Big Bus Tours API
Big Bus Tours runs a real booking API (search, availability, reservations, QR ticketing) built on MuleSoft and used by 1,000+ partners including Expedia. There is no public developer portal, spec, SDK, or self-serve access; onboarding is sales-mediated and takes about two weeks.
Frequently asked questions
Big Bus Tours scores A on the API Report Card. Big Bus Tours runs a real booking API (search, availability, reservations, QR ticketing) built on MuleSoft and used by 1,000+ partners including Expedia. There is no public developer portal, spec, SDK, or self-serve access; onboarding is sales-mediated and takes about two weeks.
Big Bus Tours has a workable official integration path. Most engineering teams can build against it directly. Open API: self-serve, documented, with SDKs
Big Bus Tours is the world's largest operator of open-top hop-on/hop-off sightseeing buses, running a fleet of roughly 400 buses across 30+ cities in Europe, North America, the Middle East, and Asia-Pacific.
Vertical: misc (closest Sanity adjacency is POS/Hospitality, but Big Bus is the buyer of POS/booking software, not the seller). Best described as a Tours & Activities Operator / Travel Distribution platform. Consumers buy tickets on bigbustours.com or the iOS/Android app and redeem QR-coded e-tickets on the bus.
5/10 in tours & activities, 1/10 as a developer-facing platform. Big Bus is a well-known consumer brand ("trusted by millions," 30+ cities) and a top-3 global hop-on/hop-off operator alongside CitySightseeing and Gray Line.
For partners that integrate the booking API: product catalog (city, route, tour variants, durations), real-time inventory/availability, pricing tiers (wholesale vs. retail), reservations, cancellations, QR-coded digital ticket payloads, redemption status, and commission/settlement records.
Founded 1991 (as The Big Bus Company in London). Currently owned by Exponent Private Equity (acquired 2019 from CVC Capital Partners).
Real-time tracking in mobile app inaccurate, buses shown that never move or skip stops. Overcrowding at peak times; passengers denied boarding after paying. Full sourced list under Sources below.
Common alternatives include CitySightseeing Worldwide, Gray Line Worldwide, Viator (Tripadvisor), GetYourGuide, Klook, Historic Tours of America (Old Town Trolley). Graded alternatives appear under "More from the report card" below.
Grades measure one thing: can a customer's engineering team get their own data out programmatically? We check six things (whether a real API exists, how access is gated, data coverage, auth quality, docs and developer experience, and stability) and roll them into a letter grade. Grades get re-verified, and they only move on evidence.