A travel portal's cost is driven less by the website than by supplier integrations, GDS and content contracts, payments, security and ongoing maintenance. Building in-house means paying for all of that yourself; SaaS turns it into a monthly fee. On ReservationHub, hosted plans start at USD 99 a month plus USD 500 setup.
What drives the cost of a travel portal?
The booking website is the visible part and usually the smallest part of the bill. The real cost sits behind it:
- Booking engine. Search, pricing, cart, booking and ticketing logic across flights, hotels and other products, plus the rules for markups, commissions and taxes.
- Supplier integrations. Each GDS, NDC aggregator, low-cost carrier source and hotel supplier is a separate integration with its own certification, testing and changes over time.
- Content contracts. GDS segment fees and incentives are negotiated per contract, aggregators and bedbanks have their own commercial terms, and some airlines add GDS surcharges. These are paid on top of software, whichever route you choose.
- Payments and security. Payment gateways, multi-currency handling and PCI DSS obligations for anyone handling card data.
- Hosting and operations. Servers, monitoring, backups, uptime and support.
- Maintenance. Supplier APIs change, NDC schema versions move on and airlines add fees. A portal that is not maintained stops working.
- Back office. Mid- and back-office work such as refunds, voids, queues and BSP reconciliation; see mid office and back office and our back-office software.
Build, source code, SaaS or API: how the cost compares
There are four ways to get a portal. They differ in how you pay, what you own and how fast you launch.
| Route | How you pay | What you own | Who maintains integrations | Fits |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Build in-house | Developer salaries or agency fees up front, then ongoing engineering | Everything | You | Companies with a large tech team and unusual requirements |
| Licensed source code | One licence fee (quoted per project), plus your own hosting and team | The codebase and your deployment | You, with vendor updates for the contracted period | Enterprises that need data residency, deep customisation or to own the stack |
| SaaS platform | Monthly subscription plus a one-time activation | Your brand, customers and data; the vendor runs the software | The vendor | Agencies that want to sell rather than run software |
| Travel API | API fee, plus building your own front end | Your front end | The API provider (for the integrated suppliers) | Developers and businesses that already have a platform |
The hidden difference is maintenance. With in-house builds and source code, every supplier change lands on your team. With SaaS and APIs it lands on the vendor: that shared engineering time is most of what a subscription buys. For a structured decision, read how to choose travel booking software.
Real prices: what ReservationHub charges
These are ReservationHub's list prices, also available as pricing.md:
| Product | Price (USD) | What is included |
|---|---|---|
| SaaS Basic | 99/month + 500 one-time activation | Flight, hotel, activities, visa, Umrah/Hajj; 1 GDS, 1 NDC carrier, 2 LCC carriers, 1 hotel supplier, 15 sub-agents, 1,500 searches/day |
| SaaS Standard | 200/month + 800 one-time | Adds transfers/trains, insurance, group fares and tour packages, real-time void/refund; 2 GDS, 2 NDC, 4 LCC, 2 hotel suppliers, 50 sub-agents, 3,000 searches/day |
| SaaS Premium | 350/month + 1,200 one-time | Adds GDS queue management, BSP auto-reconciliation, real-time reissue, ancillary services, custom integrations; all GDS, unlimited NDC/LCC, hotel suppliers and sub-agents, 5,000 searches/day |
| Source Code Edition | Quoted per project | Perpetual licence, full source code, white-label, self-hosted |
| TripGic Travel API | From 1,499 one-time | Flights (GDS, NDC, LCC), hotels, transfers, car rental and activities through one REST/JSON API |
Common add-ons, one-time unless marked: B2C activation 1,000 / 500 / 500 (Basic / Standard / Premium), B2C monthly charge 100 / 50 / 50 per month, B2B mobile app 1,000 / 800 / 500, new supplier integration 350 on Standard and 250 on Premium, extra searches 1.00 / 0.70 / 0.50 per 1,000.
Worked example: first-year software cost
Using the list prices above, the first-year software cost for a hosted portal is the activation fee plus twelve monthly payments:
| Setup | Calculation (USD) | First-year total (USD) |
|---|---|---|
| Basic, B2B only | 500 + 99 × 12 | 1,688 |
| Standard, B2B only | 800 + 200 × 12 | 3,200 |
| Standard with a B2C site | 3,200 + 500 activation + 50 × 12 | 4,300 |
| Premium, B2B only | 1,200 + 350 × 12 | 5,400 |
From the second year the activation fees drop away. What these figures do not include is the supply side: GDS segment fees, aggregator or bedbank terms and payment gateway fees, which you would pay under any route. Ask each supplier for its terms before comparing totals.
Time to launch is a cost too
Every month a portal is not live is a month without bookings. On ReservationHub, a hosted SaaS portal goes live in 24 hours. A custom-designed B2C front end is delivered in 20–25 business days after design approval, and a new supplier API is added in 10–21 business days. An in-house build has to design, integrate and certify each supplier first, so its launch date depends on your own team.
Questions to ask before you sign
- Is the price per month, per booking, per search or a mix? What happens when searches exceed the plan?
- Which suppliers are already integrated, and what does a new integration cost and how long does it take?
- Who holds the GDS, NDC and bedbank contracts: you or the vendor? Who pays supplier fees?
- Who owns the customer data and the domain if you leave?
- What uptime is committed, and what support response times? (ReservationHub's uptime SLA is 99.5%.)
- How is card data handled, and what is the vendor's PCI DSS status?
- Are voids, refunds, reissues and BSP reconciliation included, or extra?
Frequently asked questions
How much does it cost to build a travel portal?
It depends on the route. Building in-house means paying a development team for the booking engine, every supplier integration and ongoing maintenance. A hosted SaaS portal on ReservationHub costs USD 99 a month plus a USD 500 activation on the Basic plan, with supplier fees on top under any route.
How much does a white-label travel portal cost?
On ReservationHub, white-labelling is part of every hosted plan: from USD 99 a month plus USD 500 activation (Basic), USD 200 plus 800 (Standard) or USD 350 plus 1,200 (Premium). A B2C site is an add-on, and the Source Code Edition is quoted per project.
Is it cheaper to build or buy travel booking software?
Buying usually costs less to start, because a platform spreads supplier integrations and maintenance across many customers. Building makes sense when you have a large engineering team and requirements no platform can meet, or when you need to own and host the code, which the Source Code Edition also covers.
What ongoing costs does a travel portal have?
Software subscription or engineering salaries, hosting, supplier fees such as GDS segment fees and aggregator terms, payment gateway fees, security and PCI DSS work, extra search volume and new supplier integrations.
How long does it take to launch a travel portal?
A hosted ReservationHub portal goes live in 24 hours. A custom B2C front end takes 20–25 business days after design approval, and each new supplier API 10–21 business days.
Get a quote for your exact setup
Tell us your markets, suppliers and sub-agent numbers and we will price the plan, add-ons and launch timeline.
Book a meetingTerms in this guide
Bedbank · Booking engine · BSP · GDS queue · LCC · Mid office and back office · PCI DSS · White-label
Browse every definition in the travel technology glossary.