3rd Party API Overview

What is the Hotel Effectiveness API?

The Hotel Effectiveness API offers the ability to directly access that raw data that is used throughout the Labor Management System. It offers users and 3rd party vendors the ability to programmatically export data from the system via HTTP GET requests.

What kind of information is available to access?

This powerful extension of the reporting system includes access to actual labor, standard labor, housekeeping cleans, and employee details. The labor data includes the most granular level data available inside the system. This includes punch level data as well as shift level schedules. All of the data downloaded is the same data that you see through the tools. If a schedule is assigned, you can download the data again instantly and it will show up. Likewise if you enter Night Audit Entry data for the previous day, the labor plans recalculate. That data will be instantly available for download.

There are three available methods that provide access to different areas of the system:

• GetLabor - Export actual labor, actual standard hours (plans), forecasted standard hours (forecasts), and scheduled shifts  
• GetEmployees - List of employees for a specific hotel  
• GetCleans - Employee level and clean type level housekeeping details  

Each method can pull one hotel per call. Designate which hotel you are calling using its unique six-digit Hotel ID number, which you can view in Export Data & API under "Hotel List" on the blue menu. 

How can you use it?

If you are a 3rd party vendor who wants to import Hotel Effectiveness data, then you may be able to use Web Services/API to access this same data that our users see inside of Reports and other tools. If you are a Hotel Effectiveness user already, your Account Administrator can simply assign you this permission and this will give you access to the API.  If you are a 3rd party vendor, the Account Administrator will have to set up a user account for you to utilize to access the system.

Once you have access to the API, you will have immediate access to make calls to the API via your own tools or using the DataMiner Excel Reporting Tool.  If you login to Hotel Effectiveness, you will find Export Data & API in Reports > Export Data & API. Inside this tool, you can access the API Viewer, which is a simple testing tool. You can select a hotel, a date range and some other parameters and you can instantly get back the raw XML data. This can be used for testing or for giving samples to your 3rd party vendors who are integrating into it. Note: Your credentials must be passed through as the Header, not parameter or an alternative.

API usage is monitored and there are daily limits to the number of requests created.

For Administrators: How do I give access to the API to a 3rd Party?

The API security uses the same security as Hotel Effectiveness so you will need to create a new user to then give to the 3rd party vendor. When creating this user, select "3rd Party Integration" as the user type, assign the desired hotel, and verify that all pre-checked permissions are those you wish to give. Just like all of the parts to Hotel Effectiveness, you will need to 'invite' the user to access their account when ready.

For data security purposes, users needing access to the API cannot have department filters and must be able to see wages. In other words, the raw data includes all departments and wages, so anyone who cannot see those inside of the hotel will not be allowed to use the tool even if they have been assigned permission.

The user can access only the hotels assigned within his or her Hotel Access. This is the same as the hotels they can see in Hotel Effectiveness.

What are the limits of the API?

• You cannot update data with it
• You can only download one hotel at a time
• You can only download 31 days at a time
• You cannot download more than 20,000 records at a time