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How To Make A Travel Website: Step-By-Step Guide

Table of contents.

The boundless world of travel beckons, filled with vibrant cultures, breathtaking landscapes, and unforgettable adventures. Whether your dream is to share these experiences with fellow explorers through a captivating travel blog or to transform your travel expertise into a successful online business, a well-designed website is your gateway to the world.

Creating a travel website may seem daunting, but with the right tools and guidance, it’s incredibly achievable – even if you’re starting with little technical know-how. This comprehensive guide will break down the process into clear steps, providing everything you need to launch a stunning and functional travel website.

We’ll delve into choosing the best niche, crafting persuasive content, and optimizing your website to attract your ideal audience. And, to streamline the process, we’ll introduce you to the power of Elementor – a leading website builder designed to simplify the web creation journey. With its intuitive interface and travel-focused features, Elementor acts as your all-in-one toolkit for building a website that captures the spirit of exploration.

Let’s embark on this journey together!

Defining Your Travel Website’s Foundation

Choosing your niche.

The travel landscape is vast and diverse, so finding your unique voice and focus is essential for attracting the right audience. A well-defined niche will help your website stand out and make it easier for passionate travelers to find you. Consider these niche ideas:

• Adventure Travel: Target thrill-seekers with guides to hiking, camping, extreme sports, and off-the-beaten-path destinations.
• Luxury Travel: Cater to those seeking high-end experiences, focusing on exquisite accommodations, fine dining, and exclusive tours.
• Budget Travel: Become a go-to resource for backpackers and budget-conscious adventurers, sharing savvy tips for saving money while exploring.
• Local Guides: Specialize in your city or region, offering insider knowledge, hidden gems, and authentic experiences.
• Solo Travel: Support independent travelers with resources, safety tips, and destination recommendations tailored for solo journeys.

Target Audience 

Once you’ve selected a niche, delve into understanding who your ideal traveler is. Consider their:

• Age and Demographics: Are you targeting millennials, families, couples, or retirees?
• Interests: What excites them – food, history, culture, wellness, photography?
• Travel Style: Do they prefer luxury, adventure, slow travel, or short getaways?
• Pain Points: What are their common frustrations or anxieties when planning travel?

By understanding your target audience, you can craft content, features, and travel offerings that directly address their needs and desires.

Choose a Domain Name

Your domain name is your website’s digital address, so make it count! Choose something that is:

• Memorable: Easy to spell, pronounce, and remember.
• Brand Relevant: Reflect on your chosen niche or brand name.
• Keyword-rich (optional): Include relevant keywords for a potential SEO boost, but prioritize memorability.

Reliable Web Hosting: The Backbone of Your Travel Website 

Your website’s hosting is like the foundation of a house – it needs to be sturdy to support everything you’ll build on top of it. Choosing the right hosting provider is essential for ensuring that your travel website is fast, secure, and always online. Here’s what to look for:

• High Performance: Slow loading times can drive visitors away. Opt for a hosting provider that guarantees excellent speed and uptime. Look for features like SSD storage, content delivery networks (CDNs), and optimized server configurations.
• Robust Security: Travel websites often handle sensitive information like customer data and payment details. Prioritize hosting solutions with advanced security measures, including firewalls, malware scanning, automatic updates, and secure data backups.
• Scalability: As your website grows and attracts more traffic, your hosting needs to scale with it. Choose a provider that offers flexible resources and upgrade options.
• Reliable Support: When you encounter technical issues, having access to knowledgeable support is invaluable. Look for hosting providers with 24/7 availability and multiple support channels (live chat, email, phone).

Why Elementor Hosting is a Game-Changer

Elementor Hosting is not just web hosting ; it’s a tailored solution specifically designed to power exceptional WordPress websites built with the Elementor website builder.  Here’s why it stands out:

• Built on Google Cloud Platform : Leverages robust infrastructure for lightning-fast speeds and reliability.
• Cloudflare Enterprise CDN : Accelerates content delivery across the globe, ensuring your website loads quickly, no matter where visitors are located.
• Premium Security: A multi-layered security suite, SSL certificates, and regular backups protect your site and customer data.
• Exceptional Support: Benefit from Elementor’s expert team, which is available 24/7 to assist you with both website-building and hosting-related concerns.

By choosing Elementor Hosting, you’ll equip your travel website with the performance, security, and support it needs to thrive in the competitive online landscape.

Setting Up the Essentials with WordPress and Elementor

Wordpress overview .

WordPress is the world’s most popular Content Management System (CMS), powering millions of websites across the globe. Its flexibility, vast community, and extensive plugin ecosystem make it a perfect foundation for your travel website.  Key benefits of WordPress include:

• Ease of Use: User-friendly interface, even for beginners.
• Customization: Thousands of themes and plugins to personalize your website’s look and functionality.
• SEO-Friendly: Optimized structure and tools to help your website rank higher in search engines.
• Community Support: Access extensive online resources, tutorials, and forums.

Installing WordPress 

While many hosting providers offer one-click WordPress installation, Elementor Hosting takes it a step further with pre-installed WordPress . This means your website-building journey begins immediately upon signing up! If you’re using a different hosting provider, they’ll likely provide clear instructions on the WordPress installation process.

Choosing a Travel-Focused Theme 

Your WordPress theme determines the overall appearance and layout of your website. Look for themes specifically created with travel websites in mind. These often include features like:

• Stunning Image Galleries: Showcase breathtaking destinations and travel experiences.
• Destination Listings: Organize and display locations with essential details such as maps, descriptions, and reviews.
• Booking Integration: Seamlessly connect to booking systems if you plan to offer tours or accommodations.
• Responsive Design: Ensure your website looks fantastic on desktops, tablets, and smartphones.
• Travel-Specific Widgets: Display weather forecasts, currency converters, or destination spotlights.

Introducing the Elementor Website Builder

Elementor revolutionizes the WordPress website-building process by empowering you to craft visually stunning pages and posts without needing to write a single line of code. This intuitive drag-and-drop builder is incredibly user-friendly, even for those with zero web design experience. Here’s what makes it stand out:

• Live, Visual Editing: See changes instantly as you build, streamlining the design process.
• Pre-designed Templates and Blocks: Kickstart your design with professionally designed layouts for homepages, destinations, blog posts, and more. Customize them effortlessly to match your brand.
• Extensive Widget Library: Access numerous content elements like headings, buttons, image galleries, testimonials, maps, and more – simply drag and drop them into place.
• Theme Builder : Gain complete control over your entire site’s design, including headers, footers, single post layouts, archives, and custom page templates.
• Mobile-Responsive Editing: Ensure your website looks perfect across all devices with dedicated tools for adjusting layouts on tablets and smartphones.

The Power of Elementor for Travel Websites

Elementor goes beyond general website building. It offers features that perfectly complement the needs of travel websites:

• Destination Showcases: Create captivating destination pages with Elementor’s versatile widgets and layouts.
• Interactive Maps: Embed maps to highlight locations, routes, or points of interest.
• Stunning Galleries: Display breathtaking destination photos and travel experiences.
• Customer Reviews: Build social proof by showcasing testimonials with dedicated widgets.
• Booking Forms : Integrate booking forms seamlessly with customization options to match your website’s design.

With Elementor, designing a professional and engaging travel website becomes a truly enjoyable experience, empowering you to focus on sharing your passion for travel.

Designing Your Homepage for Success

Homepage structure: the key elements .

Your homepage is the digital doorway to your travel website. It’s where you capture visitors’ attention, introduce your brand, and guide them toward further exploration. Here’s a breakdown of essential elements to include:

• Compelling Header and Navigation: The header is prime real estate. Include a clear logo, tagline if applicable, and an intuitive navigation menu, making it easy for visitors to find what they’re looking for.
• Hero Section with Stunning Visuals: Make a powerful first impression with high-quality images or videos representing the essence of travel. Accompany this with a captivating headline, concise tagline, and a clear Call to Action (CTA) button (e.g., “Explore Destinations,” “Book Your Adventure”).
• Destination Search Bar: Help visitors quickly find what they seek. Consider Elementor’s dynamic capabilities to create a search bar that pulls and displays relevant destination content as users type.
• Featured Destinations or Travel Packages: Immediately showcase your top offers or popular destinations to pique interest. Consider image carousels, eye-catching grids, or short descriptions paired with alluring visuals.
• Calls to Action: Clearly guide visitors towards the next step, whether it’s browsing destinations, reading your blog, or signing up for your newsletter.
• Customer Testimonials or Social Proof: Build trust early on by displaying positive reviews from past travels or showcasing social media feeds with user-generated content.

Design Best Practices 

Keep these principles in mind when crafting your homepage:

• Visual Hierarchy: Use size, color, and spacing to guide the eye toward the most important elements.
• Mobile Responsiveness: Prioritize design that seamlessly adapts to various screen sizes, providing a smooth experience for all visitors.
• Compelling Travel Content: Use short but descriptive text to evoke wanderlust and inspire action.
• White Space: Let your design breathe, ensuring elements don’t feel cluttered.

Leveraging Elementor’s Power: Widgets, Templates, and Customization 

Elementor simplifies homepage design with a wealth of tools and resources:

Homepage Templates:  

Elementor offers a vast library of pre-designed homepage templates catering to various travel niches and styles. Choose a template that aligns with your vision and use it as a solid foundation, saving you precious time.

Dedicated Widgets:  

Elementor provides a diverse set of widgets tailored for your homepage. Here are some key ones:

• Hero Section Widgets: Design customizable hero areas with images, videos, text, and buttons.
• Destination Widgets: Create interactive destination grids, lists, or carousels for seamless browsing.
• Call to Action Widgets: Craft eye-catching CTAs for various purposes like booking, subscribing, or exploration.
• Testimonial Widgets: Showcase customer reviews in a variety of layouts.
• Map Widgets: Integrate maps to highlight specific locations, routes, or points of interest.
• Social Media Widgets: Display your social feeds to encourage engagement.

Customization Power:  

Elementor gives you full control over the appearance and functionality of these widgets.  Adjust these elements:

• Colors and Typography: Match your website’s branding perfectly.
• Spacing and Layout: Create the optimal visual flow for your homepage.
• Animation and Effects: Add subtle interactions to boost engagement.
• Responsive Controls: Fine-tune how your homepage looks on different devices.

Theme Builder:  

For advanced control, Elementor’s Theme Builder lets you design custom headers, footers, and templates that apply to your entire site, including the homepage. This ensures a cohesive look and feel throughout your website.

The Beauty of Elementor: Ease and Flexibility

The true magic of Elementor lies in its drag-and-drop interface. You can visually arrange widgets, see results instantly, and experiment with different layouts without any coding knowledge. This empowers you to iterate on your design until it perfectly conveys your travel brand’s personality.

Must-Have Pages for Your Travel Website

About us: building trust and connection .

Your “About Us” page is an opportunity to introduce yourself, your team, or your brand’s story. Here’s how to make it compelling:

• Share Your Passion: Explain what inspires your love for travel and why you’re qualified to provide travel advice or services.
• Highlight Expertise: Showcase any unique experiences, skills, or certifications that set you apart.
• Be Authentic: Use a conversational tone that reflects your brand’s personality.
• Include Visuals: Incorporate photos of yourself, your team, or destinations you’ve visited to add a personal touch.
• Social Proof: Feature customer testimonials or brief case studies to enhance credibility.

Contact Us: Facilitating Smooth Communication

Provide multiple ways for visitors to reach you:

• Contact Form: A simple form with fields for name, email, and message is essential. Consider Elementor’s Form Builder for creating custom forms that integrate with your CRM or email marketing tools.
• Email Address: Clearly display your contact email and aim for timely responses.
• Phone Number: Include a phone number for those who prefer to call directly, especially regarding urgent inquiries.
• Map Embed: If you have a physical location, embed a map for easy directions.
• Social Media Links: Prompt followership for further engagement.

Travel Blog: The Heart of Content Creation 

A well-maintained blog adds immense value to your travel website:

• SEO Benefits: Fresh, high-quality blog content can boost your website’s visibility on search engines.
• Audience Engagement: Share informative travel guides, inspiring stories, and insider tips to build a loyal following.
• Establishes Authority: Demonstrate your expertise and build trust among your target audience.
• Internal Linking Opportunities: Strategically link blog posts to related destination pages or offers, improving your website’s structure for both users and search engines.
• Social Media Shareability: Compelling blog content encourages social sharing, expanding your reach.

Destination Pages: Inspiring Exploration

Your destination pages should transport visitors to the heart of a location, showcasing its unique charm and enticing them to visit. Consider including these elements:

• Stunning Visuals: High-quality photos and videos are crucial. Feature landscapes, landmarks, accommodations, and local experiences.
• Detailed Descriptions: Provide essential information about climate, best times to visit, historical background, major attractions, and popular activities. Craft descriptions that are both informative and evocative of the destination’s character.
• Practical Travel Tips: Offer advice on transportation, local currency, visa requirements, cultural considerations, and recommended packing items.
• Local Insights: Share off-the-beaten-path gems, authentic food recommendations, and insider knowledge to help visitors experience the destination like a local.
• Customer Reviews and Testimonials: Include specific testimonials about the destination to build credibility.
• Tour or Accommodation Options: If applicable, showcase tours you offer or list accommodations within the destination, providing links for further exploration or booking.
• Maps and Directions: Embed relevant maps to help visitors visualize the destination and its surroundings.
• Calls to Action: Encourage visitors to book a trip, read related blog posts, or sign up for your email list for future updates.

Elementor Tools for Destination Pages

Elementor simplifies the process of designing visually appealing and informative destination pages:

• Pre-designed Templates: Choose from destination-specific templates for a headstart.
• Image Gallery Widgets : Create beautiful galleries to showcase the destination’s best features.
• Testimonial Widgets: Display testimonials and reviews strategically throughout the page.
• Map Widgets: Integrate interactive maps, and allow visitors to explore nearby attractions using custom markers.

Booking and Reservations: Streamlining the Process

If you plan to allow direct bookings for tours, activities, accommodations, or flights, choosing the right booking system and integrating it seamlessly into your website is paramount. Here’s what to consider:

Industry-specific Solutions: Research booking systems designed specifically for the travel industry. These often include features like:

• Real-time availability calendars.
• Secure online payment processing.
• Inventory management.
• Customer booking management interfaces.

WordPress Integration: Look for booking systems that offer dedicated WordPress plugins or have well-documented integration methods compatible with Elementor.  Popular options include booking solutions that work well with WordPress and Elementor, but be sure to conduct thorough research before making your final selection.

User Experience: Prioritize a booking system that provides a smooth and intuitive experience for your visitors.  The booking process should be clear, quick, and mobile-friendly.

Customization: Choose a system that offers some level of customization to align with your website’s design and branding.

Payment Gateways: Ensuring Secure Transactions 

To process online payments, you’ll need to integrate with a payment gateway. Look for reliable gateways that:

• Widely Accepted: Support major credit cards, debit cards, and potentially alternative payment methods like PayPal or digital wallets.
• Security and PCI Compliance: Select a payment gateway offering robust security measures and adhering to Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI DSS) to protect sensitive customer data.
• Fees and Transaction Costs: Consider the various fee structures associated with payment gateways and choose one with a transparent pricing model that suits your expected volume.

Elementor Integration

Elementor’s Form Builder offers flexibility for creating custom booking forms that can be integrated with your chosen booking system and payment gateway.

Optimizing for Search Engines (SEO) and User Experience

Seo basics: the key to online visibility .

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the practice of improving your website’s ranking in search results pages (SERPs) like Google or Bing.  With well-implemented SEO, potential travelers are more likely to discover your website when searching for destinations, travel advice, or experiences. Here’s an overview of the fundamentals:

• Target Keywords:   Identify the terms people use to search for content that your travel website offers.  Consider location-specific keywords, activity-based keywords (e.g., “hiking trails in Colorado”), and question-based keywords (e.g., “best time to visit Bali”).
• Content is King:   Consistently create high-quality, informative, and original content that aligns with your target keywords. This includes blog posts, destination pages, and detailed guides.
• User Experience (UX): Design your website to be user-friendly, with fast loading times, clear navigation, and mobile responsiveness. Search engines favor websites that provide a positive visitor experience.

Keyword Research: Finding the Right Terms 

Keyword research forms the basis of your SEO strategy. Here are some helpful tools:

• Google Keyword Planner: Discover keywords for your niche and estimate their search volume.
• SEMrush, Ahrefs, or Similar Tools: These platforms provide comprehensive keyword research capabilities, including competitor analysis and search volume trends.
• Answer the Public: This tool shows common questions people ask around certain topics, providing insights into long-tail keywords.

On-Page Optimization: Crafting Content that Search Engines Love 

On-page optimization refers to the techniques you implement directly on your website’s pages to improve their ranking in search results. Here’s how to do it:

Meta Titles and Meta Descriptions: These snippets appear in search results and help users understand your page’s content. Follow these guidelines:

• Include your target keyword.
• Write compelling descriptions that encourage clicks.
• Stay within optimal character lengths (typically around 50-60 characters for titles and 150-160 characters for descriptions).

Header Tags (H1, H2, H3): Structure your content by using headings, with the H1 being the most important (usually the page title). Include relevant keywords in your headings while prioritizing a natural flow for the reader.

Image Optimization (Alt Text and File Name): Describe your images using informative alt text that includes keywords. Also, optimize file sizes to improve page load speed. Elementor Image Optimizer can help with this.

Internal Linking : Build a network of relevant internal links within your website. Link between relevant destination pages and blog posts, helping search engines understand the structure and hierarchy of your content.

Content Quality: Focus on creating unique, informative, and engaging content that fulfills the visitor’s search intent. Avoid thin or duplicate content.

Keyword Placement: Strategically incorporate your target keywords throughout your content, including in headings, the first paragraph, and image alt text. Avoid keyword stuffing, as it can hurt your rankings.

Elementor Tools for On-Page Optimization

Elementor offers some features to assist with on-page optimization:

• SEO Fields: Easily set your meta title and meta description directly within the Elementor editor for each page.
• Heading Widgets: Structure your content using H1, H2, H3, etc., with styling control.
• Image Widget + Alt Text: Add images with detailed alt text descriptions.

Website Speed: Why Fast Loading Times Matter 

Website speed heavily influences both user experience and search engine rankings. Here’s why it’s crucial:

• User Bounce Rate: Slow loading speeds lead to higher bounce rates – visitors abandoning your site out of frustration.
• Search Engine Penalties: Search engines like Google prioritize fast websites in their rankings. Slow websites may need help to gain visibility.
• Conversion Rates: Website speed directly impacts conversions. Faster websites often convert visitors into travelers more effectively.
• Overall User Satisfaction: A snappy, responsive website creates a positive first impression and keeps visitors engaged with your content.

Optimizing for Speed: Key Techniques 

Let’s discuss some essential tactics for improving your website’s loading speed:

• Performance-Focused Hosting: Choose a high-quality hosting provider optimized for speed, like Elementor hosting with its Google Cloud Platform foundation and Cloudflare Enterprise CDN.
• Image Optimization: Compress images using tools like Elementor’s Image Optimizer without sacrificing quality. Properly size images to avoid them being larger than they need to be on the page.
• Caching: Implement caching mechanisms (browser caching, server-side caching, object caching) to store frequently accessed data and reduce server load. Elementor Hosting offers various caching features to enhance speed.
• Content Delivery Network (CDN): A CDN like Elementor Hosting’s Cloudflare Enterprise CDN distributes content across servers worldwide, decreasing load times for visitors from different locations.
• Minimize HTTP Requests: Combine resources where possible (CSS and JavaScript files) to reduce the number of requests the browser needs to make.
• Clean Code: Ensure your website is built with optimized code to minimize bloat.

User-Friendly Navigation: Guiding Your Visitors 

Intuitive navigation is like a well-marked path through the rich landscape of your website. Let’s discuss the best practices for designing a user-friendly menu system:

• Clear and Concise: Menu labels should be descriptive and easy to understand. Use familiar terms like “Destinations,” “Blog,” “About Us,” and “Contact.”
• Limited Options: Avoid overwhelming users with too many choices in your main navigation. Focus on the most important categories.
• Hierarchical Structure: Organize subcategories within dropdown menus or mega menus to create a logical hierarchy for complex content.
• Prominent Placement: Ensure your navigation menu is easily visible, typically at the top of the page (header) or as a persistent sidebar menu.
• Mobile Responsiveness: Prioritize a navigation experience that adapts seamlessly to smaller screens, with features like hamburger menus and clear tap targets.
• Search Functionality: Include a prominent search bar to help visitors quickly find specific content, especially on websites with extensive destinations or blog posts.
• Breadcrumbs: Consider using Breadcrumbs, especially on pages with a deeper hierarchy, to help users understand their current location within the website and navigate back to previous levels with ease.

Elementor’s Navigation Tools

Elementor streamlines menu creation with:

• Nav Menu Widget: Design custom navigation menus with drag-and-drop functionality and extensive styling options.
• Mega Menus: Create expansive dropdown menus for navigation-rich websites to display a wide range of subcategories at once.
• Responsive Controls: Fine-tune the appearance of your menus on different devices for optimal usability.

Marketing Your Travel Website

Social media:  building a community & sharing your passion.

Social media platforms offer a unique opportunity to connect with travel enthusiasts, showcase your brand’s personality, and inspire wanderlust.  Here’s how to harness their power:

Channel Selection: Focus on platforms where your target audience is most active. Popular choices for travel include:

• Instagram: Ideal for sharing visually stunning photos and videos.
• Facebook: Great for building community, sharing updates, and running targeted advertising campaigns.
• Pinterest: Excellent for driving traffic with inspirational travel imagery and guides.
• YouTube: Perfect for longer-form video content like destination tours and travel vlogs.

High-Quality Content:   Post a mix of:

• Inspiring visuals (photos and videos) of destinations.
• Travel tips and advice.
• Behind-the-scenes glimpses of your brand.
• User-generated content (reposting visitor photos and testimonials with permission).

Engage with Your Audience: Respond to comments, host contests, ask questions, and actively participate in conversations.

Hashtags:   Utilize relevant hashtags to increase the visibility of your posts (both general and location-specific).

Paid Social Media Advertising 

Social media ads allow you to target specific demographics,  interests (i.e., “adventure travel”), and even the locations where your ideal travelers are based.

• Attention-grabbing visuals: Use compelling images or videos for your ad campaigns.
• Persuasive Copy: Highlight unique selling points and include a clear Call to Action (CTA).
• Targeted Ads: Use platform-specific targeting options to reach your ideal audience.

Email Marketing: Personalized Communication for Long-term Engagement 

Email marketing allows you to connect with your audience directly, delivering personalized messages tailored to their interests and stage in the travel planning process. Here’s why it’s important:

• Direct Connection: Email marketing gives you a direct line of communication with people who have expressed interest in your website or brand.
• Targeted Campaigns: Segment your email lists based on demographics, travel interests, or past interactions, enabling you to send highly relevant content.
• Nurture Leads: Build relationships over time by providing value, positioning yourself as trusted experts, and ultimately encouraging bookings or return visits.
• Promotions & Offers: Share exclusive deals, time-sensitive discounts, or loyalty programs to drive conversions.
• Measurable Results: Track open rates, click-through rates, and conversions to get actionable insights and continuously improve your email campaigns.

Email Signup Forms (with Elementor) 

Strategic placement of signup forms is key for growing your email list:

• Homepage Prominence: Include a highly visible form in your hero section or primary content area.
• Blog Sidebar or Popups: Use unobtrusive sidebars or timed popups on your blog to capture readers’ attention. Elementor’s Popup Builder offers robust options for creating eye-catching signup forms.
• Dedicated Landing Pages: Create targeted landing pages with enticing offers to collect email addresses.
• Compelling Incentives: Offer valuable lead magnets like destination guides, travel checklists, or exclusive discounts to persuade visitors to subscribe.

Advertising: Reaching the Right Audience at the Right Time 

Targeted advertising allows you to promote your website in front of people who are most likely to be interested in your offerings.  Here’s a look at some effective platforms:

• Search Engine Ads (e.g., Google Ads): Appear atop search results pages for specific keywords, ensuring you reach users with high intent.  Target terms like “budget flights to [destination]” or “best [destination] hiking trails.”
• Social Media Ads (e.g., Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest): Utilize detailed targeting options based on demographics, interests, and behaviors. Leverage eye-catching visuals and persuasive copy for your ad campaigns.
• Display Ads (e.g., Google Display Network): Showcase banner ads across a vast network of websites, often related to travel content or visited by people who have shown an interest in travel.
• Retargeting Ads: Reach users who have already visited your website but haven’t made a booking. This serves as a reminder, bringing your brand and offerings back into their consideration.

Tips for Effective Travel Advertising

• Compelling Ad Creative: Use eye-catching images, videos, and persuasive copywriting that highlights your unique selling points.
• Targeted Audience: Define your ideal traveler and utilize platform-specific targeting options to reach them more precisely.
• Clear Calls to Action: Guide users towards the desired action (booking, subscribing, visiting a specific destination page).
• Track and Analyze: Utilize platform analytics to monitor your ad performance, identify areas for improvement, and optimize your campaigns over time.

Content Marketing: Value-Driven Strategies to Attract Travelers 

Content marketing involves creating and distributing valuable, informative content that aligns with your potential visitors’ interests and pain points. Here’s why it’s crucial for your travel website:

• SEO Benefits: High-quality content helps improve search rankings for relevant keywords, attracting organic traffic over time.
• Establishes Authority: Demonstrate your expertise by offering in-depth guides, expert tips, and local insights. This builds trust and positions you as a go-to resource.
• Audience Engagement: Captivating content encourages social sharing and sparks conversations, expanding your reach and fostering community.
• Supports Other Marketing Channels: Repurpose content for social media posts, email newsletters, and even ad campaigns.

Types of High-Value Content for Travel Websites

• Blog Posts: Share travel guides, itineraries, local recommendations, packing tips, budget travel advice, cultural insights, and personal travel stories.
• Destination Guides: Provide comprehensive information about specific locations, including attractions, accommodations, transportation, cultural tips, and hidden gems.
• Listicles: Create engaging listicles such as “Top 10 Family-Friendly Destinations” or “Best Hikes in [Region].”
• Infographics: Use infographics to illustrate travel data, packing lists, or itineraries in a visually appealing way.
• Videos: Showcase destinations, create travel vlogs, or offer how-to tutorials for packing or navigating a new city.

Enhancing Your Website

Tips for high-quality, seo-friendly travel content .

• Focus on a Specific Topic: Each piece of content should have a clear focus, addressing a single travel-related query or theme.
• Keyword Research: Use the techniques discussed previously to identify relevant keywords for your content and naturally incorporate them throughout.
• Answer User Queries: Understand the searcher’s intent and structure your content to provide clear and informative answers.
• Compelling Writing: Craft engaging content with an authentic voice that resonates with your target audience.
• Detailed and Informative: Provide in-depth information, practical tips, and unique insights rather than offering generic content.
• Structure for Readability: Use headings (H2, H3), short paragraphs, bullet points, and images to break up your content and improve readability.
• Unique Perspective: Share your own experiences, insider tips, or curated recommendations to differentiate your content and stand out in the competitive travel writing landscape.
• Optimize for Featured Snippets: Consider structuring some sections of your content (like lists or FAQs) in a manner that can be pulled as featured snippets on search results pages, increasing visibility.

Travel Tips and Packing Lists: Essential Resources for Every Trip 

A dedicated section for travel tips and packing lists helps position your website as a comprehensive resource. Consider including

• General Travel Tips: Cover topics such as booking flights and accommodations, planning a budget, staying safe and healthy while traveling , responsible tourism practices, and navigating cultural differences.
• Destination-Specific Tips: Create guides tailored to unique destinations, addressing the best times to visit, local customs, transportation tips, budgeting, and must-try experiences.
• Packing Lists: Provide customizable packing checklists for different types of trips (adventure travel, beach vacations, city breaks, backpacking, etc.)
• Travel Gear Recommendations: If relevant, curate lists of your favorite travel gear, from backpacks and luggage to tech gadgets and comfort items.
• Additional Resources: Link to external resources such as weather websites, currency converters, or vaccination information.

Benefits of Travel Tips and Packing Lists

• Added Value for Visitors: Provide practical advice, helping travelers plan and prepare for their trips with ease.
• SEO Opportunities: Target long-tail keywords like “packing list for [destination]” or “travel tips for [country].”
• Build Trust: Establish yourself as a knowledgeable source of travel information.

Reviews and Testimonials: The Power of Social Proof 

In the travel industry, online reviews and testimonials wield immense influence over potential travelers’ decisions.  Here’s why they are crucial:

• Build Trust: Positive reviews foster a sense of trust with potential travelers, easing their anxieties and making them more confident in choosing your travel experiences or services.
• Influence Decisions: Travelers often consult reviews before making bookings. Compelling testimonials can be the tipping point for their decision.
• Boost SEO: Integrate reviews directly on your website, adding fresh, keyword-rich content that can improve search engine rankings.
• Gain Insights: Reviews offer valuable feedback, helping you identify areas for improvement and cater to your travelers’ needs even better.

Acquiring Customer Reviews 

Proactively encourage satisfied customers to leave reviews. Consider these strategies:

• Post-Trip Emails: Send automated follow-up emails after a trip, requesting feedback and providing links to review platforms.
• On-Site Prompts: Include subtle prompts on relevant website pages, encouraging customers to share their experiences.
• Social Media: Ask customers to leave reviews on your social media pages.
• Incentives: If appropriate, consider offering small incentives (discounts, loyalty points) for customers who write reviews.

Strategic Placement of Testimonials

Where you showcase testimonials on your website significantly affects their impact. Consider these key areas:

• Homepage: Include a few impactful testimonials in a carousel or dedicated section, especially highlighting experiences relevant to your target audience.
• Destination Pages: Incorporate testimonials specific to each destination, reinforcing its appeal.
• Booking/Tour Pages: Displaying testimonials near booking forms or calls-to-action can provide that extra nudge for hesitant visitors.
• “About Us” Page: Testimonials about your overall brand or company strengthen your credibility.
• Dedicated Testimonials Page: Create a comprehensive page showcasing a larger collection of testimonials, allowing potential travelers to delve deeper into the experiences of others.

Effective Presentation with Elementor

Elementor simplifies the process of creating compelling testimonial displays:

• Testimonial Widgets: Utilize dedicated Testimonial widgets for easy customization and seamless incorporation into various page designs.
• Carousels or Sliders: Display testimonials in a rotating format to maximize visibility within limited space.
• Ratings and Stars: Include star ratings alongside testimonials for an additional layer of social proof.
• Customer Photos: If possible, feature real customer photos alongside their testimonials to increase authenticity.

Currency Converter and Language Translation: Welcoming Global Travelers 

Expanding your reach to a worldwide audience can significantly boost your travel website’s potential. Here’s how currency conversion and translation tools play an essential role:

Currency Converter

• Convenience for Travelers: Allow visitors to easily understand pricing in their local currency, simplifying their decision-making process.
• Ease of Comparison: Travelers can compare prices to make informed choices without navigating to external conversion websites.
• Enhanced User Experience: Providing a seamless experience that avoids confusing visitors with unfamiliar currencies builds trust and credibility.

Language Translation Tools

• Cater to a Global Audience: Reach a wider range of potential travelers by making your website accessible in multiple languages.
• Inclusivity: Demonstrate a commitment to creating a welcoming and inclusive environment for all travelers, regardless of their native language.
• Improved SEO: Multilingual websites can potentially improve search rankings in different regions, increasing your visibility globally.

Integration Options

• Plugins and Widgets: Explore WordPress plugins and widgets that specialize in currency conversion and language translation. Popular options include Currency Converter and Translate WordPress with GTranslate.
• External Services: Consider integrating with external translation services that offer advanced features and support for a wide range of languages.

Accessibility Features: Building an Inclusive Travel Website 

Web accessibility involves designing and developing websites that can be used by everyone, regardless of their abilities or limitations. Here’s why it’s crucial for travel websites:

• Cater to a Wider Audience: Making your website accessible allows you to serve a broader market, including travelers with disabilities who represent a significant portion of the travel industry.
• Improve User Experience for Everyone: Accessibility features often benefit all users. For example, clear headings and image descriptions enhance readability and navigation for everyone.
• Legal Compliance: In some regions, website accessibility is mandated by law, such as the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
• Ethical Considerations: Building an inclusive website aligns with responsible and ethical business practices.

Key Accessibility Considerations for Travel Websites

• Alternative Text (Alt Text): Describe all images using informative alt text, enabling screen readers to convey visual content to users with visual impairments.
• Descriptive Heading Structure: Utilize clear headings (H1, H2, etc.) for easy navigation and content comprehension, especially for those using screen readers.
• Color Contrast: Ensure sufficient contrast between text and background colors for better readability by those with visual impairments.
• Keyboard Navigation: Ensure all website functionality is accessible using only a keyboard, which is crucial for users with motor disabilities.
• Screen Reader Compatibility: Test your website with screen readers to optimize the experience for visually impaired users.

Staying Ahead in The Travel Industry

Tracking and analytics: understanding your web traffic.

To make informed website improvements, it’s essential to understand how visitors interact with your content. Here’s where analytics come into play:

Google Analytics (or Similar Tools):   Install an analytics tool on your website to gain insights into:

• Traffic Sources: Learn where your visitors are coming from (search engines, social media, referrals, etc.).
• Popular Pages: Identify the content that resonates the most with your audience.
• Bounce Rates: Understand which pages might be causing visitors to leave prematurely.
• Visitor Demographics and Interests: Gather data to tailor your content and offerings further.

Conversion Tracking:   If you have bookings or subscriptions, track which pages and campaigns lead to the most conversions.

Continuous Improvement: Adapting to Visitor Needs 

Use the insights from analytics to guide your website optimization:

• A/B Testing: Experiment with different versions of pages or design elements (e.g., CTA button placement) to see what performs best.
• Cater to Emerging Trends: Analyze your website traffic to spot changing interests or preferences among travelers and adjust your content strategy accordingly.
• User Feedback: Actively solicit feedback through surveys, polls, or direct contact forms to gather valuable insights and address pain points.

Website Security: Protecting Your Site and Traveler Data 

Travel websites often handle sensitive traveler information such as names, contact details, and payment information. Ensuring robust security is essential for safeguarding this data and maintaining customer trust.  Let’s discuss some vital measures:

• Strong Passwords and Authentication:   Enforce strong password policies for both your website’s administrative area and any user accounts you might have. Consider implementing Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) for an additional layer of security.
• Regular Updates: Keep your WordPress installation, themes, plugins, and hosting environment updated with the latest security patches. Outdated software is a prime target for hackers.
• SSL Certificate: Install an SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) certificate to encrypt data transmission between your website and visitors’ browsers. Look for the “https://” prefix in your website URL and a padlock icon in the address bar.
• Security Plugins:   Utilize WordPress security plugins for added protection. These plugins offer features like firewall protection, malware scanning, and intrusion detection.
• Elementor Hosting Security Features: Take advantage of the built-in security measures provided by Elementor Hosting, including frequent site backups, malware protection, and Cloudflare security services.

Building a successful travel website involves more than just beautiful visuals and tempting destinations. Throughout this guide, we’ve explored the key considerations for success:

• Strategic Niche and Audience: Find your unique focus within the travel space and tailor your content to the ideal traveler you wish to serve.
• High-Quality Content and SEO: Create informative content that aligns with what searchers are looking for, and optimize it to rank well in search results.
• Excellent User Experience: Prioritize a website that’s fast, mobile-friendly, easy to navigate, and brimming with valuable features.
• Social Media Presence: Connect with potential travelers on social platforms, sharing inspiring content and building a thriving community.
• The Power of Elementor: Elevate your web design with Elementor’s intuitive tools, enabling you to create visually stunning and functional pages effortlessly.

Creating a thriving travel website takes dedication and a willingness to adapt to an ever-evolving landscape. Embrace experimentation, learn from your audience, and continue refining your strategy over time.  Remember, the journey is an adventure in itself!

How To Create a Travel Website With WordPress in Just 5 Steps

“The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step,” says Lao Tzu .

If your wanderlust takes you places and you’re always passionate about trying new things at different destinations, you have enough reasons to build a travel website.

Being a successful travel blogger, sooner or later, you may get tons of opportunities to visit dream locations, take trips and meet new people.

Above all, you will have a chance to live the life you’ve always desired.

Whether you have been traveling for passion or yet to start a career as a traveler, having the knowhow to create a travel website will get you off to a fantastic start.

This article discusses how to make a travel website, promote it and cash in with different revenue-making techniques.

Anyone can create a travel website, but it is highly effective for:

• Solo travelers looking for ways to live a dream life and monetize their journeys
• A travel agency looking to start a travel blog and do content marketing to draw the attention of prospects
• A lead generation agency eyeing more leads for its tourism related clients

Though it sounds lucrative to be a part of the global tourism industry, which stands at around $1.67 trillion in 2022, you can’t disregard the challenges that will come your way throughout the traveling business.

Whether you are a seasoned traveler or just setting up a travel business, be prepared to work day and night, as it isn’t going to be sunshine and rainbows!

What should a travel website include?

Before you start thinking of producing a single piece of content, we think every travel website should have a few key components.

A travel website should ideally have a clean design. Here are 8 principles of web design you should know .

Secondly, a travel website must have the following core elements:

Responsive design

A responsive website can be easily viewed on any device regardless of size. While putting together a website, you should ensure that it scales everything automatically and loads correctly on every screen type, keeping your content right in front of users.

A responsive design is also a treat for search engines.

Google happily crawls responsive websites as it ends up consuming fewer resources. WordPress provides tremendous opportunities for creating responsive websites.

It’s always better to go with themes like Astra to build a responsive website in minutes.

An image or video gallery

A camera is the best companion a traveler can have. You’re going to see amazing sights, meet fascinating people and create fantastic memories. It makes sense to capture as much as possible on camera

Your website should ideally offer tools to create albums and galleries and integrate them wherever you need them.

There are a number of good WordPress plugins, such as WP Portfolio , to achieve what you want. We will talk more about it in a while.

Booking system

An online booking system can create immense opportunities for your travel business. It gives travelers the comfort of booking packages and making payments online without having to visit you.

Any time difference between you and your customers becomes a non-issue as the booking system works 24/7 even if you are not around.

An added advantage is that it can be scaled anytime to handle extra demand, especially during the holiday season.

You don’t need a huge staff to organize your business. An online booking system provides essential insights and creates reports whenever you want to help get the entire picture of your travel business.

How to create a travel website

For us, this is the most exciting part of every tutorial where we set up a website.

To create a travel website, follow each task step by step and you will have a stunning travel website ready in less than an hour.

Yes, really!

Step 1: Name your travel website

Your website name will represent you throughout its business life.

You need to be creative enough to stand out in the crowd. Names like My Adventurous Life, Best Travel Tips, and similar others are too generic and may get mixed up among a gazillion travel sites on the internet.

Be specific, make it personal and try to ensure it describes what your travel website is about.

Keep it short and easily memorable too, so people can easily remember it.

Once you have selected a name, register it with a registrar of your choice. We recommend domain.com and namecheap.com as among the best in this field.

If you use Namecheap for example, enter the desired name in the search field and press the Search button.

If the name is available, proceed with the payment process to secure it before someone else does.

You can also buy a domain through your current web host. We will tell you about it in the following step.

Step 2: Get a web host

Next in line for you is to buy web hosting. Hosting is where you rent space on a server to host your website for a specific duration, which users can access from around the world.

You can choose one of the following web hosts, as we rate them for their reliability and performance. They offer plenty of plans suitable for almost every budget:

For this tutorial, we will go with SiteGround . They offer managed WordPress hosting which is ideal for our travel website.

On their homepage, choose the WordPress Hosting page from the Hosting menu and buy the GrowBig plan. It offers unlimited websites and carries lots of resources.

Press the blue Get Plan button to proceed with the buying process. SiteGround allows you to scale plans whenever you need.

On the next page, register the domain name if you haven’t already done so or enter an existing domain and complete the process.

SiteGround will automatically perform the groundwork for your new website without you having to do anything.

Step 3: Install WordPress

If you want to install WordPress on your website yourself, you can do it by accessing the SiteGround dashboard.

Go to the Websites page in the admin area and press the Add New button.

Select the Existing Domain option.

The next screen will ask you to Start a New Website or Migrate Website . Choose the first option and select WordPress from the applications.

Enter your login credentials and continue.

It will take a few minutes to get your website ready.

After the SiteGround installer finishes the process, you can log into your website admin area through the URL www.mytravelwebsite.com/wp-login.php .

Just change the URL above to your own and add /wp-login.php at the end to access the login screen.

Enter the credentials when the login screen appears.

While entering the WP admin area, you will come across a wizard to help you install a WordPress theme on your site.

Press the Exit link to ignore it.

You may need to remove a few plugins SiteGround adds during the installation process to help you add themes and manage pages.

Go to Plugins > Installed Plugins page and remove the ones you don’t need.

In our case, we will delete all three SiteGround plugins to restore the original look of the WordPress admin area.

Check the boxes, select Deactivate from the Bulk actions field and press the Apply button to deactivate the plugins.

Repeat the same process to delete them.

Step 4: Install a theme for your travel website

A WordPress theme is the face of your website and, combined with plugins, is responsible for the overall user experience.

We need a theme that will help us achieve our goals. It should ideally be lightweight, well coded, and fully customizable.

We will install Astra on our travel website. It has all the qualities we look for and performance that’s second to none.

Astra is our in-house developed theme, so we trust its features!

To install it, go to Appearance > Themes and press Add New button.

You can find Astra by using the search box. Press the Install button and activate it when the option appears.

Next, we need to install a travel website template .

We will import a template from the Starter Templates library Astra offers.

Step 5: Import a travel template

We need to install the Starter Templates plugin to access the library.

Go to Plugins > Add New and look for the Starter Templates plugin by typing the name in the search box.

Install and activate the plugin when it appears on your screen.

You will find a number of free templates to use, but complete access to the library comes with Essential Toolkit and Business Toolkit plans.

You can open the template library from Appearance > Starter Templates .

Once there, select the page builder of your choice from the list that includes Standard (Gutenberg), Elementor and Beaver Builder.

You will find a huge variety of travel website templates to support your adventures as a traveler, a travel agency business, a hotel and resort and several others.

Travel Agency

As the name suggests, this template is ideal for travel agency businesses and flexible enough to accommodate anything you require.

You can display your best travel offers, book tours, show the world your business partners and show off customer testimonials, all on the homepage. Adding a blog as a part of your marketing strategy is a completely painless process.

The template comes with all the essential goodies your business might need. You can always add and customize any part of the website, thanks to the power of Elementor page builder.

Travel Blogger and Influencer

For solo travelers who live an adventurous life but don’t want to stay away from their fans, this template is designed to tell the world about their travel experiences.

You can show off your pictures and videos and arrange them nicely in a gallery layout. The template also offers you to integrate your Instagram feed anywhere you want.

If you want to earn from your travel as an influencer, this template provides everything you need for your venture.

You can build a travel blog to market your business effectively in just a few clicks.

Travel and Tourism

If you are into the hotel and travel resort business and wish to highlight all the details your guests would like to know, this template has everything.

This is a modern flat layout on a white background prominently displaying everything your users need to find.

The elegantly designed contact page can show an aerial shot of the whole town and nicely integrates a Google map making it easy for your guests to spot your location.

Let’s import a template

Why did we choose the Travel Blog template?

It’s ideal for solo travelers and influencers who want to visit places and earn through being an affiliate. We can recommend it to those who like to stay with the default Gutenberg editor.

But it’s entirely up to you what template you use.

Once you select a template, an import wizard will walk you through a short import process.

You can upload a logo and change fonts and colors on your way to the final step.

The process may take just over a minute to import everything this template needs to run, including layout design, sample data, essential pages, and plugins.

With the default settings, your website should look similar to the image. This is how to create a travel website in just a few minutes!

This template is suitable for sharing your travel and adventure stories, but it can also support your personal travel business.

You can significantly improve your page design experience on Gutenberg by using the Spectra plugin , which adds features professionals use to design websites.

If you plan to go with Elementor page builder to create a travel website, we suggest you check out Ultimate Addons for Elementor (UAE) to fulfill all your design needs.

Essential plugins for travel websites

You can build any website with WordPress and add functions with the help of plugins.

For example, you will need a plugin to integrate a signup form on your website to grow subscribers.

Knowing which plugin you need on your site makes you more productive. We have an ultimate guide to tell you about the must-have plugins for your site to improve its overall performance.

WP Portfolio

Pictures create curiosity, which is why it’s an essential feature for a travel website.

Though WordPress has a built-in gallery management tool, you can use several photo gallery plugins to add real value to your images.

WP Portfolio is a powerful solution to present your images and videos in style and adds lots of interactive features and effects.

It’s a complete image management tool to help you add galleries anywhere on your website with the help of easy to understand and fully customizable shortcodes.

WP Portfolio is more than adding galleries to your website. You can select layouts for images or videos from hundreds of prebuilt and customizable templates that work with all popular page builders.

It is an ideal and versatile plugin for any travel website.

If you are a travel blogger and also plan to show off your photographic portfolio on your site, this plugin can help you create one.

WP Travel Engine

WP Travel Engine is an all-in-one tool for your travel business needs.

You can create itineraries, receive bookings, get customer reviews, convert currencies, and process payments through a variety of payment gateways.

You can embed trip widgets anywhere on the website, including blog posts. That’s an added advantage for travel influencers who want to generate affiliate income.

Google Maps Widget Pro

It’s much easier for users to plan their trips when they have complete information about a destination. This is why it’s essential to have accurate maps on your travel website.

Google Maps Widget Pro is easy to use and lets you add unlimited maps on the site, including posts, pages, sidebars and menus.

It’s a lightweight plugin that generates a single database request, a vital aspect that does not affect website speed.

This easy-to-use plugin can show street view, directions, and much more.

Yoast and Schema Pro

Though there are many options to choose from when it comes to SEO, these two plugins make a great combination for Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

You can get your travel website on track from the beginning by using the Yoast and Schema Pro plugins for their ability to handle on-page SEO.

Yoast is a great companion for assisting in the initial SEO settings, such as adding meta, integrating websites with search engines, generating XML sitemap and much more.

Yoast keeps an eye on every post and page you publish and helps you with excellent tips to optimize them.

With Schema Pro , you can outperform your competitors right off the bat. It implements schema on each post and page and makes it search engine friendly.

Search engines such as Google can better understand different types of content on your website, which can help rank your website better.

UpdraftPlus

Backups are an essential part of your website security strategy . They make sure you have a good chance to restore the website should you ever need to.

UpdraftPlus makes it easy to take backups and store them in the cloud. It takes backup automatically at regular intervals, or you can do it manually anytime you need.

Marketing your travel website

Building a travel website is just the first step. You need content and a workable marketing strategy to promote it for a steady traffic flow.

Whether you intend to publish travel stories to share your experience with the world or establish a successful travel brand, you will need quality traffic.

A better way to start is by promoting it within your social network. People who know you personally will likely give you an early response.

Search engine optimization

Google, the largest search engine , is responsible for most of the organic traffic on your website. It’s better to be friends with the search engine from the beginning and take advantage of free traffic.

Check out our some interesting tips on SEO to be successful on Google.

Pick the few most relevant keywords to your website and stick with them for a while to rank in the search engines.

You can later add more keywords to your articles to target a wider audience.

Social media has a huge audience

Every platform has its own uniqueness. For example, you can go viral on Pinterest and Instagram with infographics and pictures, while YouTube and TikTok are more suitable for video stories.

Select a platform based on your target audience and the content you want to deliver.

With the proper techniques, you can grab a good number of followers for free.

Join travel groups, forums and communities

There are tons of groups out there where people share their travel experiences. If you are a frequent traveler, you can jump in with your valuable travel advice in a thread and show how you can be helpful to someone planning a trip.

Add a link to your website in your signature and link to any relevant content you have published.

Don’t overdo the promotion though. Be genuinely helpful and this will help you create some good links.

Be reliable, develop a positive reputation and gradually give the audience a reason to check out your profile. This should eventually draw people to your website.

Email marketing

Email is still the most effective email marketing strategy to establish engagement with your audience and drive traffic to your website.

You can ask people to sign up for the newsletter and, in return, promise them exclusive content, travel tips, or a few offers if you have cracked a few deals earlier based on your past travel experience.

Write guest posts

This might look time consuming , but guest posting is a great marketing tool. You write articles for other blogs and publications in your niche in return for a backlink to your website.

Having a chance to have your post published on a well-ranking blog involves a great deal of effort and convincing power initially, but it’s all worth it.

Run ad campaigns

Almost every platform provides ways to promote your brand. You can use Google, Facebook, and Instagram ads to bring traffic to your website.

Depending on the content you intend to promote, you can also use YouTube, Quora, and Twitter to market your website.

Remember, these are paid tools, so use them wisely to target the right audience!

How to make money from a travel website

Whether a solo traveler or an agency, you should use every opportunity to improve your earnings.

Do you know Kate from Adventurous Kate left her real 9-5 job 12 years ago, and ever since, she has traveled to 83 countries and counting.

Display ads

As you start witnessing a nice flow of visitors to your website, it’s time to think about banner ads. You can put them in multiple places, but be careful with too many banners as it might ruin the user experience.

Play tactfully and place ads where they don’t interfere with the content.

Google Adsense , Media.net , Adversal , and Adsterra are just a few examples of ad networks to try.

Be an affiliate and sell products

As your audience trusts your opinion and enjoys your valuable travel content, they wouldn’t mind if you tried to make a commission out of a few affiliate links.

You can recommend products, including travel gadgets, tickets, tour plans, and hotel stays, on your website. If you are a photographer yourself, you can share with people which equipment you mostly prefer to take fantastic photos.

You can contact brands directly or join the affiliate networks.

Check out Travel Payouts and Booking.com affiliate program to get an idea.

Sponsored posts

A sponsored post is a kind of ad designed like a blog post to promote a brand or a specific product. It may be an interview, a review, or anything that suits the brand.

Be selective with the content that suits your style. We suggest always telling your audience about sponsored content. This way the audience will always respect your business needs.

You can start pitching different brands once you have enough visitors.

Google Analytics is a great free tool to accurately monitor and display your site’s traffic.

With traffic and influence in the community, there may come lots of added benefits.

You may get invitations from agencies and brands to visit places. These paid tours can often cover traveling costs, accommodation and food in exchange for something you can deliver – blog posts and social media posts.

Besides deliverables, such tours can be a great opportunity to create extra content for your website.

Final thoughts

A travel website is a powerful platform to connect with hundreds and thousands of people and share stories about beautiful places in your own way.

As a hobbyist or solo traveler, you can help people know more about places of their interest. You can also use a travel website to promote your travel business.

Whatever the case, you need a platform easy enough to create a travel website effortlessly. We recommend having WordPress and Astra in your toolkit.

This powerful combination can help you create a travel website with all the essential features to fulfill any need.

The tutorial guides you step by step on how to build a travel website that stands out.

If you are done creating your travel website or in the process, we would love to hear about your experience in the comments below. Cheers!

Get exclusive access to new tips, articles, guides, updates, and more.

Disclosure: This blog may contain affiliate links. If you make a purchase through one of these links, we may receive a small commission. Read disclosure . Rest assured that we only recommend products that we have personally used and believe will add value to our readers. Thanks for your support!

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Glad to read your article.You may build a travel website with all the necessary features to meet any need with this effective combo.

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How to Create a Travel Booking Website? (8 Easy Steps)

Are you wondering how to create a travel booking website?

If yes, grab yourself. We have the answer to your question.

Today, WordPress has made creating a website a walk in the park. With WordPress, you can now have your travel booking website ready with all the functionalities in just a minute. 

Wondering how? Hang on.

In this article, you’ll learn the tried and tested ways of creating a travel booking website with WordPress.

After this read, you can start a fully functional website in no time.

Table of Contents

What are the Must-Have Things for Your Travel Booking Website?

Is your goal to create a seamless website ensuring users a stress-free experience from the moment they land on your website to the point they complete their booking?

If yes, here are some crucial things to consider:

• Ensure your travel booking website is responsive, simple, and visually appealing.
• Ensure your website has a smooth, user-friendly online booking system that enables users to browse available dates, make appointments, change or cancel them, and get immediate confirmation.
• Make sure users from different regions can easily book by including a safe and a variety of payment alternatives (such as credit cards, PayPal, etc.).
• Include accurate and compelling content (descriptions, reviews, photos, videos) of the travel destinations, accommodations, and services for users to make informed decisions.
• Enhance user experience and improve your search engine ranking with a fast-loading site.
• Make sure your site supports multiple languages and currencies to cater to a global audience.
• Assist users with queries or issues with the help of reliable customer service systems (live chat, phone, email).
• Protect customer information and transactions with robust security measures, like SSL encryption.
• Provide a system for customers to rate and review their experiences to build trust with prospective customers.
• Optimize your website for search engines to increase visibility, traffic, and, ultimately, bookings.
• Integrate with social media for increased visibility and user engagement.

Choosing the Best Platform for Your Travel Booking Website

Now that you know the prerequisites of an excellent travel booking website, you must wonder how it can be easy.

The trick is the platform you choose to create your travel booking website. There are plenty of website-building platforms on the internet. Choosing the right fit can be daunting.

To overcome the nerve-wracking experience, WordPress is an ideal choice. It’s a trusted website-building platform that has been in the business for a long time. 

So, building a travel booking website with WordPress will be a BIG WIN for you as a travel company. 

Now, let’s understand why WordPress is the top choice.

Why Choose WordPress for Creating a Travel Booking Website?

WordPress shines as the ideal platform for creating an excellent travel booking website. But do you know why?

First, it’s user-friendly, and you don’t need to be a tech expert to navigate the platform. It’s as easy as pie! 

Additionally, WordPress comes jam-packed with many travel-focused themes that can be customized to your specific needs. 

But here’s the kicker: it’s the plugins. 

A vast arrangement of powerful WordPress booking plugins at your disposal transforms your site into a full-fledged booking portal, enabling customers to make reservations, manage bookings, and even pay online. 

Want to hear more? 

WordPress has an SEO-friendly design that helps users find your website easily and further helps it rank higher in search results. It’s also easily adaptable for the growth of your business and website. 

And the icing on the cake? It’s affordable! Yes, WordPress keeps costs down, whether you’re starting as a small website or going big from the get-go. 

For this reason, it’s no wonder why so many travel businesses set sail with WordPress! 

How to Create a Travel Booking Website with WordPress with 8 Easy Steps

With that, let’s explore the step-by-step guide for creating a travel booking website with WordPress. 

The following steps are to make your website-creation journey way easier. Let’s move on!

Step 1: Choose a Domain Name

Your domain name is your website’s address on the internet, and it’s one of the first things your visitors will see.

Choosing a domain name that is easy to remember, pronounce, and spell is crucial. 

Here are some tips to help you choose the perfect domain name for your travel booking website:

• Your domain name should be relevant to the travel industry, clarifying what your business is about.
• Keep your domain name simple and easy to remember, and avoid using complex words or phrases that might confuse your visitors.
• Your domain name should be unique and stand out from the crowd.
• Avoid numbers and hyphens, as they can make a domain name harder to remember and more prone to typos.

Since your domain name is the first thing your visitors notice, it’s important to create an impact.

For example, themegrill.com clearly illustrates the company’s focus on creating themes and templates.

After choosing a unique domain name representing your travel business, you must purchase the domain name from trustworthy domain registrars. 

Some of the best affordable domain registrars are as follows:

Step 2: Choose a Suitable Hosting

Now that you have your domain name ready, it’s important to secure the location of your website. 

And this is where web hosting comes into play. Web hosting is a platform where all your website’s essential files and data are stored. 

The following are some tips for you to choose a suitable web hosting for creating your travel booking website:

• Look for a web hosting service that guarantees at least 99.9% uptime, ensuring your website is available for visitors almost all the time.
• Choose a hosting that is known for its speed and performance.
• You should get reliable 24/7 support from your hosting provider.
• Look for a web host with features like SSL certificates, firewalls, and regular backups.

Here are some of the best web hosting services to host your travel booking website:

Step 3: Install WordPress

After choosing a domain name and a suitable web hosting service, the next step in creating your travel booking website is installing WordPress. 

And if you are thinking about how to do that, keep calm. These days, most hosting providers such as Dreamhost and Kinsta come packed with WordPress auto-installation or one-click installer features.

That is why choosing the best hosting is so important.

All you need to do is follow the steps below:

• Access Your Hosting Account: Log in to your web hosting account. Look for the control panel or dashboard. It’s where you manage all aspects of your hosting service.
• Find the WordPress Installer: Most hosting providers offer a one-click WordPress installation feature. Look for the WordPress icon in your control panel. It might be under a section called Website or Software .
• Start the Installation Process: Click on the WordPress icon to start the installation process. You’ll be guided through the steps by the installer.
• Choose Your Domain: You’ll be asked to choose the domain where you want to install WordPress. Select the domain name you registered earlier from the drop-down menu.
• Enter Site Details: Next, you’ll need to enter details about your site. This includes the site name, admin username, password, and email address. Choose a strong password and keep these details safe; you’ll need them to log in to your WordPress dashboard.
• Install: Once you’ve entered all the necessary information, click the Install button. The installer will now set up WordPress on your domain. This process may take a few minutes.
• Confirmation: You’ll see a confirmation message once the installation is complete. You’ll also receive an email with your WordPress login details.

After successfully installing WordPress on your domain, you can log in to your WordPress dashboard by going to yourdomain.com/wp-admin and entering your login details.

Step 4: Choose a Perfect Theme for Your Website

After securing a domain name, choosing a web hosting service, and installing WordPress, the next step in creating your travel booking website is to choose the perfect theme.

The theme you select will determine the look and feel of your website.

A WordPress theme is a collection of templates and stylesheets that define the appearance and layout of your website. 

For a travel booking website, you want a visually appealing theme , easy to navigate, and designed with travel and booking functionality in mind. 

Here are some tips to help you choose the perfect theme :

• Choose a theme that fits the travel industry. Look for themes with built-in features for displaying travel packages, booking forms, and destination galleries.
• Select a responsive theme that adjusts its layout across different screen sizes and devices. With the increasing use of mobile devices, a responsive theme is a must.
• Your chosen theme should load quickly to enhance user experience and help with your website’s search engine ranking. Therefore, look for a lightweight theme optimized for speed.
• Look for themes that offer a variety of color schemes, multiple-page templates, and customization options for headers and footers.
• Ensure the theme is compatible with popular WordPress plugins . This will allow you to add functionalities to your website, such as booking systems, contact forms, and SEO tools.
• Choose a theme that is regularly updated and has good support from the theme developer. This will ensure your website stays up-to-date with the latest WordPress updates and security patches.

These tricks can help you pick a suitable theme for your travel website. However, finding your best pick can still be problematic in the ocean of choices. 

To narrow your search, here is the Zakra theme , for a great travel booking website.

Zakra theme is among the best themes used by over 60 thousand users worldwide. It’s a versatile and lightweight theme suitable for various websites, including travel booking sites.

Here’s why Zakra could be the perfect theme for your website:

• Design flexibility
• Optimized for speed and performance
• Mobile responsive
• SEO-friendly for higher search engine ranking
• Compatibility with major WordPress plugins
• Dedicated support and detailed documentation

Install a Zakra theme

Once you’ve chosen your theme, you can install it from your WordPress dashboard by navigating to Appearance>>Themes>>Add New.  

After that, type Zakra in the search bar from the Add Themes page. 

Then, you can hit the Install button. This step will lead you to the option to activate your theme.

In this step, you must click the Activate button. And you are ready to import the perfect template for your travel booking website.

Import Zakra’s Travel Demo

The welcome message at the top of the page will appear as soon as you finish the activation process. In addition to the message, the Get Started with Zakra will appear.

After you click this button, the ThemeGrill Demo Importer plugin will be installed and activated.

This will lead you to the Demo Importer page, which contains various free and premium demos for different websites. 

You can filter your search and find the perfect demo for your travel website. However, you must opt-in to the Pro version to access the premium template.

But, if you are looking for a free theme to start your travel booking website, Zakra theme presents the Travel demo at absolutely no cost.

Moving on, after you decide on the template perfect for your travel booking website, click on the Import button to import the template.

Finally, you only need to hit the Confirm button on the dialogue box. 

This confirmation will successfully let you import the demo.

By now, you must know that the Zakra theme is a great choice for all travel websites. Alternatively, you’ll also find many free and paid travel WordPress themes for your site.

Customize Your Theme

One of the most incredible things about the Zakra theme is you can customize the theme as you desire. 

For customization, you must click on Appearance and then choose Customize .

Moving on, let us take you through some customization options Zakra theme facilitates you with:

• Header: This allows you to personalize the header of your website. You can configure different header options like the top bar, menu, search bar, etc.
• Global: You can edit the backgrounds, colors, layouts, typography, etc., on your website.
• Content: You can easily decide on the appearance of your website content like page header, blog/archive, single post, etc. 
• Menus: This theme allows you to create, edit, and remove menus on your site.
• Widgets: This customization option allows you to add and modify widgets to your website per your needs.
• Footer: You can easily include the footer section, and style and customize it as per your need.
• Homepage Settings: You can easily select the display of your homepage

Step 5: Add Content to Your Travel Website

After setting up your website, choosing the right theme, and customizing it, you’re now ready to add the necessary content to your website.

With the help of pages and posts , adding content to your website is as easy as a finger’s click.

The following are some of the necessary pages for your travel booking website:

• Homepage: On this page, you can mostly write about the tagline of your travel business. Here you can include an overview of what your company stands for. You can also include CTA (Call-to-Action) on this page.
• Destinations Page: As a travel website, you must let your visitors know what they can expect from your company. Here, you can write about the destinations and packages you offer. 
• Trip Page: On this page, you can include new trips, destinations, trip types, and prices of the trip. This page will be one of the most important sections of your travel booking website.
• About Us Page: This is where you write about who you are as a travel company. You can take this page as a section for introducing your company. The content in this section should be clear concise, and relatable for your visitors.
• Contact Page: Here, you can include your company’s contact information and the section where visitors can leave their contact information. 

Moving on, since you are looking for a fully functional travel booking website , it’s important to know that, Trip Page is one of the most important pages. 

This page allows your users to find out about the trips and destinations you offer along with the pricing and other important details of the trip they choose.  

As a result, it’s important to wisely construct these pages on your travel booking website. 

While WordPress lets you add most of the pages for your website, it’s better to choose a fully functional travel plugin for adding Trips to your travel booking website. 

And, for this, we have WP Travel Engine , one of the best travel booking plugins. 

Following are the steps for adding trips to your travel booking website:

Step 1: Go to the Trips menu in your WordPress dashboard. This section on the menu will appear after you successfully install the WP Travel Engine plugin on your website. 

Step 2: Select Add New and you’ll get the option to add the title of your trip. 

One of the examples of the title is “Everest Base Camp Trek – 15 Days”

Step 3: After adding the title, at the bottom of the page, find WP Travel Engine – Trip Settings >>Overview . In this section, you can add trip descriptions and trip highlights.

Tips: Writing a trip description involves setting a consistent tone, using descriptive language, and focusing on the unique aspects of the trip. 

It’s important to highlight what makes the trip special, include practical details, and use storytelling to engage readers. The goal is to create a vivid, enticing picture of the trip experience.

After writing the description, click on Save & Continue .

Step 4: Now go to WP Travel Engine – Trip Settings>> Itinerary . In this step, you can add an itinerary for each day.

Start by adding the itinerary title on Day 1 followed by a brief content.

Then, if you want to add more itineraries, you can simply click on Add Itinerary , and repeat the above process. After you are done adding itineraries, click Save & Continue .

Tips: Writing a travel itinerary involves a structured approach. Include detailed information for each day, such as activities, places to visit, transport options, accommodation suggestions, and insider tips. 

Step 5: Add Images and videos. 

First, go to WP Travel Engine – Trip Settings>> Gallery.

Now, click on Enable Image Gallery and you’ll get an option to Add New Image . 

You can repeat the process to add more images. 

Furthermore, if you want to add videos, you can click on Enable Video Gallery . Then, you’ll have to add the video URL and click on Add Video . 

After this, you can click on Save & Continue to move forward. 

Tips: Higher resolution and larger-sized images will significantly slow down the loading of your page. They should be shrunk down and resized for the web.

Similarly, you should add alt text for SEO purposes. If the visitor can’t view the image for any reason, this alt text will be displayed.

Also, you should not upload your video directly on your website. First, you should upload it on YouTube and upload the link. 

Step 6: Go to WP Travel Engine – Trip Settings>>Date and Prices . 

In this section, you can include the pricing and schedules of the trip. 

Tips: You’ll get the option to customize your pricing details. You can mention different pricing for customers of different age ranges. For example, you can include different prices for adults and children. 

Also, you can add group discounts so that your customers can choose from different price ranges. 

Step 6: Display Pages on Your Website’s Menu

Now that you know how to add pages, more than this will be needed to have your travel website up and running.

You need to display the pages on your website’s menu so that your visitors can find the information they are looking for. For that, you can follow the following steps:

• Go to Appearance>>Menus in your admin dashboard.

• Give it a name (for example, Navigation Menu), and click Create Menu .

• On the left side of the Menus screen, you’ll see a box labeled Pages . You can see a list of all the pages you’ve created here. Check the box next to the pages you want to add to your menu, then click Add to Menu.

• You can arrange the order of the menu items by dragging and dropping them into place. You can also create sub-items by dragging a menu item slightly to the right of another item.
• Once you’ve added all your pages and arranged them in the order you want, you need to set the location for your menu. Under Menu Settings, check the box for the location where you want your menu to appear. It’ll typically be the Primary Menu or Top Menu, depending on your theme.
• Don’t forget to click Save Menu when you’re done!

Now, when you visit your website, you should see your menu at the top, with all your pages displayed in the order you set.

Step 7: Make Your Website Ready With WordPress Plugins

WordPress plugins are tools that add new features and functionalities to your website. You’ll need plugins for booking functionality, SEO, security, and more for a travel booking website. 

Here’s how to install a WordPress plugin:

• Go to the Plugins Section: On the left-hand side of your dashboard, you’ll see a menu. Click on Plugins>> Add New.

• Search for a Plugin: In the Add Plugins screen, you can search for plugins by typing in the search box. For example, if you want to add a booking system to your website, you might search for WP Travel Engine .
• Install the Plugin: Once you’ve found a plugin you like, click on the Install Now button next to the plugin. 

• Activate the Plugin: After the plugin is installed, the Install Now button will change to Activate . Click on this button to start using the plugin.

• Configure the Plugin: Most plugins will have settings you can configure to suit your needs. After activating the plugin, look for its settings in the WordPress menu.

Some Handy Plugins for Your Travel Booking Website

Not to mention, there are many plugins committed to assisting website builders in the process. However, the key is to find the right fit for your travel booking website. 

So, the following are some useful WordPress plugins for your travel booking website:

1. WP Travel Engine

WP Travel Engine is a powerful WordPress travel and tour booking plugin. 

It allows for the creation of unlimited itineraries, the addition of destinations and prices to trips, and the management of payments directly through your website.

It powers over 10,000 travel agencies, making it a reliable choice for travel businesses.

With the WP Travel Engine, booking packages is easier. The extensions on this plugin make the websites fully packed with great features. Some of the excellent add-ons on this plugin are:

• Trip Fixed Starting Dates (shows available dates and seats)
• Group Discount (allows travel companies to provide various discounts to their customers)
• Extra Services (allows travel companies to add extra services like airport pickups, vehicle rental, and many more)
• Advanced Itinerary Builder (allows the addition of informative and descriptive details per day)
• Stripe Payment Gateway (allows you to accept credit cards directly on your website through a Stripe.com account)

Besides the above-mentioned extensions, the WP Travel Engine offers other important add-ons as well. You can have a look at them here. 

One of its unique features is a progress bar that visually represents a guest’s booking progress. This feature helps in increasing the conversion rates of your website. 

It also includes advanced search features, enabling guests to find tours matching their needs quickly.

The plugin is fully translation-ready, making it suitable for businesses operating in different languages. 

Furthermore, it also supports various payment gateways through WooCommerce, ensuring a smooth booking experience for your customers.

Key Features

• Ability to create unlimited itineraries, destinations, and prices
• Excellent payment gateway support
• Advanced search options
• Translation-ready
• Elementor and Gutenberg support
• SEO-friendliness and schema friendliness for increased visibility and ranking
• Ease of selling tours and activities

2. Everest Forms

Everest Forms is a powerful, flexible, and user-friendly WordPress plugin designed to create and manage different types of forms for your website. 

It’s a comprehensive solution for businesses, bloggers, and developers who need a reliable and efficient way to collect information from their site visitors.

Everest Forms also offers seamless integration with popular email marketing services and CRM software. 

This means you can automatically add form submissions to your email lists or customer databases, streamlining your marketing and customer management efforts.

In summary, Everest Forms is more than just a form builder. 

It’s a comprehensive solution that simplifies data collection, enhances user engagement, and integrates seamlessly with your marketing and customer relationship management systems. 

Whether you’re a small business owner, a blogger, or a developer, Everest Forms can make your life easier and your website more effective.

• Allows users to create online forms in WordPress using a simple drag-and-drop form builder interface.
• Offers a variety of pre-built form templates, saving time and effort in creating custom forms.
• Allows users to customize the appearance of their forms, including colors, fonts, borders, and backgrounds.
• Stores all submitted form entries in the Entries section, which can be easily accessed from the WordPress dashboard.
• Allows users to create an unlimited number of forms without any restrictions.
• Ensures the success of marketing campaigns with effective email marketing services like Mailchimp, ConvertKit, MailerLite, ActiveCampaign, and Campaign Monitor.
• Comes with an inbuilt Elementor widget that can be easily dragged and dropped in the Elementor builder.

3.  WP Rocket

WP Rocket is a leading WordPress caching plugin designed to optimize web performance and improve site speed. 

WordPress experts recommend it for its ability to deliver incredible speed results and optimize websites for the Core Web Vitals.

Upon activation, WP Rocket applies 80% of web performance best practices, saving users from the hassle of manual configuration. 

It offers advanced features such as delayed JavaScript execution, removal of unused CSS, minification, and LazyLoad, all of which contribute to a faster loading time and improved website performance.

WP Rocket is the heart of any fast WordPress website, from personal blogs to large eCommerce stores. 

Top WordPress professionals trust it, and it’s compatible with the most popular themes and plugins. With WP Rocket, you can ensure a fast, efficient, and user-friendly website.

• Web performance optimization to improve site speed and performance
• Page speed performance improvement to enhance your website’s Google PageSpeed Insight Score
• Advanced features such as delayed Javascript execution, removing unused CSS, minification, and lazy load
• User experience enhancement by making sites load faster

4. Wordfence Security

Wordfence is a comprehensive security solution for WordPress, offering robust protection for over 4 million websites worldwide. 

As the most popular WordPress firewall and security scanner, Wordfence provides an endpoint firewall and malware scanner specifically designed to safeguard WordPress sites.

The security solution identifies and blocks malicious attackers targeting WordPress, offering robust security tools such as malware scanning, two-factor authentication, rate limiting, brute force protection, and vulnerability alerts. 

Wordfence receives firewall rules and malware signatures from the industry-leading Wordfence Threat Intelligence team, albeit with a 30-day delay.

Wordfence also includes centralized management through Wordfence Central, allowing users to manage the security of multiple WordPress sites from a single console. 

This feature enables rapid assessment of the security status of all your websites on a single page, detailed security findings view, and notifications when one of your sites experiences a security event.

• Robust security tools, including malware scanning, two-factor authentication, rate limiting, brute force protection, and vulnerability alerts
• Identifies and blocks malicious attackers targeting WordPress
• Enables rapid assessment of the security status of all websites on a single page, detailed security findings view, and notifications when one of your sites experiences a security event
• Provides free WordPress.org forum support.

5. Everest Backup

Everest Backup is a modern, user-friendly WordPress plugin designed to handle your website’s backups, restoration, migration, and cloning. 

It seamlessly integrates with your cloud storage with just a single click, ready to store your backup files on your remote cloud storage.

Everest Backup is not only limited to backup and restoration. It’s also one of the best WordPress website migration plugins. Website migration is as simple as copy and paste. 

You can generate and copy your migration key from the source website and paste this migration key onto your destination website. In a single click, your migration of the site happens.

• Allows for both manual generation of backups and setting up automated backups.
• Facilitates website migration and cloning by creating and transferring a backup file from one website to another.
• Provides notifications when a backup completes or requires attention.
• Connects with Google Drive to automatically upload all backup files.

Step 8: Integrate Online Booking and Payments

Integration of online booking and payments is one important way to establish credibility. Also, this maintains trustworthiness among customers and business owners.

Using plugins like WP Travel Engine makes it quick and easy to set up a reliable and user-friendly online system for bookings, reservations, and payments, which is further improved by the plugin’s payment add-ons.

Here are some of the reasons why integrating online booking and payments is fruitful for your travel booking websites:

• It allows your customers to complete both booking and payment at the same time. This ensures better cash flow.
• It enables instant payment without having to wait for days to receive payments.
• Instant payments through secured means of payment like PayPal ensure a secure way to conduct business.

Here’s a simple step-by-step guide on how to integrate online bookings and payments using the WP Travel Engine plugin:

• Navigate to WP Travel Engine>>Settings>>Payment.  

WP Travel Engine supports payment gateways like PayPal, Stripe, and more. Enable the ones you want to use and enter the necessary details.

• Finally, test your booking and payment system to ensure everything works correctly. Try booking a trip and making a payment to see if you encounter any issues.

After completing all the above steps, you’ll finally get a travel booking website that’s on your mind. 

So, you’ve made it to the end of our guide on creating a travel booking website with WordPress. Let’s recap.

First, we started securing a domain name and a reliable web hosting service. Remember, these are the building blocks of your website.

Next, we installed WordPress and chose a WordPress theme, Zakra .

We also added a Trip Page to your site’s menu. This simple step makes it easy for visitors to navigate your website. Also, this allows your visitors to easily book and pay for the trips they choose.

Lastly, themes like Zakra and plugins like WP Travel Engine come packed with SEO friendliness and schema friendliness, ensuring better ranking of your website on search engines. 

So there you have it.

With dedication and regular maintenance, your travel booking website can become a go-to resource for individuals planning their next adventure. And that’s a big win for your business.

ThemeGrill Editorial

We are a team of WordPress enthusiasts comprising WordPress developers, designers, & marketers. We're committed to providing valuable content & resources to empower users at all levels. Follow us on Twitter & join our Facebook Community .

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Building a Booking Website in 2023: A Comprehensive Guide

Did you know that having a booking website can  increase your revenue by 27%  and help you reach new customers?  According to a survey , the online scheduling market was valued at $224 million in 2019 and is expected to grow to $588 million by 2027. 

The world of hospitality is evolving. Technology plays a pivotal role in connecting customers and businesses. Booking websites are making it easier for customers to access their desired services.  Over 94% of customers  would prefer a platform with online booking functionality when choosing a new provider. If you plan to build a booking website in 2023, there are several key things to understand before proceeding.

Booking websites offer customers a hassle-free and convenient way to schedule appointments and receive confirmations and reminders for upcoming bookings. They've become integral to modern-day booking culture, where people want simple service access. According to a recent study,  67% of customers  favored online booking over traditional methods like phone or in-person bookings.

About the author: Oleg Kumko - Project Manager. Together with his team, they developed an innovative booking solution for a healthcare company:

"We have significant experience building booking websites and excellent niche expertise in  hospital software development . A healthcare institution specializing in doctor house calls approached us with a problem. 

Their medical professionals were spending too much time commuting. As a result,  they couldn't cover patient demand. 

We fixed this by developing an online booking tool that optimized doctors` movements. We created an algorithm that analyses distance, traffic, and dozens of other criteria to plan the most efficient route possible for doctors. 

Custom solutions like this are complex due to the number of required integrations, but they offer enormous benefits for patients and providers."

This guide will walk you through building a booking website in 2023. We'll cover the planning and preparation phase,  the best web developers , the design and development process, testing and deployment, and ongoing maintenance and support requirements. 

By the end of this guide, you'll have a comprehensive understanding of the steps involved in building a booking website.

Top 5 Booking Websites in 2023

Booking.com.

Booking.com is a market-leading online travel agency that lets users book hotels and apartments in thousands of global locations. They offer a massive range of options catering to all budgets and preferences and provide tools for managing reservations and cancelations. In addition to accommodation, they offer bookings for rental cars and airport transport.

‍ Key features:

• 43 language versions
• 28+ million accommodation options
• Online payments
• Availability check 
• Easy cancelation
• Displaying amenities
• Flights offerings in 54 markets
• Tours and activities in 1200 cities
• 24/7 support

Years on the market:  27

Revenue:  $17.1 billion

The number of visitors:  495.5 million per month

Tripadvisor

Tripadvisor is an online booking website that offers a variety of travel-related services. Customers can browse accommodations, restaurants, and tourist attractions to make bookings through the site. They also provide a forum that lets travelers share experiences and advice. Tripadvisor is now one of the largest travel websites in the world, with over 463 million average monthly unique visitors.

Key features:

• 22 language versions
• Over 1 billion reviews
• Images from real travelers
• Things to do
• Restaurants Guide
• Hotels filter (location, class, popularity, property type, brand, etc.)

Years on the market:  23

Revenue:  $1.49 billion

The number of visitors:  146.2   million per month

Kayak aggregates information from hundreds of travel sites and airlines to give customers hundreds of booking options. Users can filter search results by price, travel dates, and amenities. They also notify customers when prices drop or new deals become available. They offer a huge selection of travel planning resources in addition to their booking functionality.

• 18 language versions
• Flight types filter (direct, connection flights)
• Accommodation
• Trip categories filter

Years on the market:  19

Revenue:  $282 million

The number of visitors:  40   million per month

SimplyBook.me

SimpleBook.me is a booking website commonly used by healthcare providers. It allows healthcare businesses to manage appointment scheduling and bookings through a single platform. Their system offers customizable booking pages, automated appointment reminders, and real-time booking updates. Users can set up customized booking rules and restrictions, such as minimum and maximum booking times. The platform also offers staff schedule management.

• Activity type filters (Events, sports, beauty, healthcare, business, education)
• Calendar sync
• Automatic reminders

  Years on the market:  12

Revenue:  $5.4 million

The number of visitors:  1.1   million per month

10to8 simplifies appointment scheduling and patient bookings for healthcare providers. It offers customizable booking pages, automated patient reminders, and real-time booking updates. 10to8 helps providers streamline booking processes, reduce no-shows, and improve the patient experience. The platform integrates popular payment gateways, email marketing, and analytics tools. 10to8 is an essential tool for managing healthcare appointments, allowing healthcare providers to manage schedules, services, and bookings efficiently, all in one place.

• Availability check
• Integrations with videoconferencing apps and CRMs
• Multi-staff bookings for team meetings & training
• Booking page customization
• Email confirmations and reminders
• SMS confirmations and reminders
• Voice reminders
• WhatsApp reminders

Years on the market:  12

Revenue:  $5.9 Million

The number of visitors:  612.1K per month

How to Build a Booking Website

Step 1. planning and preparation.

Every software development project needs a clear plan and vision. Building a booking website is no exception. Here's a 4-step plan to prepare for your project.

Market Research

The first thing you must do is research your audience and competition. Analyze your intended customer's needs, and assess how they will use your services. Gather a list of your future competitors and see what you can learn from their products and what you could improve.

Define Project Scope 

The second stage of planning is to determine the scope of your project, e.g., what features and tools your website will need. Use the results from your market research to guide this process. Defining your scope beforehand will help you avoid scope creep and build a website that meets your users' needs.

Technology Stack 

The third stage is to decide on your website's tech stack. Consider factors such as security, scalability, and ease of maintenance. Your development team can help you choose the perfect tech stack for your project.

Budget and Timeline 

Finally, you need to calculate projected costs. Costs are estimated using hourly rates and the expected number of hours. Getting an exact estimate before starting is difficult, but you can get a rough idea of the price range. You can fund your project via outside investment, bank loans, or other means.

Development Team

Once you're fully prepared, it's time to hire your development team. Depending on your current needs and long-term plans, you can choose one of the following models: hire an in-house team or outsource. Your project's complexity and the location of your desired development team will considerably impact expected costs.

Thorough planning and preparation will help you lay a solid foundation for your booking website. In the next section, we will discuss the design and development phase of the project.

Step 2. Design and Development

It's time to turn your plan into a fully functional booking website. Here's a 5-step process to design and develop your project.

UI and UX Design

The UI and UX of your website will determine its success. Ensure your website has an intuitive, user-friendly interface with an excellent user experience. Consider color scheme, layout, and navigation. We recommend that you invest significant time designing your UX because it is unbelievably critical to the success of your website.

Website Prototype

Before moving to the development phase, you need a website prototype to help you test your website's design and functionality. Use tools such as focus groups, mockups, and prototypes to design and create a user-friendly and intuitive prototype that you can use to gain feedback.

Backend Development

Backend development isn't as glamorous as frontend, but make no mistake, it's equally important. It includes the database, server, and scripts. Depending on your level of technical expertise, you can become directly involved in the process or leave it to your development team.

Payment Gateway

The option to pay for an appointment right away in a booking app adds points to a customer's convenience, which is an essential functionality. The good news is that it is unnecessary to develop it from scratch. Some solutions like Stax equip your product with a ready-to-use payment toolkit.

Third-party integration

Your booking website should integrate with third-party software like employee calendars, invoicing, CRM, and other parties. Integrating these features will save time and effort compared to creating them from scratch. The number of third-party integrations your website needs will make it more or less complex.

In the next section, we'll discuss the testing and deployment phase of the project.

Step 3. Testing and Deployment

Your project's testing and deployment phase aims to fix as many bugs and errors as possible before live server testing. Here are four key testing and development phases.

Testing is critical to the success of your booking website. Test your website for bugs, errors, and other issues to ensure it functions correctly. Consider using automated testing tools to assist you.

Security will be at the front of most of your customer's minds. Secure your website using SSL certificates, firewalls, and other security measures. A security breach can be disastrous for a new website and destroy a brand overnight.

Deployment 

Once you've tested and secured your website, it's time to deploy it on a live server. Choose a reliable hosting provider, so your users can access the website. Test every feature and use a third-party tool to test your website's bandwidth.

Maintenance and Support 

Once your website is live, you must provide ongoing maintenance and support. Regularly update your website, monitor its performance, and provide customer support. You can outsource maintenance or do it yourself.

The next section will explore a booking website's ongoing maintenance and support requirements in more detail.

Step 4. Ongoing Maintenance and Support

Your booking website's ongoing maintenance and support phase involves providing regular updates, monitoring performance, and giving customer support. Here's what you'll need to do:

Regular Updates

Regularly update your website to keep it functioning correctly and up-to-date with the latest security patches and features. Regular updates are key to maintaining strict security standards.

Performance Monitoring

Monitor your website's performance. This will keep it functioning correctly and contribute to an excellent user experience. Consider using tools such as Google Analytics to monitor your website's performance. Doing this will help you identify areas to improve.

Customer Support

Provide customer support to your users so they get the help they need whenever needed. Consider offering live chat and email support, and have the knowledge base to help your users quickly get what they need. Support can be outsourced, but it's best when support staff is vested in maintaining your website's reputation.

Regularly back up your website. You'll need to be able to restore it if there's a problem quickly. Consider using automated backup tools for extra peace of mind. Most hosting providers offer daily auto backups but always check first.

Do these things, and your booking website will always function correctly, provide an excellent user experience, and stay secure.

We're ready to proceed with the final step, marketing and promotion.

Step 5. Marketing and Promotion

Once you've built and launched your booking website, it's time to start promoting it to your target audience. Here's how you can promote your finished website:

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) 

Optimize your website for search engines, so your target audience can find it. Use relevant keywords and meta descriptions to help your website rank higher than your competitors in search engine results.

Social Media Marketing

Leverage social media platforms to promote your booking website directly to your target audience. Use platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram to reach prospective users.

Paid Advertising 

Use paid advertising methods like Google Ads, Facebook Ads, or LinkedIn Ads to reach your target audience. You can outsource this to a digital marketing agency or do it yourself.

Email Marketing

Use email marketing to promote your booking website. Consider creating a newsletter, sending promotional emails, and sending appointment reminders to your users. Email continues to be an excellent tool for raising awareness about new products.

Referral Programs

Consider partnering with other providers or offering referral programs to promote your website to a broader audience. Referrals are a surefire way to grow your website.

Proper marketing and promotion will ensure you reach your target audience and drive traffic and conversions to your website. Marketing and promotion will have a huge impact on the success of your website. You could make the best website in the world, but it means nothing if no one can see it.

Booking Website Key Features

Your booking website must include these five key features to make your customers happy and provide an amazing user experience :

User-Friendly Interface

Your website needs a tactile and easy-to-navigate user interface. The booking website market is crowded, so use your user interface to set you apart. Customers must be able to easily find what they're looking for whilst browsing through available options. It must have an attractive appearance and flow seamlessly.

Comprehensive Search Functionality

Customers must be able to find their ideal service using several filtering options. These should include location, price, date, and any other relevant criteria. Search results must be relevant and accurate to provide your customers with the best possible results. Irrelevant search results can put customers off your booking website, so be careful.

Secure Payment Gateway

Customers need to feel like they can pay securely on your website to use it. A secure payment gateway is one of the essential features of a successful booking website. Ensure your website is SSL encrypted and your payment gateway is PCI-compliant to keep your customer's valuable data properly secured.

Multiple Payment Options

You must offer several payment options on your booking website. Some customers have unshakable payment preferences that you must cater to. Some popular payment methods you should offer include debit cards, credit cards, digital wallets (PayPal, etc.), and even payment in different currencies.

The quality of your customer support can easily make or break your booking website. Plenty of booking websites have had their reputations ruined by poor customer support. Your website should have a dedicated helpdesk with a vast knowledge base and FAQs to help customers solve common problems by themselves. We also recommend including live chat, email, and phone support. Low response times are also essential to superior customer support.

These five features are crucial to the success of your booking website. Pay attention to them. They will help you build customer trust and loyalty toward your website when done properly.

How Much Does It Cost To Make a Booking Website?

It's no secret that building a booking website is an expensive proposition. However, the cost can vary depending on several factors, including the complexity of the website, the type of services offered, features, and the required level of customization. Pursuing a custom solution or going the white-labeling route will also impact the cost.

A basic booking website with standard features such as search functionality, booking forms, payment gateway and basic customer support can cost between $5,000 and $10,000. Suppose you want a website with more advanced features such as social media integration, email marketing, mobile app integration and advanced reporting and analytics. In this case, the costs would be significantly higher.

How much you pay will depend on the platform and technology used. Popular platforms for building online booking websites like WordPress, Wix, and Squarespace can be used to build a basic booking website for anywhere from a few hundred dollars to several thousand.

A fully-built custom booking website will be much more expensive than this. These projects require a dedicated team of developers and designers to build them from scratch. In addition to being expensive, they can take weeks or months to complete. Depending on the project's complexity, a bespoke booking website can cost anywhere from $10,000 to $50,000 or more.

Before building a website, you should know it's not a one-time expense. Ongoing maintenance and support need to be included in your budget. These costs include web hosting, security updates, bug fixes, and customer support. The cost of ongoing maintenance and support ranges from a few hundred dollars a year to several thousand. 

How much it costs to build your booking website depends on what you want and who builds it. Employ an experienced and professional web development team if you pursue the custom route.

The demand for innovative and user-friendly booking websites will only increase as the hospitality industry evolves. Developing a booking website for your company can help your business stand out from the competition. Building a booking website in 2023 will be a rewarding and successful project if you have the right strategy, tools, and resources.

Building a booking website in 2023 requires careful planning, design, development, testing, deployment, maintenance, and marketing. By following the blueprint outlined in this post, you'll create a well-designed, intuitive, secure, and successful booking website. 

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How To Build A Travel Website in 7 Easy Steps?

The travel industry has become increasingly digitized over the last few years. Travel agencies and other related services cultivate their online presence to respond to changes in customer behavior. 

More than 80% of people search for travel information online. A Statista report shows that 65% of revenue from global tourism was generated through online channels in 2020. The growing demand logically breeds supply. 

But how to make a travel agency website to make your services more attractive online than competitors? Find out how to create such a website and how much it may cost.

Reasons to Develop a Travel Agency Website

The last year brought incredible losses to the global travel industry due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2021, people are once again traveling more actively, and the demand for online travel services is growing. According to the Travel Leaders Group , about 70% of people plan to vacation in 2021. 

Considering that 8 of 10 customers book their travel online, running a travel business without a website is impossible. Here are a few more online travel statistics to prove this idea:

• 700 million people will book hotels online by 2023
• 148.3 million travel bookings are completed online every year
• 80% of US travelers prefer booking from computer
• 20% of US, 33% of French and 25% of the UK tourists make bookings using mobile
• 48% of US users use their smartphones exclusively to research and plan their trip
• In 2020 65% of global travel and tourism revenue came from online sales channels
• The online travel agent market was $432 billion in 2020, projected to reach $833 billion by 2025
• Booking Holdings and Expedia were the biggest online travel agencies in the world in 2020

Why a website and not an app? Well, mobile applications are dominating in many service categories. However, 80% of US customers prefer to make bookings via laptop, not a mobile device. That is why you first need to think about travel website development and then create a mobile application as an additional sales channel.

Besides the customer preferences, there are many more reasons why you need to consider creating a website for your travel business:

• Credibility : it is hard to imagine a business without an online presence. People do not want to spend their time walking from office to office to choose a travel agency or find the required destination at a suitable price. They do all of the research online. Having a website provides credibility for your company. In the travel industry, it is not enough to just have profiles on social media.
• Availability : many travelers decide to book a tour during non-business hours. A website provides the ability to use your services 24/7.
• Visual and intellectual impact on the audience : the website content with its eye-catching photos, appealing descriptions, and easy and quick customer journey from start to checkout may impact the user’s decision to purchase from your agency. A website is a powerful marketing tool to present the company’s services as maximally attractive for customers.
• Online booking engine : it’s quicker and cheaper for a company to process bookings made online. And it’s handier for the majority of customers.
• Client reviews : people trust other people more than any advertisement or promotional content. By placing a client review section on the website, you can significantly boost loyalty to your brand.
• Building partnership with related service providers : a travel business highly relies on cooperation with other service providers. You can create a travel website to build a robust partner network to extend your services and conquer new markets.
• Sales & lead generation : present your tour packages and sell them via your online platform. Your website will generate more leads and sales within the comprehensive search engine optimization and online marketing promotion.

Not only do travel agencies benefit from creating a travel site. You can create a travel review website where tourists share their traveling experience and leave feedback regarding hotels, restaurants, carriers, etc. 

You can create a travel portal to collect tour prices from different providers, a hotel booking website, or a travel blog. Depending on the type of travel website, there are multiple monetization strategies available. Check our guide in the nearest future on « How to Monetize a Travel Website ».

Must-Have Features for Travel Website Development

There are two significant types of travel websites: travel bookers and travel blogs. A travel booking website can be a specific agency’s website or a reselling service that helps other providers find customers at a special commission. 

A travel blog can contain descriptions of different travel locations, show reviews, tell about personal traveling experiences. 

The required type defines how to make a travel website for your purposes and its features. First, let’s focus on a traditional travel agency’s website to analyze what features would be great to implement in such a product.

A modern website for a travel agency is not an introductory gallery of available tours and services. Instead, it should be a comprehensive web application where users can review available options, filter the ones that fit their requirements and make a purchase. Essential features to start building a travel website include the following:

1. Responsive Design

More than half, 54.8%, of total web visits are mobile, according to Statista . If the website is not mobile-friendly, 55% of users won’t engage with a company. A poor mobile user experience can seriously damage your brand and reputation. That is why it is vital to create responsive, mobile-friendly travel website design layouts for your travel website. 

Such a design adapts to different screen sizes and resolutions, making it convenient to use all the site’s features on any supported device. Check the booking.com website to test the responsiveness in all its power.

Booking.com Responsive UI

2. Simple Search Filters

Searching and filtering options are the key UI elements. Most users come to a travel agency website to find a suitable tour or a hotel. While there are multiple search options besides location, you need to make locating them comfortable for a user. Avoid messing up the interface with a too-long list of available search categories.

Predictive Search

It would also be great to do a predictive search to choose the required hotel names or cities by the first characters entered. It saves time and helps find the desired item even if a user doesn’t remember its full name, a common occurrence among travelers.

3. Appealing Visuals

Besides direct access to the agency’s features, a website should create a particular mood and make a user want to book travel right here and right now. HQ photos and videos with bright, eye-catching scenes from travel destinations, hotels, and restaurants are vital for this purpose.

HQ Photos for A Travel Website

Don’t save on the graphic content quality or size. Instead, let users enjoy their full beauty and colors. However, make sure all those graphics don’t affect the website’s performance.

4. Favorites

People spend a lot of time researching possible destinations and can hardly choose quickly. They prefer selecting suitable offers and then comparing them, reading reviews, and thinking over each one for some time. 

Implement the ability to add the listings to Favorites to come back and make a purchase later. Put it somewhere in the profile section and place a ‘Favorites’ button into the navigation bar for quick access if a user is logged in.

5. Clear Pricing Without Hidden Fees

Imagine the competition around the travel industry and a user finally decides to become your customer and book a tour on your side. When they go to the checkout page, they see an amount different from the one set in the catalog. It is one of the most significant bounce triggers. Make sure you list the actual pricing of every item you offer so that no hidden fees are revealed during the checkout process.

6. Google Map Integration

Google Map integration allows checking the chosen venues on the map, displaying the nearby infrastructure, viewing photos and descriptions for each point, etc. It would be great to use these gro-based features on a travel website to make it more interactive.

7. Real-Time Online Booking

Most companies develop a travel website to allow online access to tour booking features. To provide real-time data updates in your catalog, enable a property management system (PMS). It will help keep the information like check-in and check-out dates, destination, contacts, and other data up-to-date.

8. Easy & Quick Checkout

The checkout process should be smooth and easy to complete, as a user has already spent much effort choosing the tour and deciding to spend money on your website. 

Ensure your checkout form doesn’t contain any unnecessary fields so that a user doesn’t have to enter more information than needed. For example, it would be great to let users save their payment details and billing address so they won’t have to enter this data again and again.

Airbnb.com Checkout Form

Multiple payment gateways are also a big plus. Customers highly appreciate flexibility in the accepted payment methods. Focus on those that are more popular among your target audience.

Would you like to implement the best pack of features for your travel website? Consult KeyUA software and marketing experts to get a first-class solution.

9. Access to Customer Assistance

Think about what customer assistance options you would like to provide. The most basic options are a contact form for email assistance, a callback request, and a phone call button. Also, think about a FAQ section that would contain answers to the most common questions regarding your services.

These are the must-have features for building a travel website. Standard features like registration, login, profile section should also be on board. The features from the list above are enough for an MVP version. It can further be extended with more valuable options to enrich the customer experience:

• A customer review section: people trust other people more than any promo material. Having reviews from real people positively impacts your customers’ loyalty and helps them choose a suitable tour.
• Blog section: the travel-round content is endless, and tourists like reading and watching related information. A blog section is also great for monetization and making different cross-promo marketing campaigns with partners.
• Advanced customer support options like a real-time chat or an AI-powered chatbot
• Appealing and informative text content to describe services, destinations, hotels, etc. It could be a powerful SEO tool to improve the website ranks in Google search results.
• AR/VR capabilities: running a virtual tour to the desired venue, getting a 3D overview of the nearby territories can be a nice add-on that website visitors may like.
• Big Data: big data analysis works well for generating predictions and recommendations for website visitors. Based on their previous behavior, you can provide more personalized CX.

Think about these features as the next step of your website development after an MVP is successfully launched.

8 Steps to Make a Travel Website

The process of travel website creation includes the research, development, and post-development sections. Here is a rough plan of how to build a travel website from scratch.

Step 1. Choose The Niche

The niche defines the type, features, and technologies for the future website. For example, there are online tour operators, hotel or ticket booking services, travel blogs, and much more. Find out more about all existing travel website types  in our future blog post. 

During this stage, clarify the following criteria:

• services you would like to offer through the site
• target customer categories
• Set the business goals you’re planning to attain

You should have a clear vision of your future website, like a tool for reaching specific commercial goals.

Step 2. Define The Features

After you’ve clarified your niche and audience, it’s time to list the desired features and requirements for the development. Document your requirements to let the future team estimate the project and allocate necessary resources for implementation.

After listing all desired features, think about which to develop first and which ones can be postponed to the subsequent releases if there are specific time or budget limits.

Step 3. Choose the Development Stack

After specifying the requirements, address them to a qualified development team to estimate how much it will cost and how long it may take to create a website you need. Then, based on the project specs, your technical experts will recommend the suitable development approach and technologies. There are two available options to go for:

• Out-of-box solution : taking a content management system or specialized platform and customizing it for your specific needs. The main pros are saving time and costs on development. The cons include different limitations in functionality and a lack of brand identity.
• Custom software development : you can build a travel website from scratch. The advantages are completely fitting your requirements and the ability to implement unique features and design. The disadvantages are mainly related to a bigger budget and timeframe compared to using ready-made platforms and solutions.

Each approach implies using different technologies to provide the required functionality, performance speed, and security. Partner with an experienced development team to recommend the best options for your project.

Step 4. Create UI Design

The UI design stage implies creating wireframes for each type of website page with all UI elements. Investigating the typical user scenarios and generating storyboards can help choose the right elements and locate them properly. The results of this stage include wireframes and graphic designs for each website page type. Additionally, creating a clickable website prototype is possible to see how it may look after being coded.

Step 5. Develop the Website Code

This phase implies developing the client-side (front-end development) and server-side (back-end development) of the future website. First, turn wireframes and designs into the code, making them functional. Then, connect UI elements to the database, programming all necessary features. All this scope of work should be adequately planned and fulfilled by the team. A project manager (or sometimes a few PMs) coordinates the joint work of front-end and back-end developers.

Step 6. Create Content

Besides feeding the catalog with travel data from your database, you’ll need to fill the website with different text and graphical content. For example, you should prepare texts and photos for each page, various banners, a motto, maybe have some longer texts for SEO purposes. Take care to compose a content plan that includes every piece of content you’ll need to get done before the website launch. Then let copywriters, marketing specialists, and designers work on it.

Step 7. Quality Assurance

The website should be properly tested before the launch. A QA team should check Its visual appearance, functionalities, performance, and security for all possible failures. It is essential to reveal and fix all bugs before the public release.

Step 8. Launch!

Finally, your travel website is ready to go public and receive its first visitors. Make sure to promote its release on social media and other online resources to attract visitors. It’s time to add your website URL to your team’s business cards.

A website requires constant maintenance and troubleshooting after the release. Growing traffic loads, new data, functionality upgrades, administration issues — all this requires continuous technical assistance to provide trouble-free online customer service. In addition, digital marketing support, SEO-optimization also bring results only if constantly performed.

Would you like to know how much it will cost to create a travel website based on your requirements? Let us estimate your project.

How Much Does It Cost?

The total cost of the travel website development project depends on a few criteria:

• Project scope and complexity
• The chosen tech stack
• The team size
• The deadline
• The team’s location and rates

The location of the team defines their hourly rates. According to Upwork, the hourly rates for web development ranges from $15/hr to $136/hr. The top rate for a front-end developer is $100/hr and $150/hr for a back-end developer. Developers from North America and Western Europe traditionally charge the most. 

In contrast, developers from Asia and Africa offer the cheapest service. If you are wondering how to create a travel website at a minimum price, consider the best price-quality combo by hiring an outsourcing partner from Eastern Europe. The average rate there is $35/hr, ranging between $20/hr and $50/hr in Ukraine, which provides an optimal price-quality ratio.

Consider first working on an MVP version with minimum features required for your online presence. After that, it would be reasonable to set a more extended deadline, as a tight timeframe requires a bigger team and higher rates to complete everything in time.

A team for a custom travel website development should include:

• 1 project manager
• 2 front-end developers
• 2 back-end developers
• 1 QA specialist

Considering an average rate of $35/hr for Ukrainian specialists and a project duration of 6 months, the approximate project cost is about $168,000 . To get a precise estimation based on your specific requirements, please consult our software development experts.

Final Thoughts

A website is a must for a travel industry player to function online. While in many other areas, customers prefer mobile apps, travelers book tours, hotels, and tickets online, mostly on their computers. Comprehensive online booking features built into a handy, up-to-date, and mobile-friendly user interface are what modern customers prefer. 

As a result, a travel website can become the leading source of clients and sales for your agency. The KeyUA team has extensive experience in creating products for the travel and tourism domain. We’ll be happy to provide technical and marketing assistance for your travel website development.

Need experts to make your travel website up and running? Feel free to hire experienced KeyUA developers.

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How to Create a Travel Website: Types, Features, Industry Trends

Most people plan a journey by seeking advice from the same source — the Internet. As ending the pandemic is becoming more solvable, many of us think about where to travel next.

Ironically, we tend to get easily overwhelmed by the sheer amount of tasks. What place is ok for a night stay? Which is the best camera backpack? Where to refuel?

So today, we will figure out how a travel website works. We will also share tips on how to make your own travel website genuinely shine.

Travel industry overview

There are many destinations to look forward to when the Covid-19 threat eventually fades into the background. Below we share the latest trends you need to know to build a travel website.

Covid-19 restrictions loosen

Forbes says the situation looks a lot more promising from when much of the travels were put on pause. Here are quick facts:

• Many Schengen area states reopen for tourism;
• People are likely to go abroad if getting vaccinated;
• Air traffic increased by 16% in flights taking off in late May;
• Booking momentum saw a big increase for the first time since March 2020.
• Many Caribbean countries are open to U.S. citizens, pending negative PRL tests.

Also, having a vaccine pass would eliminate the need for quarantine, thus boosting the travel industry.

Source: TripAdvisor

Once-in-a-lifetime trips

A sense of a major accomplishment drives many travelers, as reported by ABTA . In other words, people love to cross off something on their bucket list. Especially when journeys seem a means to cope with quarantine fatigue.

Booking.com predicts a wave of “workcation.” It comes as no surprise considering how many of us are involved in jobs associated with PC usage. Such a tendency motivates individuals to book out a couple of days or a week to work remotely.

The most bang for your buck

The economy will affect travels abroad since many have lost income due to a pandemic. Addressing the recovery phase, the Guardian says that the UK business trippers will cut their future flights.

Self-drive mode

With Covid-19 measures causing people to travel within native countries, a self-drive mode is rocketing. Thus, for example, thanks to the U.S. citizens rapidly booking summer getaways, RVshare’s business experiences a 114% increase .

Travel website types explained

Defining what a travel website is can be a tough one. Turns out, there’s a myriad of sites claiming to be “for tourism.”

A memorable journey loves preparation. Surely you want to make the best out of many activities out there. So, before setting off, you find suitable tickets, a place to stay, maybe buy certain equipment and more.

Thus, a travel website is the one that helps us avoid journey-related hassles. What are types of travel websites and what do you need to know to start one? Read on to find out.

Tour operator

Normally, there are a few types of tour operators out there.

Inbound tour operators sell all arrangements to travelers. Such a type of operator brings their clients to a destination both individually and in groups.

Sense of Africa is a nice example. This agency provides private, self-drive, FIT, and group journeys in several African countries.

Secondly, we have outbound tour operators. Those companies sell packages designed for traveling abroad from their country.

Domestic tour operators, on the contrary, provide travel tours within a person’s native country.

And finally, receptive tour operators (RTOs) act as product suppliers to other operators. RTOs also spread awareness around the possibilities travel agencies have to offer.

Personal journey matchmaker

It’s an intermediary between the travel industry and the customer. Since almost everyone jumps online, travelers can search and book what they need with no travel agents involved.

Take Classic Journeys , for instance. This travel website helps you find a trip based on location, tour style, and departure date. Those picking a particular tour and independents making their own itineraries are equally vital to this type of site:

Travel accessories supplier

Everybody needs to know what will come in handy during a trip. More importantly, where to get those stuff. How to create a travel website having all of them? Take a look at GoTravel , a site specializing in multiple travel accessories at once:

Below you find essentials with examples that make journeys less troubling:

• Packing (hiking backpacks, carry-on luggage, suitcases, backpacks for camera lenses);
• E-devices (action cameras, power banks, location trackers);
• Safety gear (money belts, padlocks, flashlights);
• Hygiene items (hand sanitizers, mosquito repellents, masks to reduce the risk of catching viruses);
• Comfort accessories (headphone jack splitter, thermoses, blankets, travel pillows).

Besides, all things have a lifespan meaning customers could use some help with maintenance or upgrades.

Hotel booking websites

Build a travel site helping users to find accommodation rooms smoothly and fast. For example, Expedia , Travelocity , and Orbitz find the best deals via filters, narrowing your search results. Their prices are identical since Expedia Inc. runs all three sites.

In some cases, however, deals from the hotel’s original page might not appear on third-party websites. When picking a hotel to stay in, the user normally goes for price comparison from several sources.

If you can’t find a single description of a hotel room, you question why. Instead of making guests feel like entering a haunted house, hotel guides provide them with all details: facilities, house rules, whether a location is temporarily closed, if mask-wearing is required, etc.

Take a look at the  Accommodation Search Website case study that Codica Team delivered for a Client from Australia.

Hotel alternatives

Players like Booking and Expedia take up almost the entire hotel market. So it is a bit problematic to survive alongside those giants using old methods.

How to build a travel website that is alternative to hotels? High demand and low supply help you acquire the right type of customer as always. And with a rollout of platforms similar to Airbnb , it became clearer than ever.

For example, a summerhouse turned out to be a good choice for those spending their vacation with close friends, family, or both. The same applies to the family-operated guesthouses. Plus, they offer a homely atmosphere apart from cheaper service.

Once you pick a lovely "house by the sea," one more thing is yet to know: how do you get there?

As an example, take a look at this rental website concept created by Codica’s design team.

Transportation explained

Here we find the right way to reach a destination point. A journey includes checking flight or bus tickets, train schedule, renting cars. Self-drive tours are extremely popular these days.

Overall, a lot of people need help with difficulties such as:

• How to overcome airport-related obstacles;
• Where to find low gas prices;
• Which is the best car rental company nearby;
• What vehicle is good for a specific location, etc.

RVshare , for example, is an “Airbnb of trailers” which has become very popular amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

Travel Blog

Telling stories is what we frequently do. Mostly via social media. So why not benefit from it within your own travel website?

There are dozens of topics people find worth reading before visiting new places as:

• Like-A-Local Guides;
• Top Underrated Beachsides;
• Best Sunrise View Spots;
• Best Places to Exchange Currency;
• City’s Loveliest Boutiques.

Allow users to share their notes and feedback. Ensure that they won't miss out on any of the opportunities a certain place has to offer. For example, Dorsia is an app about great city spots that are below most people’s radar:

Source: Dribbble

How to build a travel website?

Travel goals and target audience.

Entering the travel market, avoid becoming an "all-in-one" expert. First, let's find out what goals travelers can pursue. Would-be travelers' roadmap tends to be driven by the following factors:

• Dates & duration of the trip;

We've decided to point them out since there's a clear causal link to the concerns of each traveler:

• Flight attributes;
• Where to stay;
• Vehicles & rental cars.

You'll be more effective when you narrow in on a defined audience. How to make a travel website attractive to a particular set of people? We have rounded up traveler profiles that instantly come to mind:

• Business tripper;
• Family vacationer;
• Friends' getaways;
• Winter ski enthusiast;

Take people's lifestyles into account when determining a marketing strategy. Now, let’s move on to revenue models commonly used on travel websites.

Platform monetization

The revenue model is tightly connected to the goals you have. Here, we’ve decided to discuss the most common tips on how to profit from a travel website.

Commission When it comes to booking, use commission fees just like brick-and-mortar travel agencies. For example, on Booking.com, the commission depends on how highly your hotel is ranked.

Listings Charge business for higher listings' visibility in searches. Also, you can offer so-called premium listings so a user will be on top of the search results. TripAdvisor, for instance, provides these tools once you claim your business page.

Transactions Build a travel website for selling tourist equipment and related stuff directly to the customers. GoTravel which we have mentioned earlier does exactly the same.

Advertising Diversify revenue by running social media campaigns, operators’ ads, and email marketing for travel agencies.

Functionality a travel website needs

As we have pointed out earlier, the travel industry covers many types of sites. Therefore, the required functionality will vary depending on your business goals. In this paragraph we want to outline the main features any travel website couldn't manage without.

Registration

Apart from the fill-all-fields process, let everybody register using Google or Facebook sign-ins.

If your site is review-based, ask newly registered businesses to provide short details on their type. Whether it is a restaurant, theme park, beach area, observation deck, shopping mall. The list goes on.

Search and filters

Allow people to find places by ratings, location, type of business, or commonly searched features as:

• Available rooms;
• Friendly-budget;
• Free cancelation;
• Parking space;
• Wheelchair accessibility;
• Breakfast included;
• Room service.

Save users' time greatly with a predictive search — a dropdown of autosuggestions that pops up once you start typing.

Reservation system

You will need a booking system that manages dates, room types, tour packages, and more. Also, create blocked-out slots for unavailable options.

A calendar built into a travel website is more user-friendly than the need to jump between pages. Let users see the upcoming months' options so they can compare tour prices. By making multiple choices visible, you provide the “best value for money” principle.

Here’s an example of a convenient search on a travel website. It’s a concept design created by Codica Team.

Payment gateways

Regardless of what you are selling – gear, supplies, flight tickets, souvenirs, or experiences – take care of payment gateways. For example, you can use popular ones like PayPal, Stripe, Braintree or Dwolla. Also, multi-currency acceptance makes your site much more user-friendly.

Please note that some payment solutions can be unavailable in certain countries.

Support service

Let users contact a help center by clicking the question icon or using another web element:

We would recommend you to make it accessible from any page. It’s for you to decide whether it will be in the dropdown menu or not. Many websites also have chat support.

Notifications

Notify registered users when booking is confirmed or canceled via email. Same thing goes for purchasing equipment and submitting any sorts of requests.

There’s more you can do with creating a progressive web app (PWA). With PWA development services , keep travelers updated on places (e.g., museums, galleries, theme parks) worth visiting. Make push notifications shown on a mobile device triggered by real-time geodata.

Just those travel websites that provide useful information stay afloat. So unbiased advice from real individuals goes a long way.

Allow travelers to share feedback or small tips within your platform. Content coming from people or entities clearly affiliated with a business should be removed. Also, consider adding several editorial features to reviewing system:

• Headline & subheadline;
• Font styles: bold , italic , underline ;
• A YouTube, Vimeo, or another video link preview of user’s journey;
• Caption for attached photos.

A user will need functionality for accurate mapping of their walking and drive tours. Allow your website visitors to find relevant places by selecting distance range or entering a location.

Provide a fast preview with name, activities available, prices, and several photos of the traveler’s destination.

Mobile version

How to make a travel website feel like a native mobile app? Build a PWA. Simple as that.

Apart from push notifications, mobile-first approach guarantees you several other benefits:

• Fast-loading pages;
• Higher placement in Google search;
• Pre-caching that enables offline mode;
• Cross-browser compatibility.

Travel website design tips

It’s hard to find a template or a one-size-fits-all approach to make your own travel website. Select design elements appealing to a specific set of people instead. Once again, don't try to cater to everyone.

Homepage search widget

Don't overload the homepage. Your site visitors are not going to solve puzzles. Especially when almost half of today's search queries fall on compact mobile devices.

Help users find what they need in a matter of seconds. Give them instant access to the search bar with minimum filtering. Here’s an example of a slick UI/UX design followed by Kiwi :

Image that message

Travelers expect to see real and high-quality photos. So keep your site imagery "clean," avoiding pre-made effects.

A picture, in your case, should be worth a thousand words. Make it obvious . Give travelers a real depiction of their destination.

Airbnb’s pages show how big an impact of photo strategy is:

Details out in the open

Let’s briefly discuss how to create a travel website that is easy to navigate.

Leave several click-to-action accessible from any page. Show tours availability. Flag whether a hotel offers free cancellations. Display the information on mask requirements, additional pandemic-related measures, and more.

Here’s one of many examples of how to manage a tour booking page:

Additionally, include your contact details or “Ask a Question” button in a highly visible area. Also, your email should be hyperlinked to launch instantly.

Convenience in use

Many people tend to use only a few functions — especially those who favor small screen devices. If your site overdoses on dropdown menus, visitors may leave it in favor of a simpler one. So point out widely-used content instead.

A person may want to search for a hotel room and book the most suitable option. Therefore, most required functionality should be in the navigation bar. For additional information that does not fit into it, use the dropdown menu.

Speaking of booking, there's a common mistake you can see all over the Internet. Some developers avoid displaying more than one calendar month on the same page. Let’s say you’d like to check in on Wednesday 2 September:

The left calendar forces you to scroll through to the next month. The other one on the right has no such problem. It comes surprisingly handy when you'd like to see trip duration as a continuous line.

Choose a travel website development approach

When deciding on whether to make your own travel website, consider two aspects that influence the development cost:

• The approach: out-of-box vs. custom development.
• The functionality you select.

Let’s look closely at the core benefits of both using a ready-made solution, and building a custom website with a software development company.

Out-of-the-box solution

Ready-made software allows you to start a platform in no time. This way, you reduce many costs, if compared to a travel website development from scratch. There's no need to maintain the platform and deal with security issues, either.

There are plenty of SaaS solutions providing subscriptions adjustable to the company’s growing needs. For example, SiteMinder offers ready-to-install software designed to run a hotel website:

However, as we said, you will not find any one-size-fits-all web elements out there. It is a turning point since travel website design plays a major role.

Custom travel website

On the contrary, you can make your own travel website 100% reflect your voice or brand identity . So what may be started as a vision of pulling up various ideas will end up as a unique product.

Partnership with a dev team guarantees vast experience and profound knowledge of the latest programming trends. And make no mistake, your project will be complete with the right tech stack, considering all the requirements.

How to build a travel website with up-to-date technologies? At Codica, we favor the best programming solutions like Ruby and Ruby on Rails. We also firmly believe, first things first, you should get the minimum valuable product (MVP). Let us explain importance of using MVP development services :

Fast rollout Collect first feedback and make subtotals for your project’s course correction. After doing so, you extend starting features and try the rest.

Attraction from investors MVP helps to demonstrate to investors the seriousness of your intent.

Website promotion Get everybody to know about your startup by increasing traffic from the outset.

Take a look at the projects that our team successfully delivered for clients from around the world.

How can Codica help with building a travel website?

Since 2015, Codica team has been delivering high-quality web products for multiple industries. Our solutions are designed to bring a great amount of traffic, conversions, and sales. And it's all thanks to our Agile mindset and a full-cycle development team presented by:

• UX/UI designers;
• Project managers;
• Software developers;
• DevOps engineers;
• QA engineers.

First, we build clickable prototypes for the future MVP based on your goals and audience. It guarantees a predefined time frame and budget.

Then our software engineers approach MVP development. Sticking with the latest programming trends, we provide you with a maintainable and highly secure solution.

Once the end product is rolled out, Codica’s experts will be analyzing its status regularly. If there is any issue, we will fix it shortly.

Case study: Travel management platform

We couldn't resist the chance to show you a travel website we created for one of our customers. This project is a management platform for those looking for more than a typical “bucket list” destination.

This is an online travel marketplace for IExpedition , an Australia-based travel agency providing Arctic and Antarctic journeys.

The customer wanted us to create a convenient booking website. We built a marketplace that brings a mix of polar expeditions from a huge amount of vessel options ranging in size, and across 1,000 departures.

With IExpedition, you manage your chosen trip to the polar region. There are options for both shoestring-budget and five-star travel styles. Functionality and content include a cruise booking system and the essential checklist for travel preparation.

Seeing new places, getting to know other cultures, or simply running from everyday life — nothing compares with that. Is there anything nowadays, apart from a few clicks, that stands in between you and your dream trip?

Over the past years, travel websites skyrocketed as many tourists look for unique and more exciting journeys. There are a bunch of features that could make your website special. Importantly, users should easily be able to witness them. Hiring a development agency filled with experts is the most efficient way to achieve it.

A quick glance back proves Codica's ability to create custom software that meets the highest web standards. If you have the idea of building a travel website and need a reliable team to help you, don’t hesitate to contact us .

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6 Best Website Builders for Travel Agencies (4 Are Free) in 2024

Short on Time? These Are the Best Website Builders for Travel Agencies in 2024

• What We Look For in the Best Website Builders for Travel Agencies
• User-friendly design. All the website builders on this list are intuitive and easy to use. You won’t need technical skills to build a website that will draw visitors in – and once your site is live, it’s just as easy to update it with your latest travel destinations, deals, discounts, and blog posts.
• Attractive, mobile-responsive templates. A poorly designed template makes for an unappealing travel site. Equally important are designs that are easy to navigate on all devices, including phone, tablet, and desktop.
• Travel booking features. All the builders on this list offer booking systems that allow clients to check trip availability, reserve, and even pay online if you’ve added e-commerce functionality.
• Must-have marketing tools. Every travel agency needs a website builder that supports their marketing strategy. These builders offer email marketing, newsletters, blogs, and other tools to help you promote your services and attract clients.
• 1. Wix: Wide Range of Travel-Themed Templates and Tons of Useful Features

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• Marketing and promotions. Wix gives you tools to craft professional email campaigns, design newsletters, offer discounts and coupons, and create social media ads and videos. Customizable templates can help streamline your marketing efforts.
• Comprehensive booking system. Wix Bookings makes it easy for guests to book travel services and securely pay online. You’ll also get tools to manage your schedule, calendar, staff, and clients.
• AI-powered website design. To make it even easier to build your site, you can try the Wix ADI builder. It takes just a few minutes to create a personalized website complete with image galleries, text, contact forms, and other valuable content.
• Suite of business tools.  Wix Ascend provides financial, workflow automation, communication, and task management tools that can help you manage and grow your travel agency business. Start for free, then upgrade if you need more advanced features.
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• Multilingual websites. SITE123 will automatically translate your website into more than one language, allowing visitors to view trip packages and itineraries in their preferred language.
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• Build brand awareness. Powerful free tools include a digital business card maker, logo designer, and favicon design tool.
• Landing page builder. This new feature helps you design a lead-generating landing page that matches your agency’s brand. Analytics tools allow you to monitor the performance of your landing page, including its conversion rate.

• 3. Squarespace: Best Templates for Visually Compelling Travel Agency Websites

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• Premium marketing tools. Squarespace’s marketing tools allow you to design and send branded email marketing campaigns, create engaging videos, manage mailing lists, and track performance – all from your dashboard.
• Custom template design. Squarespace Blueprint will help you create a custom template design that’s uniquely suited to your travel agency’s goals and vision.
• Third-party integrations. Not only does Squarespace offer robust built-in tools, but you can also integrate a number of apps you may already be using for accounting, customer relationship management (CRM), analytics, and more.
• Excellent social features . Connecting and sharing content across multiple social media platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok, is easy. Plus, the Unfold mobile app has templates you can use to create eye-catching social content that will amplify your site’s reach.
• 4. Webador: Straightforward Builder for a Simple Travel Site

• Multimedia content. Webador allows you to integrate videos from YouTube and Vimeo to give visitors a first-hand look at tours and travel destinations.
• Social media widgets. If you’re growing a social media following, you can display feeds from platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest.
• Third-party tools. While Webador doesn’t have an app store, you can use embeds to add features like live chat, follow-up surveys for travelers, marketing campaigns, and countdown timers and clocks for limited time promotions.
• Interactive maps . If you offer bespoke tours, you can guide visitors by embedding maps with highlights to notable locations, tours, or landmarks .
• 5. IONOS: Affordable Option for Smaller Travel Agencies

• Handy SEO tools. The free website checker analyzes your site’s SEO performance and offers tips to improve visibility and boost traffic. For more advanced features like help with sponsored advertising, you can upgrade to a ranking Coach plan.
• Dedicated support representative. You’ll receive personalized support from a dedicated consultant who will answer your questions, discuss your site’s performance, and provide strategies for success.
• Legal and privacy policy templates. Your IONOS website comes with an optional built-in cookie policy to ensure GDPR compliance. This is useful if you work with an international clientele. You’ll also find a legal policy template you can customize to reflect your agency’s practices.
• AI-powered text generation. This handy tool will generate text for headings, trip descriptions, and recommended destinations, saving you time and taking the work out of building your site.
• 6. WordPress.com: Powerful Customization and Functionality for Tourism Websites

• Media integration. WordPress.com allows you to create image galleries, embed videos from platforms like YouTube, and use other media to showcase tours or travel destinations you offer and inspire potential travelers.
• Blogging capabilities. You can share travel stories, tips, and insights, which can help attract and engage prospective clients. Interested travelers can sign up for exclusive paid content or subscribe to your blog’s RSS feed to get the latest travel news.
• Plugins. No website builder can compete with the variety of plugins WordPress provides to improve your site’s features and functionality – over 50,000 at the latest count. Some of the top plugins available aid marketing strategies and assist with SEO.
• Easy design with Patterns . WordPress Patterns are pre-designed blocks and layouts that allow you to quickly customize complex design elements, streamlining your website creation process.
• Choose the Right Website Builder for Your Travel Agency

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How to Build a Travel Website-5 Easy Steps for Beginners

• February 29, 2024
• Updated on 9:57 pm

Table of Contents

People love to travel. In order to make their journey smooth and to make sure they don’t miss any spots, they collect information about their destination. To collect information, they visit websites, watch videos, and go to social media.

Research by Amadeus shows that a staggering 87% of travelers now rely on online resources to research and plan their trips.

So, if you have a travel website and share authentic information, you will get an abundance of traffic, guaranteed. Also, after getting balanced traffic, you can monetize it by selling travel-related kits or letting them book their trips through your website. The travelers will love it. Because people like to buy from those they can rely on.

On top of that building a travel website is easy as you have WordPress .

WordPress lets you create a travel website in just 5 steps. Unbelievable, right?

But it’s true. You can create your own travel website all by yourself only in 5 steps. Keep reading this blog to unveil those 5 steps.

Excited? Awesome! Let’s get started right away!

Why You Should Build a Travel Website

Before you start creating your travel website, you need to know exactly why you should build one. 

You must build a travel website if you-

• are a solo traveler looking to monetize your trips. Or,
• have a travel company and want to start a blog to attract new customers through writing.

Having a travel website can help you in many ways including:

• Visibility: A travel website provides you with an online presence, making it easier for potential customers to find you. It allows you to showcase your services, destinations, and expertise to a wider audience.
• Credibility: Having a professional website enhances your credibility and trustworthiness. It gives potential customers confidence in your brand and services.
• Marketing: A website serves as a powerful marketing tool. You can use it to promote your travel packages, share testimonials from satisfied customers, and engage with your audience through blog posts and social media integration.
• Accessibility: With a website, your services are accessible 24/7 from anywhere in the world. This means that potential customers can learn about your offerings and make bookings at their convenience.
• Monetization: For solo travelers, a travel website can be a platform to monetize their journeys. Through affiliate marketing, sponsored content, or selling products like travel guides or photography, you can generate income from your adventures.

Now if you are convinced that you need a travel website, let us show you the easiest way to build a website for you.

How to Build a Travel Website Using WordPress in 5 Steps

As we said earlier, you can create your own travel website using WordPress in just 5 steps.

Here are those 5 steps:

• Choose a Domain Name
• Buy a Hosting Plan
• Install WordPress on Your Control Panel
• Install a WordPress Travel Plugin
• Configure the Required Settings

After following these steps, you will be able to launch your full-fledged travel website with ease. So, now let’s deep dive into these steps to know what exactly you need to do to build your website!

Step 01: Choose a Domain Name

Before anything else, you need to register your domain name. Many people overlook this step, and eventually, they regret not having proper research for a suitable domain name in the first place

A domain name is the first thing that your audience interacts with. So, it has to be unique, simple, and easy to remember.

Follow these tips while you are searching for a domain name for your website:

• Keep it Short & Sweet: Aim for 15-20 characters. Short names are easier to remember, type, and share. Imagine someone trying to tell their friend about your site while exploring a bustling market!
• Brand Yourself: Is your website about budget backpacking or luxurious getaways? Reflect your niche in the name. Think “BackpackBuddha” or “GlobetrotterGlam.”
• Keywords Matter: Include relevant keywords like “travel,” “explore,” or your specific destination (e.g., “ParisFoodie”). This helps search engines understand your site’s purpose.
• Be Creative & Unique: Stand out from the crowd! Avoid generic names like “TravelBlog123.” A unique name sparks curiosity and reflects your individuality.
• Avoid Hyphens & Numbers: They can be easily forgotten or mistyped. Opt for clear, easy-to-spell words.
• Check Availability: Once you have a few ideas for domain names, use a domain registrar like GoDaddy or Namecheap to see if they’re available. If your first choice isn’t available, don’t worry! Get creative and try some variations until you find one that works.

Bonus Tip: Use a domain name generator for inspiration! Many tools like NameMesh or Lean Domain Search can help you brainstorm creative options.

Step 02: Buy a Hosting Plan

After finalizing your domain name, it’s time to buy a hosting plan. However, before buying a hosting plan for your business, you need to understand the types of hosting:

Shared Hosting: Affordable, but resources are shared with other websites. Good for smaller sites with moderate traffic. VPS Hosting: More power and control than shared hosting, ideal for growing websites with more visitors. Dedicated Hosting: Top-tier performance and security, perfect for high-traffic websites or those needing specific software. Dedicated Hosting: Top-tier performance and security, perfect for high-traffic websites or those needing specific software

After deciding your preferred hosting type, now you need to choose a hosting provider to buy your hosting plan.

There are various hosting providers out there, each offering different plans to suit different needs and budgets. Here’s what to consider when selecting a hosting plan for your travel website:

• Reliability and Uptime : Look for a hosting provider that guarantees excellent uptime, meaning your website will be available to visitors around the clock without frequent downtime.
• Speed and Performance: A fast-loading website is crucial for user experience and search engine optimization. Choose a hosting plan with good server performance and speed.
• Scalability: Your website may grow over time as you add more content and attract more visitors. Ensure your hosting plan can handle increased traffic and provide options to scale up as needed.
• Customer Support: Check reviews and ratings for the hosting provider’s customer support. It’s essential to have reliable support available in case you encounter any issues with your website.
• Cost: Hosting plans come at various price points. Consider your budget and the features included in each plan to find the best value for your needs.

Now you know which type of hosting you’ll require and which provider you are going to choose.

So, it’s time to visit your hosting provider’s website, select your plan, complete the payment, and set up your hosting account.

Step 03: Install WordPress on Your Control Panel 

Now that you have your domain name and hosting plan sorted out, it’s time to set up the foundation of your travel website. WordPress is a popular and user-friendly platform that powers millions of websites worldwide.

Installing WordPress on your hosting account is a straightforward process, and it lays the groundwork for building and managing your website efficiently.

Here’s a step-by-step guide to installing WordPress on your hosting account’s control panel (usually cPanel):

i) Access Your Hosting Control Panel

Login to your hosting account and navigate to the control panel (cPanel) provided by your hosting provider. You can typically access cPanel by entering your domain name followed by “/cpanel” in your web browser’s address bar.

ii) Locate the WordPress Installer

Once you’re in cPanel, look for the “Softaculous Apps Installer” or “WordPress Installer” icon. This tool simplifies the process of installing WordPress by automating most of the steps.

iii) Select WordPress for Installation

Click on the WordPress icon to launch the installation wizard. You’ll be prompted to choose the domain where you want to install WordPress if you have multiple domains associated with your hosting account.

iv) Configure Installation Settings

Fill in the required information, such as the site name, site description, admin username, and password. Make sure to choose a strong password to secure your WordPress admin area.

v) Choose Plugins and Themes (Optional)

Some installers allow you to select pre-installed plugins and themes during the installation process. You can skip this step if you prefer to install plugins and themes late

vi) Complete the Installation

Review your settings, double-check everything, and click the “Install” button to begin the installation process. The installer will automatically create the necessary database and configure WordPress for you

Once the installation is complete, you’ll receive a confirmation message with a link to your WordPress dashboard. This is where you’ll manage your website, create content, install themes and plugins, and customize your site’s appearance and functionality.

Step 04: Install a WordPress Travel Plugin

Now that you’ve set up WordPress on your hosting account, it’s time to add some specialized functionality to your travel website by installing a WordPress travel plugin. WordPress plugins are like apps that you can install to add new features and enhance the functionality of your website without needing to code.

But which travel plugin you should install? Since there are several travel plugins in the WordPress repository.

You can choose any WordPress travel plugin that you want. To be very honest, all the travel plugins are almost the same. For this tutorial, we have chosen the WP Travel plugin .

To install the plugin, go to your WordPress dashboard and navigate to the Plugins -> Add New Plugin. Then search for the plugin – WP Travel and install the plugin from the search result. Then activate the plugin to complete this procedure.

Now if you want to visit your dashboard, you will get two new options- WP Travel and Trips. That means you have successfully installed the plugin.

Step 05: Configure the Required Settings

To configure the required settings, you need to navigate to your WordPress dashboard -> WP Travel. There you’ll find a few options to configure:

• Trip extras
• Custom filters
• Marketplace
• Travel Guide

Before configuring any options, we would like to suggest you configure the “Settings” tab. If you click on the Settings button, it will take you to a new interface.

There you should configure the Currency, Maps, Trips, Email, Checkout, Payment, Invoice, and a few more crucial settings. Without configuring these options, you won’t be able to operate your travel website seamlessly.

Once you are done with the basic settings, it’s time to configure the “Trips” settings. To do that, simply click on the “Trips” button and you will get a few options to configure.

The options are All Trips, New Trip, Pricing Category, Trip Types, Destinations, Keyword, and Activities.

Now let us briefly explain what are these options about:

• All trips: It will show all the trips that you have added. Also, you can add new trips using this section.
• New trips: It will allow you to add a new trip for your audience.
• Pricing Category: You can add different prices for different trip categories.
• Trip Types: You can add types of trips with this option.
• Destinations: This option allows you to add destinations for your trips.
• Keywords: Allow you to add keywords.
• Activities: You can add new activities through this option.

After completing all the configurations, if you add a new trip, the trip will look like this from the frontend.

Congratulations! You have successfully created your own travel booking website using WordPress.

Bonus: How to Turn a Travel Website into an Online Travel Booking Marketplace

Owning a travel booking website means you can earn through your website only. But if you want to earn more, you can simply turn your website into a marketplace.

Well, in a marketplace, there are several vendors. The marketplace owner gets a commission from each vendor when vendors sell anything.

So, if you have a travel booking marketplace, you will be able to:

• Earn from your own travel booking store
• Earn commissions from every registered vendor on your marketplace

That’s how you can earn more by simply transferring your website into a marketplace.

To create a new travel booking website or turn your already existing travel booking website into a travel booking marketplace, you will need to use a WordPress multivendor marketplace plugin.

There are a few popular multivendor marketplace plugins in the WordPress repository, for instance, Dokan, WCFM Marketplace, WC Vendors, MultivendorX, etc. You can choose any plugin you want.

However, if you want us to recommend, we would love to suggest you use the Dokan multivendor plugin . This is the first-ever full-fledged WordPress plugin that comes with every single feature that you need to run any type of marketplace smoothly.

On top of that, it’s very beginner-friendly. If you haven’t used this plugin or any multivendor plugin before, you will be still able to use this plugin through its intuitive interface. That makes it the most popular plugin in this category with more than 60,000 active installations.

Here is an example of how a multivendor hotel booking marketplace looks like using the Dokan plugin:

Ready to Start Your Own Travel Booking Venture?

Now you know how to create a travel website using WordPress. It’s a simple 6-step guide for you. So, you can launch your own travel booking website all by yourself by following this step-by-step tutorial.

Also, if you want to turn your website into a marketplace, you can do that as well using a WordPress multivendor plugin- Dokan .

That being said, if you have any questions related to this article, feel free to share them with us using the comment box below. We would love to hear your feedback. Thank you.

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How To Build Travel Website - Complete Guide for Creating a Travel Booking Website

Find out how to create a travel booking website from our complete guide. review of the development options from using a cms to building a booking platform from scratch..

Complete Guide for Creating a Travel Booking Website  

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We provide expert E-Commerce development, website design and graphic design services with our expert designers and programmers. Trawex is a dominant travel technology company offering flight booking engine to companies engaged in the travel sector.

Our products assist travel businesses in delivering effortless services to their clients. Through API/XML integration of GDS such as Amadeus, travel website and Sabre, we help in upgrading end-user experience by providing them updated information as per their need.

Trawex delivers travel technology products for hotel, flight, car rental, relocation, excursion, and customized packages, etc. We have deployed our work toward enhancing the efficiency of the B2B travel booking system , B2C and B2B2B corporates universally.

The majority of travel companies are looking for an online airline management system these days due to its real-time data accessibility. Trawex grows with their clients. By using our travel portal solution , a travel business can significantly reduce the promotion time for products.

Along with this, it enhances the avenues of revenue generation. Customized experience to customers improved universal reach and other supported travel services.

Trawex expanded its reach to craft a more enhanced platform to come up with great solutions for the travel industry. Here are the advantages of Trawex's White label travel portal development that perfectly matches your brand.

The best online booking engine provides the fastest way for flight reservations online through their user-friendly interface. By implementation our white label solutions , you can focus on your company’s essential matters.

Being supportive in developing a unique image of your business enables you to market a product without losing your money on technology development.

Our API enables travel service providers to use the data of different suppliers and select the right prices universally. Trawex accomplishes this goal by providing a highly capable flight search tool coupled with the reservation systems for travel businesses. We do not neglect the quality standards for reducing travel portal development costs .  

Trawex mainly focuses on delivering innovative and cost-effective technology services and software solutions to its clients. Our efficient solutions support our clients in effectively organizing and accomplishing business goals.

How to Create a Travel Booking Website?

There are two ways to build your own travel website.One, custom websites for the ones with deep pockets and plenty of time to spare. And the second one, which possibly can be used anyone who wants to get things right the first time, without much delay and again, with a shoestring budget.

Readymade scripts are the perfect option to build a travel website like Expedia, where the traveler can enter all details like journey origin to destination. Travel options like tour packages, cars, flights, hotels, etc. can be chosen at the option of the tourist. 

What features should you include when building a travel website?

When you build a travel website , one of the most important features for you to include is pictures and video content of all of the existing destinations and travel accommodation that your business offers.

Aside from the high-resolution digital content, you should include anything that you think will be useful to your visitors: pricing lists, informative travel and destination descriptions, and of course your contact information. 

One of the major objectives of building a travel website is to make users aware of your company, the services you offer and other related aspects.

A well-structured, functional and visually appealing travel website can tell your potential clients much more about your agency than a bulk of other advertising materials you invest in.

Trawex develop XML based travel websites for travel agents, tour operators, and corporates and start up travel companies. Our aim is to offer end-to-end travel technology services with various value added features. This will guarantee to give you key to your success in online travel industry.

You can build a travel website with help of Trawex. Trawex provide travel agents with wide range of our products serves ranging from Travel Portal Development, White Label Solutions, B2B/ B2C Travel Portal, XML API integration for hotels, flights, cars rentals, holiday trips, transfers, and sightseeing.

We offer affordable products from small to large businesses, travel, e-commerce to create effective branding using latest web technologies to grow business revenues.

What We Offer

Trawex platform currently empowers 1000+ customers across 4 continents, 10000+ bookings a day, 1000000+ travel searches a day, across 200+ suppliers, 600,000+ hotels, 1000+ airlines, 200,000+ activities, 30,000+ cruise itineraries and much more for your brand..

Inventory Consolidation

Instant integrations with more than 100 suppliers that are integrated on demand.

Travel APIs

A complete set of travel APIs that empower our clients to develop custom travel solutions.

Custom Modules

A production-ready library of Modules that can be used as is or customized as per your requirement.

Faster Time to Market

Integrate suppliers in matter of few days. Over 100 suppliers maintained.

Travel Portal Development

Travel APIs Dummy Text

White Label Travel Websites

B2C / B2B Booking Engines

Itinerary Planner

BackOffice Solutions Dummy Text

How we engage.

We Help Your Own Developers

• Third Party API Integrations
• Own Inventory Management System
• Offer your Customers Unparalleled Content
• Fully Managed Service
• Comprehensive travel inventory management system

Customized Hosted Solution

Off The Shelf

• Pre-integrated suppliers to provide the best inventory and prices
• Comes with Trawex APIs to build websites and apps in a fraction of time
• World Renowned Reliability
• Faster Time To Market
• Best user experience with 99.9% uptime

Grow Your Business with a Powerful Online Engagement Platform and Experienced Travel Partner

You won't be going on the engagement journey alone. We're there as a partner to help, support and advise to ensure your ultimate success.

• Online travel booking engine
• Multiple sales channels - B2B, B2B2B, B2B2C
• Centralised mid-office
• Ability to connect multiple GDS, LCC, and third party APIs
• Complete Reservation Management
• Travel Agent Management
• Transactional Accounting
• Accounting System Integration
• Comprehensive system to manage rates, discounts and allocation
• Payment Gateway Integration
• Multiple Supplier APIs
• Add direct contracts
• Redistribution API
• Configure credit limit and deposits
• Multilingual travel websites
• Add offline travel bookings
• Distribute white labels
• Dynamic fare caching
• Commissions and markup control
• Advanced Reports
• Manage multiple branches
• Sub Agents can create and manage multiple branches and users
• Optional cross selling platform
• SMS gateway
• Multi currency transactions for agents and suppliers
• Business intelligence reports

Skyrocket your business growth with Trawex

Our products empower Retail Sales.

• Analyzing your requirements, fulfilling your business objectives and providing you the right solution.
• Our engineering team has a relentless focus on delivering a scalable and reliable technology platform.
• Choose the right travel technology development service that fits your needs and business goals.
• We Deliver the best of our firm to every client as cost effectively as we can.
• We are excited about building strong relationships with everyone and we provide world class Support to our customers.

Start Talking With Us

Step-By-Step Guide on How to Build a Travel Search Engine Website

Starting a travel search engine website is a different process for every startup depending on the business plans and goals. The general process includes designing the website and then choosing what type of integration to do, depending on budget, license or access and stage of development. The two main types of integration solutions are affiliate or API.

The Travelpayouts partnership platform provides all necessary tools to build a travel search engine website with flights and hotels. Signing up only takes a couple of minutes and you’ll receive access to over 100 well-known travel brands and various partner tools from basic to advanced. You can earn up to 20% on each booking for a travel service. In 2021 alone, Travelpayouts paid partners over $5M. To earn on the flights, hotels, car rentals and other travel services join the Travelpayouts partnership platform for free today.

Join the Travelpayouts Partnership Platform

Access exclusive tools and the best travel partner programs, including flights, hotels, car rental, insurance, tours and activities, all in one place.

Existing Opportunities for Creating a Travel Booking Website

• Direct database is when you manually create your own travel database. This is usually done when the host is creating a website. For example, a hotel chain or a tour company that only wants to sell their own hotels or tours, or an airline that is selling their flight tickets direct to consumer. A direct booking portal can also be created if a company establishes contracts with host travel suppliers to manually list and upsell specific deals/products.
• GDS integration is for OTAs (online travel agencies) to access full inventory of travel solutions to sell to their customers. GDS stands for the global distribution system that allows travel suppliers to distribute travel products, rates and relevant information for travel agents to sell. Some commonly known GDS providers are Amadeus, Sabre and Galileo, which is also known as TravelPort. GDS integration is only available for licensed travel agents that are ARC or BSP accredited. Once approved with the GDS, travel resellers have access to backend wholesale rates to buy services on customer’s behalf. When an agent wants to showcase the GDS database on their website, API integration is done.
• Affiliate integration is for start-up travel resellers who want to showcase a range of travel deals on their site to earn commission without having to be an agent. Affiliate is the easiest and most affordable solution, and is most often free to set up. Partners share their booking commission with the affiliate company that is hosting the deals. It is a win-win partnership where the promoter gets access to promote travel services in return for shared commission. Partners often have creatives to promote such as text links, banner ads, widgets and white label search engines. The partner’s referral code is coded into the promotional creatives, so that when setup on a website, the affiliate earns commission when their visitors are referred by them. For example, with the Travelpayouts digital partnership platform , you can create a travel search engine featuring numerous indispensable travel services from flights to travel compensation. All thanks to the fact that the platform is connected to over 100 well-known travel brands in different categories, such as Booking.com, TripAdvisor, Kiwi.com, and others. You can learn more about each of them in the brands directory .
• API integration is more advanced than affiliate, because it takes more development time to setup and most travel companies do not allow their API to be used freely. A partner may need to be approved for API access before they can setup. The earning potential varies depending on which company’s API you are setting up. Once approved, you will require an API developer to install the API, which can often require ongoing technical support. API stands for a set of functions or procedures allowing the creation of applications that access the features or data of an operating system, application or other service. When relating to travel development, APIs are used to showcase another travel company’s inventory on your site, so that visitors can browse directly on the website and the deals can show in conjunction with other deals from other travel companies to create a comparison search engine. API is advanced integration and is not a quick setup process. It requires a properly trained developer to assist with setup. Learn more about Travelpayouts API in the knowledgebase .

A search engine website focused on travel is any website that provides customers with the ability to search for deals related to their travel inquiries. There are various types of travel sites including OTA (online travel agencies) and meta search (aggregator search engine), along with direct booking airline, hotel and tour websites to book directly from the hosts.

The approach you take to the development project depends on what type of travel website you are looking to build for your business. If you do not have web experience, projects both large and small require a development team or developer to manage the travel web design and set up the on-site deals and database. It is recommended to work with development providers who specialize in the travel industry to get the best solutions for your requirements and to save time and money in the process.

The web platform that the site is developed on can differ based on project requirements including PHP and WordPress , as some of the most well known. PHP is more suitable for custom projects that require a custom-made admin. WordPress is more common and suitable for start-up websites that can operate using the dashboard provided with WordPress admin, which includes blogging capabilities and plugins.

Plugins are add ons that can be added to websites for additional features that don’t require custom coding. The benefit of using plugins is that you can save time and money in the development phase by using third party solutions rather than creating features uniquely for your site, which can be time extensive and costly. Travelpayouts offers an automated travel booking plugin for WordPress to build your site.

Once you have determined which platform the site should be built on, the next step is discussing your preferred design and appearance of the website. Usually, the developer or designer will request reference sites to be sent to them to give them an idea of what look and feel you want your website to have.

Modern websites such as Trivago and Kayak have a very simplistic homepage, which has become popular. They also display the travel search engine immediately, which directs visitors to input their travel details and instantly start searching for deals.

The design is an important factor in the process of building your travel search engine website, as it is what initially will separate you from your competitors. When a visitor first arrives at your website, they should feel like they are in good hands with a professional design that is captivating and will make the customer want to stay as well as be directed to do something.

This is called a “ call to action ” and is what makes the visitor interact with the website. The appearance of the travel page will influence the bounce rate and initial interest in your business.

Integrating travel deals onto your website is done in various ways including direct database and GDS (global distribution system), along with affiliate and/or API.

What Is the Best Solution?

The best solution for your integration depends on your budget and the type of travel company you are creating.

• Affiliate is the easiest and the lowest cost option. White label is very competitive, and providers such as Travelpayouts and SkyScanner offer this.
• API is the best option for comparison sites, but requires approved access and a time consuming setup process with specialized developer.
• GDS would be best for classical travel agents who are working offline and looking to access full inventory.
• Direct booking is best for businesses that have already established their services and sell directly to consumers or resellers who are willing and able to create relationships and contracts to resell.

If you are looking to build a travel affiliate-based search engine website, here is a five-point step-by-step process on how to go about it.

How to Build a Travel Affiliate-Based Search Engine Website

• Step 1 – Create a website plan. Budget accordingly and purchase your domain and hosting if required. Register your name at any registrar like GoDaddy.
• Step 2 – Design your web page. While determining the design of your site, you can use ThemeForest to gain inspiration and ideas with thousands of pre-made themes.
• Step 3 – Build your website for free on WordPress. If you do not have experience with developing, you can hire a travel affiliate web developer who has expertise in the area, like TravSell.
• Step 4 – Research and sign up with travel affiliate partners . Gain access to text links, banners, widgets and white label search engine codes.
• Step 5 – Integrate travel search engines and/or affiliate codes. Set up travel deals on your website according to your preferred method.

If you use Travelpayouts, login to your dashboard to access the integration solutions available to use. They are all available in the tools section:

Commission can be tracked from your dashboard as well, which will show confirmed bookings and commission.

You have three main options on how to integrate Travelpayouts flight and hotel metasearch:

• Use a widget and send traffic to Aviasales/Hotellook or to your White Label project
• Build a White Label project. If you do not want to send traffic to Aviasales or Hotellook, and want to keep it on your own webpage, you have to create White Labels. Create two white labels for flights and hotels respectively. You can integrate the logo and navigation of your main website on the white labels. Here, you will find the guide on how to set a White Label on your project.
• Build a stand-alone meta-search based on API. For those who need more flexibility, there’s API. You could use it, for example, to offer something for the user based on his location using Travelpayouts Data API. You can also use API to show the popular directions from the user’s city .

White Label and API Alternatives

If you don’t want to create a White Label project or if you don’t understand the API, you can simply integrate the search form on any page of your site. It’ll only take a few minutes. 

For example, you can add a search form widget from the WayAway partner program to your website. Implementation is quite easy. Just copy the code of the widget to your page:

This code must be embedded into your website where you want the form to be displayed:

If your users search for and purchase tickets with this widget, you’ll receive a 50% revenue share reward for each sale.

In addition, pay attention to other WayAway partner program tools , which you can quickly and easily integrate into your project. For example, travelers can take advantage of the useful price calendar, flight charting, or prices for flights to popular destinations.

Mobile Solutions

To create a custom app, you would require API access, because APIs can also be integrated on a mobile application as well as on a website.

Travelpayouts provides partners with Travel App template application , which can be customized and placed in the application store.

You could also make a White Label app , which is currently only available for iOS. You can learn about these options from this Travelpayouts webinar:

Do I Need Special Website Hosting to Run a Travel Search Engine?

No, you can use basic website hosting offered from most hosting companies that allow cPanel access, so you can update cNames in the DNS for white labels.

What Are the Other Costs Involved?

Costs may include designers, developers and marketing expenses. Marketing is an ongoing expense, whereas development costs are usually a one-time setup fee.

How Much Money Can I Earn as a Travel Affiliate?

The travel affiliate programs you work with determine the commission earned on bookings. There are two types of affiliates, including Pay Per Click and Pay Per Sale. Read the program’s FAQ and commission page to find out the exact commission details. With Travelpayouts, you will earn 1-10% from the total price of the travel service that is sold thanks to you. The Travelpayouts commission policy is described there .

If you need more information about the earning potential of the platform and what you need to get started, watch this video .

7 Ways to Jumpstart With Travelpayouts

What is the best way to market my website.

There is no universal technique that is best and works every time. To start, you could choose a specific niche and/or location to separate yourself from competitors. Then, dominate your market with an aggressive search engine and social promotions using Google and Facebook. Follow the Travelpayouts blog to stay informed about the best ways to market your site.

Can I Change My Integration Type After Setup?

Yes, you can continue to modify your website with further development support from your developer or team. It may require extensive changes to your business model. Once a site is aged with traffic and bookings, the travel reseller has more income partnership opportunities.

Aside from all the options, API is the most flexible solution. It gives you unlimited freedom to develop your own travel website.

What Else Should I Know?

Consistency is key when growing any business. It takes time and effort to establish a loyal customer base, but the travel industry is constantly growing and changing with new opportunities. Make your business unique to stand out and don’t be afraid to try new things.

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Travel website builder for tours & activities

Fully-functional travel website, designed by experts, to help you sell more tours. Up & running within a week.

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Built by experts who understand travel

Ready to go. Within a week.

Just add your tour description & photos, pick a theme, and you’re ready to start selling. No designers or developers needed!

Top-notch SEO out-of-the-box. 

URLs, metadata, microformats, and more. We’ll help you rank higher with SEO best-practices baked right into our website templates.

Built for mobile.

Phones, tablets, or laptops. Your website and online bookings are guaranteed to work across all devices and screen sizes.

Your domain. Our hosting.

Your site on www.yourdomain.com (or anything else you want), but hosted on our secure cloud, and served through a global CDN. We ensure that your site is always up, always secure, & always fast to load.

As secure as your bank.

All traffic between your customers and your website is secured using state-of-the-art TLS/SSL encryption, used by most internet banking systems. A site that customers will trust & search engines will love.

Easy-to-use CMS.

Adding new tours, changing photos, or updating rates. Everything is just a click away, and just where it should be. Most of our customers love how refreshingly easy it is to keep their travel website up-to-date.

Specially designed pages for travel content

Our website templates are handcrafted for one thing alone – travel products. Not a fashion store, not an electronics store, and definitely not a blog. We spend a lot of time obsessing over every detail to help your travel business look professional, build trust, and sell more.

Professional Templates, Optimized for Travel

The best of templates, built specifically for the travel industry, to enhance the booking experience for your customers, and boost your sales. Fully customizable to match your brand, these templates can provide your business with the ideal platform to sell your products online. 

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WP Travel – Best Travel Booking WordPress Plugin, Tour Management Engine

Installation.

• Development

Description

The Ultimate Travel Booking plugin for WordPress

Looking for a reliable travel plugin for your WordPress website? Look no further than WP Travel plugin. A free powerful travel engine (available in Pro version with additional features) for making customized travel agency or tour operator websites on WordPress in minutes!

View: Demo of Best Travel & Tour plugin | Modules | Best Travel & Tour Themes | Documentations | Video Tutorials

With this SEO-friendly & scalable WordPress travel engine, you can create customized itineraries & travel packages on the fly. Powered with advanced modules, this plugin helps you save hours of development. Compatible with some of the best travel agency WordPress themes, this is the ultimate travel engine for travel and tour management WordPress websites.

With WP Travel Plugin, you can customize every aspect of your travel agency’s offerings. Seamlessly integrate the plugin with your website to provide a smooth booking experience, customized tour and trekking packages along with receiving payments, preparing itineraries, many more for your customers. It accepts payments securely through popular payment gateways, making transactions hassle-free.

Streamline your travel agency’s operations and boost your online presence with WP Travel Plugin. It’s the best travel booking plugin for WordPress, empowering you to provide exceptional travel experiences for your clients. Get started with WP Travel Plugin today and revolutionize your travel business. For further details, check the WP Travel Plugin website.

WP Travel Pro With WP Travel Pro you can get all premium features of WP Travel in a single package. View Detail

🌟 CORE FEATURES

Unlimited Tour packages : Create unlimited number of tour packages (that your server can store). Every detail you need for a trip like description, itinerary builder, price, sales price, duration, gallery, package included and excluded, map and many more can be entered very easily. This feature enables us to create the best travel agency website!

On-Page Booking : With WP Travel On-Page Booking, exciting new feature for booking helps the user to book a trip without redirecting to the checkout page.

Travel Guide : With WP Travel Travel Guide advanced module included in WP Travel Pro that allows users to assign a Travel Guide to the Trip as personalized experience, recommendations and many more.

Partial Payment : With WP Travel Partial Payment an advanced module that allows your customer to pay for the trip package in installment and helps you keeping track of remaining amounts.

Custom Filters : User can find their required Itineraries by filtering or using easy search form.

Trip Extras : It allows you to add paid or free service for the individual trip.

Painless Booking System : WP Travel includes a very easy and simple travel booking system which users can fill up very fast and get you more bookings.

Full Data Reporting : Data is very important for all businesses. WP Travel has an in-build booking stat that helps you to generate the report from different date ranges, types and locations.

Payment System : Currently, we have Standard PayPal and Bank Deposit within the WP Travel free plugin and have thirteen additional payment gateway in WP Travel Pro plugins.

Multiple pricing and Multiple dates : This feature allows you to add multiple pricing and multiple dates for a single trip.

Tax Options : With this feature, you will be able to add tax to the price of the trips if you wish or if that falls under your company policy.

User Dashboard : WP Travel Customers can view their Booking history and pay the remaining payments in case of partial payment.

Trip Facts : You can add the trips facts to your trips.

Email Notification : This is a must have featured for a travel booking website. You as an admin will be notified of all booking made by users and also users will also get email notification about their booking details. All email templates are customizable .

Customizable tabs : All trip details page tabs in the front-end can be customized from the backend. You can change their labels and sort by your requirements or hide them.

Rating & Reviews : You can allow users to add ratings or reviews for each trip. You can also hide them if you want for each trip.

Map : For each trip on your travel booking site, you can show Google map. The front-end user can see the location of the trip.

Coupon : With WP Travel coupon, percentage or fixed amount of coupons are applied to the trips.

🚀 EXCITING NEW FEATURES

Currency Exchange : Free module that enables you to display an exchange rate table on your website. It offers the flexibility to add the table as a widget or shortcode.

Itinerary pdf send along booking email : share trips details on booking email.

Download Itinerary : Lets users download trip related media files.

Cut-off time for booking trip : feature to setup a trip within an only specific period of time.

Recurring Dates : You can now set different recurring dates (months, days) for the same trip, allowing you to display the trip as available for different seasonal dates.

Trip Duration : Trip Duration feature where you can add duration for the trip.

Trip Date listing : Date Listing feature for the trips to display the list of the available dates on the single trip page.

Custom Booking Button : Plugin provides the feature of adding custom links for the Book Now button.

Thank you Page : Now you can setup thank you page.

Customer Dashboard You will have a feature to setup a customer dashboard.

🔥 ADDITIONAL FEATURES

• Trip Search / Filter Shortcode
• Trip Search / Filter Widget
• Sale widget added
• Pricing per person & group
• New cart / checkout page
• Itineraries filters
• Enquiry Form added
• Frontend tab level and sorting
• Payment field added globally
• Image Gallery
• Trip details & outlines
• Trips includes and excludes
• Set fix departures
• Trip Locations
• Related Itineraries
• Additional Widgets
• Compare Price on Stat
• Fluid Layout, Responsive
• Feature to display highest / lowest trip price
• Featured trips
• Checkout Page
• GDPR Message
• Set Currency
• Translation Ready
• Complete documentation
• Customizable
• Compatible Themes
• Clone Trips
• Travel Guide
• Cutoff time
• Multiple Travelers info And much more …

⏰ CUSTOMIZATION AND FLEXIBILITY

WP Travel plugin is very flexible and highly customizable. There are a number of hooks and filters which makes the plugin really flexible from the developer’s point of view. There are a bulk of options which add further flexibility in the plugin.

There are plenty of beautiful travel booking themes that are specially designed for WP Travel plugin. So, it is 100% compatible with our plugin. It can be used with other themes as well with some styling changes. We are always here to support you with any issues using the theme.

▶️ STEP-BY-STEP VIDEO TUTORIALS TO USE WP TRAVEL PLUGIN

👆 CLICK HERE FOR MORE!

💁‍♂️ GET SUPPORT

We have comprehensive tutorials available for using WP Travel, both in video and text formats. These tutorials cover various topics and provide step-by-step guidance. You can access the tutorials through the following resources:

▶️ YouTube Video Tutorials : We have a collection of instructional videos on how to use WP Travel plugin. These videos demonstrate the features and functionalities in a visual format, making it easier to follow along.

🗄️ Text Documentation : We provide detailed written documentation that outlines the usage of WP Travel. This documentation includes explanations, instructions, and examples to assist you in understanding and utilizing the plugin effectively.

💁‍♂️ Support Forum : Getting in touch with our support staff would be helpful if you have any special queries that the instructional materials do not cover. Our complete team is available to assist you.

🗣️ Active Facebook Community : We have a Facebook community for WP Travel Plugin users. This community serves as a platform for discussions related to travel website development and marketing. We encourage you to join this community to connect with fellow users and engage in relevant conversations.

🔗INTEGRATIONS

Yoast : Offer to integrate Yoast plugin for Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

WPML : For the translation of multilingual webpages.

Elementor : Integrate elementor easily for the page builder.

SliceWP : With this you can initiate your affiliate program and experience rapid growth in your business.

📄 Documentation

Access our documentation to gain in-depth knowledge and make the most out of WP Travel’s features and capabilities. Our comprehensive documentation covers all the essential information you need, including the following sections:

Configuration : Learn how to configure WP Travel to suit your needs.

Modules : Explore the various modules available to enhance your travel website.

Payments : Get insights into setting up payment options and managing transactions.

Shortcodes : Discover useful shortcodes to display travel content and functionalities.

WP Travel Android Mobile App : Find out about our mobile app designed for seamless travel management.

WP Travel Gutenberg Blocks : Utilize our blocks to effortlessly create travel-related content using Gutenberg or Elementor.

WP Travel Rest API : Learn how to leverage our Rest API for integration and customization purposes.

FAQ : Get answers to commonly asked questions for quick problem-solving.

💳 PAYMENT MODULES

Our range of exclusive WordPress payment plugins is specifically designed to seamlessly integrate with WP Travel, catering to the needs of travel and tour websites built on the WordPress platform. These plugins support a wide selection of widely used payment gateways worldwide. Explore some of our popular payment plugins tailored for the travel industry on WordPress.

WP Travel Paypal Express Checkout (International transactions)

WP Travel Stripe Checkout (International transactions)

WP Travel Authorize.Net Checkout (International transactions)

WP Travel Paystack Checkout (For online payments in Nigeria)

WP Travel Khalti Checkout (For online payments in Nepal)

WP Travel Instamojo Checkout (For online payments in India)

WP Travel Razorpay Checkout (For online payments in India)

WP Travel PayFast Checkout (For online payments in South Africa)

WP Travel PayU Checkout (For online payments in Poland)

WP Travel Payhere Checkout (For online payments in Sri Lanka)

WP Travel PayU Latam (For online payments in Latin American Countries : Columbia, Argentina, Brasil, Chile, Mexico, Panama and Peru)

WP Travel Squareup Checkout (For payment in US, Canada, Australia, Japan, Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom)

WP Travel Stripe iDEAL Checkout (For payment from customers in the Netherlands)

💫 PRO MODULES

WP Travel Currency Exchange Rate

WP Travel Google Calendar

WP Travel Inventory Management

WP Travel Invoice

WP Travel Multiple Currency

WP Travel Weather Forecast

WP Travel Zapier

WP Travel Group Discount

WP Travel Utilities

WP Travel Tour Extras

WP Travel Wishlists

WP Travel Field Editor

WP Travel Partial Payment

WP Travel Rest API

WP Travel Downloads

WP Travel MailChimp

WP Travel Custom Filters

WP Travel Import Export

WP Travel Advanced Gallery

WP Travel Blocks

WP Travel Travel Guide

🗺️ MAP MODULES

WP Travel Here Map

WP Travel Mapquest

View all WP Travel modules

🆓 FREE TRAVEL THEMES COMPATIBLE WITH WP TRAVEL PLUGIN

• Photo Journal by Catch Themes
• Travelore by Catch Themes
• Mega Tour by Theme Palace
• Travelstore by WEN Solutions
• Travel Joy by WEN Solutions
• Travel Gem by WEN Themes
• Travel Log by WEN Solutions
• Travel Base by Theme Palace
• Tourable by Theme Palace
• Pleased by Theme Palace
• Travel Ultimate by Theme Palace
• Tale Travel by Theme Palace
• View all FREE WordPress Travel & Tour Themes

🎨 PREMIUM TRAVEL THEMES COMPATIBLE WP TRAVEL PLUGIN

• Photo Journal Pro by Catch Themes
• Travelore Pro by Catch Themes.
• Mega Tour Pro by Theme Palace.
• Travel Joy Pro by WEN Solutions
• Travel Gem Pro by WEN Themes
• Travel Ultimate Pro by Theme Palace.
• Travel Base Pro by Theme Palace.
• Pleased Pro by Theme Palace.
• Tourable Pro by Theme Palace.
• Tale Travel Pro by Theme Palace.
• Travel Master Pro by Theme Palace.
• View all Premium WordPress Travel & Tour Themes

📱 MOBILE APP

Android App : Keep track of all the bookings and inquiries without logging into the site.

PWA Mobile App : With the growing trend of mobile website access, WP Travel has successfully integrated all the functionalities of their desktop WordPress Plugin into a sleek and impressive mobile app.

Dedicated Support and Documentation

We have an entire team of happiness engineers ready to help you. Ask your questions in the support forum .

Spanish translation partner – Blarlo

Also you can checkout WP Travel documentation .

📝 Release Notes:

Dear Sir/Mam, Before updating the plugin it is advised to check “our latest release notes” .

Love WP Travel? We are doing our best from our side to help and provide support as instant as we can.

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Screenshots

Using The WordPress Dashboard

• Navigate to the ‘Add New’ in the plugins dashboard
• Search for “WP Travel”
• Click Install Now
• Activate the plugin on the Plugin dashboard

Uploading in WordPress Dashboard

• Navigate to the ‘Upload’ area
• Select wp-travel.zip from your computer
• Click ‘Install Now’
• Activate the plugin in the Plugin dashboard
• Download wp-travel.zip
• Extract the wp-travel directory to your computer
• Upload the wp-travel directory to the /wp-content/plugins/ directory

Where can I find WP Travel documentation and user guides?

For setting up your site using the WP Travel plugin and extensions please refer to Documentation page

There is something cool you could add…

Nice, send us a request on Support page and let us know. We are always looking for ways to improve our plugins.

Where can I get support?

If you have any queries regarding the plugin then you can ask for help in Support page

Will WP Travel work with my theme?

Yes, WP Travel will work with any theme, but may require some styling to make it match nicely. Also, plugin perfectly works with the default WordPress theme. There are additional themes which are developed specially to work with the WP Travel plugin. Please go to the link to find out the theme that are compatible with WP Travel plugin: Themes

Can I run WooCommerce or Easy Digital Downloads and WP Travel at the same time?

Yes, there are no technological conflicts between the three, you could run them all at the same time on the same domain name. But all plug-ins have their own cart system so WooCommerce or Easy Digital Downloads products will be added in their cart page and WP Travel trips will be added in WP Travel cart page. Also checkout will be processed in own individual way. We need to note that both WooCommerce, Easy Digital Downloads and WP Travel are standalone plug-ins for WordPress, conceptual and functional way.

Does the plugin have the payment gateways?

WP Travel plugin do have a number of payment gateways to make the payment processing handy for the user all around the world. To know about the gateways go to the link Modules

Where can I request new features, WP Travel themes and extensions?

You can do that by filling up the form in our support page .

Where can I get support or talk to other users?

If you have any queries regarding the plugin and extensions then you can ask for help in Support page .

thank you!!!

Great Plugin

Excellent travel booking plugin

Great Support

The best plugin

Good plugin with a lot of nice features

Contributors & developers.

“WP Travel – Best Travel Booking WordPress Plugin, Tour Management Engine” is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin.

“WP Travel – Best Travel Booking WordPress Plugin, Tour Management Engine” has been translated into 4 locales. Thank you to the translators for their contributions.

Translate “WP Travel – Best Travel Booking WordPress Plugin, Tour Management Engine” into your language.

Interested in development?

Browse the code , check out the SVN repository , or subscribe to the development log by RSS .

Release Date: 25th March 2024

Fixes: * Fixed plugin security issues * Fixed undefined variable issues * Fixed booking status issue of dashboard booking widget * Fixed low high pricing filter issue on trip filter shortcode

Enhancements: * Added hook to exclude dates for booking

For more details, please refer to our release note .

Release Date: 11th March 2024

Fixes: * Added a code to get the array value instead of array key of payment and booking status array * Fixed a double email sending issue when payment status is changed * Fixed the label issue of tab setting from ” Custom Tab Title” to ” Display” * Fixed missing text translation issue

Enhancements: * Added min and max pax to single trip template * Added translation support for trip facts * Added FSE header and footer support for all WP Travel default templates

Release Date: 22nd February 2024

Fixes: * Fixed undefined array key access * Fixed deprecated return type of Recursive Array Access * Fixed the issue of trip pax while updating the cart * Fixed minimum value of pax selector not working while updating cart

Enhancements: * Added hook to change departure date label and arrival date label for booking emails * Added hook to change email content of booking and payment status * Added support to show full billing country name on booking email

Release Date: 7th February 2024

Fixes: * Optimized code * fixed currency separator issue when decimal separator is set to ‘,’ and Number of decimals set to ‘0’ * fixed Onpage booking date picker issue – ( issue with safari browser ) * Prefixed the date table with global $wpdb in the booking query * Fixed inventory issue on updating cart

Enhancements: * Added trip extras information on the checkout page * Added hook to set checkout default billing country – checkout_default_country * Localized modules setting strings for translation support

Release Date: 22nd January 2024

Fixes: * Fixed undefined array index issue * Fixed payments PHP warnings * Fixed thousand separator issue in case of decimal separator is set to 0

Enhancements: * Added a close icon on the payment details popup module * Added Trip, Coupon, Trip Extras access to the editor role

Release Date: 08th January 2024

Fixes: * Optimized code. * Fixed minor design issues on the initial setup page. * Fixed date picker issue ( current date showing even if date picker is empty ). * Fixed privacy policy links in case of On-Page booking.

Enhancements: * Added quick setup options on the initial setup page. * Added function to scroll to booking tab while clicking on departure date.

Release Date: 22th December 2023

Fixes: * Security patch update. Added nonce to all AJAX requests.

Release Date: 20th December 2023

Fixes: * Fixed departure date and arrival date format in booking emails. * Fixed trip location design issue in trip lists. * Fixed sale issue for multiple pricing on the trip archive page. * Fixed the book button alignment issue in case of On-page booking.

Enhancements: * Added text translations for “Select Pax”, “Trip Price” and “Trip Extras”. * Added Contact Number, Contact Email, Country Code, and Tour Date column in the bookings table. * Added filter ‘wp_travel_enable_traveller_dob_booking_email’. * Added filter ‘wp_travel_enable_traveller_gender_booking_email’. * Added filter ‘wp_travel_enable_traveller_country_booking_email’. * Added filter ‘wp_travel_trip_enquiry_label’.

Release Date: 5th December 2023

Fixes: * Fixed ajax-loader console issue. * Fixed Google Map API issue. * Fixed booking edit page content width issue. * Added the latest theme to the marketplace page and setup page. * Update setup page design. * Optimized scripts. * Fixed Broken Access Control Vulnerability issue. * Fixed moment js issue. * Replaced invalid contact page documentation url in setting page. * Update demo trips CSV file. * Fixed react date picker console error. * Fixed Onpage layout issue.

Release Date: 6th November 2023

Fixes: * Fixed multiple fixed departure dates not showing on the single trip page. * Fixed the pax selector issue while updating the cart. * Fixed the translation issue regarding validation.

Enhancements: * Added function for sending email while changing booking status. * Added discount coupon code and discount amount on booking emails. * Enhanced the backend date selector calendar. * Added a translation for “Select Date and Pricing Options for this trip in the Trip Options setting.”

Release Date: 12th October 2023

Fixes: * Fixed multiple fixed departure dates not showing on the single trip page. * Fixed the pax selector issue while updating the cart. * Fixed the translation issue regarding validation. * Fixed the translation issue for the Thankyou message.

Release Date: 27th September 2023

Fixes: * Fixed issues in the accordions with third-party plugins(like the UserWP plugin and Geodirectory plugin). * Removed all unwanted consoles. * Removed all unwanted comment codes. * Added translation for missing strings. * Fixed booking button scroll issue for mobile devices. * Fixed the pax issue in the mail, when updating the cart on the checkout page.

Enhancements: * “Thank You” message has been added to the On-Page booking feature when WP Travel (free) is activated. * When payment is enabled for On-Page bookings by default booking with payment will be displayed.

Layout Issue: * Fixed the layout issue under the Related Trip section.

Release Date: 11th September 2023

Fixes: * Code cleanup * Fixed booking date label in case of one day trip * Added departure date in thankyou page and booking email template * Fixed image width on WP Travel User login page * Fixed CSS of group price on onpage booking

Enhancements: * Inherit theme color on add to cart * Extend time interval of cornjobs ( once in two days ) * Added function for cart icon – [wptravel_get_cart_icon()] * Added [wp_travel_trip_price_per] hook ( this hook helps to and extra label for book per ( ie. person, group ) ) * Added [wptravel_traveller_salutation] hook – this hook helps to add or remove salutation on booking email

Release Date: 24th August 2023

Fixes: * Code cleanup

Release Date: 23rd August 2023

Fixes: * Fixed translation issue for On-Page booking.

Enhancements: * Added Hour and Minute option in case of Trip duration. * Added Tax percentage in case of On-Page booking. * Removed ‘Apply Coupon’ field, if coupon is not added in case of On-Page booking.

Release Date: 9th August 2023

Fixes: * Fixed booking issue.

others: * Sets the WordPress tested up to version to 6.3.

Release Date: 7th August 2023

Enhancements: * Added edit cart option in case of On-Page booking. * Added apply coupon field in payment details section in case of On-Page booking. * Added tax calculation in On-Page booking in Payment Details.

Fixes: * Fixed issue while uploading custom image in trip facts. * Fixed booking details not shown in the customer dashboard, in case of booking detail added by admin manually.

Layout Fixes: * Fixed On-Page booking layout and cart button style to match theme color.

Release Date: 17th July 2023

Enhancement: * Added hook [wp_travel_related_trip_filter_single_archive_page] to show the related trip according to your taxonomy choice. * Made the pax selector editable so that you can enter a number. * Added On-Page booking option. * Compatibility for Standard PayPal and Bank deposit for On-Page booking. * For more detail, please refer to our release note .

Release Date: 29th June 2023

Enhancement: * Some information and broken links fixed in the description section of plugin page in wordpress.org

Release Date: 27th June 2023

Fixes: * Fixed backend setting page string translation.

Enhancement: * Added hook [wp_travel_single_archive_trip_types] to modify and remove trip types on single trip page. * Added hook [wp_travel_single_archive_activities] to modify and remove activities on single trip page. * Added hook [wp_travel_single_archive_group_size] to modify and remove group size on single trip page. * Added hook [wp_travel_single_archive_review] to modify and remove review on single trip page. * Added hook [wp_travel_single_archive_page_trip_location] to modify and remove trip location on single trip page. * Added hook [wp_travel_single_archive_page_trip_duration] to modify and remove trip duration on single trip page. * Added hook [wp_travel_single_archive_trip_code] to modify and remove trip code on single trip page. * Added hook [wp_travel_single_archive_trip_keyword] to modify and remove trip keyword on single trip page. * For more detail, please refer to our release note .

Release Date: 12th June 2023

Fixes: * Fixed gender translation issue in the Chinese language. * Fixed rating schema.

Enhancement: * Added option to Import/Export WP Travel settings options. * For more detail, please refer to our release note .

Release Date: 15th May 2023

Fixes: * Fixed Type Error on the Price & Dates backend section. * Fixed Translation issue of gender with the Chinese language. * Fixed searching not working in multilingual sites while using WPML plugins. * Fixed translation issue under the booking tab (Select Date and Pricing Options for this trip in the Trip Options setting).

Enhancement: * WP Travel compatibility with Yoast ( For Internal link verification and Featured image). * For more detail, please refer to our release note .

Release Date: 27th April 2023

Fixes: * Fixed N/A in payment mode while the partial payment is disabled.

Enhancement: * Sending an email to the client when Payment Info is changed to Paid by the admin manually. * Added option to add hourly Trips in case of Trip duration. * For more detail, please refer to our release note .

Release Date: 12th April 2023

Fixes: * Fixed calendar layout issue in backend trip edit dashboard. * Fixed when changing Payment Status to paid, Payment Mode status will also be changed to full.

Enhancement: * Added hook [wp_travel_email_itinerary_pdf_attachment] to attach itinerary PDF in the booking email. (in Pro) * For more detail, please refer to our release note .

Release Date: 3rd April 2023

Fixes: * Fixed js issue in the gallery backend. * Fixed thank you page not set while activate WPML plugin. * Fixed custom filter label not translate while translating using WPML.

others: * Sets the WordPress tested up to version to 6.2.

Release Date: 30th March 2023

Enhancement: * Implemented new design and interface of the Settings page. * Added compatibility with WPML plugin for translations. * For more detail, please refer to our release note .

Release Date: 1st March 2023

Tweaks: * Added hook ‘wp_travel_strings’.

Fixes: * For additional compatible bug fixes with WP Travel Pro please see this changelog .

Release Date: 13th February 2023

Fixes: * Fixed Trip placeholder image being cropped. * Fixed filter by option not being clickable in small screen size. * Fixed shortcode [WP_TRAVEL_ITINERARIES limit=50 type='itinerary_types' slug="term-slug" ] not working.

Enhancement: * Added option to disable rating star option for admin.

Release Date: 24th January 2023

Fixes: * Fixed slow performance in admin Dashboard with latest version of WP Travel. * Fixed media upload issue.

Release Date: 19th January 2023

Tweaks: * Hook added to rename Tax.

Enhancement: * Added WP Travel Initial Setup steps to make it admin easier to set up the site. * For more detail, please refer to our release note .

Release Date: 5th January 2023

Fixes: * Fixed Redirect on Setup Page while Activate Plugins.

Earlier versions

For the changelog of earlier versions, please refer to the changelog on wptravel.io .

Commercial Plugin

This plugin is free but offers additional paid commercial upgrades or support.

• Version: 8.4.0
• Last updated: 2 weeks ago
• Active installations: 6,000+
• WordPress Version: 6.0.0 or higher
• Tested up to: 6.4.3
• PHP Version: 7.4 or higher

English (US) , Portuguese (Angola) , Portuguese (Brazil) , Russian , and Spanish (Spain) .

Translate into your language

• Tags: tour booking Tour Operator travel travel agency Travel booking
• Advanced View

Create a travel website for free

No big investments at the start

*14 days of a free premium access

Why choose Weblium website builder

The interface of our Weblium is easy to use. You will immediately figure out where and how to click. You won't have to spend a lot of time reading guides. Thanks to this, you will be able to create a travel website, even if you consider yourself a person as far from technology as possible.

Availability

You will receive a trial subscription immediately after registration. It gives free access to key Weblium features for 14 days. You can view all our templates, create your own unique design, connect additional services. And all this means a free travel website!

Technical support 24/7

Our support team works around the clock, even on weekends. So if you have any questions while building a travel website, you will get answers. Our managers will help you find a solution to all technical problems both at the stage of launching the site and after it.

Travel websites are suitable for

Small and medium-sized travel agencies.

Sell your services, collect customer contacts, accept payments for tours online — it's all easier than you think.

Travel bloggers

Share your impressions of your trips, experiences, and life hacks with the world, gather an audience and earn money from advertising.

For guides and tour guides

Promote yourself as a specialist, tell in more detail about your experience, knowledge, and organizational skills — this will help to find new clients.

For owners of small hostels and hotels

Attract more customers by promoting your website in search engines.

How to create a travel website on Weblium

Register on the platform

You can do this via your Google or Facebook account, as well as using your email. Immediately after that, you will receive a trial subscription and be able to build a travel website.

Choose a travel website template

To start a travel website the template is the basis, the framework, on which you will create your website’s design and functionality. We offer over 10 travel templates to choose from.

Work out the design and add content

All our templates are bright and unique, but you probably are eager to change something or add your own. Everything from background images to menu buttons is customizable in our templates. Optionally, you can add video, animation, gradient.

Connect the necessary functionality

If you are creating a travel website, then you intend to sell certain services. And for sales to bring the maximum income, you will have to provide your site with additional functionality. That’s easy! Everything has already been added to the Weblium platform: contact forms for accepting orders, CRM systems for processing them, payment methods, online chats etc.

Customize SEO

SEO tools help search engines find your site and show it in search results for the necessary queries. To do this, you need to fill in special fields ("page title", "description", "keywords") in the site settings.

Launch the website

That's it, your website is complete! You just have to check the texts for errors, test all sections for performance, and you can publish your website.

Are you ready to create a travel website?

Once you've tried the Weblium website builder, you won't have to look for other solutions anymore!

Travel website templates

Guided Tour

Single Tour

 African Safari

Travel Agency

We will help you to share experiences and show how beautiful the world is!

Tips from the weblium travel website builder.

A couple of useful tips that will help make the process of creating a travel website more successful!

Google Maps

With a website builder for travel agency, you can add your enterprise to the map, and it will be easier for clients to find you.

Show your advantages

Show your customers that your waiting area is the most comfortable, your coffee is the tastiest, and your specialists are of the highest class!

Online booking

Synchronize your schedule using our tools, and your clients will be able to book with you according to your timetable.

Modern internet marketing tools are to analyze and promote your tourism business. Stand out!

No further questions

Display all the necessary data about prices, services, and opening hours on the homepage of the travel agency website, so that your visitors know everything they need.

Make a travel website modern and functional so that your business stands out from the competitors’.

Ready-made integrations

Weblium allows adding additional plugins to your website to expand its functionality

Weblium customers’ feedback

Find out why over 130,000 website creators have opted for Weblium

Marketing Specialist

Amazing platform, super easy to use and fabulous support team who never give up on you until they find a solution for you, even if you are being a tad thick! It’s a relatively new platform but has surprisingly few problems, and those that come up are solved quickly and efficiently and since I am one to really push the boundaries, if anyone was going to find the glitches it would be me! Well done Team Weblium!

Jacquey Dougherty

President at Dougherty Financial Consultants, Inc.

Weblium created a very professional website for my Insurance Agency/Accounting Firm business. When I indicated that I wanted to be able to add news items/blogs on a regular basis, they were extremely patient with me in training me how to do it. They took the time to send me videos that were extremely user-friendly and easy to follow. When I have a question, I email it and a consistent member of the staff gets back to me literally right away. I highly recommend Weblium!

Hillary Moon

Hillary Moon Performance Art

I had a Facebook page but wanted to share my work with more potential clients. When I found Weblium's offer, it seemed too good to be true at first. But Weblium did a great job! They built the website I needed and helped me learn how to manage it. 10/10.

Kate Goncharova

Mimodels Management

We decided to create a website since it’s the best way to showcase your talents in modeling business. Weblium created a site that both meets our expectations perfectly and is pretty simple to manage on your own. I can vouch for the quality of this service

Which travel website builder should you choose?

First, you must understand what functionality you need, and what difficulties you may have in the process of creation. Based on this, consider the criteria that are important to you: ● price/the opportunity of a free travel agency website; ● templates: quality and design, categories and niches; ● simplicity and convenience of the constructor; ● support and assistance in creating a website (not each website builder for travel agency has "live" online support); ● settings (analytics, SEO settings, marketing tools, etc.). You may have other criteria as well. Your best bet is to test the free travel agency website builder to be sure to pick the best of the best.

How to create a mobile version of a travel website?

All websites built on Weblium are fully responsive, so you can only work with the desktop version of your travel website without worrying about how it will look on mobile devices.

How can I build a travel website for business without knowing how to write code?

With Weblium, you can create a travel website without any programming knowledge. Just use your imagination and the Weblium website builder. We will guide you through the color scheme, block placement, image adjustments, etc.

How to find the right topic for your travel site?

If you are looking for ideas for your future website, then we advise you to check out our gallery of templates that have been selected after careful research in each area of business.

Tourism website

Starting a tourism website is a good idea for business.

Fitness website

More fitness and sport website templates are available after login.

Event website

You will only have to choose an event template and have fun there.

Blog website

Anyone can be a successful author here!

Salon website

Starting a beauty website is a brilliant idea for your beauty business.

Clothing website

Start for free your clothing website right now!

Personal website

We’ll tell you about the best way to create a personal website.

Create Account

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Hello, Friend!

Start Your Journey With Us

How To Build A Travel Website

Explore new business opportunities with elegant travel website.

Bookingxml is an international travel technology and travel software company and we serve travel companies from 100+ countries across four continents. Bookingxml platform is powered by 200+ suppliers across flight, hotels, car, sightseeing, vacations and other ground services.

We partner with our clients to provide strong distribution capabilities - B2B/B2C / B2B2C travel technology, automate travel business process, powerful back office system, flexible content management system and feature a unique standardization element.

Bookingxml develop and enable access to extensive range of travel suppliers which includes all GDS, LCCs, 600,000+ Hotels, 200,000 Activities, 50000+ Car rental locations, Crusies, Eurail, Bus, Insurance and tours and travel experiences worldwide.

Let's Discover

The world together.

One of the leading online booking engine providers EXCLUSIVELY for travel agencies. Our aim is to provide you with a fast and easy online access to the products your clients are asking for, wherever and whenever that may be.

Travel Website - Create a travel website tailored to your needs

Thinking of creating an awesome online travel booking website bookingxml will help you to build a powerful travel booking website for your travel and tour company.

How to Build a Travel and Tourism Website That Goes Far?

BookingXML delivers travel website development services using the latest technologies. We develop a comprehensive travel website for travel agencies to communicate with travelers in the most effective manner. 

Creating a travel website on BookingXML can save both your time and money! Travel agencies help people plan their holidays and offer advice on where to go.

A travel agent is usually involved in various activities as selling tourism packages and products directly to the tourists and perform regular functions like booking hotel , arranging accommodation and transportation.

Every travel agent needs a travel website to stay up to date with updated packages and advanced services. There are various types of travel websites including OTA (online travel agencies) and metasearch (aggregator search engine), along with direct booking hotel, and tour websites to book directly from the hosts. 

BookingXML specializes in the travel industry to get the best solutions for your requirements and to save time and money in the process. BookingXML Integrates travel deals onto your website is done in various ways including direct database and GDS (global distribution system), along with affiliate and/or API. 

Travel API is the most flexible solution. BookingXML gives you unlimited freedom to develop your own travel website. Travel website should be able to handle multiple user inquiries and seasonal fluctuations. 

Travel as one of the most profitable niches markets as far as online businesses are concerned. The travel industry is at an all-time high, and this has opened up a wide range of business opportunities for travel companies . 

Travel websites typically come with features such as a booking engine, billing and invoicing system, modules-based functions for each section, and customization options to fit your requirements perfectly. 

The travel website is designed specifically for tour operators- so they are extremely specialized for your use. BookingXML provides you with the ideal platform to sell your tours online.

BookingXML is a user-friendly website that is very important for a business in this competitive world. Every travel agency needs a site to show its substantial existence.

The travel website not only helps clients in booking their tickets but also in finding suitable deals.

BookingXML is a modern travel blog providing the best tips, and itineraries to ensure you have an amazing adventure. Building a travel website can be a journey and not a defined strategy from the start.

Building a travel website can be a great side hustle and means to create extra income for something you love to do. By creating a travel website, you can even target specific regions that are booming for tourism.

A travel website can be a great means to travel hacking. You will naturally build relationships with people around the globe within the travel industry.

BookingXML is a comprehensive platform that allows you to build anything ranging from simple websites to advanced online communities. BookingXML creates a travel website or booking website with a functional and easy-to-use site constructor. BookingXML delivers cost-effective solutions for all your building website needs. 

How to Create a Travel Booking Website?

BookingXML is a leading travel website development company, delivers all the aspects of B2B & B2C travel portal development and travel API integration for hotel booking, travel packages to global travel companies. 

We provide expert development, website design and graphic design services with our expert designers and programmers. When you build a travel website, one of the most important features include is pictures and video content of all of the existing destination and travel accommodation that your business offer. 

BookingXML creates a travel website tailored to your needs. We provide wide range of products for your online travel agency website . Create a travel site for hotels and help users to find the best prices for booking tickets and book them as fast as possible.

BookingXML provides travel website development that empowers companies to deliver a fully loaded online travel booking website that goes well beyond customer expectations. 

We ensure that we take a good look at your requirements to provide you with customized travel website solutions . To build a travel website needs to have a clear idea regarding the cost involved in developing a travel portal. 

Customer reviews are a great way to build trust in your abilities as a travel agent and including them in your travel agency website helps to give visitors a positive perspective of your agency's service. 

Our Website Builder was created with tour and activity operators in mind. Use the website builder to easily create multiple pages to show customers what's special about each trip.

BookingXML Provides customers with a mobile-optimized, hassle-free booking and payment process. We offer a customer experience that dazzles from the start. 

With travel agency website builders, you can start your own business or bring your existing one online quickly. Of course, these services cover a broad range of travel and tourism inspired websites for your convenience.

The most significant advantage of these travel agency website builders is their ease of use. BookingXML is an ideal travel agency website builder for tours and other similar activities. 

BookingXML is a powerful travel agency website builder that will assist you on your journey to page realization from start to finish. It easily becomes your travel agency website builder and benefit you tremendously.

BookingXML is a website builder for the tourist industry. The websites it creates are adapted on all supports whether that is PC, mobile, or tablet, to allow all tourism organizations to showcase their services on a modern website.

Your website must allow your visitors and potential customers to make reservations and bookings online through your website.

Travel websites usually have multiple design templates you can choose from. A travel website is a top destination for your current and potential clients.

A full-featured travel agency website can provide your clients with much industry-related information.

BookingXML provides an extensive selection of niche-focused features and services that will have a positive impact on your website performance and its further promotion. BookingXML is the best all-in-one website builder for travel agencies, and tour operators . 

The Travel platform encompasses ease-of-use, convenience, affordability, high-end functionality, and an intuitive web design approach. The travel website builder is also known for its designer tools collection, responsive templates, free landing page creator, and logo customization tool. 

BookingXML is a simple website builder for tour operators that allows the creation of quality websites. The website builder grants access to multiple customer interaction tools that make it possible to boost customer engagement rates and encourage active user interaction. 

We help you all along with your travel agency website design process. Creating a travel website for your travel company is an important step to gaining customers and awareness about your brand. 

Our travel websites have a proven track record of increasing sales for our clients. We work directly with your booking software provider to make the process of booking travel or activity from your website quick and seamless.

BookingXML provides online travel agency website development services that are highly attractive to pull in your target audience. Our travel agency website design includes tools to help you track your visitor information. 

With our custom travel web design work, our clients enjoyed existing clicks and revenue in their travel and tourism business.

The travel websites created by BookingXML have achieved successful achievements. Travel websites are an extensive & important tool to make your online presence impactful on today’s digital landscape.

Our dedicated travel website designers provide complete solutions to empower online travel agencies, hotels, holiday package sites, car booking portals, and more.

We expand your travel business with a number of tools that help you manage and support your ongoing activities. Our travel website designers design an SEO friendly website and setup incorporates Google Analytics & Google Tag Manager so that you can better analyse the source of traffic and visitor’s activity on your travel website.   

We bring you social media-friendly designs that help you promote your website on various social media channels. Now, these days travel industries booming very rapidly so Your Travel website makes you the link between travelers and travel suppliers.

We can put your travel business on the internet effectively, and at an affordable price.

We design quality-based websites with cutting-edge utilities, we customize interactive ideas as per every user need. so that your business has a distinct look and attracts customers.

Make your SEO travel website more accessible and higher in various search engines. Our Website builder creates SEO friendly Websites that make ranking in Google. 

BookingXML provides a dedicated team of developers that develop websites in the least available time. Travel website builder ensures an outstanding user experience. BookingXML helps the customers in buying their own domain. You can have the domain with you instantaneously.

Feature of Building Travel Websites: 

Accessibility

Time efficiency

Wide range of customization options

Impressive functionality

Advanced blogging

Mobile responsiveness

Go with Social Media

Create long-form content that is evergreen in nature

Mention and collaborate with other bloggers and influencers

Always be optimizing your site for internal links and structure

Revolutionizing Online travel

• Multiple Sales Channels - B2C, B2B, B2B2C, B2B2B, Call Center, Front Desk
• Low cost of ownership
• Online Booking Engine - Flight,Hotel,Holiday Package,Car,Sightseeing and Transfers
• GDS, XML & Travel API Integration
• Complete booking management system
• Comprehensive reporting module

Flight+Hotel

Vacation packages, experiences.

Itinerary Creator

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How to Build a Booking Website for Travel and Hospitality Businesses

This article explains how to build a booking website for travel and hospitality businesses.

It is based on Onix-Systems’ broad booking system development experience; our experts create travel booking websites, e.g., misterb&b (gay-friendly accommodations booking platform), TravelBid (platform for booking hotel rooms, transfers, and cars), and TravelTail (pet-friendly hotel booking website), and can share lots of insights and tips. 

Whether you’re starting an online travel agency, want to build a hotel booking website for your hospitality business, or plan to offer booking services for hotels, airlines, and tour operators, here you can find valuable insights, such as:

• what you need to know before you start a travel booking website 
• which functionalities the platform should include
• how to build a travel booking website in five steps
• what technologies are recommended for travel booking systems
• how to make it user-friendly, appealing, and profitable
• how much travel booking website development costs

In 2022, two-thirds of the travel and tourism revenue already came from online sales. According to Research and Markets’ 2023 report , the online travel market, valued at US$667.55 billion in 2023, is expected to grow at a CAGR of 13% and reach US$1.56 trillion by 2030.

The accommodation booking segment, driven by global online hotel bookings, is expected to grow the fastest in the online travel market.

2024 looks like a great time to create hotel booking websites and mobile apps , rental marketplaces , car rental services , and other digital booking solutions favored by youth and professionals.

Table of contents

Travel booking platform features, travel booking website development: step-by-step, best practices for travel booking website design, must-have travel booking website tech stack, the cost of travel booking website development, travel booking platform monetization strategies, wrapping up.

Before learning how to start a travel booking website, you need to understand its structure and what functionalities it may include.

Technically, an online travel booking system consists of three parts.

1. Back-end

A database stores real-time information about travel products for online reservations, customers, bookings, customer communication, etc.

2. Front-end

These web pages present information from the database to users and retrieve forms from them. Front-end web pages typically include:

• a landing page with a search function for requesting information from the database
• a response page showing the requested info
• forms where users enter the information necessary for hotel or ticket booking
• confirmation pages…

… and other business-specific details. For example, hotel booking website features should enable visitors to find a hotel on the map, view a room’s details, read customer reviews, etc.

3. Middleware

This software moves data between the database and the web pages. It processes users’ input, pulls information from the database as necessary, and submits new data back into that database.

User-wise, a travel booking website is divided into two systems: front-office and back-office. The front-office enables travelers to search and evaluate travel products, book selected items, and pay for them.

Back-office software empowers owners of an online travel agency or businesses (hotels, tour operators, car rental services, etc.) to administer the websites, manage reservations, bills, and accounts, and control enterprise productivity, much like other companies’ enterprise resource planning systems .

Here are the features that the systems should include:

Travelers’ website features (on the example of a hotel booking service) 

The search parameters should start with:

1) Destination (city or even particular address)

2) Date (arrival and departure/check-in and check-out dates)

3) Number of persons (adults, children, and possibly pets)

3) Number of rooms or type of accommodation

Search for hotels by name or nearby is valuable. Users may also need to pick a location based on its proximity to the sights of interest they plan to visit. 

Results page

When users see listings that match their initial parameters, filters and sorting can provide refinement, e.g., enabling users to see the cheapest options, meals, and hotels with the highest user rating first. A geolocation feature will be practical: travelers can see an accommodation on a map and measure the distance to airports, train stations, or landmarks.

Example of travel booking platform design by Onix – TravelTail  

One of Onix’s clients, a Japanese hotel booking platform, actively uses customer data to enhance user experience and facilitate bookings. Some of the solutions they use are:

• Individual preferences

At registration, travelers can specify their preferences, selecting their favorite hotel chains, essential amenities, and desired destinations. Through integration with various platforms, the system gathers real-time data to match accommodations with each traveler’s unique interests and requirements.

For instance, if a user expresses an affinity for museums , the system suggests hotels near such cultural attractions. It tailors the search process and interface elements based on the user's primary preferences, such as displaying a map of their chosen location with nearby recommended hotels.

As users update their preferences or add new destinations, the interface seamlessly adjusts to offer personalized recommendations.

• Location-based filtering

The platform prioritizes hotels in areas previously visited by the user and those with higher review scores and ample customer feedback. Users can also filter hotels based on proximity to specific metro stations, with the platform calculating distances and presenting relevant results to align with travelers' preferred transportation modes.

Location-based promotions and discounts on the homepage are customized according to each user’s preferences.

• Amenities filtering

The application also filters hotels based on desired amenities, including swimming pools, parking, free Wi-Fi, or complimentary breakfast options.

Learn more : Hyper-Personalization in Hospitality – a Step beyond Customization

Listing details

The following accommodation details are essential:

• The hotel’s address, description, check-in/check-out time, hotel policies, places of interest nearby, etc.
• Hotel photo gallery
• Map with the hotel location and environs
• Amenities (e.g., Wi-Fi, accessibility, parking places, etc.)
• Reviews and the average score
• A list of bookable rooms with pictures, descriptions, and price per day
• Cancellation details
• Pricing block with offers from different booking systems

It’s also helpful to include:

• Room status that shows a room’s availability in real time
• Social share buttons
• Suggestions of other matching options and additional items

If you offer extra services during hotel booking, you can increase customer satisfaction and revenue.

Booking form

An interactive form should collect traveler’s data, such as check-in and check-out dates, number of quests, and other details.

A travel booking website should offer both the ability to pay at check-in and a fast and secure online payment option. Users should see the total amount and the payment by day.

Multiple payment options (credit card, debit card, PayPal, etc.) will help ensure a good customer experience and reduce the number of abandoned transactions. A printable reservation confirmation should include all payment details.

Learn more : Payment Gateway for a Travel Website: Expert Insights and Strategies

Instant messages can inform users about their reservation confirmation, changes in rates, exclusive deals, etc., remind them about scheduled activities, provide personalized tips and advice, etc., increasing user engagement and winning customer loyalty.

Travel assistant chatbots can answer frequently asked questions 24/7 and guide users through search, looking for deals, booking process, and an entire trip.

After completing a booking, the booking engine may proactively suggest similar accommodations through follow-up emails, leveraging the customer's preferences and the characteristics of their reservation to encourage further exploration within their preferred parameters.

Additionally, users may receive notifications about new hotels or promotions akin to their favorites or previously viewed options.

For instance, Onix’s client misterb&b , the accommodation booking service catering to LGBTQ+ travelers, has integrated with Vero , a customer engagement platform (CEP) with advanced customer segmentation capabilities.

Vero provides robust content creation and design tools, fostering personalization and facilitating A/B testing to optimize content and timing across diverse customer segments. Leveraging precise data, Vero ensures that every email and push notification is tailored to individual preferences.

By harnessing Vero, misterb&b can deliver impeccably timed messages strategically aligned with the customer’s activities on the booking platform.

Example of accommodation booking platform development by Onix – misterb&b

Push notifications

These keep customers informed about relevant services, discounts, and changes. This is why a progressive web application and, eventually, a mobile app should be considered.

Learn more : The Ultimate Guide to Developing a Mobile Booking App

Registration

Sign-up should be optional, but you may suggest it once a user makes a booking or returns. Users should be able to sign up via email or their Facebook or Google accounts.

User profile

This page should contain the customer’s booking history, current reservations, payments, reviews, and wish-lists, and enable users to configure, manage, and review reservations, and change their language, currency, locale, time zone, and other settings.

Information like profile picture, name, age, and country are optional, but businesses should encourage customers to provide these and further details because this information will facilitate more personalized experiences and offers.

The Japanese hotel booking app mentioned above enriches the user experience by preserving users’ searches, preferences, and booking history:

• Saved searches and preferences

The platform allows users to save their preferred search criteria and hotel preferences in the user’s account. It stores the information locally, ensuring continuity across devices and locations, and utilizes it to enhance query parameters.

A unique feature allows users to share their saved search criteria and preferences with others, who can share insights and recommendations. Moreover, users can reset filters for friends or acquaintances, adding an interactive element to the hotel search process. Dynamic URLs reflecting saved search criteria facilitate sharing filtered results with others.

• Booking history

The platform intelligently leverages the user’s previous bookings to suggest similar options, catering to returning customers' preferences and habits.

For instance, if users typically opt for hotels near tourist attractions, the system highlights relevant promotions in those areas and prioritizes familiar neighborhoods or business districts based on past interactions. Recommendations also consider positive feedback from similar users, enriching the selection process.

• Special offers and discounts

The system generates individual offers and discounts using previous reservations and user preferences. The homepage can highlight special promotions for those hotels that meet the user’s criteria.

For example, suppose users frequently select hotels within a certain price range or with specific amenities. In that case, the system suggests relevant offers for similar properties prominently displayed on the homepage or the user’s account page.

• Favorites and visits history

The user profile section includes a list of previously viewed hotels, which is handy for users who revisit specific locations.

Customer feedback

Reviews and rating blocks improve a service’s credibility, and customer feedback enables you to enhance your web application and your business. After each stay, customers should be able to rate staff, facilities, cleanliness, convenience, etc., write a review, and add photos if they want. 

Besides the customer’s journey, the website should include other important pages. For example, the landing page should also include links to:

A compelling story about your company will help build trust and an emotional connection with your brand and convert visitors into customers.

Information like your office’s address, contact number, email, etc., and a contact form are practical and help establish credibility.

• Social proof

It would help if you also displayed travelers’ testimonials, ratings, endorsements, awards, publications, or other information that can further promote your service.

A blog section with enticing images and practical tips should encourage visitors to explore destinations and featured spots while inspiring confidence and trust.

Example of travel booking website design by Onix – TravelTail

More or less sophisticated, these features can be found in many travel websites. To make your platform more competitive, you must invest in personalization and innovation, such as artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and big data.

Learn more : The Tech Advantage: Trends Reshaping Hospitality and Guest Engagement

For example, Onix implemented advanced ML algorithms and geospatial intelligence in the hotel booking engine as part of a modernization strategy for the same Japanese client. Some of the results are: 

• The integration with mapping technologies allows curating hotel suggestions that resonate with each location’s unique atmosphere.
• Going beyond conventional search parameters, the booking engine allows travelers to explore hotels based on their proximity to railway stations .
• The system dynamically profiles users based on user-hotel interactions, constantly learning and adapting to individual preferences. This intelligent profiling ensures that recommendations evolve with the user.
• Dynamic pricing algorithms factor in seasonal variations, special events, and booking lead times to give users real-time pricing information. This approach empowers travelers to make well-informed decisions and save money during peak seasons or promotional periods.

Onix’s AI/ML team has a track record of building solutions that can promote personalization, such as:

• image classification
• language identification
• news categorization
• social media content analysis
• social media sentiment analysis
• conversational engines based on natural language processing and deep learning
• image denoising in info-communication systems
• product type and style recognition
• face recognition and manipulations
• crowd video analysis and behavior pattern recognition
• mapping and geographic information systems

According to the 2022 report “Hospitality in 2025: Automated, Intelligent… and More Personal” by Oracle and Skift, over 30% of travelers would be interested in virtually exploring a hotel before making a reservation.

Many hotels’ websites already include virtual reality (VR) tours, and almost half of hoteliers said they were creating or would create VR maps of their properties to enable such tours.

An innovative booking website can provide 360-degree photos and videos of hotel rooms, restaurants, SPA facilities, etc., 3D models of the buildings, and similar content that travelers can access even without a VR headset. 

Learn more : AR and VR Business Opportunities in the Travel Industry

Moreover, it’s possible to offer a VR-based booking tool: travelers would explore accommodations, access the details, such as prices and availability, retrieved dynamically from the hotel’s content management system (CMS), and make reservations right in virtual reality. (Similar solutions can be used for cruise and air ticket booking, such as a system once developed by Onix-Systems.) 

Back-office website features

Back-office may include or be integrated with: 

• Content management system (CMS) for uploading and managing the website’s content
• An inventory management system, such as a hotel property management system (PMS) or interface where owners can list their properties
• Bookings management dashboard
• Customer relationship management system (CRM)
• Consumer loyalty program management
• Customer support
• Customer feedback and behavior data collection and analysis, and more

Learn more : How to Develop an App Like Airbnb? [Complete Guide]

Again, if you want to make your hotel booking service more efficient and competitive, you need to implement automation solutions. For example, so did misterb&b , aiming primarily to free up the customer support team and mitigate risks. Some of the automation solutions implemented by Onix include: 

• Identity verification

Integration with Shufti Pro enables seamless automatic validation of the authenticity and ownership of identification documents.

• Fraud detection

Onix’s specialists developed a sophisticated system to identify and flag suspicious financial activities in real time, including fraudulent credit card transactions, theft, cyber hacking, and dubious messages, safeguarding users’ finances.

• Image moderation

To prevent uploading inappropriate profile pictures or property photos facilitating off-platform arrangements, misterb&b utilizes Sightengine integration for automatic identification and removal of such content.

• Automated translation

Accommodation descriptions and other texts are translated automatically.

A semi-automated payment system expedites and streamlines payment processing to hosts, significantly reducing processing times.

• Tax collection

Misterb&b automates tax collection and facilitates automatic tax returns for hosts, ensuring compliance with regulatory requirements.

Various validators are employed to minimize human errors, further enhancing operational efficiency and accuracy.

Here are the basic steps entrepreneurs need to take to create a travel booking website:

1) Assemble a product development team

2) Conduct market and customer research

3) Select your travel booking website features

4) Design the website

5) Have the website programmed, tested, and launched

Let’s delve into the details.

Step 1. Organize the development team.

A skeleton team required to build travel booking websites should include:

• a front-end programmer
• a back-end programmer
• a specialist in user interface and user experience design ( UI/UX designer ) 
• a quality assurance (QA) engineer
• a DevOps engineer  
• a project manager (PM) 

You may have this team before or after the research and planning stages (steps 2 and 3). We recommend the first scenario because it offers valuable benefits.

Your travel or hospitality company may be already relying on in-house IT experts for tasks like developing and maintaining your hotel PMS, ERP systems, and other essential infrastructure. However, committing to a new project can strain your IT team, potentially impacting their efficiency and the smooth operation of existing systems.

Additionally, while skilled in their respective domains, your in-house team may lack expertise in developing online booking services .

Considering these hurdles, there are three primary options, each with its pros and cons and implications for your budget:

1) Recruiting local talent to form a new in-house development team offers maximum control over the development process and outcomes but demands significant effort, commitment, and investment.

2) Hiring individual freelancers grants access to a global talent pool and can substantially reduce project costs. However, this approach may introduce organizational, control, and reliability challenges.

3) Outsourcing the project involves delegating your online booking system development to a software development agency or hiring remote developers from such an agency. This option combines the advantages of in-house development with substantial time and cost savings.

Learn more : 2024 Guide to Software Development Outsourcing

If you choose to outsource, several factors warrant consideration: candidates' time zone and English proficiency , portfolio , client reviews , and, critically, niche experience within the travel or hospitality industry.

For instance, Onix’s case studies for misterb&b or TravelBid prove that our designers and developers know how to create hotel booking websites. 

Example of travel services platform designed and built by Onix-Systems – TravelBid

Step 2. Conduct the necessary research and ideation.

Firstly, you need to decide on the type of travel booking website you need:

1) Brand or white-label application for airlines, hotel chains, car rental services, cruise or tour operators, or another type of travel business.

2) Online travel agency (OTA) facilitating bookings from multiple travel and hospitality businesses, such as Agoda, Booking.com, and Trip.com. 

3) Aggregator, or meta-search engine, which doesn’t handle reservations directly but compares prices across OTAs and travel business sites. Examples include Kayak.com, Skyscanner.com, TripAdvisor, and Trivago. 

If you want to create a hotel booking website like Booking.com and the like, you should understand that you should both emulate these platforms and compete with them eventually.

A brand online booking app is most reasonable when a service provider is big enough, but direct bookings can also mean sales at higher rates for smaller businesses. A quality website increases brand awareness, creates new customer streams, and helps maintain customer loyalty.

A hybrid booking web app can aggregate offers from top online booking services and simultaneously offer travel products from your business(es). This will attract many users and earn additional income while increasing your brand awareness.

Another critical question involves the market. A family-owned hotel or local tour operator may start by targeting local audiences and, if successful, shift to the hybrid business model and expand their reach. Otherwise, covering as many cities and countries as possible may be better.

According to Research and Markets’ 2023 report , the Chinese market may be the most lucrative due to the burgeoning middle class fueling both domestic and international travel growth, rapidly growing internet and mobile penetration coupled with a tech-savvy population, and government initiatives and investments in infrastructure.

When selecting markets to target, it’s helpful to consider factors that can drive online travel sales, such as:

• the demand for online accommodation booking in the country (it’s most popular among the younger generation) 
• the demand for personalized travel experiences, luxurious accommodations, and digital innovations
• the targeted consumers’ disposable income (it must be growing)
• the availability of low-cost airline services or growing low-cost airline industry
• the popularity of online payments and the number of reliable online payment options available in the country
• the popularity of couple-oriented package vacations, weekend culture, and group travel, especially among younger professionals
• the hosting of sporting events by the cities or countries you plan to target
• influence of social media on exploring new destinations
• increasing Internet adoption and mobile phone usage

 … and even growing urbanization.

The online travel market is saturated with booking solutions, and replicating existing services is pointless. You have to offer customers something one-of-a-kind and develop your unique value proposition (UVP).

Research your would-be competitors in the identified market, focusing on the top performers. Explore the websites’ features, user flows, business models, and marketing strategies, study user reviews, and evaluate each rival’s pros and cons. Their weaknesses may become areas of opportunity for you. Their strengths should provide you with benchmarks.

You must also study your potential customers’ needs, problems, and preferences. Learn what they dislike about existing booking tools, what they would like to find on your website, etc. Your task is to find out what the market lacks and fill that gap or “improve” an existing service. 

For example, the founder of misterb&b developed the idea of an LGBTQ-friendly accommodations booking service after a negative personal experience with an Airbnb host and other LGBTQ guests’ complaints of discrimination. Currently, misterb&b is considered the largest “gay hotelier.”

Similarly, a group of pet owners came up with the idea of the ultimate pet-friendly travel platform. With the help of Onix’s designers, they built TravelTail to enable fellow pet owners to enjoy hotels, vacation rentals, resorts, restaurants, and activities across Nordic countries and eventually worldwide together with their companions.

Since TravelTail prioritizes the pets’ well-being, in addition to the traditional (but in this case, pet-friendly) accommodations, they curated a pet care services directory including veterinary clinics and grooming salons.

“We envision TravelTail as a game-changer, reshaping the landscape of pet-inclusive travel. The website not only offers practical solutions but also fosters a community of pet-loving travelers who share their experiences and recommendations.”

TravelTail – Travel services platform designed by Onix-Systems

NB . Including a domain expert or someone who can provide an “end-user’s POV” in the product development team may be helpful. For instance, if you plan to facilitate religious tourism, you will benefit from adherents’ insights. If you intend your website as a business-to-business (or B2B) travel agent, you need someone familiar with the intricacies and challenges of corporate travel on board.

Step 3. Select the website features and formulate the product requirements.

Approximate cost at Onix-Systems: $1,400-$2,800 . (The numbers here and below are rough estimates since the costs largely depend on each client’s requirements.)

The research conducted at Step 2 will help you select the functionalities and features of your travel booking app and plan the business model and monetization strategy for it. Your goal is to figure out how to leverage the competitors’ benefits, omit their shortcomings, and fill the gaps.

It’s safer and more cost-effective to start with a minimum viable product (MVP): a functional booking system with the bare minimum of features, to which you may add features, bells, and whistles after getting the first customers’ feedback. 

List the primary and additional features of your booking website that align with your UVP. For example, TravelTail’s key features include:

• Search and booking of vetted hotels, accommodations, and unique lodging options ensuring a welcoming stay for both the travelers and their pets
• Ability to explore local pet-welcoming eateries, activities, and pet care services with helpful ratings, reviews, and enticing visuals

The more urgent the travelers’ problem or the greater the expected impact on the bottom line, the higher the feature should be on the list. Entrepreneurs usually start with something that existing solutions lack.

Learn more : How to Prioritize Features for an MVP  

Smartphones and tablets are poised to dominate the online travel industry, so a mobile app may be a helpful addition to your web platform.

Describing the future travel booking system’s features, you need to define the role-based groups (e.g., travelers, hosts, administrators, and support) and roles, describe their prospective interactions with the booking engine and with each other, and specify each user’s levels of access to each functionality and type of data. You also need to describe the user flow and user stories.

You should also consider possible legal and security concerns that may affect your travel booking system design. 

A project requirements document must comprise all of the above and other details you may wish to include.

If you don’t have the time or expertise for such writing, you may delegate it to professional software developers. A web design and development agency can help you with market and competitor research, selecting the necessary functionalities and technology stack, requirements documentation, creation of wireframes, and validating your ideas .

For instance, Onix-Systems provides software product discovery services to help clients bridge the gap between their vision and its technical execution.

Step 4. Design your travel booking website.

Approximate cost at Onix-Systems: $8,750-$10,500.

This step encompasses the development of

• low-fidelity wireframes
• high-fidelity mockups
• interactive prototypes

The designers can make the necessary changes and repeat each step until you are satisfied. After the user experience (UX) is finalized, the designers will create your travel booking application's user interfaces (UI), including page layouts, color scheme, style, icons, and other visual elements.

The best practices of e-commerce UI/UX design generally apply when you design your travel booking website .

You can find more information on how to make a hotel booking website intuitive and efficient further in this article.

Branding, which is developed simultaneously, must distinguish your travel platform from the competition. It takes a skillful and experienced designer. For example, Onix has a team of designers that create travel booking website and mobile app interfaces and branding for tourism businesses .

NB . At least at this stage, you need to pick a name by which your customers will recognize your service. It must be unique, brandable, easy to remember, and concise, as it will also be your domain name.

For example, TravelTail’s name uses a pun (“travel tales”) celebrating the connections forged during travels with tailed friends. The name of the tourism booking system also inspired a logo that encapsulates the shared joy of travel and freedom.

A logo is the essential component of any travel business’s brand. For TravelBid , Onix’s designer created many logo concepts, playing around with the idea of flights, planes, and birds. They presented each concept to the client on the home page layout and with different backgrounds.

Finally, the client chose a combination of a stylized plane and the initial “t” as the most suitable for their business and the platform’s style.

Example of branding design for a travel service booking company by Onix-Systems

The last iteration of your travel website design turns the selected features into clickable, interactive screens that look almost identical to a real-life product. You can give the prototype to users to quickly collect real-time feedback and validate your concept or conduct A/B testing.

Step 5. Have the travel booking website built and tested.

Approximate cost at Onix-Systems: $20,000-$27,300.

The database development starts with creating a database diagram that includes several tables. The first should contain the resources to book, such as flights when you build a flight booking website. The second table should determine the dimension used to book the resources. Usually, it’s a calendar.

Complex scheduling, e.g., air ticket booking, hotel reservation, and car rental at the customers’ chosen destinations, requires pulling information from multiple tables. 

Dummy information is necessary for testing the database system as your team builds it.

The team should test the database, web pages, and middleware deployment with various booking options. Booking databases usually begin with simple structures and gradually expand to deal with more complex needs. The database and middleware systems should be scalable to handle growing booking requirements.

Popular payment gateways like Stripe and PayPal are essential for any travel booking site. 

User accounts may contain sensitive user data, and booking web apps can be vulnerable. Secure authentication, authorization, data safety, and session management should be addressed early. Specialists should scan the source code regularly to spot vulnerabilities.

Penetration tests help diagnose how secure the servers are and check network weaknesses. Specialists should use containerization and encrypt database and virtual private network (VPN) and transport layer security (TLS) connections.

1. Online booking services use specific design patterns to which users got used over many years. For instance, they expect to see the search bar and some filters at once on the landing page, the ability to view accommodations on a map, and so on.

Designers shouldn’t invent the wheel, or they may confuse visitors otherwise. Instead, a traditional user flow and layouts will help users feel confident and find what they want quickly.

Learn more : How to Design a Travel Booking Platform

2. Clarity, consistency, and simplicity enhance the usability of the travel booking application's back- and front-office interfaces.

3. The essential features must be arranged to make the booking process as straightforward, intuitive, and smooth as possible. Here you can see how Onix’s design team crafted a welcoming, visually appealing, and user-friendly interface for TravelTail ensuring enjoyable browsing and seamless booking experience.

4. Vibrant imagery and vivid copy are a must. However, visual elements must be selected not only for their aesthetic appeal but also for their intuitive communication ability. For example, three gradients in TravelBid were designed to help users quickly understand that the site offers three services: lodgings booking, car rentals, and transfers.

5. Each element of your booking website or mobile app must communicate your brand’s story and values through color, shape, and other design elements. For instance, TravelBid’s main gradient includes orange hues associated with the sun, beach cocktails, and fruit, and thus vacations and fun. 

6. Your service’s interfaces must be well-adapted to phones, phablets, and tablets.

Onix’s designers know how to make hotel booking websites responsive

After the booking website launch, you should analyze and interpret users’ behavior to measure design efficiency and implement solutions that improve customer experiences and drive revenue and business growth. You should keep up with industry trends but always prioritize customer satisfaction and your business goals.

The technology stack is a set of programming languages, frameworks, libraries, software tools, integrations, database, and the server necessary for travel booking website development. The choice of technology depends on your business goals and the required functionalities.

Companies have several options for a ready-made booking system integration . The choice depends mainly on a website’s content management system (CMS) and budget.

For example, WordPress may be recommended for those who start a travel booking website for their business with a minimum budget. The popular open-source CMS system facilitates the creation of professional and functional websites without extensive coding knowledge.

Many free plugins and themes can ensure a beautiful overall appearance of your website. WordPress offers complete control over creating and customizing your web pages, files, and resources. Moreover, the CMS is free.

Those who want a unique product tailored to their company’s and customers’ specific needs may choose to create a travel booking website from scratch. 

It’s possible to build travel booking websites using a variety of technologies:

• Front-end programming languages : JavaScript, HTML5, CSS3, TypeScript
• Front-end frameworks : Angular, React.js, Vue, Apollo, NextJS, JSF, Rebass, Jest, Kendo
• Back-end programming languages : PHP, Node.js, Java , Ruby, Python , C#
• Back-end frameworks : Ruby on Rails , Spring, ActiveAdmin, Hibernate, Laravel, CakePHP, Django, Node.js, Meteor.js, Flask, Express.js, .NET, ASP.NET, Micronaut, gRPC, RxJava, CloudCMS
• Cloud storage : Amazon S3, Google Cloud Storage, Azure Storage
• Cloud hosting : Azure, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud Platform (GCP), Heroku
• Automation frameworks : RSpec, Capybara, PhantomJS, Selenium
• SQL data storage : PostgreSQL, MySQL, Oracle, SQL server
• Key-value/data storage : Redis, Memcached
• Web server : Nginx, Apache
• Cloud-native platforms : MongoDB, AWS DynamoDB
• Global payment s : PayPal, Braintree, Stripe, Adyen
• CMS : Drupal, Joomla, Magento, Shopify , Webflow , WordPress  
• Messaging and communication : Twilio , Vero, MailChimp, SendGrid, Intercom
• Other integrations : New Relic, Sentry.io, Skylight

Read more : Key Advantages of Using Ruby on Rails for Web Development

For instance, TravelBid’s tech stack included:

• Vue.js and Node.js for the platform's front-end and back-end applications, respectively;
• some JavaScript libraries were integrated into Vue.js to build a mobile-friendly front-end;
• the client's AWS account to set up the server infrastructure on;
• socket.io for real-time messaging;
• Stripe and PayPal for online payments.

If you intend to enrich your customer experience with native mobile apps , you will need to hire Kotlin and Swift programmers. A cross-platform mobile app can be made using Flutter or React Native .

You can estimate the cost of travel booking site development by multiplying the time required to deliver the features listed above by the man/hour cost.

However, even these variables depend on multiple factors:

• the technical complexity of your travel booking website features
• app architecture solutions
• integration of licensed APIs and third-party services
• the number of specialists on the development team
• their salaries or hourly rates
• their location and qualification 
• the type of contract with the developers…

Here’s a breakdown of a mid-range travel booking website development, based on TravelBid.

If you need a mobile version of your travel booking service, the development time may grow by 50-60%.

The salaries of specialists who build travel booking websites are another major factor. The gap between fees charged by IT professionals worldwide often enables entrepreneurs to save half of their planned budget without compromising quality.

Source: Accelerance

However, choosing a dev team based solely on the lowest pricing or budget estimation would be a mistake. You need a partner who knows exactly how to build a hotel booking website or another system your business requires.

For instance, Onix’s average software developer’s rate of $35/hour leaves you with the minimum price tag of $30,000 for a website like TravelBid . This is an approximate number, so it’s best to contact our representatives to discuss your project specifics and get a more accurate quote.

You also need to know how to make online hotel booking website profitable.

Most travel booking websites use agency, merchant, or advertising models.

Onix’s partner misterb&b is an example of an agency business model. The platform is a middleman between hospitality service providers and consumers and takes a commission on every transaction.

This model can be risky for a new booking application. It may be better to start with a lower commission, gain the trust of travel businesses and consumers, and only then consider charging up to 25% as a commission.

Read also : How much does it cost to start a travel agency business?

The company buys flights, hotel rooms, or other services in bulk at a wholesale rate and sells them with a retail margin on its platform. The bookings are made on the website or in the mobile app. 

Expedia operates on the merchant business model.

OTAs often combine the merchant and agency models for broader market coverage. 

It may be a good idea to offer paying users extra functionalities, special offers, discounts, and lower prices. A travel website may also charge users a fixed fee for booking services or other service providers for some of the platform’s extra features. Free premium access for the first few months will attract users and gain their trust and loyalty.

Advertising

Booking apps can charge fees for placing banner ads about special offers, ongoing events, discounts, etc., or for redirecting visitors to partner airlines, hotel websites, and other service providers and OTAs. This model can be suitable for an aggregator or a new travel application.

For instance, TripAdvisor displays advertisements and is paid per click on the link leading to the advertiser’s website. 

There are other possible ways to monetize your travel application. For example, a booking web app can enter affiliate programs with major search engines and OTAs by integrating their APIs . This expands their services and brings in additional income via commissions on the sales. 

For a travel and hospitality business, travel booking systems ensure the accessibility of real-time information to a company’s employees and customers.

When a traveler books a hotel room or airplane ticket directly from the company’s website, OTA, aggregator site, on the phone, or in the company’s office, the data will be instantly updated in the booking engine and all distribution channels.

This essentially eliminates the risk of overbooking and information loss. Booking process automation reduces the workload, errors, time, and costs associated with manual data entry.

Modern tourism booking systems enable travelers to find desired services and compare various options quickly. A convenient booking process reduces a customer’s path to their purchase. Since more leads can simultaneously interact with the system than with a human agent and do so 24/7, more reservations can be made, increasing sales.

Online reservation systems also collect immense volumes of customer data, analyzing which companies can create more effective marketing strategies and tailored offers. Smoother personalized customer experiences will drive repeat business.

Tech entrepreneurs who create travel booking websites as a service can reap the benefits of an online marketplace. An online hotel booking system can bring together a tremendous variety of consumers and service providers and unlock rich revenue streams for tech entrepreneurs, such as fees, commissions, subscriptions, affiliate programs, app as a platform model, and ads. 

Regardless of your service type and the number of your ticket, tour, or hotel booking website features, both the back-office software and customer interface should be intuitive and user-friendly. The visual design should entice visitors to book while inspiring confidence and trust. 

As a hospitality software development company , we have a deep experience in developing such solutions. If you need help with implementing your idea or are wondering how to create a travel booking website for your unique business — please feel free to ask Onix !

How to create a hotel booking website or a similar system?

The steps to building an online travel booking software are as follows: 

1. Conduct market, consumer, and competitor research.

2. Figure out your monetization strategy.

3. Prioritize the travel booking platform features and formulate the software product requirements .

4. Design, build, and test your travel booking website.

To avoid problems and save time and money, we recommend contacting experienced travel and hospitality software developers as early as possible in the project.

Is there a difference in the development of a travel booking website and a mobile app?

The technologies and tools used in the development of solutions for different platforms will differ, but the steps to the software development process are the same.

How long does it take to build an online booking system for a travel business?

You will need 3 to 6 months to create a functioning version of a travel booking website.

What you should know before starting building a booking system?

• Market conditions
• Competition
• Target audience
• Type and key functionalities of the travel booking system
• Applicable legal requirements and security-related regulations
• Revenue generation strategy for the booking website
• Approximate cost of building a travel booking platform

Should I create my own booking system or outsource it to a software development company?

The choice depends on your budget, time constraints, technical experience, and product requirements. In-house development requires a significant investment of time, money, and resources.

Your project team must possess the technical skills, experience, and understanding of the technical requirements and industry standards for travel booking website development and design.

Outsourcing the job to a software development company can be more convenient and cost-efficient, especially if you lack the necessary expertise in-house.

A reputable agency can provide a team of experienced designers and developers who know how to create travel booking websites, build a custom reservation system to your specifications, and provide ongoing support and maintenance afterward to ensure your service remains up-to-date and functioning correctly.

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How to Create a Travel Website Free with WordPress?

Home » Blog » How to Create a Travel Website Free with WordPress?

So, are you looking forward to creating a travel website free with WordPress for your online travel business?

Well, you can create a travel and tour booking website within minutes, without any hassle of coding and hiring highly paid developers for free with WP Travel.

• How to Create a Travel Website Free with WordPress? (Video Tutorial)

However, to access all the premium features to create a travel booking website, you can get WP Travel Pro to reap all the benefits of the premium plan. Explore: Compare WP Travel Free vs WP Travel Pro

Well, downloading and installing the WP Travel Plugin has been made easier by the below tutorial with easy steps.

A vacation with a perfect plan can bring peace and relaxation to the mind. Now, it has become almost a basic need for everyone with the increase in working pressure.

For most of the customers, a vacation plan starts in front of their computer by seeing online trip packages and purchasing them in the end.

So, creating a perfect travel booking site is important if you are planning to start your own travel tourism business.

In this article, you will also get to know what you should include for creating a travel booking site like Booking.com, TripAdvisor, or Airbnb.

Also, what are the steps to create a travel agency website that not only brings success to your business!

But also creates a great traveling experience in your customer’s minds that you can even imagine.

If you favor written guidance to create a travel booking website, then please continue reading. Without further ado, let us jump right into this topic so that you can start right away:

Table of contents

Step 1: select the best suitable platform for your website, step 2: get your domain name, step 3: choose the best web-hosting service, step 4: install a suitable theme for your website, step 5: add functionality by installing plugins, step 6: combine booking and payment, payment options for your travel site, key features of wp travel for your travel booking website, 1: your company’s story should be presented, 2: showcase your company’s trip packages, 3: provide online booking and reservation facilities, 4: provide an online payment facility, 5: include your company’s information on your site, 6.include customer feedback, steps to make a travel website with wordpress free.

If you want to create a travel booking site free with WordPress like Airbnb then you can create a website right away.

It is similar for both if you want to create a small travel business or want to operate an international travel site like Airbnb.

The steps to create a travel booking site are:

Suitable platform selection for your site is one of the most important tasks.  WordPress.org  will be a great CMS(Content Management System) choice for you.

If you want to make your self-hosted website then you need to go for WordPress.org. You can use this for free.

It is free but It provides unlimited features that hardly any premium paid content management system can provide you.

WordPress.org is the number one most popular content management system now.

WordPress.org can provide you with various unique features that no other platform can provide.

WordPress is the number one most used content management system now and its users continuously increasing unbelievably.

WordPress.org is 100% user-friendly that’s why you don’t need to worry about it if you are a beginner.

Why should you create travel booking site using WordPress(2024)?

👇Do you know?

39% of all websites on the web are running with WordPress.

Why choose WordPress as your Website Platform

• No need to waste money by hiring a developer for your site. It can save you money and energy as it is beginner-friendly.
• Don’t need to be an IT engineer to make your travel booking site. As you will need no or little coding knowledge to use it.
• Control your data and will provide you with security with lots of WordPress security plugins.
• Easily create your travel booking site with outstanding features like On-Page Booking , Travel Guide, etc. through WP Travel WordPress plugins and these plugins will help you to add functionality to your site without having any coding knowledge. like for security you have to install security plugins, for adding widgets you can install widget plugins.
• You can change the appearance of your site by creating a travel booking site with WordPress themes. These themes are free to use.
• It will make your site mobile-responsive and SEO-friendly. Your site optimizes according to the screen size of your users.
• WordPress will provide you with free translation and easy management facility of your data.
• It will help you if you face any difficulty.
• You will have full access to your data and files. It provides access that even a paid content management system can’t provide.
• WordPress.org provides unlimited hosting storage to its clients.

WordPress comes with WordPress.org and WordPress.com. WordPress.org is free for its users. WordPress.com is the paid version.

But it will be wiser to use their unpaid version. WordPress.org is more accessible and featureful than a paid one.

If you get confused about which one you should use, then you can check  the difference between WordPress.org and WordPress.com.

For these facilities, you should choose WordPress over any other platform. If you make a travel website using HTML, then travel website development will be more difficult.

Other platforms can save you money initially.

But it can never provide you with the facilities as WordPress.

In this step, you need to select your domain name. A perfect domain name will help you to gain success in your business. It is preferable to keep your domain name in the name of the company name.

If you haven’t started your company yet then choosing a good company name that will resemble your business will be essential.

If you want to create a travel booking site with a WordPress domain, then you need to select a perfect domain name for your site.

A great company name will lead you to a great domain name. While choosing a company name you should keep in mind that:

It should be short and easy to remember

You need to avoid long and hard names. Because it will create difficulty during use and memorization. People always avoid hard and long names.

Keeping your company’s name short and easy will help you to increase your customer.

Day by day people are getting busier in their professional and personal life that’s why they always want everything in less time.

So, make your company’s name short and specific so that your customers can get to you in less time and effort.

Your company’s name should resemble your business

Keep your company’s name similar to the product or service you provide. By doing this your company name helps your customer to know what service you provide.

If you keep a completely different domain name then it will be hard for your clients to get an idea of what service you provide.

You need to keep a domain name so that your clients can easily find out the service you provide.

Don’t include hyphens and numbers in your company name

Always avoid hyphens and numbers because it will create confusion among your customers. People will always get confused by this.

If your customer forgets or gets confused by your domain name then they can’t reach you and buy service from you. That’s why it will not be wise to use hyphens and numbers in your company’s name.

Remember: A great company name can help you to grow your business.

Learn more : How to Choose the Best Domain Name? (10 Factors)

You need to get a hosting service from a good hosting company after selecting your domain name. there are many hosting companies like  Bluehost ,  Hostgator ,  Hostinger , etc.

From them, you can purchase your self-hosting service.

It means that you can have full control over your website. Can customize your website the way you like.

You can install your WordPress with only one click after that it will automatically get installed.

Learn more: How to Choose the Best Web Hosting Service? (10 Factors)

Your website appearance will be the very first impression to your visitors. So, it needs to be more appealing to your visitors. You can change your travel booking site’s appearance with these themes.

WordPress will provide you the default theme with the installation but it will not be that appealing to your visitors.

If you want to create a travel booking site with a WordPress theme then, you need to install and activate a suitable theme for your site.

Before selecting a theme you need to keep one thing in mind your theme should suit your business.

For installing the theme go to your admin dashboard. Then go to appearance>> themes.

After that click the add new. Then search for the theme that you want to install and activate it.

We are installing  Travel Ultimate  Theme to create a travel booking site with WordPress. By using the Travel Ultimate theme you can change the appearance of your site completely.

It’s a new theme but it can provide excellent service to its user. This continuously upgrades according to its user demand.

Right now its active installation is 1000+. It is a great result for a newly launched theme.

After installing activate it.

15+ Best WordPress Travel Themes(Find Your Perfect Match?)

You might be interested : 25+ Best Travel Agency WordPress Travel Themes

You can create a travel booking website with WordPress plugins that can help you to add functionality to your site without applying difficult coding.

It will make your website more powerful by adding lots of useful plugins.

You can install the  WP Travel plugin  to add lots of features that a travel booking company needs which acts as a travel agency website builder.

By installing WP Travel, you can add lots of travel and tour packages to your travel booking site. It also helps you to add trips, duration of trips, and cost of trips on your site.

you can add discounts to your site with this plugin.

It will provide you with all the features that you will need for your site. You can also install Best WordPress travel booking themes for customizing your travel booking site’s appearance and design.

Travel Ultimate will recommend some plugins for your site. Click the Begin installing plugin option.

Select install in the bulk action then click apply. Then activate this plugin.

After installing and activating the theme and plugins your site will look like this.

After that, you need to customize your site. For that click customize your site.

What’s Next?

After that, you need to customize all the following area according to your desire:

• Site identity (adding logo, pages, page name)
• Adding colors
• header Image
• Background image
• Homepage settings
• Theme options
• Reset all setting
• Additional CSS

After customizing all these areas your site will look like this.

To change the functionality of your site or plugin you need to edit the following sections:

• Trip extras
• Custom filters

You have to customize the general setting by making required changes in currency, Maps, and pages. Then press the save setting button.

Adding Trips to your site

• All trips: In this option, your customers can see all trips that you uploaded.
• New trips: You can add new trips with this option.
• Pricing categories: You can add different prices for different trip categories.
• Trips types; You can add types of trips with this option.
• Destinations: It will allow you to add destinations. On the right side of your site, you can see the newly added destination.
• Keywords: Allow you to add keywords.
• Activities: You can add new activities through this option.

For more details check out this WP Travel Documentation and WP Travel Youtube Tutorials

By installing plugins like WP Travel, you can combine booking and booking payments on your site. A booking becomes easier and safer with the help of PayPal and other payments that WP Travel provides.

Reasons to choose WP Travel for a travel booking site

WP Travel is the best travel booking WordPress and tour management engine which comes in the free version and Pro version. Such that, you can easily start a travel booking website instantly within minutes.

Within a short period, WP Travel has achieved these remarkable results by providing outstanding services to its users.

WP Travel has been helping 6000+ travel business owners to craft their travel booking websites such that, it has received 4.7/5 ratings from the WordPress plugin repository.

WP Travel provides lots of attractive themes and powerful plugins for their users. For their themes, you can check  best WordPress travel themes for your site.

You can explore detailed WP Travel plugin reviews , including overviews, pros and cons, plans and pricing, compatibility, and performance tests simultaneously.

With WP Travel you can add lots of payment systems for different countries to your travel booking site. This payment online payment system will ease your client’s work.

You can add the following payment modules to your site:

• For international transactions, you can use their WP Paypal Express Checkout, Stripe Checkout, Authorize checkout.
• Payment in India you can use their Instamojo Checkout, Razorpay Checkout.
• Payhere Checkout can be used for Sri Lanka.
• For South Africa Payfast checkout.
• Countries like Columbia, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Panama, and Peru PayU Latam can be used.
• and many more can be added.

Through these payment systems, your customers can pay their booking bills online. That will make their traveling easy and comfortable. Check out: Payment gateways for travel booking site available in WP Travel

• You can add unlimited trip packages with their prices, sale prices, duration, gallery, and many more.
• Booking your client’s desired tour package will be easier. Your clients can easily book your packages if you use WP plugins.
• Your clients can easily pay for the package that they want to book. Payment will be easier in different countries by using their payment systems.
• Different dates and prices can be added for one trip.
• You can even add tax to the package prices according to your company policy.
• Clients of yours can rate your service and add their reviews if you allow them to. Reviews in a travel booking site can gain the trust of new customers. When a customer visits a travel booking site he/she first searches for reviews before booking any package.
• For each trip, you can add a Google map. Through it, your clients can easily find the location of their trip.
• You can even add coupons with your trips and many other features can be added with wp plugins.

Why Choose WP Travel for Travel Booking Website in 2024?

Their plugins are easy to customize and you can get full support from their service team if you face any problems

What should you include on the Travel Booking Site?

It can vary from company to company. The including information in your travel booking site will be different according to the type of your site.

It will be different if you want to create a small travel booking site rather than creating an international travel agency.

So, the points listed will effectively help you understand How to Create a Travel Website Free with WordPress.

To build a travel website where your customers can easily find their desired packages in less time and with less effort, you need to include information on your site in the right way.

The basic features of creating a travel agency for both small travel sites and international travel agencies are more or less similar.

You need to include some essential information if want to make any kind of travel booking site.

There are some important features that every travel booking company’s website must include:

Your company’s story keeps the first impression on your customers. It influences them to buy your package.

In your company’s story, you need to include the reasons for the existence of your company. Tell your customers why you are doing this business and how you came here.

Tell them a real story other than making a fancy story. A real story can make a powerful impact on someone’s mind than a fancy story. Your clients want to learn the real cause from you.

If your visitors like your story, then they go for a further purchasing process. That’s why you should present your story in the right way that will influence your customers to buy packages from you.

After presenting your story, you need to provide tour packages to your customers. Your customers will never buy your package until they like your package.

You have to tell your customers why you are different from other travel booking sites. What advantages you are giving to your clients that other sites have failed to give?

The visitors to your site will not buy your packages if you don’t offer them something different from others.

So, you should offer attractive tour packages to beat your competitors. Offer packages that your clients are looking for.

After presenting your packages on your site, you need to facilitate your customers through online booking and reservation.

This online booking facility not only increases your customers but also makes them lifetime customers who want to receive your service after having one great travel experience.

Now, people are more likely to do everything online. If you don’t include this facility on your site, your business will never see the light of success.

You need to include the facility to learn your tour packages online, then book and reserve the packages they like.

Learn more : The beginner’s guide to starting a profitable travel agency from scratch

Include an online payment system on your website because now maximum purchases are done through an online payment. This makes the work of customers easier.

Your customer will never book any package until you provide online payment facilities. As they provide different payment facilities for different countries that will make your clients traveling experience more comfortable and joyful.

You need to include your contact number and map so that customers can contact you if they face any kind of problem during or after purchasing your packages.

If your customer doesn’t get any information about where you are providing your services. Then it will be hard for your customers to believe you as they won’t get any help if they face any kind of problem.

So, it’s important to include your contact number and map to your travel booking site. Present your company’s information in a way that your customers can easily find your company’s information on your travel site.

Feedback is something that is important for any kind of business whether you are running a food business or a travel agency business.

It can bring trust in your client’s mind. You should present feedback from your customers in a way that will be more appealing to your customers.

every customer checks feedback before purchasing any product or package. It creates a huge influence on your customers.

Positive feedback can increase your customers in a way that you can never imagine. So, try to highlight the feedback of your customers in an attractive way.

By including all these functions on your site, you can create a travel booking site with WordPress like Airbnb.

Congratulations! Now, you know how to create a travel website free with WordPress.

Don’t be afraid if you face difficulties with your site. It is normal to face hindrances when you will do something for the first time.

And let us know in the comment section if you fail to do anything.

Also, if you liked this article, subscribing to our  YouTube Channel  for WordPress video tutorials would be the cherry on top.

You can also find us on  Facebook ,  Instagram, Linkedin , TikTok , Pinterest , Reddit , and our dedicated engaging Facebook user community , for you everyone.

Further, if you have any queries, please submit them to our  Contact page .

Get  WP Travel Pro  and start creating your travel and tour booking website within minutes without any hassle of coding.

Yam Bahadur Chhetri is a content writer and vivid contributor to the WordPress community and a WordPress enthusiast with an experience of 7+ years in the relative field. He also loves to develop WordPress Themes, Plugins, and custom WordPress development for clients.

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The Tricky Math Behind Booking Trips on a Credit-Card Company’s Travel Site

C hase, American Express and Capital One tout their travel-booking tools for cardholders as a way to maximize rewards and make dream vacations a reality. But are those sites a good deal?

The answer, travelers find, can take some math.

Travelers say differences in price make it tough to determine the best deal. And some grouse that they’re already paying steep annual fees for certain cards.

Will Biesel, a Dallas attorney, pays $550 for his Chase Sapphire Reserve card and says he has found high prices on Chase’s travel portal, such as a $456 American Airlines round-trip to North Carolina that the airline was offering for nearly $100 less. Another trip, on Southwest, cost 65% more on the portal than from the carrier directly, Biesel says.

Credit-card companies’ booking tools often turn up higher fares and room rates than travelers might find on airlines’ and hotels’ own sites, fliers say. Part of the reason is the desire of airlines and hotels to get more travelers booking directly, rather than via third parties such as Expedia or Chase’s travel portal.

With many trips booked for this year, Biesel had hoped to use his credit-card points to offset the travel costs. But often he felt like he wasn’t getting his rewards’ worth on the portal.

“You hope to get value out of that credit card by spending the points wisely,” says Biesel, 28 years old. “It’s harder to justify the total price if you’re not using all the perks.”

Premium credit cards such as the Chase Sapphire and American Express Platinum are geared to the jet-set crowd, and the portals are critical to their appeal. Many of these cards offer cardholders hundreds of dollars in travel credits that can be used only in their dedicated portals. They also entice people to spend their own money, versus their rewards, by offering significantly more points or miles for booking with them.

About 14% of U.S. cardholders typically went to their credit card’s travel portal to research and book trips, according to a 2022 study from the Futurist Group, a payments-industry consulting firm. Over a third of those travelers said they weren’t pleased with the experience.

“The number-one barrier to growth of these portals is the perception that the price is not necessarily the best deal,” Futurist Group founder and CEO Demitry Estrin says.

A Chase spokeswoman said in an email that the company is “committed to providing cardmembers with competitive pricing whether they’re booking with points or cash.”

Why prices vary

Credit-card companies don’t set prices for hotel rooms or plane tickets. Most don’t even operate the travel-booking features connected to their cards—major online travel agencies do. Hopper manages Capital One’s website, and Expedia powers American Express’s consumer-travel site.

Cardholders often find different prices based on where they check.

In some cases, these travelers might not be comparing apples to apples. With airfares, it’s important to check which fare class is advertised when you search. Some websites advertise basic economy—a type of fare with extra restrictions in exchange for a lower price—as the default option. Others display regular economy ticket prices.

Flight and hotel prices also fluctuate based on demand.

Not all websites update their pricing at the same time, says Cory Garner, an independent consultant who led sales and distribution strategy at American Airlines until 2020. If an airline lowers its fares from Chicago to Dallas, that change might not show up immediately for online booking sites.

Separately, airlines have started implementing new technology to distribute their seats to third parties such as online travel agencies, Garner says. That technology lets carriers offer travelers extra options to prospective buyers, including additional categories for seat selection, more easily.

As they push travel agencies and corporate-travel managers to adopt the technology, some carriers have limited which fares remain available on the old distribution systems. Those fares typically cost more, Garner says.

“Credit card travel portals who are using older distribution technology do not have the same access, despite American’s best efforts to make these fares available to them,” an American Airlines spokeswoman said in an email.

Third-party drawbacks

Hotels generally don’t reward points in their own loyalty programs and may not offer other benefits to people who booked anywhere but through the hotel itself, says Adam Morvitz, founder and CEO of point.me, a points and miles search aggregator and booking service.

And when travel snags occur, rebooking can become tougher. In many cases, airlines require travelers to hash out any problems via the site they booked on.

The Chase spokeswoman noted that the company can rebook cardmembers with multiple airline partners when service disruptions arise.

Credit-card benefits

Using a credit card’s travel site to book a vacation can sometimes provide enough advantages to outweigh potential price differences.

Joshua Gellers of Jacksonville, Fla., starts his travel research with Google Flights to get a read on prices. He then checks his credit card’s travel site, factoring in additional rewards he would earn going that route. Credit-card companies sometimes have offers that can boost the rewards rate even higher for customers.

When booking a Sydney hotel last summer, he found booking directly with the hotel was cheaper than his credit-card company’s site. But the rewards offered by the card site swayed him, since their value was greater than what he would save by cutting out the middleman.

Gellers, a professor at the University of North Florida, notes that his tactics aren’t for everyone: “Think about how much extra effort that is for the average traveler.”

Sometimes, credit cards will advertise special discounts on flights or vacation packages only for their cardholders.

Capital One Travel offers price-matching if lower prices are available at the time of booking and free price-drop protection for flights. The site monitors flight prices up to 10 days after customers book. If that itinerary’s price falls, Capital One issues a travel credit of up to $50, with some limitations.

Sign up for the WSJ Travel newsletter for more tips and insights from the Journal’s travel team.

Write to Jacob Passy at [email protected]

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Eid-ul-Fitr 2024 travel guide: 5 tips for navigating crowds and booking affordable getaways

Get ready to make the most of eid-ul-fitr 2024 with our essential travel tips, designed to help you navigate crowds and secure budget-friendly getaways..

It's that time of year again! Muslims will be celebrating Eid al-Fitr on April 10 with much fanfare and excitement after a month of fasting. Millions of people will be travelling to celebrate with friends and family, so it's important to plan ahead and shop around for the best deals to ensure a stress-free holiday . Typically, many of us will be travelling home for this joyous day (called 'mudik' in Indonesian). So, are you one of those making travel arrangements for this Eid ? Travelling during the holidays means more traffic at train stations, airports, etc. While travelling during Eid can be hectic and stressful, you can avoid the airport crowds and enjoy a hassle-free trip if you prepare in advance. (Also read: Eid-ul-Fitr 2024 travel: From Saudi Arabia to Indonesia, 7 top destinations to experience festive vibes )

Travel tips for Eid-ul-Fitr 2024

Here are some insights and recommendations to ensure a smooth and enjoyable travel experience during this festive season.

1. Book Your Accommodation in Advance

Extended Eid celebrations are often hectic and packed with activities, with hotels, resorts and other hospitality venues booking up well in advance. We recommend that you book your accommodation as far in advance as possible if you want to be sure that your family will have a place to stay when they come to visit. This will help to avoid disappointment at the hotel of your choice. Similarly, if you are planning to visit another country in the Middle East or further afield, it is essential that you make your reservations well in advance.

2. Take Care of Your Personal Belongings

The Eid holidays offer a welcome break from our daily routines, which often involve long periods away from home. If you are travelling, you may be away from home for several days. Make sure your home is safe. Remember to switch off the oven and secure doors and gates. In order to preserve electricity and avoid short circuits, be sure that certain electronic gadgets are turned off. Do you commute by public transport? No problem. But remember to keep an eye on your belongings. To make sure nothing is left behind or taken by someone else, keep an eye on what you bring with you.

3. Browse For Good Eid al-Fitr Deals

In order to spark interest and draw customers for the Eid al-Fitr holidays, a large number of eateries and lodging options in the United Arab Emirates and the larger Middle Eastern region provide alluring offers and exclusive discounts. Check out your favourite restaurants, entertainment venues and accommodation providers' websites and social media pages for exclusive offers and promotions to maximise your savings.

4. Pack Light

When you are travelling over the Eid holiday, try to pack as little as possible. In addition to saving you time and frustration, packing light can help you avoid paying extra for additional luggage and have more flexibility when on vacation.

5. Purchase Travel Insurance

Remember to consider travel insurance as an important safety precaution when organising your Eid holidays. Travel insurance provides financial security and protection against unforeseen circumstances such as lost luggage, medical problems and trip cancellation. Having travel insurance will give you added peace of mind and the assurance that you are prepared for any unforeseen events that may occur while travelling. When choosing a travel insurance policy, make sure it meets your needs and provides comprehensive coverage for your Eid holidays.

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Watch CBS News

Earthquake maps show where seismic activity shook the Northeast today

By Lucia Suarez Sang

Updated on: April 5, 2024 / 7:51 PM EDT / CBS News

Residents across the Northeast were rattled by a  4.8 magnitude earthquake that shook  the densely populated New York City metropolitan area and much of the surrounding region on Friday morning. The U.S. Geological Survey was quick to release maps showing the spot where the quake was centered, in New Jersey, and the area where it was felt.

The USGS reported the quake occurred about 7 miles north of Whitehouse Station, New Jersey. It indicated that the quake might have been felt by more than 42 million people. There were several aftershocks later in the day, including one with a magnitude of 4.0.

People in Baltimore , Philadelphia , New Jersey, Connecticut, Boston and other areas of the Northeast reported shaking. Tremors lasting for several seconds were felt over 200 miles away near the Massachusetts-New Hampshire border.

The map below shows the seismic intensity of the earthquake. The map, which is mostly a lighter shade of blue, shows that the intensity was light to weak, depending on the distance from the epicenter. 

Another map released by the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre on X, formerly Twitter, highlights the eyewitness reports of shaking and possible damage levels during the seismic event. 

#Earthquake 18 mi W of #Plainfield (New Jersey) 23 min ago (local time 10:23:20). Updated map - Colored dots represent local shaking & damage level reported by eyewitnesses. Share your experience via: 📱 https://t.co/IbUfG7TFOL 🌐 https://t.co/wErQf69jIn pic.twitter.com/jBjVw1ngAD — EMSC (@LastQuake) April 5, 2024

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and New York City Mayor Eric Adams have been briefed on the quake. 

"We're taking this extremely seriously and here's why: There's always the possibility of aftershocks. We have not felt a magnitude of this earthquake since about 2011," Hochul said. 

People across the region were startled by the rumbling of the quake. One New York City resident told CBS New York's Elijah Westbrook, "I was laying in my bed, and my whole apartment building started shaking. I started freaking out," 

It's not the first time the East Coast and New York City have been hit by an earthquake. 

A 5.0 quake was measured in New York City in 1884. 

The shaking stirred memories of the Aug. 23, 2011, earthquake that jolted tens of millions of people from Georgia to Canada. Registering magnitude 5.8, it was the strongest quake to hit the East Coast since World War II. The epicenter was in Virginia.

That earthquake left cracks in the Washington Monument, spurred the evacuation of the White House and Capitol and rattled New Yorkers three weeks before the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terror attacks.

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More from CBS News

How are earthquakes measured? How today's event stacks up to past quakes

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Earthquake snarls air and train travel in the New York City area

NYC, New Jersey earthquake witnesses share first-hand accounts

'I’m not being blackmailed': Travelers ask airlines to be more upfront about ticket costs

When Patricia Cregan and her sister flew to Walt Disney World Resort from their homes in England in January, they were annoyed to find out they had to pay extra to choose seats on their flights.

“If I wanted to book my seats, they were 80 pounds (about $100) per person outbound and 72 pounds (about $90) per person inbound,” Cregan told USA TODAY. “I refused. I’m not being blackmailed.” 

Cregan said she had booked the trip as a package holiday through Disney and wasn’t informed of the extra charges for seat selection on British Airways until after she had already paid.

“I phoned up to book this. At no point did anybody say – which was my argument with the guy from British Airways – at no point in the initial process or throughout the whole process did I know you had to pay to book,” she said.

Cruising Altitude: Airlines make bank from bag fees even if you hate them

Cregan is hardly alone. For travelers shopping for airline tickets by price, it can be almost impossible to know the true cost to fly until nearly the end of the transaction.

“In advertisements airlines are only required to present the fare plus any taxes and mandatory fees. Airlines are also required on their website to have a page that’s dedicated to listing all of their fees, but airlines are not required to display ancillary fees such as carry-on bag fees, checked bag fees or change and cancellation fees whenever they present a ticket for sale,” Andrew Appelbaum, counsel at FlyersRights.org told USA TODAY. 

Appelbaum said that travelers who book airline tickets through a third party, like Cregan did, can have an even harder time learning the true cost of their flights.

“When you look at these third-party sites, you might see some basic information such as no changes allowed, or no seat selection, or seat selection for a fee, but you won’t see the actual cost of the ancillary service,” he said.

Monica Layton, a screenwriter and actor from Louisiana, said she had a similar experience traveling to Europe as Cregan did on her Orlando trip.

“According to Travelocity (my ticket) included a seat choice, a personal item, carry-on and one checked bag,” Layton told USA TODAY. “I didn’t have any trouble selecting my seat with United, all the United flights, but then, when I got to the part of Lufthansa and Brussels, they didn’t allow me to do it.” 

Expedia, which owns Travelocity, explained in a statement that because United Airlines partners with Lufthansa and Brussels Airlines, tickets sold by United to some destinations in Europe may be operated by those other carriers, and when that happens, the operating airline’s ticket policies apply.

“When booking a flight on Expedia, the app will display fees and restrictions provided by the airline,” the statement said. “On codeshare flights, we are only able to display the fees and restrictions that the marketing carrier chooses to provide, which may not include separate fees collected by the operating carrier.”

The intricacies can be frustrating to travelers.

“It makes traveling very unpleasant when you don’t get a seat because if you don’t pay extra to get it, they usually give you a middle seat,” Layton said. “Why add this inconvenience? It’s all about money.” 

The Department of Transportation proposed a rule that would require airlines to be more upfront, both on their own platforms and on third-party travel sites, about extra fees that could be associated with a given ticket. That rule is expected to be finalized by the end of this month.

But unless that rule is enacted, Appelbaum said travelers will continue being slightly in the dark about the actual cost of airline tickets.

“Currently, it’s very hard to comparison shop. Unfortunately, it will take consumers more time to find the best ticket for them, and the airlines tout market competition. The way things are currently, it’s really hard for consumers to see the results of that competition. It’s hard for consumers to see the best ticket for them,” he said.

Zach Wichter is a travel reporter for USA TODAY based in New York. You can reach him at [email protected]

Women Who Travel Book Club: 14 New Books to Add to Your Spring Reading List

By Meaghan Kenny

As warmer weather approaches, so do our long-awaited spring travel plans. And whether that means jetting off to a beachfront stay in Saint Tropez or just lounging on your own front porch, you're going to need a good book to accompany you. This is where the Women Who Travel book club comes in: The next installment of our quarterly list of new and highly anticipated reads written by women authors is here, and we promise there's something for everyone.

We asked our editors, contributors, and well-traveled bibliophiles in our Women Who Travel community to share which new books they're packing on their next getaway. They delivered a mix of new releases that will have you captivated from start to finish, from light-hearted romance novels to witty explorations of grief, set everywhere from Korea to French Polynesia. We'd love to hear which you're reading—and which fantastic new books we missed—on Instagram or Facebook .

Below, the best new books this spring.

All products featured on Condé Nast Traveler are independently selected by our editors. However, when you buy something through our retail links, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Grief Is for People by Sloane Crosley

Grief is not prescriptive. If there’s one thing you can take away from Grief Is for People , let it be that. Sloane Crosley’s new memoir is a deeply incisive and moving account of working through cumulative grief or grief overload—the kind associated with multiple losses in quick succession. Faced with a home break-in (during which she loses her family jewelry) and subsequently, the death of her friend and mentor by suicide, Crosley finds herself on a continuum of grief, during which this sequence of events that have nothing to do with each other mutate into a single event of profound stress. In fact, the title is a tongue-in-cheek reference to exactly that—the writer’s tendency to conflate her grief over her friend with the loss of her jewelry, an attempt at anthropomorphizing objects, if you will. Even in this morass of sadness and confusion, Crosley’s trademark wit, seen previously in her humorous essays, is on display—this book is both very poignant and darkly funny. And it smashes through any facile frameworks we have available for mourning. — Arati Menon , global digital director

Worry by Alexandra Tanner

The back cover of Alexandra Tanner’s Worry likens it to both Greta Gerwig’s “Frances Ha” and Seinfeld—a compelling start for a debut novel from the Brooklyn-based writer. Over a quick-reading 291 pages, the daily thoughts, anxieties, and indulgences of two sisters who are living together in New York City unfold through witty dialogue loaded with familiar pop culture references. Reading this feels a lot like hanging out with a sister, something I reflected on while carrying it to Mexico City for my little sister’s wedding. We’re hardly the same as Poppy and Jules, the two main characters, but I understand the dynamics at play here—it’s a bit like looking in a fun house mirror at times, sometimes to my horror, but always to my entertainment. — Megan Spurrell , senior editor

Funny Story by Emily Henry

If you're even slightly into romance novels, you're probably familiar with Emily Henry, a New York Times best-selling author (and Women Who Travel Power Listee ) known for her popular books like People We Meet on Vacation and Beach Read . Anticipating all the same feel-good magic in whatever Henry writes next, I couldn't wait to devour her latest novel, Funny Story . It follows a young woman named Daphne whose fiancé realizes he's in love with someone else—his childhood best friend, Petra. Daphne, now heartbroken and strapped for money, moves in with none other than Petra's ex-boyfriend, Miles. The unlikely pair of roommates, both grieving their own relationships, develop somewhat of an interesting friendship. It's humorous, playful, and has all the right ingredients for a good ole' love story. — Meaghan Kenny , associate commerce editor

Good Material by Dolly Alderton

I recently sped through Good Material , Dolly Alderton ’s second novel and fourth book, while on a trip to Mexico City . As with her previous work, the book explores themes of love, friendship, and the role of technology in our lives and relationships with a searing specificity. This story, told from the perspective of a flailing standup comedian who’s stuck in the proverbial restaurant of his former relationship, gets into the agonizing days and months following a breakup, and surfaces every embarrassing emotion that comes with it. At times, I wanted to shake the narrator silly, but I appreciated the fact that Alderton didn’t try and make him overly likable. The tone is warm, funny, and all too relatable. — Madison Flager , senior commerce editor

Olivia Morelli

Gianluca Longo

Charlie Hobbs

I’lll Just Be Five More Minutes: And Other Tales from My ADHD Brain by Emily Farris

I've been reading I'll Just Be Five More Minutes: And Other Tales from My ADHD Brain by Emily Farris , a senior commerce editor at Epicurious . I'm a longtime fan of Farris—her irreverent humor, her amazing sense of colorful design, and how she writes from the heart. She takes us on a journey through her life as experienced by someone with ADHD , and while I don't have ADHD, there are plenty of relatable tidbits (like the one about wanting to mail out those holiday cards a year late? Been there!) that make you laugh, cry, and cringe. It's not a topic talked about often and I appreciate Farris for putting it all out there. — Lia Picard , contributor

How to Be Old: Lessons in Living Boldly from the Accidental Icon by Lyn Slater

I am currently devouring Lyn Slater’s debut book, How To Be Old: Lessons in Living Boldly from the Accidental Icon, which details the decade of her 60s, how she became famous, and what spurred the reinvention taking place in her 70s. I myself have just entered into a new decade, and am about to become a mom. When I spoke to her recently about the book , I told her how much the material resonated with me. She told me that she actually wrote this book for people like me, in the midst of transition. “My message is that, instead of being fearful about being older, it's an opportunity to really take that dream that you might have put aside because of life, and making a living, and children, and really getting to a time of life where you can have that dream, if you want it.” — Mercedes Bleth , global associate director, social media

The Stone Home by Crystal Hana Kim

I’ve been reading a lot of fiction lately that deals with less widely-known parts of Asian history. Among the best of them is Kim’s riveting sophomore novel, which begins in 2011. The story opens with Eunju Oh in her Daegu, South Korea apartment, getting an unexpected visit from Narae, a woman who was raised by her childhood nemesis Sangchul Kim. Sangchul has recently died and directed Narae to Eunju to learn the truth about her origins. What follows is an account from both teenaged Eunju and Sangchul’s perspectives of their year in the Stone Home, purportedly a government-run reformatory for wayward citizens that was actually a camp where innocent civilians were kidnapped and forced to labor under grueling conditions, their wares sold abroad.

The book is tightly written and moves at a thrilling pace. You really feel for the characters and understand their motivations. Kim chronicles Eunju’s time in the camp’s kitchen with her mother, whom she calls Umma, and a disparate group of women who come to care for one another. While men usually toil in the workshops, Eunju and her friend Mina are chosen to work threading fish hooks with a group of boys that include Sangchul and his older brother, Youngchul. The main plot begins after Youngchul meets with tragedy, and Sangchul betrays his friends by becoming a brutal Keeper, a peer enforcer for the camp’s sadistic leaders. Kim’s writing is thoroughly engaging while also managing to educate readers regarding a brutal atrocity in Korea’s timeline. — Alexandra Sanidad , research director

Friends in Napa by Sheila Yasmin Marikar

I loved Sheila Marikar's debut novel Goddess Effect so much that I raved about it in last year's spring book club . So when I heard she had a juicy follow up, Friends in Napa , in the works, I couldn't wait to get my hands on a copy. If you love tales of insufferable wealthy people in beautiful environs, a la Succession and The White Lotus (and who doesn't), this is the perfect premise: A group of college friends-turned-frenemies reunites in a scenic California wine country estate, where drama—and murder—ensues. After getting immediately hooked on the riveting opening scene that takes you inside the mind of a murderer, I'm now racing through the chapters brimming with grudges and grapes to figure out whodunnit. — Sarah Khan , contributor

No Judgment: On Being Critical Lauren Oyler

Fans of Lauren Oyler likely became so, as I did, because of her criticism, which is rather mean (never undeservedly!) and as a result, very funny. A follow-up to a debut novel that was received with a poetic panning of its own ( Fake Accounts, not as bad as you’ve heard), No Judgement is a collection of six essays musing largely on criticism’s very existence—how it is generally good for the culture, how apps like Goodreads in turn make it bad for the culture, and most of all criticism’s inevitability in every sphere of human behavior. The collection’s introduction opens with a modicum of truth: That when somebody tells you, “No judgement,” as a way to encourage honesty or reward it, that somebody is lying. They are not not judging you, but rather keeping said judgement to themselves. Quite simply, judgement is as human as it is involuntary. There’s also a good essay about living in Berlin that everybody should read, if nothing else. That’s the beauty of a book of essays. — Charlie Hobbs , associate editor

Headshot by Rita Bullwinkle

If you've been following Caitlin Clark's historic college basketball career at the University of Iowa, then you know women's sports are really, truly, finally having a moment. But what motivates girls to compete? That’s a central question in Rita Bullwinkle’s debut novel Headshot , which follows eight teenagers as they face off in a single-elimination boxing tournament. Each chapter is a bout between two young women, with an emphasis on what’s going on inside their heads as they fight. I’m only a few chapters in, but already this book is about so much more than athletics—it’s an exploration of girlhood, insecurity, and grit that, even if you didn’t grow up playing sports, you’ll find relatable and compelling. — Sarah Kuta , contributor

Fruit of the Dead by Rachel Lyon

Every now and then, a book description with some of my most niche interests and lived experiences make me really excited to crack it open: This one got me with camp counselorhood, a visit to a billionaire's remote private island , and an allegory for the Greek myth of Persephone and Demeter. (The goddess duo, legend has it, went toe to toe with Hades in a parable about the depth of mother-daughter connection.) It doesn't spoil any plot to say that author Rachel Lyon's modern Persephone is children’s sleep-away camp employee Cory, who soon introduces us to our Hades (the predatory father of a camper) and our Demeter (mother Emer), whose adjacent perspective of the plot is jumped to in nearly every other chapter for a she-said/she-said format.

The result makes for a page-turning, sometimes deus-ex-machina story; one that interweaves teenage naivety, motherly intuition, and male privilege for a fast-moving tale that might call into question your own hard lines on topics like addiction, consent, and exploitation. (Readers should know there's a trigger warning for sexual violence, although the topic is explored thoughtfully, and through the eyes of both jaded single mother and young, lost daughter.) The joining force between the two points of view is the villain, whose descriptions and character development are Cat Person -level from the beginning. My only wish is that mother Emer's character was more fully brought into sharper focus by the end of the book—but with so much going on between the perspective-jumping chapters and a climactic ending, you'll find yourself gobbling up the pages. — Shannon McMahon , destinations editor

Piglet by Lottie Hazell

Food isn’t an afterthought in this scrumptious novel, it’s one of (if not the ) main characters. Fittingly, I devoured it in a single sitting. Author Lottie Hazell has a creative writing PhD—her research considers food writing in twenty-first century fiction—and her expertise on the matter is immediately clear in the razor-sharp prose, spot-on character development, and propulsive plot. From the very first chapter, you know Piglet’s fiancé Kit has betrayed her somehow, but it’s not clear exactly what he did. Not knowing somehow makes it even more salacious; the tension becomes not the secret itself, but how it is so closely kept from everyone in the book—including the reader. (I won’t give away when/if you do eventually find out what happened.) As the plot thickens, you feel the weight of Kit’s unknown deed build up in your chest, screaming to be released, but wondering alongside Piglet if that would really make you feel any better. The result is a suspenseful, binge-worthy read that dives deep into womens’ appetites, in all its many forms. — Hannah Towey , associate editor, transportation and travel news

The Limits by Nell Freudenberger

I read this on a trip to Cusco, Peru —so, lightyears away from Tahiti and New York , the two settings for this beautiful book (also, thankfully, years later than the depths of the COVID-19 pandemic in which it takes place). Following the lives of a coral researcher in French Polynesia , her ex-husband who is a doctor in New York City, and their daughter who moves between the two of them with all of her teenage dramas, this story meditates on love, family, identity, and complex dynamics of class and colonization in both destinations. It inspired me to learn more about Tahitian culture (and convinced me I need to visit ASAP), and kept me riveted from start to finish. —M.S.

Death Valley by Melissa Broder

At first glance, I had my apprehensions about beginning Melissa Broder’s Death Valley —as it is both fiction, and touches upon grief (I sway more towards non-fiction, and away from, well, grief). Immediately, though, Broder proves quirky and captivating—permitting us to accompany a woman’s solo expedition to California on a quest to reprieve the weight of loss of both her husband and father. Despite the Valley’s Best Western, though, the tale is opposite from bleak. Together, we head into a nearby desert trail and begin this existential, erotic, and treacherously real journey of self-discovery and resilience in the wake of “pending” grief. Whether conversing with unassuming cacti or vividly stark memories of her loved ones, Broder paints this hilarious fever dream, while still conveying a stark, tangible sense of what it means to be alive. All that to say, it’s still a great beach read. —J.C.

More From Forbes

5 travel apps every traveler should download.

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Downloading the best travel apps can be the key to a successful trip

Have apps, will travel. We rely on apps for pretty much every facet of life, and when you’re on the road, having a few travel apps queued up can help save stress, time and money, and make your trip so much better in very simple ways.

Beyond your standard airline, railroad, hotel chain and fast food apps, here are five travel-specific apps every traveler should download on their smartphone before heading out.

Top 5 Travel Apps

Google maps.

If you’re not using Google Maps to do more than navigate your trip, you’re not using it right. Google Maps is an essential part of any trip in 2024, for so many reasons. Firstly, you can download offline maps before you go, an extremely helpful resource if you don’t have service and need to find your way (you know, since no one has paper maps anymore). Google Maps can also help you plan a route with multiple stops, add starred and flagged places your network recommends and use AI to help with travel searches. Google Maps can help you find your parked car, find gas stations and so much more. Free to download in Apple App Store and Google Play.

Hikers, this one’s for you. Hikers of all levels can find hiking routes, long walks and camping sites via AllTrails , which offers peer-rated reviews of each spot, rankings and a level of easy, moderate or hard. Depending on your activity preference, AllTrails can also recommend spots for mountain bikers, wheelchair users, runners, hikers with dogs and more. A free version is comprehensive, but avid hikers may want to sign up for a subscription to AllTrails+, which offers even more details about your outdoor activity, including air quality, satellite weather, pollen, light pollution and user heatmaps. Free to download in Apple App Store and Google Play.

A smartphone can be an essential hiking tool, especially when you're out of town.

Best High-Yield Savings Accounts Of 2024

Best 5% interest savings accounts of 2024, hotel tonight.

Spontaneous travelers should download Hotel Tonight for last-minute bookings, often at a discount. The hotel app offers flash deals, as well as the ability to book stays in advance or for multiple nights and it’s perfect for procrastinators who just need a place to crash. It’s also great for flight delays, unexpected stop overs or road trips with no specific route in mind. Planners can also favorite specific properties before they travel to check nightly deals. Regular users will earn perks and steeper discounts after multiple bookings. Free to download in Apple App Store and Google Play.

If you’re traveling with your dog in tow, the BringFido app is a must have. The user-sourced and ranked database offers listings of accomodations, restaurants, events, activities and more that are dog-friendly in towns and cities across the United States and beyond. The app is great for playing a dog-friendly itinerary or finding a dog-friendly brewery or fenced in park on the go. Users can also post their favorite spots and leave tips for other dog visitors and their owners. Free to download in Apple App Store and Google Play.

Travel is so much better with a dog, especially when you know where to take your four legged travel ... [+] buddy.

Itinerary lovers, this one’s for you. TripIt is perfect for those organizing a major getaway or organizing a bunch of small trips that you just can’t possibly remember all the details for (flights, hotels, car rental, etc.) The free app aggregates all the plans in your email, stores confirmation numbers and will send alerts to remind you to leave for the airport, check in to your next accomodation, head to your dinner reservation and more. It’s like a personal assistant in your pocket, that can also track your rewards points, help with flight compensation and more. A free version is sufficient, but $49 for a year of TripIt Pro earns you extra benefits like airport navigation, baggage claim info and potential reimbursement, and the ability to upload 25 documents. Free to download in Apple App Store and Google Play.

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