Overview
Introduction​
The Car Hire Live Prices API is used to search for and return car hire quotes for any time window from current day until one year from current day.
The API takes a pick-up location and optionally a drop-off location for a given period of time and returns a list of quotes that will be bookable by travellers.
Terminology​
Throughout the documentation, you’ll see the use of Vendors and Agents. To eliminate uncertainty here's a small
explanation to eastbalish the distinction between them.
| Term | Description |
|---|---|
vendors | Vendors are the actual car companies that rent cars |
agents | Agents are supply partners where the quotes are retrieved from. Please note that vendors can also be agents |
How we use it at Skyscanner​
To provide the best UXE, our APIs are asynchronous, meaning that once the Search is created (CreateSearch), we return some basic information about the results, including the Agents (logos, names, etc), as visible in the image above.
The prices, along with the vehicle's classification and characteristics, are loaded asynchronously. For the Skyscanner page, we do that to fill up the filters on the left side and the cards in the centre.
This asynchronism is attained by polling calls. Each polling call targets one or more agents at a time to retrieve their available quotes for the specific criteria.
The polling made by the agent will be active polling meaning that the client will have to make multiple requests to receive all the available quotes and data info. The API returns results as soon as they are receive. It's expected to take between 1 to 10 seconds to get the full set of results.
The above screenshot captures what you can build, including some example data points. We have:
- Quotes can be grouped based on the data points you receive for each quote.
- In the centre, we have cards with the specific cars, their characteristics, and prices. Note that the same vehicle can have multiple quotes since (1) different agents might have similar offers and (2) the same agent might have very similar vehicles with the same characteristics.
👉 Here you can try out a search on your own.
Endpoints​
This API has 2 endpoints, /create and /poll.
/create​
POST https://partners.api.skyscanner.net/apiservices/v1/carhire/live/search/create
/create is used to initiate the search request. This endpoint returns some basic information about the results,
including the Agents (logos, names, etc).
/poll​
POST https://partners.api.skyscanner.net/apiservices/v1/carhire/live/search/poll/{sessionToken}
/poll is used to retrieve the complete list of results. This usually takes some amount of time as our backend makes
calls to our full list of supply partners for quotes. The /poll endpoint is invoked with a sessionToken which is
returned in the result of the /create call.
Concepts​
Create and poll workflow​
There is a large variance in the time to first result and the time to last result as some supply partners take
longer to return results. Often, the chepest quotes are returned from supply partners that take longer to return
results. This is why the API workflow has been split into the /create and /poll endpoints.
To learn more about the create and poll workflow, please see our create and poll guide
Car Features and Characteristics​
The number of seats and luggage capacity of the car is not currently provided in the Live Prices API. Skyscanner is planning to include this information in a future release.
Other characteristics such as number of doors, car type, transmission, fuel type, and air conditioning are also not provided directly in the response. However, these can be derived from the SIPP code defined by ACRISS. Please view the FAQs for more information
Request​
/create​
Required fields​
Requests to the /create endpoint need to contain the following:
| Field name | Description |
|---|---|
market | Market where search is coming from. E.g.: UK |
locale | Language to be used for the search. E.g.: en-GB |
currency | Currency that the search result prices are returned in. E.g.: GBP |
pickUpDate | Local date time of pick-up. You can specify both a date and, optionally, an exact time. If the time is not provided, it will default to 10am in the local time zone. |
dropOffDate | Local date time of drop-off. Must be at a later point than the pick-up date time. You can specify both a date and, optionally, an exact time. If the time is not provided, it will default to 10am in the local time zone. |
pickUpLocation | Pick-up location. See car hire live prices API documentation for format |
Optional fields​
Below are additional optional fields to modify the outcome of the request:
| Field name | Description |
|---|---|
dropOffLocation | Drop-off location. If empty then it will be defaulted to be the same value as as pickUpLocation. See car hire live prices API documentation for format |
includedAgentIds | Options for search result to only include quotes from specified agents. All items need to be valid for the specific market. See car hire live prices API documentation for more details |
excludedAgentIds | Options for search result to exclude quotes from specified agents. All items need to be valid for the specific market. See car hire live prices API documentation for more details |
driverAge | The age of the designated driver. Must be between 21 and 99. Defaults to 30 if left unspecified. |
/poll​
The /create endpoint will return a sessionToken in the response which is used to invoke the /poll endpoint.
POST https://partners.api.skyscanner.net/apiservices/v3/flights/live/search/poll/{ADD SESSION TOKEN}
The sessionToken expires after around 10 minutes.
In this case, the API will return the following 400 response:
Session token is expired or invalid
If the token is expired, you should use the createSearch endpoint and create a new sessionToken
Response /create and /poll​
Fields​
| Field name | Description |
|---|---|
status | Indicates status of the search request is running or completed |
quotes | Bookable quote which corresponds with what was requested in the search. A quote will contain a deepLink field which takes the traveler to the booking page. |
agents | Contains information about the agentes referenced in quotes. Agents are supply partners where we get quotes from. |
vendors | Contains information about the vendors referenced in quotes. Vendors are actual car companies that rent cars. Note that vendors can also be both an agent and a vendor at the same time. |
sortingOptions | Contains data for sorting. Currently supports sorting only by cheapest criteria |