More than 50 companies including FlightStats, ExpenseCloud and Short's Travel Management have licensed an application programming interface from WorldMate, according to the itinerary management provider. WorldMate automates the processing of confirmation emails from more than 1,300 travel intermediaries and suppliers.
The API "processes travelers' confirmation emails, extracts all of the key information, adds additional content such as an airport geo-code, and then sends the data back to the developer" in XML for use in itinerary monitoring, expense reporting, traveler profiling, daily deals or other applications. WorldMate also launched a developer portal.
"With WorldMate's API, we will be able to track policy compliance for each booking and consolidate travel data for the travel manager no matter where their travelers book," according to Short's Travel Management CEO David LeCompte.
A free license allows users to parse up to 1,000 confirmation emails a week. "Developers who require higher volumes or a stringent service level agreement may purchase these separately," according to WorldMate.
WorldMate rival TripIt for a few years has offered an API, but WorldMate vice president of business development Ian Berman claimed his company's service is different in that end users do not need to create a WorldMate account to benefit--"and thus we will not poach by marketing WorldMate services to those users. End users forward their confirmation emails directly to the licensees and not to a WorldMate-branded mailbox."
WorldMate claims 3 million smartphone users, twice as many as TripIt.