alongside any other hotel suppliers on your plan.

Which route to choose

• You sell by WhatsApp and phone, and that is working: stay on the agent portal. A website adds cost you may not need yet.
• You run a travel blog or destination site with traffic: use RateHawk's co-branded product or widget. It's the least work, and you hold no payment risk that we can see, though you should confirm this.
• You have developers and want a product nobody else has: build on the API directly. A platform will restrict your design and flows.
• You want your own prices and checkout with no developers: use a platform, and fund a deposit.
• You also need other suppliers: compare options in our guide to the main hotel suppliers first, because a single-supplier build may not last.

Frequently asked questions

Does RateHawk offer a white label?

Yes. It offers a co-branded hotel product for affiliates, customised with your logo, banner, search form text and background, with development and servicing handled by RateHawk. Third-party platforms also sell white-label sites built on its API.

Can I set my own markup on RateHawk rates?

On a B2B net model, yes: ETG's documentation says you calculate your own markup. On the affiliate model, prices are gross and you receive a commission.

How long does RateHawk API certification take?

ETG says about 14 to 30 days, depending on the state of your integration and the number of review rounds.

What is the difference between ETG API and RateHawk API?

The documentation is published by Emerging Travel Group, RateHawk's parent company, and RateHawk's API page describes access to the same inventory. Your account manager can confirm which keys apply to you.

Is RateHawk free for agencies?

RateHawk's page for agents says there are no fees to join. You pay for the bookings you make, and any deposit, API or commercial terms depend on your agreement.

If you hold a RateHawk account or are about to apply, you can apply for a Travora Hub site and tell us which payment model your contract uses.