Dreaming of launching your very own online travel agency like Expedia? The OTAs (online travel agencies) represent one of the most lucrative e-commerce business models out there. In this comprehensive guide, I’ll walk you through how to build an Expedia clone booking platform from A to Z.
Whether you’re an aspiring entrepreneur or an existing company looking to enter the online travel space, follow these steps to create your own custom travel site from scratch. Let’s get started!
Introduction to the Expedia Clone Model
Sites like Expedia, Booking.com, and Airbnb have completely transformed how travelers research and book accommodations and transport. These OTAs aggregate enormous global inventories of hotels, vacation rentals, flights, cruises, and more — making trip planning and booking hassle-free.
Launching your own Expedia-like site lets you compete in this $700+ billion industry. By providing users with a one-stop shop to compare and book flights, hotels, rental cars, tours, and activities in one place, an OTA clone can be hugely appealing.
Beyond a great business opportunity, the benefits of starting an Expedia clone include:
- Huge market size and demand
- Massive selection of deals and listings
- Recurring revenue from bookings
- The high lifetime value of customers
- Dropshipping model requiring low inventory
Now let’s examine the step-by-step process for building your own customized OTA from the ground up.
Choose Expedia Clone Software
Trying to code an entire complex travel booking platform like Expedia yourself would be incredibly time and resource intensive. That’s why using an off-the-shelf white-label clone solution is by far the fastest and most cost-effective route.
Ready-made Expedia clone scripts allow you to launch a fully functional travel site within weeks rather than months of development time. Look for an all-in-one package that includes:
- Beautifully designed templates and themes
- Flight and hotel data integration APIs
- Search and booking engines
- Payment processing capabilities
- CRM and analytics dashboards
- Multi-lingual and multi-currency support
- Full customization and configuration
I recommend choosing an open-source clone script for maximum flexibility. Be sure to verify responsive design on mobile as the majority of bookings happen on smartphones nowadays.
With the right software, you can have the core travel booking platform up very quickly.
Design the Optimal User Experience
While your Expedia clone software handles all the backend powering flight/hotel inventory, payments, etc — you want to customize the front-end design, user flow, and experience specifically for your brand.
Map out the optimal site architecture and booking funnels based on leading OTAs. Key aspects to plan out include:
Homepage
- Intuitive navigation menus
- Hero banners with deals
- Top destination sections
- Category browsing for flights/hotels
Flight Search
- Minimalist form with to/from, dates, travelers
- Advanced options like direct only, airlines, etc
- Sorting and display of results, map view
Hotel Search
- Location/area, dates, rooms, guests
- Filter by price range, star rating, amenities
- Map and list views for results
Property Listing Pages
- Photo gallery, description, reviews
- Amenities, availability calendar
- Room types and rate display
- Clear call-to-action booking buttons
Booking
- Traveler details form
- Billing information
- Payment via CC, PayPal, etc
- Confirmation and itinerary
Pay close attention to page load speeds, mobile optimization, and intuitive user flows through the booking process. Smooth UX equals higher conversions.
Integrate Supplier APIs
Now it’s time to start aggregating live inventory to populate your Expedia clone site. This requires integrating APIs from large suppliers:
Flight Search
Utilize flight search and booking APIs like Skyscanner, Amadeus, or Travelfusion to pull in real-time airfare data globally. They provide the backend solution for querying and displaying flight options.
You can also potentially partner directly with airlines for inventory. But APIs allow you to show all airlines in one consolidated search.
Hotel Listings
Similarly, hotel listing providers like Booking.com, TripAdvisor, and Hotelbeds give access to up-to-date rates and availability at thousands of properties worldwide.
Alternatively, you can onboard hotels directly if focusing on a particular region. The more integrated the inventory, the more bookable options users find.
Rental Cars, Tours, etc
Round out your site by incorporating APIs from providers of rental cars, cruises, tours, activities, and more. Offer a complete trip planning solution.
With the foundation of live travel inventory set up, you’re ready for customers to start searching and booking.
Build Robust Search and Comparison
With supplier content aggregated, now you need to build out the search and comparison flows that allow users to easily find the perfect flights, hotels, and vacation rentals.
For the flight search engine, key components include:
- Multi-city search with return dates
- Filters for direct, times, stops, price, airlines
- Sorting results by departure time, duration, price
- Fare calendars showing the daily lowest price
Allow flexible date searches within date ranges. Users should be able to refine and filter until they find the ideal options.
For hotel search:
- Autocomplete suggestions by destination
- Filter by star rating, guest rating, amenities
- Sort by recommended, price, district proximity
- Map view for geographical browsing
The more filters and controls you provide, the more power users have to pinpoint exactly the right properties.
Side-by-side comparison grids are hugely helpful for evaluating multiple flight or hotel options simultaneously on factors like price, timing, ratings, cancellation policy, etc. Build handy tools to simplify the research process.
Enable Smooth Payment Processing
Once a customer is ready to book, you need to be able to handle payments seamlessly:
- Integrate payment gateways like Stripe or PayPal
- Accept all major credit cards and debit cards
- Allow coupons, promo codes, and gift cards
- Offer installment plans or financing options
Make billing details easy to input. Provide multiple payment options like PayPal, Apple Pay, bank transfer, etc.
Automatically collect deposits or full prepayments based on supplier requirements. Generate professional booking confirmations and itineraries. The more frictionless the checkout process, the higher your conversion rates will climb.
Conduct Rigorous Testing
Before officially launching your Expedia clone, it’s crucial to conduct extensive testing to catch any bugs or issues. Have internal team members and external users evaluate the site:
- Check all key flows — searches, listings, booking, payments, etc
- Test on multiple browsers and devices
- Examine error handling — try invalid inputs, broken links, etc
- Assess site speed and responsiveness
- Verify supplier integrations pull accurately
Fix any flaws uncovered. Invest time here to polish the platform and maximize robustness before going fully live.
Market and Promote Your OTA
Once your Expedia clone booking platform is built out and thoroughly tested, it’s gone time! But attracting users requires strategic promotion:
Search Engine Optimization
Master SEO best practices to rank your site for keywords like “cheap flights”, “hotels in New York” and other travel-related searches. Provide rich content optimized for SEO.
Pay Per Click Ads
Launch Google, Bing, and Facebook ads targeted specifically at travel intenders and high-intent keywords. Drive qualified traffic straight to your site.
Affiliate Marketing
Recruit niche travel blogs, deal sites, and publishers to promote your inventory as an affiliate. Pay commissions on referred bookings.
Social Media Marketing
Run contests and sweepstakes on Instagram and Facebook. Encourage user-generated content. Invest in social media ads to reach travelers.
Promotions
Offer discounts on first bookings, seasonal sales, or loyalty programs. Free credits incentivize sign-ups. Limited-time deals create urgency to book.
Continual marketing will be key to driving ongoing growth and competing with major OTAs long-term.
Track Performance and Metrics
Leverage your Expedia clone platform’s built-in analytics dashboards to derive key performance insights:
- Monitor bookings, conversion rates, transactions
- Analyze user demographics and behavior
- Identify top origin markets and ad channels
- Calculate ADR, RevPAR, and repeat booking rates
- Review supplier performance and costs
These metrics allow you to optimize your OTA site, double down on high-performing areas, and improve conversions.
Conclusion
Launching a customized online travel agency with an Expedia clone platform is an exciting endeavor. The business model benefits from massive market demand, attractive profit margins, and relatively low overhead to operate.
By following the steps outlined in this guide — choosing robust clone software, optimizing the user experience, integrating supplier APIs, powering seamless booking and payments, thoroughly testing, and promoting your brand — you can minimize trial and error on the path to success.
Remember to closely track performance post-launch using key metrics and analytics. Keep enhancing the platform and offer something unique vs leading OTAs. The opportunities in online travel are enormous, get started today! Let me know if any questions come up along the journey.
Check out the solution here: https://zipprr.com/expedia-clone/ to build your own Expedia-like software
