B2B travel portal or your own supplier contracts?

A B2B portal lets you book on a wholesaler's contracts, with the wholesaler's margin on top. Your own contract with a bed bank such as RateHawk or GoGlobal, or with a GDS such as Amadeus or Travelport, gives you the supplier's own price for your agency, and you need software to use it. GateRoam is that software, inside Claude, ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot: flights on your own Amadeus or Travelport contract, hotels on your own RateHawk or GoGlobal contract, and more suppliers in development.

Who is who between the hotel and the traveller?

How does a B2B travel portal work?

The wholesaler signs the contracts and holds the API keys. You get a login to its portal, a mark-up group and a payment arrangement: prepaid, or a credit line. You see what that wholesaler connects, at its price.

An example, with made-up numbers: the wholesaler gets a Paris hotel for three nights at 295 € from a bed bank and adds 8 %. You see 318.60 € and sell it at 350 €.

What changes with your own contract?

You sign with the bed bank or GDS yourself. In the same example you pay 295 € and sell at 350 €: the 23.60 € that was the wholesaler's margin stays with you. The supplier bills you directly, and the booking is in your name.

What you take on: the contract, its payment terms (usually a deposit at first), and software that calls the supplier's API.

When is a wholesaler portal the better choice?

Sometimes, and it is worth saying so:

• Volume. A large wholesaler can get lower rates than a small agency, through volume or its own direct hotel contracts. After its mark-up it can come out even, or cheaper.
• Credit. A wholesaler may let you book now and pay at the end of the month. A new direct contract usually starts on a prepaid deposit.
• No paperwork. A portal login takes a day; a direct API contract takes weeks.
• Many products. Packages, cruises and insurance in one place.

Many agencies do both: their own contracts for what they sell most, a wholesaler for the rest. Compare the price of the same hotel on the same dates before you decide.

How do you get your own bed bank contract?

1. Open an agency account on the bed bank's website, with your company registration, your VAT number and, where your country requires one, your travel licence.
2. Ask your account manager for API access. That is a separate agreement:
   • how you pay: usually a deposit to start, credit later;
   • net or commission prices;
   • where you may show net prices.
3. The software is tested. Before it issues production keys, the bed bank checks the software that will call its API, and usually the server addresses it calls from.
4. Connect it to the software your agents use. In GateRoam: Settings → Suppliers → Add supplier, for RateHawk or GoGlobal. For Hotelbeds or WebBeds, whose connectors are in development, tell us on its page, or contact us for another one.

The same idea holds for flights: a GDS contract with Amadeus or Travelport, plus IATA accreditation if you issue tickets yourself. Without IATA, a consolidator issues the ticket. More: Amadeus vs Sabre vs Travelport vs Duffel for travel agencies.

Where does GateRoam fit?

GateRoam is the software between your contracts and the AI assistant your agents already use. It is not a wholesaler: it sells no rooms or fares, takes no margin and no booking fee, and is not part of the payment.

• Flights and hotels on your own contracts. Ask in plain words. GateRoam searches your Amadeus or Travelport contract for flights and your RateHawk or GoGlobal contract for hotels; an agency with both of a kind gets one list.
• Your price. Every price is your contract's price. Totals are computed in code, never guessed by the model.
• One client offer. The flights and the hotel you pick become one branded web page and PDF, each with its own price and your fee.
• Your controls. The owner switches each tool on or off.
• Holds and hotel bookings, never tickets. It holds flight bookings in Amadeus or Travelport+ and books a checked hotel rate on your own RateHawk or GoGlobal account, each after the agent's yes and once an admin has switched it on. It never issues tickets.
• More hotels next. Connectors for Hotelbeds, WebBeds, TBO and Expedia are in development: is there a RateHawk or Hotelbeds MCP? For another supplier: custom connectors.

GateRoam is free for every agency during early access. Start free, or see how to connect your AI.

What about booking platforms for wholesalers?

Booking platforms for wholesalers and tour operators run the wholesaler's B2B portal, its booking website and its back office, on its own contracts. If you are the agency that buys from that wholesaler, GateRoam is built for your side of the chain: quoting to the traveller, inside the AI assistant, on contracts in your own name.

Sources

• ETG (RateHawk) API documentation: API access, certification and production keys
• GoGlobal: hotel bed bank for travel agencies