No More API Drama: Inside OCTO with Robin Harnish

If connecting your reservation system to online travel agencies (OTAs) and other resellers (or vice versa) feels like it takes forever — months of back-and-forth with developers, stalled projects, and a different set of technical specs every time — you’re experiencing exactly the problem OCTO was built to solve.

OCTO, the Open Connectivity Standard for the tours, activities and attractions sector, is a common set of API standards that allows reservation technology (or restech) systems, OTAs and other resellers, and other platforms to speak the same language. 

“ The airlines and hotels had a massive  headstart on this with their own open standard,” says Robin Harnish, Executive Director of OCTO. But experiences is a more fragmented industry. “We’re coming together to talk about how we better this industry, make it faster and easier for everybody.” 

In this interview during Arival 360 | Washington, D.C., Harnish breaks down how the standard works, why the experiences sector has been slower than airlines and hotels to adopt a unified approach, and what it means for businesses at every stage — from startups just building their first API to established platforms rethinking their connectivity strategy.

Watch the full interview above for everything Harnish shares about the state of connectivity in the experiences sector and where OCTO is headed next.

And if you want to go deeper, join us in Valencia for the next Arival event, where OCTO will be hosting an informative session open to all Arival attendees, including operators, technology providers and resellers. It’s a rare opportunity to hear directly from the leaders shaping the connectivity standards that will define how the travel experiences sector does business.