Quick answer
To start an online travel agency (OTA) you need five things: travel content (flights, hotels, tours), a booking engine to search and sell it, payments in your customers' currencies, your own branding and markups, and a way to service bookings after the sale. You can build all of this yourself over many months, or launch it on a travel commerce platform in weeks.
Starting an online travel agency used to mean either a shop front and a GDS terminal, or a very large software project. Today the model is different: sell a full trip online, under your own brand, sourcing inventory from suppliers and adding your margin. This guide walks through what you actually need, the build-versus-buy decision, and how quickly you can realistically go live.
What is an online travel agency (OTA)?
An OTA sells travel online, flights, hotels, packages and extras, under its own brand. It does not own the inventory. Instead it connects to suppliers (airlines, hotel wholesalers, tour and transfer providers), presents that inventory on a booking site, and earns a margin on each sale. The difference between a struggling OTA and a profitable one is rarely the traffic. It is how much of the trip you can sell, and how well you control your own margins and customer relationship.
What do you need to start an OTA?
Five building blocks, at minimum:
01
Content and inventory
Flights, hotels, tours and transfers to sell, via GDS, NDC, low-cost and bedbank sources.
02
Booking engine
Search, availability, pricing and checkout that ties the products together.
03
Payments
Card and local payment methods, multi-currency, and PCI-DSS compliance.
04
Markups and rules
Your own pricing, promotions and fare rules, so you control the margin.
05
Branded storefront
A B2C site and, often, a B2B agent portal, both under your brand.
06
Servicing
Post-booking changes, cancellations, refunds and support.
Miss any one of these and the business stalls: content without a booking engine is unsellable, a booking engine without payments cannot transact, and neither works long term without servicing.
Should you build it yourself or use a platform?
This is the decision that sets your timeline and cost. Building gives you full control but is a large, ongoing engineering commitment. A travel commerce platform gives you the building blocks ready to configure.
Build it yourself
- Full control over every detail
- Many months to well over a year to launch
- Your own dev team and supplier contracts
- You own PCI-DSS compliance and maintenance
- Costs and complexity grow as you add products
Launch on a platform
- Booking engine, content and payments included
- Live in weeks, not quarters
- Aggregated suppliers, plus your own direct deals
- PCI-DSS and connections handled for you
- Your brand and your markups from day one
For most new OTAs, the platform route wins on the two things that matter early: time to first booking, and keeping cash for marketing rather than engineering.
How long does it take, and what does it cost?
Building from scratch is a multi-quarter project with a real engineering budget, before you have sold a single trip. On a platform, a branded booking site can be live in weeks, on a predictable licence. The model matters too: watch for per-booking fees that quietly eat your margin as you scale. altovo, for example, uses a flat licence with no per-booking fees.
How altovo helps you launch
altovo (formerly easyGDS) is a travel commerce platform built for exactly this. You get a branded booking engine and agent portal, aggregated flights (GDS, NDC and low-cost), hotels, tours and transfers, payments in local currencies, and full control of your markups, live in weeks. If you are weighing it against a traditional setup, our guide to GDS alternatives for travel agencies compares the options in more detail. See how it works for travel agents.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need supplier contracts to start an OTA?
Not dozens of your own. A travel commerce platform gives you access to aggregated content (flights, hotels, tours, transfers) so you can start selling without negotiating every contract yourself, and add direct deals later.
How long does it take to launch an OTA?
Building your own system typically takes many months to over a year. Launching on a platform such as altovo is far faster, a branded booking site can go live in weeks.
Do I need to be PCI compliant to take payments?
Yes. Card payments require PCI-DSS compliance, which is demanding to run yourself. A certified platform (altovo is PCI-DSS Level 1) handles that layer for you.
Can I sell under my own brand and set my own markups?
Yes. A white-label platform lets you run the storefront under your own brand and control your markups and promotions, rather than reselling someone else's brand on their margins.
Launch your travel business with altovo
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