How to choose a travel software developer

The checklist

For each point, the question to ask in the first call. A good developer answers it in plain words and puts the answer in the contract.

1. 01

   Working integrations, not logos

   Ask to see a booking go through a supplier connection they built: search, price check, booking and cancellation. A page of logos says nothing about whether the connection holds up when the supplier changes its API.

   Ask: Which supplier connections have you built, and can I see one working?

2. 02

   You own the code and the data

   The contract should say that your database, content and the code written for you are yours, and how you can move the system to another team or server. If it is built on the developer's own core, ask what license you get for it.

   Ask: If we stop working together, what do we keep and how do we take it?

3. 03

   Support in your season

   Travel software fails at the worst time: in peak season, on a busy weekend, when a supplier changes something. Get response times in writing, separately for peak season and off season, and a clear definition of a critical incident.

   Ask: How fast do you respond to a critical incident in July, and in which hours?

4. 04

   A fixed price per phase

   An hourly estimate moves with every surprise. A fixed price for a defined phase puts the risk of the estimate on the developer, and you can stop after any phase.

   Ask: What exactly is in the first phase, what does it cost, and what changes the price?

5. 05

   Documentation you can use

   At handover you should get architecture notes, how to run and deploy the system, the list of integrations and where their credentials live, and a guide for your team. Without it, the next developer starts by taking the system apart.

   Ask: What documentation do we get at handover?

6. 06

   They know how travel is sold

   A developer who knows the difference between a net rate and a commission, an allotment and free sale, or a static and a dynamic package asks the right questions in the first week, not after launch.

   Ask: How would you model our pricing and commission rules?

Warning signs

• A price without a written scope of what it covers.
• No one who will write the code joins the calls before you sign.
• Every integration is "possible", but none has been built.
• The code stays in the developer's account, with no way to export it.
• Support is "best effort", with no response times in writing.
• No test environment where you can try changes before they go live.

How we answer this checklist

The same questions, answered for Aviobyte.

Integrations

Our integrations page lists what we connect: GDS and airline content, bedbanks, channel managers and PMS, payments and any supplier with a REST, SOAP or XML API. The working examples on this site run live, and you can try them.

Ownership

You own your data, database, content and the code built for you, with a perpetual license to the core your system uses.

Support in season

With the Seasonal SLA, a critical incident from May to October gets a response within 4 business hours, Monday to Friday, 9:00–13:00 ET.

Price

Every phase has a fixed price, agreed in writing before the phase starts.

Handover

Code, documentation and an accessibility report at handover, and your team is trained before launch.

See the integrations we build

Custom travel software development for startups and OTAs