I Built a White Label Travel Portal for Indian Agencies - Here's What I Learned

Webcyclomedia — Sat, 06 Dec 2025 09:40:10 +0000

Small travel agencies in India have a problem: they can't afford custom booking websites (costs ₹5-10 lakhs), but using platforms like MakeMyTrip B2B means paying 25-30% commission on every booking.
So I built rayds.org - a white label solution where agencies get their own branded portal for a flat monthly fee.
Here's what I learned building it.

The Big Technical Challenges

Every Agency Needs Their Own Website
The Problem:
Each agency wanted their own subdomain like agency-name.rayds.org with their logo, colors, and branding - but I couldn't build 100 separate websites.
The Solution:
Built one application that automatically customizes itself based on which subdomain someone visits. Used Redis to cache each agency's settings so the site loads fast.
Result: One codebase serves 50+ agencies, each thinking they have their own custom site.
Flight APIs Are a Nightmare
The Problem:
I needed to show flights from multiple suppliers (Amadeus, Sabre, TBO, etc.) but each API speaks a different language. One returns JSON, another returns XML (yes, in 2024!), and they all structure data completely differently.
The Solution:
Built "adapters" - small translators for each API that convert their unique format into one standard format my app understands. Then I could compare prices and show the cheapest options.
Result: Users see flights from 5 different sources, sorted by price, without knowing the chaos behind the scenes.
Indian Payments Are Different
The Problem:
International payment gateways don't work well in India. I needed Razorpay, UPI, Paytm integration. Plus, Indian tax law requires automatic GST invoice generation for every booking.
The Solution:
Integrated all three payment methods and built an automated GST invoice generator that creates proper invoices with HSN codes, GSTIN, and all required fields.
Result: Agents can accept any payment method their customers prefer, and they get compliant invoices automatically.
WhatsApp > Email in India
The Problem:
I built a beautiful email confirmation system. Nobody cared. Agents kept asking "can you send booking confirmations on WhatsApp?"
The Solution:
Integrated WhatsApp Business API. Now booking confirmations go directly to customer's WhatsApp with flight details, PNR, and ticket link.
Result: This single feature got more signups than anything else. Lesson: know your market.
Making It Fast
The Problem:
With 50+ agencies using the platform, things got slow. Searching 5 flight APIs for every query meant users waited 8-10 seconds.
The Solution:

Cached flight search results (prices don't change every second anyway)
Showed results from the fastest API first, then loaded others in background
Stored agency settings in memory so they don't hit the database every time

Result: Page loads in under 100ms. Search results appear in 2 seconds instead of 10.

Tech Stack Choices
Frontend: React + Next.js
Why: Each agency's site needs good SEO to rank on Google. Next.js does server-side rendering automatically.
Backend: Node.js
Why: Fast, handles multiple API calls well, lots of libraries for payment gateways.
Database: PostgreSQL
Why: Reliable, has security features for keeping each agency's data separate.
Caching: Redis
Why: Makes everything lightning fast. Cache flight results, agency settings, user sessions.
Deployment: Docker + Google Cloud Run
Why: Easy to deploy, scales automatically when traffic increases.

Current Status

50+ agencies using the platform
200+ bookings per day
99.8% uptime
Response time: Under 100ms
Average setup time: 24 hours (agency provides logo, we handle the rest)

What I'm Still Figuring Out

Refund handling - When a booking needs refund, each API has different processes
Pricing model - Should I charge monthly subscription, per-booking fee, or hybrid?
Scaling - When should I give big agencies their own separate instance?
Mobile app - Many agents work entirely from phones, might need native apps

Biggest Lessons

Cache Everything 90% of my performance improvements came from caching. Don't hit databases or APIs unless you absolutely have to.
Know Your Market I spent weeks on email notifications. Nobody used them. WhatsApp took 2 days to integrate and became the #1 requested feature.
Start Simple I over-engineered the multi-tenant architecture initially. Could have started with a much simpler version.
One Small Feature Can Sell Everything The WhatsApp booking confirmation is technically trivial but it's what most agencies mention when they sign up.
B2B SaaS in India is Different

Payment preferences are different (UPI, Paytm matter more than credit cards)
WhatsApp > Email for communication
GST compliance isn't optional
Mobile-first is critical (most small agencies work from phones)

The Business Model
Traditional Model (what agencies pay now):

25-30% commission per booking to aggregators
No branding
No control over prices

Our Model:

₹5,000-10,000/month flat fee
Agencies keep all margin
Their brand, their domain
Access to wholesale rates (5-7% markup instead of 30%)

The Math:
If an agency does 50 bookings/month at ₹10,000 average, they save ₹1.25 lakhs/month in commission fees. Our ₹10K fee pays for itself 12x over.

What's Next

Hotel booking module (currently only flights)
Bus booking integration
Mobile apps for iOS and Android
Automated marketing tools for agencies
Analytics dashboard to help agencies see which routes are profitable

Open for Feedback
This has been a solo journey so far. If you're building something similar or have experience in:

Travel tech
Multi-tenant SaaS
B2B marketplace dynamics
Indian payment systems

I'd love to hear your thoughts!
Check it out: rayds.org

How We Built a White-Label Travel Portal Using Real-Time APIs

Webcyclomedia — Wed, 29 Oct 2025 12:23:31 +0000

Intro:
Building a travel booking platform from scratch sounds complex — and it is. But with today’s API ecosystem, developers can connect real-time hotel, flight, and activity data without reinventing the wheel.

At webcyclomedia
, we focused on creating a white-label travel portal that combines multiple supplier APIs like TBO, Tripjack, and GRN — giving agencies instant access to real-time inventory under their own brand.

What We Solved:
🔗 Unified data from multiple travel APIs
📍 Mapped hotels using latitude & longitude
🧠 Created dynamic hotel search with caching and filtering
💰 Added custom markups for agents and resellers
🧩 Used PHP + MySQL backend with API orchestration

Tech Stack We Used:
Backend: PHP (procedural structure for easy integration)
Database: MySQL
API Integration: TBO, Tripjack, GRN (JSON-based REST APIs)
Caching: CloudFront + S3 for image and data caching
Frontend: Bootstrap + JS

Lessons Learned:
Mapping data from multiple APIs is harder than it looks — names, coordinates, and addresses often vary.
A caching layer (like AWS CloudFront) improves API performance drastically.
Always store raw API logs for debugging.

Conclusion:
If you’re planning to build a scalable travel-tech SaaS, focus on modular API integration and data mapping early on. Once that’s stable, adding new suppliers or services becomes effortless.

💬 Want to learn more about API-based travel solutions?
Visit Rayds.org
– where we’re simplifying travel technology for developers and agency.

DEV Community: Webcyclomedia

I Built a White Label Travel Portal for Indian Agencies - Here's What I Learned

How We Built a White-Label Travel Portal Using Real-Time APIs