WebBeds vs Hotelbeds: Which Is Better for Travel Agencies?

Neither WebBeds nor Hotelbeds is better for every agency. Open WebBeds first if most of your sales are in the Middle East or you want a commercial team to shape your account. Open Hotelbeds first if you want a public developer portal with a documented route from a free test key to live bookings.

Agencies with enough volume often hold both, because the price on a given hotel and date can differ. This guide compares what each company states publicly, what getting access involves, and how to test the two against your own bestselling hotels before you commit.

WebBeds vs Hotelbeds at a glance

The figures below are each company's own numbers, read on 1 November 2026. They are counted differently, so use them for a sense of scale and not as a like-for-like ranking.

	WebBeds	Hotelbeds
Parent company	WebBeds Group (ASX: WEB), formerly Web Travel Group	HBX Group, based in Palma, Spain, going by its press releases
Hotels stated	500k+ worldwide, of which 98k+ directly contracted	300,000 hotels worldwide
Other products	21k+ ground services, including transfers and activities	23,000 experiences and 9,000+ transfer routes
Trade buyers stated	50k+ travel buyers	About 60,000 travel distributors
Volume stated	9.9m+ bookings in FY26	100,000 bookings a day
Ways to buy	Trade-only booking site, API, or both	API Suite; online booking for retail agents through its sister brand Bedsonline
Route to API access	Commercial agreement, then technical approval	Free evaluation key, company profile, certification, then live
Test allowance	Given during technical onboarding	50 requests a day on the evaluation key
Rates and payment terms	Net or commissionable, set in your commercial agreement	Depend on your contract; the evaluation key has no specific pricing or commission rules

Who these companies are

The names confuse people, so it helps to untangle them first.

WebBeds launched in Dubai in 2013 with a booking site called Lots of Hotels. It then grew through acquisitions: Sunhotels in 2014, JacTravel in 2017 and Destinations of the World (DOTW) in 2018. It added Umrah Holidays International in 2019 and unified its brands under WebBeds in 2020. If someone tells you they have a DOTW login, they are talking about this company, and the API it issues is still called DOTW Connect. JacTravel was sold to Tour Partner Group in 2024, so older articles that list it as a WebBeds strength are out of date. The consumer Webjet business was demerged the same year, so WebBeds and Webjet are now separate groups.

Hotelbeds sits inside HBX Group, the name adopted in 2023. HBX described Hotelbeds as serving hoteliers, tour operators, airlines and online travel agents, and Bedsonline as its brand for retail travel agents. A small high-street agency may therefore be pointed to Bedsonline for portal bookings, while an agency building a website will deal with the Hotelbeds API.

Inventory: why the headline numbers settle little

500,000 looks bigger than 300,000, but the two counts may not measure the same thing. WebBeds separates out its 98k+ directly contracted properties, and that is the number worth asking any supplier about, because direct contracts are where a wholesaler can hold rates of its own. Hotelbeds' developer portal gives a total without that split, so ask your Hotelbeds contact for the direct share in your destinations.

What matters to your agency is narrower than either total. A Makkah specialist does not care how many hotels a supplier has in Mexico. A simple test will tell you more than any brochure:

1. List the 30 hotels you sold most in the past year.
2. Pick three date patterns: next weekend, a normal week in two months, and your peak season.
3. Price each on both suppliers with the same guest nationality and room type.
4. Record the net rate, board basis, cancellation deadline and whether the hotel appeared at all.

The Hotelbeds evaluation key is too limited for this at 50 requests a day, so run the test through each supplier's booking interface once you have access, or ask your sales contact for sample rates on your list. Compare refundable rates with refundable rates. A cheap non-refundable rate looks like a win until a customer cancels.

Getting access

WebBeds

You apply through a travel buyer form that asks for your company, region, business type and whether you want the booking website, the API or both. A member of the partnerships team then contacts you. WebBeds says API access comes after a commercial agreement and technical approval, followed by documentation, credentials and integration guidance. Payment terms, currency and invoicing frequency are all defined in your agreement, so this is the conversation to have early.

Hotelbeds

The Hotelbeds developer portal is more open at the start. You register for a free API key, which gives you an evaluation environment and a generic key with no specific pricing or commission rules. You complete your company profile so that HBX can assess your commercial needs, pass certification, then go live. Certification reviews your technical set-up, your call workflow, your availability, CheckRate and confirmation handling, your voucher and your hotel content.

Neither company publishes a minimum volume or an approval time that we could find. Ask both questions before you spend money on an integration.

Technical differences that affect your website

If a developer or a platform handles the connection, you won't touch these details, but they shape how your checkout behaves.

• Hotelbeds rate checks. The documented flow is one availability request, a CheckRate when the chosen rate is marked RECHECK, then the booking. A good checkout runs that check before charging the customer and shows any price change.
• WebBeds settlement. How your account pays decides how the booking runs. A deposit or credit limit account, a corporate card account and an account where WebBeds charges the guest all behave differently. On a corporate card route, for example, a card that triggers 3D Secure can stop the booking.
• WebBeds server access. The live WebBeds gateway only answers from allowed IP addresses, so going live needs a short exchange with your WebBeds contact.

Which to choose

Start with WebBeds if

• Your sales lean towards the Middle East, or Makkah and Madinah. Its origins are in Dubai, and it added an Umrah brand in 2019. Still check your own hotel list, because history doesn't guarantee a rate.
• You want both a trade booking site for your staff and an API, under one commercial agreement.
• You would rather agree terms with a person first, and then do the technical work.

Start with Hotelbeds if

• You have a developer, or a platform that already connects to it, and you want to test before any commercial talks.
• You want published API documentation to read before you commit.
• Your retail staff would use Bedsonline for portal bookings while your website runs on the API.

Hold both if

• Your test shows each supplier winning on different hotels that you sell often.
• You can carry the paperwork and any funding each contract needs. Two accounts means two reconciliations.

Consider neither yet if

You are a new agency with little volume and only want a first account. RateHawk says joining its agent platform has no fees, and it offers several routes to selling RateHawk hotels under your own brand. Our comparison of RateHawk, Hotelbeds, WebBeds and TBO covers that choice.

Selling either one on your own website

We make Travora Hub, a booking platform for travel agencies, so weigh this section with that in mind. Travora Hub is independent and not affiliated with WebBeds, Hotelbeds or any other supplier. You connect your own account, under that supplier's terms.

The Hotelbeds integration uses your API key and secret, rechecks the rate before payment and emails a voucher. The WebBeds integration uses your DOTW Connect login and supports all three settlement modes, though you only add a markup on the two where the guest pays you. Both cover hotels only, so WebBeds and Hotelbeds transfers and activities are not connected. If you run both suppliers, each one's rate is shown separately, and the same hotel can appear twice instead of being merged. Basic includes one hotel supplier at $40 a month, Professional includes two at $120 a month, and On Demand adds one combined search across every supplier.

Frequently asked questions

Is WebBeds a good platform for travel agents?

It can be, especially for agents selling the Middle East, and it offers a trade-only booking site as well as an API. Whether it suits you depends on your rates in your own destinations and the payment terms you can agree, so test both before you commit.

Is DOTW the same as WebBeds?

DOTW, or Destinations of the World, was bought by WebBeds in 2018. The brands were unified under WebBeds in 2020, and the API name DOTW Connect is still in use.

Is Hotelbeds the same as Bedsonline?

They are sister brands in HBX Group. HBX describes Bedsonline as serving the retail travel sector, while Hotelbeds serves hoteliers, tour operators, airlines and online travel agents.

Do WebBeds and Hotelbeds give net rates?

WebBeds says its rates can be net or commissionable depending on your commercial agreement. Hotelbeds' live pricing and commission rules come with your contract and aren't part of the evaluation key. Get the model in writing from either one.

Can a small agency get an account?

Neither company publishes a minimum that we could find. Both ask about your business during onboarding, so apply with your registration details and a realistic estimate of your volume.

Which has more hotels?

WebBeds states 500k+ and Hotelbeds states 300,000 at the time of writing. Their counting methods may differ, so compare coverage on the hotels you actually sell.

If you already hold either account, or are applying for one, you can try a live booking site in the demo and see how supplier rates, your markup and the checkout work together.