Question 1

When I connect a flight API to my portal, can I mark certain airlines as unavailable so my customers do not see them in search results?

Accepted Answer

Yes, you can control which airlines appear in your search results, but how you do it depends on your plan and the settings available in your portal. Most portals let you hide specific airlines or airline groups so your customers only see the ones you want to offer. This is useful if you have preferred partnerships, if you want to avoid airlines with poor reviews, or if you simply want to keep the search results cleaner and easier for your customers to browse. The way this works varies. Some portals give you a simple on-off switch for each airline, while others let you create rules based on airline type, price range, or other factors. You might also be able to set different rules for different customer groups if you have multiple teams or sub-agents booking through your portal. Since these features depend on which plan you are on and how your portal is configured, you should check with your account manager or in your portal settings to see exactly what options are available to you. Keep in mind that hiding airlines does not change what the flight API itself is searching for behind the scenes. The API will still fetch results from all airlines, but your portal will filter out the ones you have marked as unavailable before showing them to your customer. This means you are not losing any data or making the search slower, you are just controlling what your customers see. To set up your airline preferences, log into your portal admin area and look for the airline settings or search filter options, or ask your account manager to help you configure this the way you want it.

Question 2

Can I test a hotel API connection with real supplier data before I go live with my customers?

Accepted Answer

Yes, you can test the connection, but what you can test depends on how you set things up. Most APIs let you run test requests against real supplier systems before you point your live portal at them. This means you can check that prices come back, that you can search for hotels, that room details look right, and that the booking flow works the way you expect it to. The catch is that test requests and real bookings work differently. When you test, you are not actually reserving rooms or charging anyone. The suppliers will usually give you test data that looks like real availability and pricing, but it may not match what real customers will see when your portal goes live. Some suppliers also limit how many test requests you can make, or they refresh their test data on a schedule that does not match the real-time data your customers will search against. You should also know that even after you test successfully, there can be surprises when you connect real customer bookings. Suppliers sometimes change their systems, or a particular hotel or room type might behave differently than the test data suggested. The best approach is to test thoroughly in your sandbox environment, then start with a small group of trusted users or agents before you open it up to all your customers. Talk to the support team about what test environments are available for the suppliers you want to connect, and ask what test data they provide so you know exactly what you can and cannot verify before going live.

Question 3

Can I see which suppliers are actually responding to requests before I connect them to my portal?

Accepted Answer

Yes, you can check the availability and responsiveness of suppliers before you fully integrate them. When you are setting up your portal and deciding which suppliers to connect, you can test the connection to see whether they are sending data through properly and whether the prices and inventory look reasonable for your market. This helps you avoid connecting to a supplier that might be slow, unreliable, or not a good fit for your customers. The exact way this works depends on which suppliers you want to add and what plan you are on. Some suppliers are faster to connect than others, and some may take a day or two before data starts flowing through to your portal. You should be able to see real-time data from a test connection before you switch it on for your customers, so you are not guessing whether it will work well. If you notice that a supplier is sending old prices or has gaps in their inventory, you can decide not to use them, or you can investigate whether there is a problem with the connection itself. Before you start testing suppliers, talk to your account manager about what options are available for your business and what the testing process looks like. They can walk you through how to check that a supplier is responding properly and what signs to look for that it is a good match for your portal.

Question 4

If I set up a white label portal, can I control which suppliers I connect to, or do I have to use all of them?

Accepted Answer

You have control over which suppliers you connect to, but what you can actually connect depends on what glideFares has available and what each supplier allows. When you set up your portal, you choose which flight providers, hotel suppliers, and other services you want to include in your search results. This means you are not forced to use suppliers you do not want to work with, and you can build a portal that matches your business model and your customer base. However, the suppliers available to you are set by what glideFares has partnerships with and what those suppliers themselves are willing to offer. Some suppliers may have limits on who they work with, or they may require a certain volume of bookings before they will connect to your portal. You also need to think about what your customers actually want to search for. If you connect to only one hotel supplier, your customers will see fewer options, which may push them to use a competitor instead. The best approach is to talk to the glideFares team about which suppliers are available for your type of business and your market. They can tell you what is possible with your plan and help you choose suppliers that will give your customers good choice without overcomplicating your portal. Once you know what suppliers are available to you, you can decide which ones to turn on when you launch.

Question 5

Can I see real-time availability and prices from multiple hotel suppliers all at once, or do I have to check each one separately?

Accepted Answer

Yes, a hotel API can pull availability and prices from multiple suppliers in a single search, so your customer sees all the options together on one results page. The way this works is that when someone searches for a hotel on your portal, the API sends that request out to the suppliers it is connected to, collects all the results back, and displays them side by side. This saves your customer time because they do not have to visit ten different websites to compare what is available. However, the speed and completeness of those results depend on which suppliers your API is connected to and how those suppliers work. Some suppliers have more hotels in certain regions than others, and some update their availability faster than others. If a supplier is slow to respond or does not have much stock in the area your customer is looking for, those results might not show up, or they might take a few extra seconds to appear. You should check with us about which suppliers are included in your plan and how comprehensive their coverage is for the destinations you want to sell. One more thing to keep in mind is that the price you see in the search results might not include everything your customer will pay. Some suppliers include taxes and fees in their headline price, while others add those on later. Your customer should always review what is included before they commit to a booking. Have a look at your API documentation or ask us which suppliers are connected to your account and what their coverage looks like for your main markets.

Question 6

If I connect to a flight API, can I see which airlines are available on a route before I decide to start using it?

Accepted Answer

Yes, you can search for flights on a route through the API to see what airlines and schedules come back, and this helps you decide whether it will work for your business. Most flight APIs let you run test searches without having to commit to anything or start paying fees, so you can check availability on the routes your customers actually want to book. This is smart to do before you build your portal or tell your customers what you offer, because you want to know whether the airlines they expect to fly with will show up in your results. Keep in mind that the airlines available can shift over time. New airlines might start flying a route, or existing ones might stop, and seasonal routes come and go. The API will show you what is available right now, but you should plan to check back regularly, especially if a customer later asks for a flight you saw during your test searches but cannot find anymore. Some airlines also have blackout dates or limited schedules, so what you see on one search might not be the same on another day. The best approach is to test the API on all the routes you plan to sell, or at least the most popular ones, and make a note of which airlines show up and how often flights run. If you find that important airlines are missing or flights are too thin on the ground for your market, you will know before you invest time and money in building your portal. Talk to your provider about which suppliers are connected to the API and whether they can add more if you need them.

Question 7

Can I see how many bookings my travel agents have made each month, and how much commission they have earned?

Accepted Answer

Yes, the software gives you reporting tools so you can track bookings and commissions by agent or team member over any time period you choose. You can see how many flights and hotels each person has booked, the total value of those bookings, and how much commission has been earned based on the rates you set for them. This helps you understand which agents are most active and gives you the data you need for payouts and performance reviews. The reports you can pull depend partly on which plan you are on and what features you have set up. For example, if you have multiple commission rates for different agents or different types of booking, the system will break down the earnings by those rules. If you use sub-agents or let other travel agencies sell through your portal, you can also see their activity separately from your own team. You can usually export this data into a spreadsheet so you can use it in your own accounting software or share it with your finance team. Some agencies use these reports to spot training needs, reward top performers, or check that commissions are being calculated correctly. Check what reporting options come with your plan and whether you can customize the reports to show exactly what you need to see.

Question 8

If I connect to a flight API, how long does it usually take to get a booking confirmation after my customer pays?

Accepted Answer

This depends on the airline and how their system works with the API. Most of the time you will get a confirmation within minutes, and your customer will receive their ticket details straight away. Some airlines are faster than others, and a small number may take a few hours to issue the ticket, particularly if they need to carry out extra checks or if there are system delays on their end. When your customer pays on your portal, the booking request goes to the airline through the flight API. The airline then issues the ticket and sends it back through the system. During busy times or for certain routes, this process can sometimes take a bit longer than usual. You should always let your customer know that they may need to wait a short time before they see their ticket, rather than promising it will appear instantly. The best thing to do is check with your API provider about what happens after payment and how long confirmations typically take for the airlines you will be selling. They can tell you whether there are any airlines on your portal that are known to be slower, and whether there are any steps you need to take to speed things up. You should also set clear expectations with your customers about when they can expect to receive their ticket confirmation.

Question 9

If a hotel becomes fully booked after I show it to my customer but before they pay, will the booking still go through?

Accepted Answer

No, the booking will not go through if the hotel runs out of rooms between when your customer sees the price and when they complete their payment. This is one of the main reasons we ask you to understand how hotel APIs work before you start selling rooms to your customers. When a hotel API shows you a room and a price, that is not a guarantee that the room is still available. The API is showing you what was available a moment ago, but hotels sell rooms constantly and inventory changes very quickly. Some portals hold rooms for a short time to give customers a chance to book, but most do not. The hotel API will only confirm that a room is actually yours when the payment goes through successfully. If your customer tries to pay and the room is no longer available, the payment will fail and you will need to offer them a different room at the same hotel, a different hotel altogether, or give them their money back. This is frustrating for your customer and for you, but it is how the hotel industry works because hotels cannot lock rooms away for every person who looks at them online. Before you launch your portal, ask your supplier what happens when a booking fails due to lack of availability and whether they can hold rooms for a short time. This will help you set the right expectations with your customers and know what to do when it happens.

Question 10

Can I customize the look and feel of my white label portal to match my own brand, or does it have a fixed design?

Accepted Answer

Yes, you can customize your white label portal to match your brand. The whole point of a white label solution is that your customers see your company name, your logo, and your colors when they use it. The portal appears under your own web address, not under the glideFares name or any other supplier name, so it feels like a natural part of your business. How much you can customize depends on your plan and what you need. You can typically change colors, upload your logo, adjust the layout, and customize text and messaging throughout the portal. Some travel businesses want simple changes like their logo and colors, while others want to adjust how features are organized or add their own policies and terms. The level of customization available does vary depending on which package you choose, so it is worth checking what options come with your plan. If you have specific branding needs that go beyond the standard customization, you should discuss that with the team so they can tell you whether it is possible and what it would take. Start by reviewing what customization options are included in the plan you are considering, and let the team know if your branding requirements are more complex than the standard setup.