What is the best way/technology to pull hotel rates and inventory for a hotel search and booking app ?

That's a much more complicated question than it appears to be, as there are multiple sources which will get you some of the inventory, but nothing which will get you all of the inventory. If you look at an OTA, they are pulling from typical sources like SABRE or Amadeus, but also from what is in effect their own inventory, where hotels are either going in via an extranet or there's some kind of direct-connect to the system the hotel is operating on (which could be one of many, including none at all). In fact, some of the OTA's make that proprietary inventory available too, via an API and on a commissionable sales basis. There's just no one-size-fits-all access point - especially when you consider that worldwide the hotel business is actually very un-aggregated with something like 80% of all hotel room capacity operated independently (that is to say, not branded or part of a chain like Starwood, Accor, IHG etc.). It's a big part of why OTA's have invested so heavily in technology to manage and distribute this type of inventory. It's not easily done as the technology used in the hospitality industry is often not great and it's unconsolidated to there's value and negotiating strength to be brought from consolidating it.

To pull hotel rates and inventory for a hotel booking app, using APIs from well-known providers like Amadeus, Expedia, or Booking.com is essential. These APIs offer real-time access to rates, availability, and other hotel information. Additionally, you can integrate with a Property Management System (PMS) or a Channel Manager for smaller hotels, which helps ensure consistent data across multiple platforms.

For visualizing hotel rates in a graph format, similar to Kayak’s or Hipmunk’s flight graphs, you can use libraries like Chart.js or D3.js to dynamically present price trends based on the API data.

For more detailed insights, here’s a relevant resource: https://www.cleveroad.com/blog/hotel-management-system-development/