Contracted and manual inventory
The extranet holds hotel room types, allotments, rates and stop-sell. Tours are the operator's departures. A transfer can be the agency's own service. The software does not grant that inventory.
Reservations for agencies and OTAs
Travel Reservation System for agencies, OTAs and tour operators
One booking record covers search, price check, book, pay, ticket or voucher, then amend, cancel or refund. PHPTRAVELS is self-hosted for agencies, OTAs and tour operators. Source is included on a one-time commercial licence. The buyer brings supplier contracts.
- One booking record
- B2C, B2B, office and API
- Own inventory and supplier APIs
- Source included, self-hosted
Definition
What is a travel reservation system?
An agency, OTA or tour operator uses it to search, price, book and service a trip. The record holds travellers, products, the supplier confirmation, payment, and the voucher or e-ticket. It is not a GDS or a hotel-group CRS.
The platform dates from May 2014. The site states 4,800+ agencies and 5 million bookings as of September 2026, in 100+ countries. About us introduces the company. Success stories shows agencies on the product. No invented clients.
Travel booking software is the wider product. B2C travel portal is the public site, B2B travel portal the agent desk, White label travel portal the branded portal, Online travel agency software the OTA-shaped business. This page is only the shared booking record.
The licence is one-time, not a subscription. Hosting, supplier fees and add-ons are separate. PHPTRAVELS adds no per-booking fee. Amounts are only on Pricing.
The travel agency
Sells on the agency domain, with its markup and its merchant account. A date change amends this reservation.
The OTA
Several suppliers share one result list. The flight, the stay and the tour can share one reservation, each with its supplier reference.
The tour operator
Loads its own departures, then attaches a flight, hotel, transfer or car from a supplier API when the itinerary needs it.
Reservation lifecycle
How does a travel reservation system work?
Search, price check, book, pay, ticket or voucher, then amend, cancel or refund. Suppliers change. The record does not.
01
Search
A route, stay, departure or vehicle is requested. Each switched-on supplier is queried on its own, so one slow connection does not block the others.
02
Price check
The fare or rate is rechecked with the supplier before payment. Gone availability is dropped. Flight fares are revalidated before anyone pays.
03
Book
Passenger or guest details, the PNR or the supplier reference, stay pending until payment returns. A retry does not open a second reservation.
04
Pay
Checkout uses the gateway credentials stored in admin. The buyer pays the agency merchant account. PHPTRAVELS is not in the settlement and adds no per-booking fee.
05
Ticket or voucher
Ticketing stores the e-ticket number on the flight record when the fare rules allow it. Hotels, tours, transfers and cars get an agency-branded voucher. The invoice follows the same record.
06
Amend, cancel or refund
Amend, cancel and refund on this record, under the supplier's rules. Flights can be voided, refunded or reissued. Hotels and tours follow the cancellation window stored on the booking.
PNR and ticketing in depth are Airline reservation system. A hotel group's own rooms are Central reservations system. This page is the reservation that can hold more than one product.
One reservation
One booking record for flights, stays, tours and cars
Each module keeps its supplier reference. The reservation is the folder around the products the platform already ships.
Flights
Search, fare rules, PNR, e-ticketing, changes and refunds via the agency GDS agreement, plus NDC and low-cost fares through a consolidator.
Stays
Bedbank rates and direct contracts in one search. Two bedbanks returning the same room map to one hotel record.
Tours
Supplier activities, plus departures the operator loads. Seats, voucher and supplier reference stay on the reservation.
Cars
Car hire from a supplier such as CarTrawler, on the same reservation as the flight or the hotel.
Transfers
Airport and point-to-point transfers via the cars module and the transport API, with a flight number so pickup can follow the arrival.
Visa
A visa application stays in the same admin as the reservation. It is another module, not a second company.
Tours are Tours & activities. Operator workflow is Tour operator software. Activities connect through Tours API. Cruises, ferries and rail are on the Platform overview and are optional here.
Inventory
Can I load my own contracted hotels, tours and transfers?
Yes. Contracts and APIs share one record. The licence includes connectors, not the contract, the credentials, or a supplier's acceptance.
GDS and NDC
Native adapters cover Amadeus, Sabre and Travelport for search, fare rules, PNR, ticketing, changes and refunds. Duffel, Kiwi and PKfare add NDC and low-cost content. The agency holds the agreement.
Bedbanks and direct hotels
Hotelbeds, TBO and RateHawk are bedbank connectors. Direct contracts share the search and win a tie. The live list is the integrations directory.
Tours, tickets and cars
Viator and Tiqets supply activities and tickets. CarTrawler supplies cars. Own departures and own transfers stay on the same reservation.
The live connector list is All integrations.
Supplier contracts
Do I need a GDS contract to use it?
Only for GDS content. Amadeus, Sabre and Travelport need the agency's IATA or consolidator agreement. The software grants neither that nor ticketing authority. Duffel, Kiwi and PKfare can supply NDC and low-cost fares. Hotels can be Hotelbeds or loaded contracts. Tours can be the operator's departures.
The buyer brings each contract and each credential. A connector does not open inventory the agency has not signed.
Channels
Can travel agents book as well as customers?
Yes. Four ways into one travel reservation system: B2C, B2B agents, the back office, and a REST API. The licence decides which are included.
B2C site
Travellers pay on the agency domain. B2C is on every licence. Startup: English, one currency, one domain. Agency adds languages, including right-to-left. Enterprise adds currencies, domains, and drops the Powered by link.
B2B agents
Agents use their login, credit and the desk's markup. The B2B portal is Enterprise. Agency and Enterprise include a customer wallet. Startup markup is fixed. Agency and Enterprise add a percentage.
Back office
Staff search, book, amend and refund in admin. Vouchers, invoices and reports use the same reservation. The CMS holds slug, meta title, description, social image, canonical, robots and sitemap.
REST API
The JSON API add-on lets another app create and read reservations. It is quoted separately, adds no inventory, and covers a supplier that is not already connected.
The public site is B2C travel portal. The agent portal is B2B travel portal. The branded portal is White label travel portal. The platform overview is Platform overview.
Payments
Payments in a travel reservation system
Checkout uses the gateway keys in admin. Money settles in the agency merchant account.
Stripe and PayPal
Stripe and PayPal are ready connectors. The charge or refund stays on the reservation. PHPTRAVELS adds no per-booking payment fee.
Adyen and bank transfer
Adyen sits in the gateway list beside Stripe, PayPal, bank transfer and the agent wallet. The agency connects the account it already has.
Regional gateways
Cashfree is the ready gateway for India. Flutterwave and Paystack are ready on the homepage hub. Each uses the agency account.
A gateway that is not ready
A gateway without a ready connector can be added as a custom integration on the included source. It is scoped after the licence. The payment-gateway guide maps what is already connected.
Stripe is Stripe payments. PayPal is PayPal payments. The gateway guide is Payment gateway integration.
CRS, GDS, reservation system
What is the difference between a CRS, a GDS and a travel reservation system?
Three names, three systems. A company may use all of them. They are not substitutes.
| Question | Central reservation system | GDS | Travel reservation system |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it is | Control layer for a hotel group's rooms, rates, restrictions and reservations. | Amadeus, Sabre and Travelport distribute airline content, and some hotel content, to subscribers. | The agency, OTA or tour operator's system for flights, stays, tours, cars and transfers. |
| Where product comes from | The group's allotments and contracts. | Content the subscriber may sell under its own agreement. | Inventory the business loads, plus APIs it connects with its own credentials. |
| What is stored | The room reservation, voucher and invoice for that group. | The PNR and, after ticketing, the e-ticket inside the GDS. | Travellers, products, supplier references, payment, voucher or e-ticket, and later amendments. |
| Who operates it | The hotel group or the company running the properties. | The GDS company. The agency is a subscriber. | The travel business. The install is self-hosted, with source included. |
| Where it lives here | The central reservations system page. | The airline reservation system page, plus the GDS guides. | This page. |
The hotel-group system is Central reservations system. The flight slice is Airline reservation system.
Examples
What are examples of travel reservation systems?
Amadeus, Sabre and Travelport are GDSs, which is why they rank beside this query. PHPTRAVELS connects with the agency's credentials. The licence is not a GDS contract and does not replace the GDS.
PHPTRAVELS is the booking record around that content and around the business's own hotels, tours and transfers. The hotel-group neighbour is Central reservations system. PNR and ticketing are Airline reservation system.
Back office
What features should a travel reservation system have?
Markup, currency, language, voucher, invoice and report keep the record true after the sale. Dynamic packaging is not claimed on this page.
Markups
A fixed amount on Startup. Agency and Enterprise add a percentage. The buyer sees the sell price. The desk still sees the net.
Multi-currency
One currency on Startup and Agency. Unlimited currencies on Enterprise. A refund uses the same record as the payment.
Multi-language
English on Startup. Unlimited languages, including right-to-left, from Agency. One reservation, not a copy per language.
Vouchers and e-tickets
Hotels, tours, transfers and cars get an agency-branded voucher. Flights store the PNR and e-ticket number on that reservation.
Invoices
The invoice follows the voucher. Payment method and result stay on the booking a refund or a supplier invoice is matched to.
Reports
Bookings, revenue, refunds and agent ledgers export from the reservations in admin.
Hosting
Is it cloud SaaS or self-hosted?
Self-hosted, with source included on every licence under a commercial licence. Not a rented multi-tenant SaaS, and not open source.
| Question | This self-hosted licence | A rented SaaS portal |
|---|---|---|
| Source code | Included on every licence. Modifying the code is an Enterprise term. | Usually stays with the vendor. |
| Where it runs | The agency's server, or managed hosting. Bookings sit on that installation. | The vendor's cloud. The agency configures a login. |
| The booking record | The agency's database on that installation. | The vendor's tenant, with an export only if the contract allows. |
| Suppliers | Directory connectors. The agency signs each supplier and enters the keys. | Often the vendor's suppliers or the vendor's rates. |
| Payments | The agency merchant account and gateway credentials. | Often the vendor's checkout. |
A longer comparison is Self-hosted vs SaaS. Managed hosting is Shared hosting or VPS hosting. Amounts are on Pricing.
Licence
How much does a travel reservation system cost?
One-time licences: Startup, Agency, Enterprise. B2C, admin and source are on all three. B2B agents are Enterprise. Hosting, deposits, apps and the JSON API are separate. No per-booking fee from PHPTRAVELS.
Amounts are only on Pricing. Supplier and gateway fees are those companies' contracts. Custom work is scoped after the licence.
See licence pricingSetup
How long does it take to set up?
Setup is 7 to 10 business days on Startup, 1 to 2 business days on Agency, and 4 to 6 hours on Enterprise: install, configuration and testing. Supplier approval can take longer.
Walk the demo
Search a flight, stay, tour or car on the live demo and open the booking before choosing a plan.
Read the plan
Startup is English, one currency, one domain. Agency adds languages. Enterprise adds agents, currencies and domains.
Order the licence
The licence is a one-time order. Hosting is the agency's server or managed hosting. Supplier contracts stay in the agency's name.
Configure and test
Install, apply the brand, enter credentials, set the markup, connect the gateway, and walk one booking to a voucher or an e-ticket.
The demo is Live demo. The plans and the setup windows are Pricing.
Honest fit
Who a travel reservation system fits
A fit
An agency, OTA or tour operator that signs its own suppliers and wants the record self-hosted with source included. Startup is one language, currency and domain. Agency adds languages. Enterprise adds agents, currencies and domains.
A poor fit
A hotel group's rooms belong on the CRS page. PNR and ticketing belong on the airline page. GDS content and ticketing authority are not included. Dynamic packaging is not promised.
Hotel groups: Central reservations system. Flight ticketing: Airline reservation system. The wider product: Travel booking software.
Next step
See the travel reservation system on the demo
Follow one booking from search to voucher, then read the licence on the pricing page.
Related systems
- Travel booking softwareAgent logins, markups, credit and sub-agents
- Central reservations systemOne inventory and rate source for every property
- Airline reservation systemPNR, payments, ticketing and flight servicing
- B2C travel portalPublic booking site for flights, hotels, tours and cars
- B2B travel portalAgent tiers, markup layers, credit limits and settlement
- White label travel portalSelf-hosted B2C, B2B and B2B2C portal with source code
- Online travel agency softwareThe storefront, booking engine and admin an OTA runs on
- Tours & activitiesPackages and excursions
- Tour operator softwareDepartures, itineraries, guaranteed minimums and agent sales
- Tours APITours, activities and attraction tickets through one API
- All integrationsThe live, complete list
- Pricing
- Live demo
FAQ
Questions about a travel reservation system
Answers from the product as sold. Amounts stay on the pricing page.
Talk to salesThe system an agency, OTA or tour operator uses to search, price, book and service a trip. One record holds travellers, products, supplier references, payment and the voucher or e-ticket. PHPTRAVELS is self-hosted, source included, on a one-time commercial licence.
Search, revalidate the fare or rate, store the PNR or supplier reference, take payment on the agency gateway, issue the e-ticket or voucher, then amend, cancel or refund on that record.
A CRS holds a hotel group's rooms and rates. A GDS such as Amadeus, Sabre or Travelport distributes content under the subscriber's agreement. The travel reservation system is the agency's booking record. PHPTRAVELS connects to a GDS and does not replace it.
Amadeus, Sabre and Travelport are GDSs. PHPTRAVELS connects to them and is the reservation system for flights, stays, tours, cars and transfers. The CRS and airline pages cover the other two systems.
One record, a price check, markups, currency and language per the licence, vouchers, e-tickets, invoices and reports. B2C is on every plan. B2B agents are Enterprise. The REST API is an add-on. Dynamic packaging is not claimed.
Yes. Hotel allotments, rates and stop-sell go in the extranet. Tours are the operator's departures. Transfers can be the agency's service. Supplier APIs sit beside that inventory. The agency brings the contracts.
Only for GDS fares. Amadeus, Sabre and Travelport need the agency's IATA or consolidator agreement. The licence does not grant it or ticketing authority. Hotelbeds, Viator, Tiqets, CarTrawler and loaded contracts need no GDS.
Customers use B2C on every licence. Agents use the B2B portal on Enterprise, with logins, credit and markups. Agency and Enterprise add a customer wallet. Staff use the back office. The REST API add-on uses the same reservations.
Self-hosted. Source is on every licence under a commercial licence, not an open-source licence. Use the agency's server or managed hosting. Modifying the code, and lifetime updates, are Enterprise terms.
Startup, Agency and Enterprise are one-time licences. Amounts are only on the pricing page. Hosting, supplier fees, apps and the JSON API are separate. There is no per-booking fee from PHPTRAVELS.
7 to 10 business days on Startup, 1 to 2 on Agency, and 4 to 6 hours on Enterprise, including install, configuration and testing. Supplier approval can run longer.
Keep exploring
More from the platform
- Travel booking softwareAgent logins, markups, credit and sub-agents
- Central reservations systemOne inventory and rate source for every property
- Airline reservation systemPNR, payments, ticketing and flight servicing
- B2C travel portalPublic booking site for flights, hotels, tours and cars
- B2B travel portalAgent tiers, markup layers, credit limits and settlement
- White label travel portalSelf-hosted B2C, B2B and B2B2C portal with source code