Hotel Price Intelligence & Rate Parity Tracker

Compare hotel prices across Booking.com, Hotels.com, and Expedia in one run. Detect rate parity violations and find the best deals automatically.

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What it does

This actor takes a list of hotel names (or a city/country) and a date range, then searches all three major Online Travel Agencies in parallel. For every hotel it produces a single comparison record containing:

• The lowest price per night on each OTA
• Which platform has the best deal (bestOTA)
• The absolute price variance in your chosen currency
• Whether rate parity is maintained (prices within 5% across OTAs)
• Availability status, room types, cancellation policy, and breakfast flags

Each record is pushed to the Apify dataset in real time as hotels are processed, so you can integrate it into monitoring dashboards, spreadsheet exports, or downstream webhooks.

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Use cases

Use case	Who uses it
Rate parity monitoring	Revenue managers at hotel chains checking that OTAs honor contracted rates
OTA competitive comparison	Travel agencies and booking platforms benchmarking competitor pricing
Price trend tracking	Running the actor on a daily schedule to build a 30-day pricing history per hotel
Deal-finder apps	Consumer apps surfacing the cheapest OTA for a given hotel and date
Hotel competitor intelligence	Independent hotels monitoring nearby property prices to adjust their own rates
Travel journalism	Deal-hunters and travel bloggers verifying "best price guarantee" claims

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Input

{
  "hotelNames": ["Marriott Times Square", "Hilton London Metropole"],
  "checkIn": "2025-06-15",
  "checkOut": "2025-06-18",
  "adults": 2,
  "rooms": 1,
  "currency": "USD",
  "platforms": ["booking", "hotels", "expedia"],
  "maxHotels": 50
}

Or use location-based bulk search instead of hotelNames:

{
  "searchByLocation": {
    "city": "Paris",
    "country": "FR",
    "stars": 4
  },
  "checkIn": "2025-08-01",
  "checkOut": "2025-08-04",
  "adults": 2,
  "rooms": 1,
  "currency": "EUR",
  "platforms": ["booking", "expedia"],
  "maxHotels": 100
}

Input fields

Field	Type	Default	Description
hotelNames	string[]	—	List of hotel names to compare. Use specific names for best matching (e.g. "Marriott Times Square New York").
searchByLocation	object	—	Alternative to hotelNames. Finds all hotels in a city, optionally filtered by star rating.
searchByLocation.city	string	—	City name (e.g. "New York", "London")
searchByLocation.country	string	—	Country name or ISO 2-letter code (e.g. "US", "FR")
searchByLocation.stars	number	—	Optional star rating filter (1–5)
checkIn	string	required	Check-in date in YYYY-MM-DD format
checkOut	string	required	Check-out date in YYYY-MM-DD format
adults	integer	2	Number of adult guests per room
rooms	integer	1	Number of rooms
currency	string	"USD"	ISO 4217 currency code for prices
platforms	string[]	["booking","hotels","expedia"]	Which OTAs to query. Any subset of the three.
maxHotels	integer	50	Max hotels to process (1–500)
proxyConfiguration	object	—	Apify proxy settings. Residential proxies strongly recommended.
requestTimeoutSecs	integer	60	Per-page timeout in seconds
maxConcurrency	integer	3	Parallel browser sessions (1–10)

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Output

One dataset item per hotel. Example output for two hotels:

[
  {
    "searchedName": "Marriott Times Square",
    "checkIn": "2025-06-15",
    "checkOut": "2025-06-18",
    "nights": 3,
    "adults": 2,
    "rooms": 1,
    "currency": "USD",
    "platforms": {
      "booking": {
        "platform": "booking",
        "hotelName": "New York Marriott Marquis",
        "normalizedName": "new york marriott marquis",
        "starRating": 4,
        "location": "Times Square, New York",
        "latitude": null,
        "longitude": null,
        "lowestPricePerNight": 289.00,
        "averagePricePerNight": 312.50,
        "rooms": [
          {
            "roomType": "Standard Room",
            "pricePerNight": 289.00,
            "totalPrice": 867.00,
            "cancellationPolicy": "free_cancel",
            "breakfastIncluded": false
          }
        ],
        "cancellationPolicy": "free_cancel",
        "breakfastIncluded": false,
        "available": true,
        "reviewScore": 8.4,
        "reviewCount": 12480,
        "directUrl": "https://www.booking.com/hotel/us/new-york-marriott-marquis.html",
        "currency": "USD",
        "scrapedAt": "2025-04-02T14:30:00.000Z",
        "error": null
      },
      "hotels": {
        "platform": "hotels",
        "hotelName": "New York Marriott Marquis",
        "normalizedName": "new york marriott marquis",
        "starRating": 4,
        "location": "Times Square, Manhattan",
        "latitude": null,
        "longitude": null,
        "lowestPricePerNight": 299.00,
        "averagePricePerNight": 299.00,
        "rooms": [
          {
            "roomType": "Standard Room",
            "pricePerNight": 299.00,
            "totalPrice": 897.00,
            "cancellationPolicy": "free_cancel",
            "breakfastIncluded": false
          }
        ],
        "cancellationPolicy": "free_cancel",
        "breakfastIncluded": false,
        "available": true,
        "reviewScore": 8.2,
        "reviewCount": 10920,
        "directUrl": "https://www.hotels.com/ho123456/",
        "currency": "USD",
        "scrapedAt": "2025-04-02T14:30:08.000Z",
        "error": null
      },
      "expedia": {
        "platform": "expedia",
        "hotelName": "New York Marriott Marquis",
        "normalizedName": "new york marriott marquis",
        "starRating": 4,
        "location": "Times Square, New York, NY",
        "latitude": null,
        "longitude": null,
        "lowestPricePerNight": 312.00,
        "averagePricePerNight": 312.00,
        "rooms": [
          {
            "roomType": "Standard Room",
            "pricePerNight": 312.00,
            "totalPrice": 936.00,
            "cancellationPolicy": "non_refundable",
            "breakfastIncluded": false
          }
        ],
        "cancellationPolicy": "non_refundable",
        "breakfastIncluded": false,
        "available": true,
        "reviewScore": 8.3,
        "reviewCount": 9870,
        "directUrl": "https://www.expedia.com/h1234567.Hotel-Information",
        "currency": "USD",
        "scrapedAt": "2025-04-02T14:30:18.000Z",
        "error": null
      }
    },
    "bestPrice": 289.00,
    "bestOTA": "booking",
    "worstPrice": 312.00,
    "worstOTA": "expedia",
    "priceVariance": 23.00,
    "priceDifferencePercent": 7.96,
    "rateParity": false,
    "rateParityThresholdPercent": 5,
    "comparedAt": "2025-04-02T14:30:18.000Z",
    "dataQuality": "full"
  },
  {
    "searchedName": "Hilton London Metropole",
    "checkIn": "2025-06-15",
    "checkOut": "2025-06-18",
    "nights": 3,
    "adults": 2,
    "rooms": 1,
    "currency": "USD",
    "platforms": {
      "booking": {
        "platform": "booking",
        "hotelName": "Hilton London Metropole",
        "normalizedName": "hilton london metropole",
        "starRating": 4,
        "location": "Paddington, London",
        "latitude": null,
        "longitude": null,
        "lowestPricePerNight": 178.00,
        "averagePricePerNight": 195.00,
        "rooms": [
          {
            "roomType": "Standard Room",
            "pricePerNight": 178.00,
            "totalPrice": 534.00,
            "cancellationPolicy": "free_cancel",
            "breakfastIncluded": false
          }
        ],
        "cancellationPolicy": "free_cancel",
        "breakfastIncluded": false,
        "available": true,
        "reviewScore": 7.9,
        "reviewCount": 8440,
        "directUrl": "https://www.booking.com/hotel/gb/hilton-london-metropole.html",
        "currency": "USD",
        "scrapedAt": "2025-04-02T14:31:00.000Z",
        "error": null
      },
      "hotels": {
        "platform": "hotels",
        "hotelName": "Hilton London Metropole",
        "normalizedName": "hilton london metropole",
        "starRating": 4,
        "location": "Paddington, London",
        "latitude": null,
        "longitude": null,
        "lowestPricePerNight": 180.00,
        "averagePricePerNight": 180.00,
        "rooms": [
          {
            "roomType": "Standard Room",
            "pricePerNight": 180.00,
            "totalPrice": 540.00,
            "cancellationPolicy": "free_cancel",
            "breakfastIncluded": false
          }
        ],
        "cancellationPolicy": "free_cancel",
        "breakfastIncluded": false,
        "available": true,
        "reviewScore": 7.8,
        "reviewCount": 7120,
        "directUrl": "https://www.hotels.com/ho234567/",
        "currency": "USD",
        "scrapedAt": "2025-04-02T14:31:08.000Z",
        "error": null
      },
      "expedia": {
        "platform": "expedia",
        "hotelName": "Hilton London Metropole",
        "normalizedName": "hilton london metropole",
        "starRating": 4,
        "location": "Paddington, London, UK",
        "latitude": null,
        "longitude": null,
        "lowestPricePerNight": 177.00,
        "averagePricePerNight": 177.00,
        "rooms": [
          {
            "roomType": "Standard Room",
            "pricePerNight": 177.00,
            "totalPrice": 531.00,
            "cancellationPolicy": "free_cancel",
            "breakfastIncluded": false
          }
        ],
        "cancellationPolicy": "free_cancel",
        "breakfastIncluded": false,
        "available": true,
        "reviewScore": 7.9,
        "reviewCount": 6980,
        "directUrl": "https://www.expedia.com/h2345678.Hotel-Information",
        "currency": "USD",
        "scrapedAt": "2025-04-02T14:31:18.000Z",
        "error": null
      }
    },
    "bestPrice": 177.00,
    "bestOTA": "expedia",
    "worstPrice": 180.00,
    "worstOTA": "hotels",
    "priceVariance": 3.00,
    "priceDifferencePercent": 1.69,
    "rateParity": true,
    "rateParityThresholdPercent": 5,
    "comparedAt": "2025-04-02T14:31:18.000Z",
    "dataQuality": "full"
  }
]

Output fields reference

Top-level comparison fields

Field	Type	Description
searchedName	string	The hotel name as provided in the input
checkIn	string	Check-in date (YYYY-MM-DD)
checkOut	string	Check-out date (YYYY-MM-DD)
nights	number	Number of nights
adults	number	Adults searched for
rooms	number	Rooms searched for
currency	string	Currency of all prices
platforms	object	Per-platform data keyed by booking, hotels, expedia
bestPrice	number | null	Lowest price per night found across all platforms
bestOTA	string | null	Platform name with the lowest price
worstPrice	number | null	Highest price per night found
worstOTA	string | null	Platform name with the highest price
priceVariance	number | null	Absolute difference: worstPrice - bestPrice
priceDifferencePercent	number | null	Relative spread: (worstPrice - bestPrice) / bestPrice * 100
rateParity	boolean | null	true if all OTA prices are within 5% of each other; false = violation; null = only one platform returned data
rateParityThresholdPercent	number	Threshold used for rate parity check (default: 5%)
comparedAt	string	ISO 8601 timestamp of when comparison was computed
dataQuality	"full" | "partial" | "failed"	full = all queried platforms returned prices; partial = some failed; failed = none returned data

Per-platform price fields (inside platforms.booking, platforms.hotels, platforms.expedia)

Field	Type	Description
platform	string	Platform identifier
hotelName	string	Hotel name as returned by the OTA
normalizedName	string	Normalized name used for matching
starRating	number | null	Hotel star rating (1–5)
location	string	Address or neighborhood string from the OTA
latitude	number | null	GPS latitude (when available)
longitude	number | null	GPS longitude (when available)
lowestPricePerNight	number | null	Cheapest room option per night
averagePricePerNight	number | null	Average across available room types
rooms	RoomOffer[]	Array of room offers (see below)
cancellationPolicy	"free_cancel" | "non_refundable" | "mixed" | "unknown"	Overall cancellation policy
breakfastIncluded	boolean | null	Whether any offer includes breakfast
available	boolean	Whether the hotel had any availability
reviewScore	number | null	Guest review score (OTA scale, typically 0–10)
reviewCount	number | null	Total number of guest reviews
directUrl	string	Deep link to hotel page on the OTA
currency	string	Currency of prices
scrapedAt	string	ISO 8601 timestamp when this OTA was queried
error	string | null	Error message if this OTA failed for this hotel

Room offer fields (inside rooms[])

Field	Type	Description
roomType	string	Room category name
pricePerNight	number	Price per night for this room type
totalPrice	number	Total price for the full stay
cancellationPolicy	"free_cancel" | "non_refundable" | "unknown"	Cancellation policy for this specific room
breakfastIncluded	boolean	Whether breakfast is included

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Rate parity explained

Rate parity is a contractual or strategic requirement that a hotel's room prices remain consistent across all booking channels (OTAs, direct website, etc.).

This actor flags a rate parity violation when any OTA's price differs from the cheapest platform by more than 5% (priceDifferencePercent > 5).

Revenue managers can run this actor daily on a schedule and filter output for rateParity: false to catch violations and renegotiate OTA contracts.

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Scheduling for price monitoring

To track a hotel's price over time, schedule the actor using Apify Scheduler:

1. Go to Schedules in your Apify Console
2. Create a new schedule (e.g. daily at 6:00 AM UTC)
3. Attach this actor with your hotel list and target dates
4. Connect the dataset to a Google Sheet or webhook for automatic alerting

Each run's output is appended to the dataset, building a historical price record.

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Proxy recommendations

Hotel booking sites aggressively block datacenter IPs. For reliable results:

• Use Apify Residential Proxies (proxyConfiguration: { useApifyProxy: true, apifyProxyGroups: ["RESIDENTIAL"] })
• For high-volume runs (100+ hotels), consider country-specific residential proxies matching the target OTA's locale
• Datacenter proxies may work for testing but will have higher block rates in production

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Pricing

$2.00 per 1,000 hotel comparisons (PAY_PER_EVENT billing)

Run type	Hotels	Platforms	Cost
Quick check	10 hotels	3 platforms	$0.02
Daily monitoring	500 hotels	3 platforms	$1.00
Weekly agency run	200 hotels	3 platforms	$0.40

A single comparison = one dataset item (one hotel × all platforms). You are not charged per platform call — only per completed hotel comparison record.

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Performance

Metric	Typical value
Time per hotel (3 platforms)	30–60 seconds
Concurrency (default)	3 parallel browsers
50 hotels, 3 platforms	~10–15 minutes
500 hotels, 3 platforms	~90–150 minutes

Actual performance depends on OTA response times, proxy speed, and whether CAPTCHAs are encountered.

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Limitations

• OTAs may change their HTML structure, which can require selector updates. The actor uses multiple fallback selectors per field to reduce breakage.
• Geographic availability: some OTA features (currencies, deal badges) vary by region. Setting proxyConfiguration to match the target currency's country improves accuracy.
• Dynamic pricing: OTA prices can change within seconds. Prices in the dataset reflect the moment each OTA was queried during the run.
• This actor is for market research and price intelligence purposes. Review each OTA's Terms of Service before using in production.

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