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Client success story

Travel Horizontal: one marketplace workflow for customers and partners

A global travel marketplace that sells to travellers and to trade partners restructured its operations, so both channels follow the same workflow, run from fewer admin points and escalate less.

  • Global
  • B2B + B2C
  • Marketplace operations revamp
  • Launched in 2024

The marketplace

The Travel Horizontal success story in brief

Travel Horizontal runs a global travel marketplace with two kinds of buyers: travellers who book for themselves, and trade partners who book on behalf of their own clients. Both channels sell the same travel, but over time they had drifted apart in how the work behind each booking was handled.

The project was a marketplace operations revamp. The goal was not a new storefront but a cleaner platform workflow underneath it: one way of handling customer and partner bookings, fewer places for the team to manage them from, and standard routines for the cases that came up every day.

It was built on PHPTRAVELS, the same booking core behind the Online travel agencies and the B2B travel portal pages.

Industry
Travel marketplace
Region
Global
Model
B2B + B2C
Scope
Marketplace operations revamp
Launch
2024
Channel map
B2CCustomer channelTravellers booking for themselves
B2BPartner channelTrade partners booking for their clients

One marketplace workflow

  1. Search
  2. Book
  3. Manage
  4. Support
One admin control pointThe team runs both channels from the same place
A simplified picture of the target set-up, not a diagram of Travel Horizontal's systems.

Diagnosis to outcome

Three problems the marketplace named, and what changed

Each thread starts with a challenge Travel Horizontal described and ends with the result it reported, in its own terms.

  1. Journey consistency

    Challenge

    Cross-channel inconsistencyCustomer and partner journeys diverged in how they were handled operationally.

    Result

    Aligned channel flowCustomer and partner bookings now move through the same workflow, so the team handles them the same way.

  2. Operational management

    Challenge

    Fragmented control pointsTeams worked across too many disconnected admin touchpoints.

    Result

    Cleaner admin controlDaily management sits in fewer, connected places instead of being spread across separate screens.

  3. Support efficiency

    Challenge

    Escalation-heavy routinesCommon cases were escalated because the process was not standardised.

    Result

    Reduced escalationsStandard routines let the first person who sees a common case resolve it.

Results as reported by Travel Horizontal. No figures were published for this project.

Channel parity

Customer and partner journeys on the same rails

Aligning the channels does not mean making them identical. The steps and rules are shared, while each channel keeps what it genuinely needs, such as partners paying through Agent wallets. Switch the view to compare.

View as

  • SearchShared by both channelsThe same inventory and the same search flow.B2CB2BPublic prices on the marketplace website.Partner prices shown after the partner signs in.
  • BookShared by both channelsOne booking record format for every sale.B2CB2BThe traveller books for themselves.The partner books on behalf of its client.
  • PayShared by both channelsOne payment state on every booking.B2CB2BThe traveller pays online at checkout.The partner can pay from its account balance.
  • ManageShared by both channelsThe same statuses and the same change steps.B2CB2BThe traveller sees the booking in their account.The partner sees all of its bookings in its dashboard.
  • SupportShared by both channelsOne standard routine for common requests.B2CB2BRequests come from the traveller directly.Requests come from the partner, tagged to its account.

Illustration of how PHPTRAVELS separates shared steps from channel-specific ones, not Travel Horizontal's configuration.

One admin

From scattered touchpoints to one marketplace console

Fragmented control points were the second problem. When customer bookings, partner requests, payments and support each live somewhere else, every daily task starts with finding the right screen.

Before: separate places

  • Customer bookings
  • Partner requests
  • Payment checks
  • Support inbox

After: one console

  • Customer and partner bookings in one list, told apart by a channel tag.
  • Partners, customers, suppliers and payments managed from the same admin.
  • One status for each booking, so nobody has to check a second screen.

Customer and partner records can then feed follow-up work in the Travel CRM.

Marketplace adminB2CB2B
  • Bookings
  • Customers
  • Partners
  • Suppliers
  • Payments
  • Settings

Bookings

RefChannelProductStatus
#2041B2CFlightConfirmed
#2042B2BHotelPending
#2043B2BTourConfirmed
#2044B2CHotelChanged

Illustrative admin view with sample bookings, not a screenshot of Travel Horizontal's admin.

Fewer escalations

Common cases stay on the first step of the ladder

Escalation-heavy routines were the third problem. With a standard way to handle everyday requests, a case only climbs when it is genuinely unusual. Pick a case to see where it lands.

Pick a case

Before the revamp, many of these common cases climbed the ladder because there was no standard routine for them.

  1. Platform teamChanges to how the marketplace itself worksHandled here
  2. Operations leadExceptions that need a judgement callHandled here
  3. First responseEveryday cases, handled with a standard routineHandled here
Resolved on first contact with the standard routine.Escalated, because this case is genuinely out of the ordinary.

An illustration of the principle Travel Horizontal described, not its actual support rota.

In their words

What the platform team says

Our cross-channel flow is now easier to manage and more predictable for daily operations.

Travel Horizontal TeamPlatform team

One booking record, whichever channel it came from

The project runs on PHP, MySQL and JavaScript with a REST API, so a partner booking and a customer booking share the same shape. Read more about connecting systems on the Travel API integration page.

GET /api/bookings/2042

{
  "channel": "b2b",
  "product": "hotel",
  "status": "pending",
  "payment": "unpaid"
}

Illustrative request and response, not Travel Horizontal's live API.

Technology stack

  • PHP
  • MySQL
  • JavaScript
  • REST API

Refine your marketplace operations

Unify your B2B and B2C workflow into one consistent system. PHPTRAVELS is self-hosted and ships with its source code under a commercial licence.

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Related solutions

Questions

Travel Horizontal project FAQ

Short answers about the marketplace, the revamp and what it takes to run a similar project.

Talk to sales

It describes how Travel Horizontal, a global travel marketplace selling to both travellers and trade partners, revamped its marketplace operations on PHPTRAVELS to align its channels, consolidate admin control and reduce escalations.

The marketplace sells directly to travellers (B2C) and through trade partners who book for their own clients (B2B). The revamp put both channels on the same workflow while keeping what is specific to each.

An aligned channel flow, cleaner admin control and reduced escalations. The marketplace described these results in its own words; no figures were published for the project.

The project launched in 2024.

PHP, MySQL, JavaScript and a REST API. PHPTRAVELS is self-hosted and includes the source code under a commercial licence.

Yes. Book a demo to walk through how your customer and partner channels work today, then compare the one-time plans on the pricing page: Startup, Agency and Enterprise.

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