GET

IHG URL to Hotel ID API

Convert any ihg.com URL into the hotel mnemonic (USMKM, LONHB, etc.) you need to call the IHG Rooms API.

Overview

Pure URL parsing

This endpoint does no upstream fetch, no proxy step, no browser automation — the IHG hotel mnemonic always sits in a known position in the URL. Responses are sub-millisecond. You still need a valid API key, and the request counts toward your StayAPI quota.

The endpoint accepts a URL on ihg.com (or any *.ihg.com subdomain) and extracts the IHG hotel mnemonic. It supports both hotel-detail URLs (where the code is in the path) and booking-flow URLs (where the code is in the qSlH or qHotelCode query param).

Endpoint URL

GET https://api.stayapi.com/v1/ihg/hotel/url-to-id

Parameters

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
url	string	Required	Any `http(s)` URL on `ihg.com` or a `*.ihg.com` subdomain. Examples: a hotel-detail URL like `https://www.ihg.com/kimptonhotels/hotels/us/en/maikhao/usmkm/hoteldetail`, or a booking-flow URL like `https://www.ihg.com/hotels/us/en/find-hotels/select-roomrate?qSlH=USMKM&...`.

URL-encode the value

The url parameter must be URL-encoded when included in the query string. Most HTTP clients handle this automatically when you pass it as a params/query object rather than concatenating strings.

Response Format

Success (200 OK)

Field	Type	Description
success	boolean	Always `true` on a 2xx response.
url	string	The input URL, normalized: query string and fragment stripped, host lowercased.
hotel_code	string	The extracted IHG hotel mnemonic, uppercased. Pass this directly to `/v1/ihg/rooms?hotel_code=...`.

Example response

{
  "success": true,
  "url": "https://www.ihg.com/kimptonhotels/hotels/us/en/maikhao/usmkm/hoteldetail",
  "hotel_code": "USMKM"
}

Extraction sources

The extractor checks four locations in priority order and returns the first match. Both hotel-detail URLs and booking-flow URLs are supported because IHG places the mnemonic in different positions depending on the page.

Priority	Source	Example
1	qHotelCode	`?qHotelCode=USMKM`
2	qSlH	`?qSlH=USMKM` (booking-flow URLs)
3	Path segment	`.../usmkm/hoteldetail` (also `dining`, `rooms`, `amenities`, etc.)
4	qDest	Best-effort fallback. Accepted only when alphanumeric — free-text destinations like `qDest=Phuket, Thailand` are rejected.

Common Use Cases

URL-to-rates pipeline

Customers paste an IHG URL into your app; you call this endpoint, then call /v1/ihg/rooms with the extracted code.

Two-step lookup

Normalize affiliate links

Strip tracking params from IHG URLs and surface a canonical hotel reference in your database.

Clean URL + hotel ID

Error Responses

All endpoint-level errors follow RFC 7807 Problem Details with content type application/problem+json. Each carries provider: "ihg", product: "url-to-id", and a unique correlation_id for support requests.

400 Bad Request — invalid URL

The URL isn't on ihg.com / *.ihg.com, the scheme isn't http(s), or the URL is malformed.

{
  "type": "https://api.stayapi.com/errors/invalid-url",
  "title": "Invalid URL",
  "status": 400,
  "detail": "URL must be an http(s) URL on ihg.com or a *.ihg.com subdomain",
  "instance": "/v1/ihg/hotel/url-to-id",
  "provider": "ihg",
  "product": "url-to-id",
  "error_code": "INVALID_URL",
  "provided_url": "https://www.booking.com/hotel/us/foo.html",
  "correlation_id": "..."
}

400 Bad Request — hotel code not found

The URL is on ihg.com, but no mnemonic could be extracted from any of the four sources (path, qHotelCode, qSlH, qDest).

{
  "type": "https://api.stayapi.com/errors/hotel-code-not-found",
  "title": "Hotel Code Not Found",
  "status": 400,
  "detail": "Could not extract an IHG hotel mnemonic from the URL",
  "instance": "/v1/ihg/hotel/url-to-id",
  "provider": "ihg",
  "product": "url-to-id",
  "error_code": "HOTEL_CODE_NOT_FOUND",
  "provided_url": "https://www.ihg.com/",
  "correlation_id": "..."
}

Request

curl -G "https://api.stayapi.com/v1/ihg/hotel/url-to-id" \
  -H "x-api-key: YOUR_API_KEY" \
  --data-urlencode "url=https://www.ihg.com/kimptonhotels/hotels/us/en/maikhao/usmkm/hoteldetail"

const params = new URLSearchParams({
  url: "https://www.ihg.com/kimptonhotels/hotels/us/en/maikhao/usmkm/hoteldetail",
});

const response = await fetch(
  `https://api.stayapi.com/v1/ihg/hotel/url-to-id?${params}`,
  { headers: { "x-api-key": "YOUR_API_KEY" } },
);
const data = await response.json();

if (response.ok) {
  console.log(`hotel_code = ${data.hotel_code}`);
  // → use data.hotel_code with /v1/ihg/rooms
} else {
  console.error(`${data.error_code}: ${data.detail}`);
}

import requests

response = requests.get(
    "https://api.stayapi.com/v1/ihg/hotel/url-to-id",
    params={"url": "https://www.ihg.com/kimptonhotels/hotels/us/en/maikhao/usmkm/hoteldetail"},
    headers={"x-api-key": "YOUR_API_KEY"},
)
data = response.json()

if response.ok:
    print(f"hotel_code = {data[\"hotel_code\"]}")
    # use data["hotel_code"] with /v1/ihg/rooms
else:
    print(f"{data[\"error_code\"]}: {data[\"detail\"]}")

<?php
$params = http_build_query([
    "url" => "https://www.ihg.com/kimptonhotels/hotels/us/en/maikhao/usmkm/hoteldetail",
]);

$ch = curl_init("https://api.stayapi.com/v1/ihg/hotel/url-to-id?" . $params);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, ["x-api-key: YOUR_API_KEY"]);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
$response = curl_exec($ch);
$http_code = curl_getinfo($ch, CURLINFO_HTTP_CODE);
$data = json_decode($response, true);
curl_close($ch);

if ($http_code === 200) {
    echo "hotel_code = {$data[\"hotel_code\"]}\n";
} else {
    echo "{$data[\"error_code\"]}: {$data[\"detail\"]}\n";
}
?>

require "net/http"
require "uri"
require "json"

uri = URI("https://api.stayapi.com/v1/ihg/hotel/url-to-id")
uri.query = URI.encode_www_form(
  url: "https://www.ihg.com/kimptonhotels/hotels/us/en/maikhao/usmkm/hoteldetail",
)

http = Net::HTTP.new(uri.host, uri.port)
http.use_ssl = true

request = Net::HTTP::Get.new(uri)
request["x-api-key"] = "YOUR_API_KEY"

response = http.request(request)
data = JSON.parse(response.body)

if response.code == "200"
  puts "hotel_code = \#{data[\"hotel_code\"]}"
else
  puts "\#{data[\"error_code\"]}: \#{data[\"detail\"]}"
end

Response

{
  "success": true,
  "url": "https://www.ihg.com/kimptonhotels/hotels/us/en/maikhao/usmkm/hoteldetail",
  "hotel_code": "USMKM"
}

{
  "type": "https://api.stayapi.com/errors/invalid-url",
  "title": "Invalid URL",
  "status": 400,
  "detail": "URL must be an http(s) URL on ihg.com or a *.ihg.com subdomain",
  "instance": "/v1/ihg/hotel/url-to-id",
  "provider": "ihg",
  "product": "url-to-id",
  "error_code": "INVALID_URL",
  "provided_url": "https://www.booking.com/hotel/us/foo.html",
  "correlation_id": "..."
}

{
  "type": "https://api.stayapi.com/errors/hotel-code-not-found",
  "title": "Hotel Code Not Found",
  "status": 400,
  "detail": "Could not extract an IHG hotel mnemonic from the URL",
  "instance": "/v1/ihg/hotel/url-to-id",
  "provider": "ihg",
  "product": "url-to-id",
  "error_code": "HOTEL_CODE_NOT_FOUND",
  "provided_url": "https://www.ihg.com/",
  "correlation_id": "..."
}