Travel technology glossary

B2B Travel Portal

A B2B travel portal is a login-protected booking website where travel agents buy hotels, flights, transfers and activities from a wholesaler, consolidator or DMC at net or discounted rates. It adds agent-specific pricing, credit limits, commissions and sub-agent management on top of a booking engine.

Dynamic Packaging

Dynamic packaging is the real-time assembly of a holiday from separate components — such as a flight, a hotel and a transfer — chosen by the traveller and sold at one combined price. The package is built at the moment of search from live inventory, rather than pre-designed and printed in a brochure.

Global Distribution System (GDS)

A Global Distribution System (GDS) is a network that connects travel sellers to airline, hotel, car-rental and rail inventory through one interface. Amadeus, Sabre and Travelport are the three major GDSs. Travel agencies use them mainly to search, book and ticket flights from many airlines at once.

Internet Booking Engine (IBE)

An internet booking engine (IBE) is the software that lets a travel business search live supplier inventory, show prices, and take a confirmed booking online. It connects to hotel, flight, transfer and activity suppliers through APIs, applies the seller’s markups, and powers B2C websites and B2B agent portals.

New Distribution Capability (NDC)

NDC (New Distribution Capability) is an XML-based data standard created by IATA that lets airlines sell flights and extras directly to travel sellers through APIs. It allows richer offers than traditional GDS fares — seat choices, bundles, baggage and personalised prices — and gives airlines more control over what agents can sell.

Travel API

A travel API is a programming interface that lets software search, price and book travel products — hotels, flights, transfers, activities — directly from a supplier’s system. Travel businesses use supplier APIs to fill their booking engines, and publish their own APIs to distribute inventory to partners.

White Label Travel Portal

A white label travel portal is a ready-made travel booking website that a business runs under its own brand, logo and domain, while the technology, supplier connections and often the inventory are supplied by a provider. It lets agencies sell online quickly without building a booking engine themselves.

XML API Out

XML API Out is an outbound travel API that a supplier, DMC or wholesaler publishes so other travel companies can search and book its inventory directly from their own systems. It turns contracted rates and allotments into a distribution channel, alongside the company’s own B2B portal.

Bed Bank

A bed bank is a hotel wholesaler that buys or contracts room inventory from hotels in bulk and resells it at net rates to travel agencies, OTAs and tour operators, usually through an API. Bed banks give sellers access to hundreds of thousands of hotels without contracting each one.

Channel Manager

A channel manager is software that hotels use to publish their room availability and rates to many online sales channels — OTAs, bed banks, GDSs and their own website — and keep them all in sync. When a room is booked on one channel, the channel manager updates availability everywhere else.

Hotel Mapping

Hotel mapping is the process of recognising that listings from different suppliers describe the same physical hotel, and linking them under one identifier. It removes duplicates from search results, so a traveller sees each hotel once with the best available price instead of the same hotel listed several times.

Hotel Meal Plans (EP, CP, MAP, AP)

Hotel meal plans describe which meals a room rate includes. EP (European Plan) is room only; CP (Continental Plan) adds breakfast; MAP (Modified American Plan) adds breakfast and one main meal; AP (American Plan) includes all three meals; and All Inclusive adds drinks and often activities.

Room Mapping

Room mapping matches the room types and rate plans that different suppliers sell for the same hotel, so identical rooms are recognised as one product. It lets a booking engine compare prices for the same room across suppliers and show travellers a clean, de-duplicated room list.

Destination Management Company (DMC)

A destination management company (DMC) is a local travel company that designs and delivers travel services in its own destination — hotels, transfers, tours, guides, activities and events — for tour operators, travel agencies and event organisers abroad. DMCs sell their local knowledge and supplier relationships, usually business to business.

DMC Software

DMC software is a system that runs a destination management company’s business in one place: supplier contracts, itinerary building and quotation, bookings and vouchers, operations, and accounts. It replaces spreadsheets and email chains so DMCs can quote faster, make fewer errors and see their margins clearly.

Itinerary Builder

An itinerary builder is software that travel agents, DMCs and tour operators use to create day-by-day travel plans, price them from supplier rates, and send them to clients as branded proposals. The best ones calculate costs and margins automatically as services are added, and turn an accepted proposal into bookings.

MICE

MICE stands for Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions (or Events) — the segment of travel organised for business groups rather than individual leisure travellers. MICE trips involve large groups, venues, delegate management, and tight schedules, and are usually delivered by specialised agencies and DMCs.

Rooming List

A rooming list is the list a group organiser sends to a hotel showing which guests share which rooms, with names, room types, bed configurations and arrival and departure dates. Hotels use it to allocate rooms and prepare check-in; DMCs and tour operators manage it for every group.

Travel Voucher

A travel voucher is the document that confirms a traveller has paid for a service — a hotel stay, transfer or tour — and tells the supplier what to provide. The traveller presents it on arrival; it includes the booking reference, service details, dates and the supplier’s contact information.

Allotment

An allotment is a fixed number of rooms (or seats) that a hotel or supplier reserves for a travel company to sell, usually at contracted rates, until an agreed release date. Unsold rooms return to the hotel after the release date, so the travel company is not normally liable for them.

Hotel Contracting

Hotel contracting is the negotiation and recording of agreements between a travel company and hotels: net rates by season, room types, meal plans, allotments, release periods, cancellation terms, and offers. Contracted rates are often better than bed-bank rates and give DMCs and tour operators an edge.

Markup

In travel, a markup is the amount a seller adds to a supplier’s net rate to reach the selling price — as a percentage or a fixed amount. Booking platforms apply markup rules automatically by supplier, destination, product, agent or channel, so each customer sees the right price.

Net Rate

A net rate is the price a supplier charges a travel company before any markup — the wholesale cost of a hotel room, tour or transfer. The travel company adds its own markup to set the selling price, and the difference is its margin. Net rates are confidential and should never be shown to travellers.

Stop Sale

A stop sale is a supplier’s instruction to stop selling a room type, product or date immediately, even if the seller still has allotment or free-sale rights. Hotels issue stop sales when they are full or want to hold rooms; sellers must apply them across every channel at once to avoid overbooking.

Travel Inventory Management

Travel inventory management is the control of the rooms, seats, tours and services a travel company owns or has contracted: their rates, seasons, allotments and availability, and how they are distributed to each sales channel. An inventory system holds this once and keeps every channel in sync.

Online Travel Agency (OTA)

An online travel agency (OTA) is a company that sells travel — hotels, flights, packages, activities — to travellers through a website or app. OTAs either buy inventory at net rates and resell it, or earn commission from suppliers. Large examples include Booking.com and Expedia; thousands of smaller OTAs serve specific markets.

Sub-Agent

A sub-agent is a travel agent that books through another, larger agency or wholesaler rather than directly with suppliers. The main agent provides inventory, prices, credit and often a branded portal; the sub-agent sells to travellers and adds its own markup.

Tour Operator

A tour operator is a company that designs travel packages — combining transport, accommodation, guides and activities — and sells them to travellers directly or through travel agents. Tour operators contract suppliers, set the itinerary and price, and are usually responsible for the trip being delivered as sold.

Travel Consolidator

A travel consolidator is a wholesaler that buys large volumes of airline seats or hotel rooms at discounted rates and resells them to travel agencies, typically through a B2B portal. Consolidators give smaller agencies access to fares, ticketing and credit they could not get on their own.

Travel CRM

A travel CRM is customer relationship management software built for travel businesses: it captures enquiries from every channel, tracks each lead through quotation to booking, stores traveller preferences, and automates follow-ups. Unlike a generic CRM, it connects to itineraries, quotes and bookings.

Travel Management Company (TMC)

A travel management company (TMC) is a travel agency that manages business travel for companies: booking flights, hotels and ground transport within each client’s travel policy, tracking spend, supporting travellers on the road, and reporting on cost and duty of care.

Travel Technology

Travel technology is the software and systems travel businesses use to sell, book and operate travel: booking engines, GDS and supplier APIs, hotel mapping, inventory and contracting systems, CRM, itinerary builders and travel accounting. It connects travel suppliers to the agencies, operators and travellers who buy from them.