tripadvisor

TripAdvisor Content API

Search and retrieve hotel, restaurant, and attraction data from TripAdvisor. Ratings, rankings, reviews, photos, amenities, subratings, trip types, awards.

Base URL: https://api.content.tripadvisor.com/api/v1

Rate limit: 50 calls per second.

Monthly quota: 5,000 API calls per month. Each curl request = 1 call. A full hotel lookup (search + details + reviews + photos) = 4 calls. Budget accordingly. Prefer search + details (2 calls) and only fetch reviews/photos when specifically needed.

API limits: Up to 10 results per search. Up to 5 reviews and 5 photos per location.

Authentication

First-time setup gotcha: TripAdvisor requires whitelisting your outbound IP at https://www.tripadvisor.com/developers before the key works. Without this, every call returns User is not authorized to access this resource with an explicit deny. This is the #1 first-time failure mode. Whitelist before troubleshooting auth or quotas.

• How to find your current IP: curl ifconfig.me
• Propagation: changes take 1-5 minutes (AWS edge cache).
• Multi-IP: residential CGNAT, VPN exits, and different networks each need their own entry.
• No Referer alternative: the free tier requires IP whitelisting; HTTP Referer restriction is not available.
• Verify which key is which: the developer portal shows the last 4 chars only (e.g. "Ends in 11D7"), so you can confirm without exposing the secret.

Set TRIPADVISOR_API_KEY in your .env file:

# In .env (gitignored)
TRIPADVISOR_API_KEY=your_key_here

Then source it before calling:

export $(grep TRIPADVISOR_API_KEY .env | xargs)

Error signatures

Endpoints

1. Location Search

Find locations by name. Returns up to 10 results.

curl -s "https://api.content.tripadvisor.com/api/v1/location/search?key=$TRIPADVISOR_API_KEY&searchQuery=NOFO+Hotel+Stockholm&category=hotels&language=en"

Parameters:

Response shape:

{
  "data": [
    {
      "location_id": "237656",
      "name": "Nofo Hotel",
      "address_obj": {
        "street1": "Tjarhovsgatan 11",
        "city": "Stockholm",
        "country": "Sweden",
        "postalcode": "116 21",
        "address_string": "Tjarhovsgatan 11, Stockholm 116 21 Sweden"
      }
    }
  ]
}

2. Location Details

Get comprehensive info for a location by ID. This is the richest endpoint.

curl -s "https://api.content.tripadvisor.com/api/v1/location/{locationId}/details?key=$TRIPADVISOR_API_KEY&language=en&currency=USD"

Parameters:

Response includes:

• name, web_url, address_obj, latitude, longitude, timezone, phone
• rating (string, e.g. "4.6"), num_reviews (string, e.g. "845")
• review_rating_count: breakdown by star ({"1": "7", "2": "10", ...})
• ranking_data: ranking (#10), ranking_out_of (168), ranking_string ("#10 of 168 hotels in Stockholm")
• subratings: Location, Sleep Quality, Rooms, Service, Value, Cleanliness (each 0.0 to 5.0)
• price_level: "
  quot;, "$", "$
  quot;, "$$"
• amenities: array of strings
• styles: array (e.g. "Family", "Centrally Located")
• neighborhood_info: array with location_id and name
• trip_types: business, couples, solo, family, friends with count values
• awards: Travelers Choice, Best of Best, etc. with year and images
• parent_brand, brand: chain affiliation
• category, subcategory: hotel/restaurant/attraction
• photo_count, see_all_photos URL
• write_review URL

3. Location Reviews

Get up to 5 most recent reviews.

curl -s "https://api.content.tripadvisor.com/api/v1/location/{locationId}/reviews?key=$TRIPADVISOR_API_KEY&language=en"

Parameters:

Response shape:

{
  "data": [
    {
      "id": 123456,
      "lang": "en",
      "location_id": "237656",
      "published_date": "2026-03-15T00:00:00-04:00",
      "rating": 5,
      "text": "Review text...",
      "title": "Review title",
      "trip_type": "Couples",
      "travel_date": "2026-03",
      "user": { "username": "traveler123" },
      "subratings": {}
    }
  ]
}

Note: Reviews may return empty data: [] for locations with few English reviews. Try different language values for international hotels.

4. Location Photos

Get up to 5 recent photos with multiple size options.

curl -s "https://api.content.tripadvisor.com/api/v1/location/{locationId}/photos?key=$TRIPADVISOR_API_KEY&language=en"

Parameters:

Photo sizes in response:

• thumbnail: 50x50 cropped
• small: 150x150 cropped
• medium: max 250px dimension
• large: max 550px dimension
• original: full resolution

5. Nearby Location Search

Find locations near coordinates. Returns up to 10.

curl -s "https://api.content.tripadvisor.com/api/v1/location/nearby_search?key=$TRIPADVISOR_API_KEY&latLong=59.3127,18.0716&category=hotels&language=en"

Parameters:

Response includes distance (km) and bearing (e.g. "northwest") for each result.

Common Workflows

Hotel Research (most common)

# 1. Search for hotel
curl -s "https://api.content.tripadvisor.com/api/v1/location/search?key=$TRIPADVISOR_API_KEY&searchQuery=Amerikalinjen+Oslo&category=hotels" | python3 -m json.tool

# 2. Get details with location_id from step 1
curl -s "https://api.content.tripadvisor.com/api/v1/location/1234567/details?key=$TRIPADVISOR_API_KEY&currency=USD" | python3 -m json.tool

# 3. Get reviews (optional, costs 1 call)
curl -s "https://api.content.tripadvisor.com/api/v1/location/1234567/reviews?key=$TRIPADVISOR_API_KEY" | python3 -m json.tool

# 4. Get photos (optional, costs 1 call)
curl -s "https://api.content.tripadvisor.com/api/v1/location/1234567/photos?key=$TRIPADVISOR_API_KEY" | python3 -m json.tool

Compare Multiple Hotels in a City

# Search all hotels in city
curl -s "https://api.content.tripadvisor.com/api/v1/location/search?key=$TRIPADVISOR_API_KEY&searchQuery=hotels+Copenhagen&category=hotels"

# Then get details for each location_id returned
# Compare: rating, num_reviews, ranking_data.ranking, subratings, price_level, amenities

Find Restaurants Near Hotel

# Use hotel's lat/long from details response
curl -s "https://api.content.tripadvisor.com/api/v1/location/nearby_search?key=$TRIPADVISOR_API_KEY&latLong=59.31555,18.078924&category=restaurants"

Destination Research

# Search for attractions
curl -s "https://api.content.tripadvisor.com/api/v1/location/search?key=$TRIPADVISOR_API_KEY&searchQuery=things+to+do+Stockholm&category=attractions"

# Nearby attractions from a point
curl -s "https://api.content.tripadvisor.com/api/v1/location/nearby_search?key=$TRIPADVISOR_API_KEY&latLong=59.3293,18.0686&category=attractions"

When to Use

• Evaluating hotels (ratings, rankings, subratings, review sentiment)
• Comparing restaurants near a hotel or in a neighborhood
• Finding attractions and things to do near a destination
• Getting TripAdvisor ranking data ("#1 of 168 hotels in Stockholm")
• Checking amenities, trip type breakdown, award status
• Verifying hotel chain affiliation and neighborhood info

When NOT to Use

• Pricing or availability. TripAdvisor Content API has no pricing data. Use serpapi, liteapi, chase-travel, amex-travel, or rapidapi for prices.
• Booking. This is read-only data. No booking capability.
• Bulk scraping. 5,000 calls/month. Be deliberate.

Key Data Points for Hotel Comparison

When comparing hotels, extract and present:

Supported Languages

ar, zh, zh_TW, da, nl, en, en_AU, en_CA, en_HK, en_IN, en_IE, en_MY, en_NZ, en_PH, en_SG, en_ZA, en_UK, fr, fr_BE, fr_CA, fr_CH, de, de_AT, el, iw, it, it_CH, ja, ko, no, pt, pt_PT, ru, es, es_AR, es_CO, es_MX, es_PE, es_VE, es_CL, sv, th, tr, vi

Use da for Danish, no for Norwegian, sv for Swedish when searching Scandinavian hotels for local-language reviews.