How to create a travel booking application: the complete guide

A travel agency gets the same questions every day: which dates, how many places, what rate for a child, which papers to provide. Much of this is still handled by phone or messaging, with scattered information and customers waiting for an answer.

A booking app brings order to that journey. The traveller browses offers, checks availability, books and follows their file; the agency receives complete requests and runs its sales from a back office. This guide details what to plan, from the offer page to departure day.

01Who a travel booking app is for

Three profiles share the product, each with their own screens and rights.

• The traveller: they browse offers, book for themselves or their family, upload their documents and follow their file until departure.
• The agency agents: they handle requests, confirm places, chase incomplete files and answer questions.
• The administrator: they publish offers, set payment rules, manage promotions and follow activity.

02The essential features

1. 01
   Offer catalogue. Stays, tours, pilgrimage packages, flights or hotels depending on the agency’s business. Each offer shows the itinerary, what is included, photos and terms.
2. 02
   Dates and availability. The traveller sees the departures on offer and the places left. A full offer can no longer be booked.
3. 03
   Request or instant confirmation. Depending on the offer, the booking is confirmed straight away or passed to the agency, which checks with the supplier before approving.
4. 04
   Travellers and documents. Names as they appear on the passport, contact details, copies of identity documents or photos for a visa, uploaded from the phone.
5. 05
   Deposit and payment. A deposit holds the booking, then the balance follows before departure, on a schedule you define.
6. 06
   Confirmations and reminders. Booking summary, balance reminder, missing document, departure details: each step triggers a message.
7. 07
   Promotions. Featured offers, discounts over a period, promo codes: the agency keeps its catalogue lively without rebuilding the app.
8. 08
   Customer support. Built-in chat or a callback request, with the traveller’s file in front of the agent.

03The agency back office

This is where the agency works every day. A well-designed back office avoids double entry and places sold twice.

• offers: prices, inclusions, photos and publishing;
• availability: departures, places and booking deadlines;
• bookings: status, travellers, documents received and missing;
• payments: deposits, balances, due dates and refunds;
• customers: contact details, history and past trips.

Codex designed Rihla Travel, a travel agency app that presents services, promotions and popular offers, and lets customers book from their phone. The Android app is published on Google Play.

04Booking request or instant confirmation?

This is the most structural decision. Instant confirmation suits offers where the agency controls its places, for example a group departure for which it has blocked the rooms. A booking request is needed when a hotel or an airline must confirm first.

In that second case, the app announces a response time, informs the traveller at each status change, and sets a clear rule for the deposit if the place turns out to be unavailable. The logic is close to visit booking in a real estate app: a request, an approval, a reminder.

05Documents and personal data

A passport or an identity photo is sensitive data. Collecting it is planned at the design stage, not after the first incident:

• encrypted storage, separate from the public files of the app;
• access limited to the agents handling the file, with a log of every view;
• a defined retention period, then deletion after the trip;
• rules to confirm with your legal adviser depending on the country where you operate.

06Payment and local specifics

A trip is rarely paid for in one go, and habits change from one country to another.

• in Algeria, cash payment at the agency remains common; online payment by CIB or Edahabia goes through an approved provider, and the app has to track both;
• elsewhere, an approved local payment provider collects deposits and balances by card;
• pilgrimage packages often depend on conditions and calendars set outside the agency: the app displays them without promising anything on its behalf;
• the interface comes in French and Arabic, with a right-to-left layout, and in English if the agency targets foreign customers.

07Mobile app, web or both?

The phone is often the traveller’s first screen: an Android app, completed by iOS depending on your customers, forms the heart of the product. A website remains useful for being found on search engines and sharing an offer by link.

The back office is used on a computer. Flutter or React Native cover Android and iOS from a shared code base; the article native or cross-platform app helps you decide.

08A useful first version, then improvements

No need to connect every supplier at first. A solid first version contains:

• the catalogue of the agency’s own offers, with their dates and places;
• the booking request and document upload;
• the deposit, online or at the agency, and balance reminders;
• the back office for offers, bookings and payments.

Then come instant confirmation on some offers, connections to flight or hotel suppliers, a loyalty scheme or a space for corporate customers.

09Mistakes to avoid

• showing poorly maintained availability: a place sold twice costs a customer;
• taking a deposit without a clear rule if the booking is not confirmed;
• receiving passports by messaging or in a shared folder;
• publishing vague cancellation terms;
• putting the app on a store account that is not in the agency’s name.

10What changes the budget

Each agency has its own business, places and rules: the cost follows the scope. The deciding factors:

• the types of offers and how their availability is managed;
• instant confirmation, which requires stricter stock rules;
• any connections to external suppliers;
• online payment, deposits and payment schedules;
• the platforms: Android, iOS, website and back office.

The detailed quote follows the scoping workshop. To prepare it, gather your typical offers and rules using the article writing a project brief.

11The steps with Codex

1. 01
   Discovery. A workshop on your offers, your suppliers and your payment rules. You leave with a scope, a schedule and a detailed quote.
2. 02
   Design. The traveller journey, the agent and back-office screens, the availability rules. Every screen is approved before any code.
3. 03
   Development. Short sprints with a demo at each step, and tests on the sensitive points: places, deposits and documents.
4. 04
   Launch and support. Publication on the stores in the agency’s name, training for the agents, then maintenance and new features.

Read next: a comparison of ten mobile apps, Qatar apps worth investing in and the Codex mobile development service.

12Building it with Codex

Codex is a software studio founded in Algiers in 2014. More than 15 engineers and designers build products in French, Arabic and English, and the team has built more than 20 products in-house. The source code, the accounts and the data stay in your name. See the published projects and the certificates of completion.

No office is added locally. The work starts from Algiers (Cité 440 Logements, Ain Malha, Djasr Kasentina), Doha (Building No. 157, Street No. 301, Zone 69, PO Box 8388) and Marseille (Rue de la République, 13002).