Question 1

Can my customers use the mobile app offline, or do they need internet to view their booking details?

Accepted Answer

Most of the time your customers will need an internet connection to use the mobile app, because the booking details are stored on the server and the app pulls them down when you open it. However, some travel software does offer the ability to download certain information to the phone so that customers can view it without being connected, which can be helpful if they are travelling somewhere with spotty mobile coverage or high roaming costs. Whether offline viewing is available depends on which booking system you use and which mobile app comes with it. Some platforms let you download your itinerary, documents, and booking confirmations to read later, while others require a live connection every time. You should check with your software provider about what offline features are included in your plan, because this varies quite a bit between different systems. If offline access is important to your customers, especially if many of them travel to remote areas or countries with unreliable internet, this is worth asking about when you are choosing your booking platform. Some suppliers have built this in as standard, while others offer it as an add-on or do not offer it at all. Your software provider can tell you exactly what offline functionality is available and how it works on both iPhone and Android phones.

Question 2

Can my customers use the mobile app to make changes to their booking after they have already paid?

Accepted Answer

Yes, customers can typically make changes through a mobile app after payment, but what they can change depends on how your system is set up and what the supplier allows. Most travel booking platforms let customers view their booking details on their phone and request changes like date adjustments, room upgrades, or activity modifications. The app can send these requests to your team or directly to the supplier, depending on your configuration. However, some changes may not be possible through the app alone, especially if they involve complex rebooking or if the supplier has strict amendment policies. The key limitation is that not every change can happen instantly on a mobile app the way it might on a website where you have more screen space and options. For example, a customer might be able to request a date change, but the system may need your team to process it and confirm availability rather than doing it automatically. If a supplier charges amendment fees or has blackout dates where changes are not allowed, the app will show those restrictions, but your team still needs to handle the actual rebooking and payment processing. You should check with your system provider about which specific changes customers can make through the app versus which ones require your team to step in. It also matters whether your suppliers expose their amendment rules to your booking system, since some do and some do not. Ask your provider to show you exactly what the customer experience looks like when they try to modify a booking on their phone so you know what to tell customers about what is possible.

Question 3

Can my customers use their phone to check on their booking after they have paid, or do they need to log into a website on a computer?

Accepted Answer

Yes, your customers can check their booking on a phone as long as your portal is built to work well on mobile devices. Most modern travel portals are designed to be responsive, which means they adapt to whatever screen size a customer is using, whether that is a desktop computer, a tablet or a smartphone. When a customer logs in on their phone, they should be able to see their booking details, travel dates, confirmation numbers and any documents you have sent them, all without needing to pinch and zoom or scroll sideways. The experience should be just as smooth as on a computer. Some travel portals also let you build a dedicated mobile app that customers can download from the App Store or Play Store. This is different from a responsive website because it lives on the phone itself and can sometimes offer extra features like push notifications to remind customers about their trip, or the ability to save their booking to their phone offline. However, a responsive website works perfectly well for most customers and means they do not have to download anything or manage app updates. The exact features available to your customers on mobile depend on what your booking system is built to do. Some portals let customers make changes to their booking on a phone, while others only let them view it and require them to call you or email you to make changes. You should check with your software provider what mobile features come as standard with your plan and what might require an upgrade or extra cost.

Question 4

Can my customers book trips through an app on their phone instead of a website?

Accepted Answer

Yes, many travel agencies do offer mobile apps, but whether you can have one depends on what your business needs and which booking system you use. Some travel technology platforms include a mobile app as part of their service, which means your customers can search and book trips from their phone just as they would on a website. Other platforms only offer a website experience, and customers would need to use a browser on their phone instead. You should check with your software provider whether a mobile app is included in your plan or available as an add-on feature. If your platform does offer a mobile app, it usually works the same way as the website version. Customers can search for flights, hotels and other travel products, compare prices, make changes to their trip, and pay for their bookings all from their phone. The app typically syncs with your back office system, so any booking made on the app appears in your system just like a website booking would. This means you do not need separate tools to manage app bookings and website bookings separately. Keep in mind that having a mobile app available does not mean your customers will automatically use it instead of your website. Many travel agencies find that customers still prefer to use a website for complex bookings, especially when they are comparing many options or building a longer trip. A mobile app works best for quick bookings or for customers who want to check their existing bookings while they are travelling. Ask your software provider whether the mobile app is branded with your company name and colours, since this affects how professional it looks to your customers and how much it helps your brand recognition.

Question 5

Can I put my own travel app on the App Store and Play Store under my own company name?

Accepted Answer

Yes, your travel app can sit in the App Store and the Play Store under your own company name, with your own logo, your own description and your own screenshots, so a customer searching for you finds your brand and not the name of the company that built the app. In practice the developer accounts for both stores are registered in your business name and you stay the owner of them. The app is connected to the same booking engine your website uses, so the flights, hotels and packages a customer sees on the phone are the same ones your team works with every day. When you change a markup or add a supplier, the app follows the same settings instead of needing the work done twice. It is fair to be honest about the part that is in nobody's hands but the stores themselves. Apple and Google review every app before it goes live, and again for most updates, and they can ask for changes or refuse a listing, most often when an app does little more than open a website inside a frame. That review takes as long as it takes, so a launch date is not something you can safely promise a client. Which features your app carries, and how much of the look and wording you can change yourself, will also depend on your plan and on what each supplier allows through their API. Before you fix a launch date, ask to see exactly which features your plan includes on mobile and who will hold the store accounts, and make sure both developer accounts are opened in your own company name from the very start.

Question 6

Do I actually need a mobile app if my booking website already works on a phone?

Accepted Answer

No, you do not need a mobile app to sell travel on a phone, and plenty of agencies run for years without one. A booking website built to work on a small screen lets a customer search, pick a flight or a hotel and pay, all from their phone, without downloading anything first. If your site is already comfortable to use that way, an app is a choice rather than a requirement. An app earns its place when you want something a website cannot do easily. Sitting on the home screen so people come back without searching for you, sending a notification while somebody is already travelling, and holding travel documents that can be opened without a signal are the usual reasons. If most of your customers book one holiday a year, that pull is weak. If you look after corporate travellers or regulars who fly often, it is much stronger. There is also work that does not stop at launch. An app has to be published on the Apple and Google stores, kept up to date as those stores change their rules, and your customers have to be persuaded to install it in the first place. Whether that is included in your plan or charged separately depends on what you have signed up for, so ask rather than assume. Look at your own numbers before you decide. Check how many of your bookings already come from phones, and how many customers buy from you more than once a year. If both are high, an app is worth costing out. If not, put the money into making your mobile website faster and simpler, and revisit the question later.

Question 7

Will my customers get an alert on their phone if their flight is delayed while they are already travelling?

Accepted Answer

Yes, an app can push that kind of alert to a traveller's phone, but how useful the alert is depends on where the flight information comes from. The app only shows what it is told. If your booking system receives schedule change messages from the airline or from the supplier you booked through, the app can turn those into a notification within minutes. If a supplier only passes changes on once a day, or sends them by email to your office, then the traveller will hear about it just as late through the app as they would any other way. A delay on the day of travel is a different thing from a schedule change made weeks ahead. Same day gate and delay information usually comes from a live flight status feed, which is a separate service you subscribe to rather than something included with your booking connection. It is worth asking what that feed costs and which airlines and airports it covers well, because coverage is normally stronger on large carriers and major airports than on small regional ones. You also need the traveller to allow notifications on their phone. Many people say no when the app first asks, and after that the message sits quietly inside the app instead of appearing on their lock screen. The usual answer is to send the same alert by email or text at the same moment, so an important change is never missed because of one phone setting. Before you promise your customers live alerts, check with your suppliers which change messages they actually pass on to you and how quickly they do it, then decide whether a live status feed is worth paying for on top.

Question 8

Can my customers open their travel documents in the app when they have no internet?

Accepted Answer

Yes, a travel mobile app can let customers open saved itineraries, tickets and vouchers when they have no internet connection. The documents must normally be downloaded to the phone while the customer is still online. What can be saved depends on the app, the booking supplier and the type of document provided through the API. Offline access is useful at airports, railway stations and destinations where mobile coverage is weak or expensive. Customers may be able to view important booking details without signing in again, but live information such as flight status, gate changes, new messages and booking updates will still need an internet connection. The app should also protect documents stored on the phone because they may contain personal travel information. Available protection can depend on the device and the app plan. If a booking changes after a document has been saved, the customer may need to reconnect so the app can download the latest version and avoid showing old details. Ask your travel technology provider which documents can be stored offline, how updates are handled and what the traveller will see when a newer version is available.

Question 9

If I want to change something in my app, does it have to go back to Apple and Google before my customers see it?

Accepted Answer

Sometimes yes and sometimes no, and the difference is where the thing you are changing actually lives. Content that the app pulls from your portal, such as your offers, banners, package descriptions, markups, search settings and most text, changes the moment you save it, because the app is simply asking your system for the latest version each time it opens. Your customers see that straight away with nothing to download. Anything built into the app itself is a different matter. A new screen, a change to how the booking flow works, a new payment method, a new icon or a fix to something that behaves badly on a particular phone all sit inside the app file, and a new version of that file has to be submitted to Apple and Google. Both stores review what you send before they let it out, and the wait varies from a day or so to longer if they come back with questions. Even after the store approves it, your customers do not all move over at once. Phones set to update apps automatically will pick it up over the following days, and anyone who has automatic updates switched off stays on the old version until they choose to update, so for a while you have people using two different versions of your app. Before you plan anything with a date attached, such as a campaign or a new payment option, check whether it is a content change or an app change, and if it is an app change give yourself room for the store review and for customers to update.

Question 10

Will my app sit on the Apple and Google stores under my own agency name or under somebody else's?

Accepted Answer

It can go up under your own agency name, and in most cases that is what you should insist on. When the app is published from an account that belongs to your business, the store listing shows your name as the seller, the reviews belong to you, and you keep control of the listing if you ever change the company that builds the app for you. If it is published from somebody else's account, your brand appears on the icon but the listing itself is not yours, and moving it later means starting again with a new app and no reviews. Doing it your way means opening a developer account with Apple and with Google in your company name and giving your developer access to it. Both stores ask for proof that the business is real, so you will need your company registration details, and the checks take a little time. Whoever builds your app can walk you through it, but the account has to be created by you because it is tied to your legal entity. Be ready for the review stage as well. Both stores read the listing and open the app before they let it go live, and a travel app that is only a wrapper around a website, or that has no working test login for the reviewer, is often sent back. That is normal and it is fixed by adding proper app behaviour and giving the reviewer a demo account. Before you sign anything, ask in writing whose developer account the app will be published from, and make sure the answer is yours.