Driving growth with a two-way API integration for travel booking platforms

Based on the requirements documentation, we compiled an initial set of questions and clarifications, which we addressed together with secra bookings during an initial project kickoff meeting. For ongoing coordination, we established a weekly project status meeting with the client and set up dedicated Slack channels to support asynchronous team communication and stakeholder alignment.


Following this, we designed a system architecture aligned with the defined requirements and derived a clear domain model. On this basis, we decomposed the overall scope into clearly defined, manageable implementation tickets and prioritized them systematically. During this process, we evaluated each ticket by explicitly answering the questions “What is the business value for the client?” and “What is the implementation risk, considering external system dependencies and unclear specifications?” This structured approach enabled us to provide the client with a clear recommendation and a risk-aware project plan, ensuring focus on high-impact features, and efficient use of development resources.


Early on, we identified API synchronization as the highest-risk area, as not all behaviors were fully documented and significant technical discovery was required during implementation. To accelerate progress, we deliberately parallelized low-risk work streams and onboarded an additional software engineer to the project.

We implemented data synchronization across multiple API endpoints between secra bookings and Booking Experts to exchange critical booking data, including vacation properties, pricing, availability, and reservations. This synchronization was supported by webhook receivers and AWS SQS–based queues to ensure reliable, decoupled, and scalable processing. In addition, full update processes were implemented to enable complete data resynchronization. These were complemented by a regular automated consistency check for stale data to proactively detect and correct inconsistencies across systems.


To support operational workflows, we built a secure administrative backend using EasyAdmin to surface key data points and statistics, and to allow manual data synchronization when required. User management and access control were implemented via Okta-based authentication and authorization.


To ensure operational transparency and stability, we defined a logging and monitoring strategy and set up Sentry for exceptions tracking. A Slack integration was added to deliver real-time operational notifications and alerts.


The completed integration was highly anticipated by the secra bookings sales team, as it opens up new sales opportunities, enables access to high-volume customers, and creates significant growth potential through the partnership with Booking Experts.