What software do travel agents use? A map of the travel agency tech stack.

The travel agency software stack at a glance

Most agencies run software in four layers: tools to find and book travel, tools to sell it to customers or other agencies, tools to run the money, and tools to look after clients. The table summarises each category before the sections below go into detail.

These systems pass the same booking from one to the next. A typical flight sale moves like this:

1. Content in. The GDS, NDC aggregators, low-cost carrier connections and hotel suppliers feed fares and availability to the terminal or booking engine.
2. Booking. The agent or customer books, creating a PNR or airline order, and the payment tool takes the money.
3. Ticketing. The ticket is issued by the agency itself or by its consolidator.
4. Accounting. The booking flows to the mid and back office as an invoice and is later matched against the BSP or supplier statement.
5. Client record. The CRM and itinerary tool pick up the trip for documents, reminders and future sales.

Where a link in that chain is missing, staff fill the gap by retyping data, which is where most errors and delays come from.

GDS terminals: the agent workspace

A GDS terminal is the screen an agent uses to search availability, price itineraries, create PNRs and issue tickets in a global distribution system. Each GDS has its own, and an agency signs in under its office ID, the PCC.

• Amadeus Selling Platform Connect: Amadeus describes it as a cloud-based booking platform. Its NDC-enabled version, announced in 2019, lets sellers compare EDIFACT, NDC and other API content on one screen.
• Sabre Red 360: Sabre's agency point-of-sale tool. Sabre has made airline NDC content available through it, and developers can build apps inside it with the Sabre Red 360 SDK.
• Travelport Smartpoint: Travelport's agent workspace for Travelport+ content, including NDC, hotels, car rental and rail. It comes as Smartpoint Desktop and as Smartpoint Cloud, a web-based version launched in 2023.

Terminals support both cryptic commands and graphical screens. Agents also work GDS queues, where airlines and systems place PNRs that need action, such as schedule changes or ticketing deadlines. Which GDS an agency uses depends on its market and contract; see Amadeus vs Sabre vs Travelport.

Who needs it: agencies that ticket in their own name, consolidators and TMCs. Sub-agents of a consolidator often never use a terminal; they book through the consolidator's portal instead.

Booking engines and B2B or B2C portals

A booking engine puts search and booking online, so customers or other agencies can book without an agent typing commands. It connects to the same sources as a terminal, usually through APIs, and adds markups, payments and customer accounts on top.

• B2C portal: a consumer website or app where travellers search, pay and receive their booking. This is the core of an OTA.
• B2B portal: a trade site where sub-agents log in, book at net or marked-up rates, and pay from deposits or credit. Consolidators and wholesalers run these; see what a B2B travel portal is and B2B vs B2C travel portals.
• White-label platforms: a vendor's engine under your brand, hosted for you or delivered as code; see white label.

Booking engines are where agencies combine GDS, NDC, low-cost and hotel content in one search. For flight-specific requirements, see flight booking software; for trade portals, B2B travel portal software.

NDC and low-cost carrier connections

NDC is IATA's standard that lets airlines send their own offers, bundles and ancillaries to agencies. Agencies reach NDC content in three ways:

• Through the GDS: all three GDS terminals above now display NDC offers from participating airlines next to traditional fares.
• Through an NDC aggregator: one API that connects to many airlines' NDC channels. Duffel, for example, says its flights API searches NDC, GDS and low-cost content from more than 300 airlines.
• Direct to the airline: an agency builds or buys a connection to one airline's NDC API, which takes certification and development work for each carrier.

Low-cost carriers often sell outside the GDS, so agencies add their content through aggregators or direct APIs. For the trade-offs, read NDC vs GDS and GDS vs LCC airlines.

Who needs it: any agency selling airlines that put their best fares or ancillaries in NDC or direct channels, which is increasingly most agencies that sell flights.

Mid and back office, accounting and CRM

Mid and back office

The mid office checks and completes bookings after they are made: quality control, queue handling, policy checks and adding service fees. The back office handles the money: invoices, receipts, supplier payments, commissions and reconciliation of airline sales against the BSP billing.

Agencies use either a dedicated travel back office, a module inside their booking platform, or general accounting software fed by exports. Trams Back Office is one long-established example of a dedicated system: its developer, Tres Technologies, describes features such as automated journal entries, BSP and ticketing reports, and supplier reconciliation.

How it connects: booking data flows in from the GDS (through interface records) or from the booking engine, so each sale becomes an invoice without retyping.

CRM

A travel CRM stores client profiles, passport and loyalty details, preferences, trip history and follow-up tasks. Some are built for travel, such as ClientBase, which shares a database with Trams Back Office, and the client tools inside Travefy. Others are general-purpose CRMs adapted with travel fields.

Who needs it: leisure agencies and home-based advisors who sell on relationships, and TMCs managing traveller profiles. B2B consolidators usually manage sub-agents inside the portal itself.

Payments, corporate booking tools, itineraries and messaging

Payment tools

• Payment gateway: takes card and local payments on the booking engine. Agencies handling card data must follow PCI DSS.
• BSP payment methods: accredited agents settle tickets through the BSP; IATA EasyPay is IATA's prefunded wallet for issuing BSP tickets.
• Supplier payment: virtual cards are widely used to pay hotels and other suppliers booking by booking.

Corporate online booking tools

An online booking tool (OBT) lets employees book their own trips inside their company's travel policy, with approvals and reporting. TMCs provide or integrate one for corporate clients, and the bookings flow back to the TMC's GDS and mid office for servicing.

Itinerary and document tools

Leisure and tailor-made agencies use itinerary builders to turn bookings into branded proposals and final documents. Travefy, for example, offers proposals that clients approve online, itineraries imported from supplier documents, and a client app carrying the agency's branding. Many booking platforms also generate e-ticket receipts, hotel vouchers and invoices automatically.

Communication

Agencies talk to clients by email, phone and messaging apps, and send automated booking confirmations, payment reminders and schedule-change notices. The more these come from the booking system itself, the less agents copy details by hand.

Which software does each type of agency need?

The right stack follows the business model. This table shows a typical starting point for each type of agency, not a fixed rule.

Fewer, better-connected systems usually beat many separate ones: every gap between tools becomes manual work. If you are choosing a platform, read how to choose travel booking software; if you are still setting up, start with how to start an online travel agency.

Where ReservationHub fits in the stack

ReservationHub covers the booking engine and portal layer, with Amadeus, Sabre and Travelport pre-integrated. Accredited agencies can plug in their own GDS credentials, and non-IATA agencies sell through consolidator connections. NDC content comes through aggregators including Verteil, Duffel, Travel NDC and Babylon NDC, and low-cost carriers through Travel Fusion; the 110+ integrations are listed on our partners page.

Agencies use the hosted Subscription Cloud Edition, live in 24 hours from USD 99 a month plus USD 500 activation. Enterprises can self-host the Source Code Edition, and developers can use the TripGic Travel API.