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Travel Buyer - Dida

Case Study – How Dida reduced the time between hotel activation & first booking by 96%

Discover how Dida automated content updates by building to the Hotel Trader Merchandising API. One integration, implemented in full.

About

Dida

Dida’s B2B travel infrastructure connects more than 40,000 travel sellers to over 2.2 million travel products across more than 200 markets, and is the leading player in China for outbound distribution.

Dida exists to remove complexity while adding value, by combining innovative, AI-enabled travel technology and leading industry expertise to deliver easy access to global, high-value B2B distribution.

Accurate property and room information supports Dida’s accommodation distribution workflows.

The Challenge

Keeping hotel content up to date, at scale

Dida was already connected to The Hotel Trader Exchange for search, quote and booking. The next challenge was keeping property and room information aligned with changes on The Exchange, including new hotel additions and updates to existing content.

Addressing this required a more automated way to receive and retrieve content updates within the existing connection, while fitting into Dida’s established systems and workflows.

This challenge is not unique to Dida. Across The Exchange, there's an opportunity to reduce the time between hotel activation and first booking with the right infrastructure in place. By building to the Merchandising API that journey is shortened by 96%.

The build

One integration, implemented in full

Rather than take a partial first step, Dida built the complete pattern the Merchandising API is designed for:

Property updates: hotel metadata retrieved programmatically, with delta sync returning only what has changed since the last call.

Room updates: room types and meal plans kept current through the same connection, so the detail behind each property stays aligned with The Exchange.

Webhooks: notification as new, updated, disabled and closed properties change, so Dida’s systems respond to change rather than waiting on a schedule.

Taken together, that is the full loop. The Exchange signals change, Dida's systems retrieve the detail, and Dida's shelf stays current without anyone having to manually process a file.

The experience

No blockers, start to finish

Development and QA were completed in 45 hours. Hotel Trader’s technical team was available throughout, Dida’s team reported no blockers at any stage, and the integration has since passed production verification and gone live.

That reflects the design intent. The Merchandising API uses the same API key already powering a Travel Buyer’s search, quote and booking calls, so there is no separate authentication to configure and no second connection to maintain. Delta sync, pagination and webhooks follow conventional patterns, supported by a sandbox, documentation and clear error codes.

Hotel Trader delivers the Travel Buyers' unique Property ID fully mapped. Dida chose to keep mapping within its own workflow, and the integration proceeded exactly as intended without it.

This is how the capability is meant to work. The Merchandising API gets the data to you. Pre-mapping helps you sell it sooner. They are adopted separately, and a Travel Buyer takes the second only when it suits their platform. The option remains open to Dida at any point, in whatever form suits them.

The Travel Buyer take away

Why you should build to the Merchandising API

Dida’s experience shows that extending an existing integration to the Merchandising API can be straightforward, with clear benefits for teams looking to keep their hotel content accurate and their distribution moving efficiently.

Quick integration

Dida completed development and QA efficiently, implementing the full set of API capabilities available at the time rather than a subset.

Full implementation is not a bigger project

Property updates, room updates and webhooks were delivered in the same build, in the same 45 hours. There is no meaningful saving in doing less.

You adopt only what you need

Dida implemented the data updates while retaining its established mapping workflow, without adding complexity to the integration.

It builds on what you already have

This was an extension of an existing connection, using existing credentials. There was no new relationship to establish and no new authentication to set up.

Testimonial

The Merchandising API integration was straightforward, and we appreciated the responsive support from Hotel Trader’s technical team throughout development and testing. Working together, we automated property and room data updates within our existing connection while retaining our established mapping workflow.

Nicole Zhang

Senior Technical Operations Manager | Dida

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Want Hotel Trader’s Hotel ID pre-mapped to your own Hotel ID, or to your preferred mapping provider? We can show you what is possible within your existing workflow.