Most companies handle business travel through email threads and spreadsheets: an employee sends dates, a manager replies yes, an assistant books, finance chases invoices at month end. Off-the-shelf tools charge per traveler and rarely match your approval chain. I have built a corporate travel desk platform, and I build custom ones around your rules, with full source code.
What the platform covers
| Area | What it does |
|---|---|
| Booking requests | Employees request flights, hotels, trains and cabs with dates, purpose and budget; one-way, return and multi-city |
| Policy rules | Class of travel, budget caps, advance-booking windows and city or grade limits checked automatically |
| Approvals | Multi-level approval by manager, department head or finance, with reminders and an audit trail |
| Travel desk console | Desk agents see requests, add quotes and options, confirm bookings and attach tickets |
| Itineraries and documents | Itinerary per trip, tickets, visas and notes stored against the trip and the traveler |
| Vendors | Airlines, hotels, agents and cab partners, with rates and contacts |
| Invoices and payments | Invoices per trip or per month, advances, reimbursements and payment status |
| Reports | Spend by department, traveler, destination and vendor; policy exceptions; booking turnaround time |
| Roles and security | Traveler, approver, desk agent, finance and admin roles; activity log |
| Notifications | Email and in-app updates at each step; WhatsApp or SMS if you want them |
Who it is for
- Companies with regular employee travel
- Travel agencies serving corporate accounts
- Event and exhibition organisers moving large groups
- Teams that already use a spreadsheet and want a proper workflow
How I build it
- Discovery call: your travel policy, approval chain, vendors and reports.
- Written scope and estimate within 48 hours of the call.
- Build in milestones with staging demos: requests and approvals first, then the desk console, then invoices and reports.
- Launch with data import, user training notes and a handover document.
- Optional retainer for changes and support.
Stack options
Laravel API with a React front end is my default; Blade for a lighter internal tool; MySQL or PostgreSQL; queues for notifications. You get the full source code and a deployment on your own server or cloud account.
Pricing and timeline
Focused modules start from Rs 40,000; a full travel desk platform is scoped after the discovery call, with a written estimate and milestone payments. No per-traveler licence fees.
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