TBO, TripJack, TravClan, Riya: picking your B2B portal

Every agent building a stack asks the same question in every Facebook and WhatsApp group: which B2B portal for travel agents should I actually register on? TBO, TripJack, TravClan and Riya Connect all show up in the answers, usually followed by someone's personal horror story about a refund that took six weeks.

The trouble is that almost every comparison you'll find online is written by the portals themselves, or by content farms paid to rank them. Nobody tells you, in plain terms, that TBO is built for volume hotel sourcing, that TripJack leans on flight inventory, that TravClan has repositioned itself around a global hotel bed bank, or that Riya is a name agents in trade groups describe as a legacy relationship rather than a first-choice sign-up.

This post is the neutral version: what each portal is actually built for, what you can verify about credit and commission terms versus what's just agent-forum folklore, and a verdict table for which one suits a hotels-heavy shop versus a flights-heavy one. No portal paid for a mention here, and none of them will like being told their numbers are self-reported.

The four names every agent argues about, plus two reference points

TBO (Travel Boutique Online) was established in 2006 and is the oldest of the big four. It positions itself as connecting 159,000+ buyers with 1M+ hotels across 100+ countries, and it won "India's leading B2B Travel Portal" at the 26th World Travel Awards in 2019. Those buyer and hotel counts are self-reported by TBO, so treat them as a claim about scale, not an audited figure, but the 2019 award is a verifiable third-party credential.

TripJack is the flight-and-hotel-heavy challenger, positioning itself around single-integration access. It claims 60,000+ agent businesses and 1.6M+ hotels on its platform, and separately claims access to 900+ airlines and 1.6M+ hotels through one API. Again, these are TripJack's own published numbers, not independently audited.

TravClan started as a group-tour and package marketplace for agents and has since leaned into a global hotel bed bank play. It has partnered with RateHawk, which offers 2.9M+ accommodation options across 220+ countries, to widen inventory reach for Indian agents specifically. That RateHawk-scale figure is RateHawk's own number, but the partnership itself is a documented fact.

Riya Connect (Riya Travel) is the legacy player most agents in the trade have heard of, or used, at some point. It doesn't publish agent counts, hotel counts or airline counts the way the newer portals do. Riya's own blog talks about the trends agents should watch to stay ahead of OTAs, but there is no authoritative public source for its current scale or terms, which is itself worth knowing before you rely on it as your primary portal.

Two reference points, not full contenders here: MakeMyTrip's own agent portal, myPartner, launched in 2020, sits in a different category, closer to an OTA's white-label agent programme than an independent multi-supplier consolidator (we've covered what agents actually earn on myPartner separately). Agents also mention Akbar Travels running its own agent portal, worth a look if you're already routed through Akbar for GSA or ticketing relationships, though its terms aren't public either.

Comparison table: what each portal is built for

Portal	Founded / entered India	Self-reported scale	Known strength
TBO	2006	159,000+ buyers, 1M+ hotels, 100+ countries	Hotel volume, global reach
TripJack	Newer entrant	60,000+ agents, 1.6M+ hotels, 900+ airlines	Combined flight + hotel API
TravClan	Started as package marketplace	2.9M+ properties via RateHawk tie-up	Global bed bank, group packages
Riya Connect	Legacy player	Not publicly disclosed	Longstanding trade relationships

Read the "self-reported scale" column as marketing copy the portal chose to publish, not as a verified benchmark. It tells you what each one wants you to believe it's strongest at, which is still useful signal, just not gospel.

Hotel inventory depth: the number that matters most for a package-heavy agency

If your business is mostly domestic and outbound holiday packages, hotel inventory depth is the axis that decides your portal, more than flight fares or brand name. A portal with a shallow bed bank means you're constantly checking three tabs to confirm a Bali or Kerala property is actually bookable at the rate shown.

TBO's claimed 1M+ hotels and TripJack's claimed 1.6M+ both suggest broad global reach, but "hotels listed" and "hotels actually bookable at a competitive net rate for your specific dates" are different numbers, and no portal publishes the second one. TravClan's route to depth is different: rather than building its own bed bank from scratch, it has plugged into RateHawk's 2.9M+ accommodation inventory, which is a meaningful way to get global reach without years of direct hotel contracting.

Careful: a big headline hotel count doesn't tell you rate competitiveness. Run the same property, same dates, across two portals before committing your holiday packages to one bed bank. Agents in forums regularly report the "best" portal for Dubai isn't the same as the "best" one for Southeast Asia.

For domestic-only shops, this axis matters less. Most Indian hotel chains and independent properties are contracted directly or through smaller regional consolidators, and you may not need a global-scale portal at all for a Kerala or Rajasthan-heavy book of business.

Flights: portal vs. consolidator vs. GDS

None of the four portals here is a replacement for a GDS relationship if you're doing serious volume domestic or international ticketing; they sit alongside GDS access, not instead of it, for most established agencies. Where they earn their keep is filling gaps: a low-cost carrier fare a GDS doesn't surface well, or a quick fare check when a client calls mid-conversation. We've gone deeper on the flight-booking decision itself in where a small agency should book flights in 2026, which is worth reading alongside this comparison if flights are your primary revenue line rather than packages.

TripJack's pitch leans hardest into flights, with its claimed 900+ airline access bundled with hotel inventory in one API. TBO and TravClan both carry flight products too, but agents in trade groups generally describe them as secondary to their hotel and package strengths. Riya's flight positioning isn't publicly documented in the same way.

Packages and DMC-style products

TravClan's original identity was package and group-tour focused, closer to a DMC marketplace than a pure consolidator, which shows in how it packages holiday products for resale rather than just raw hotel and flight inventory. TBO and TripJack both offer holiday/package modules too, layered on top of their hotel and flight cores.

If your business model leans toward reselling curated, ready-built holiday packages rather than assembling your own from raw hotel and flight inventory, weigh that against the DMC money flow you're actually operating in: a portal's "package" product still runs on the same net-rate-plus-markup logic as any DMC relationship, it just comes with a tech layer on top.

Deposit, credit and commission terms: what's actually knowable

Here's the honest answer: there is no authoritative public source for current TBO, TripJack, Riya or TravClan deposit requirements, credit terms or commission structures. Every portal negotiates these on volume, relationship history and city, and none publish a public rate card the way, say, a GST rate schedule is published.

What circulates instead is agent-forum folklore: figures traded in WhatsApp groups and blog posts like the one on Riya's own site about staying ahead of OTAs, which discusses trends but not hard terms. Treat any specific deposit or commission number you hear in a forum as a data point from one agency's negotiation, not a published rate you're entitled to. Per-segment flight incentives work the same way: they're volume-negotiated and unpublished across the industry, the same way GDS segment incentives are (a dynamic covered in more general terms in how travel APIs and GDS relationships are structured).

Example: if a broker or another agent quotes you a specific deposit figure or commission percentage for any of these portals, ask them directly whether that's their negotiated rate or the portal's opening offer to new sign-ups. The two can differ substantially, and a new agency's first-year terms are rarely the terms a five-year veteran with volume gets.

Before signing anything, get every deposit, credit line and settlement-timing commitment in writing from the portal's own sales team, dated. Verbal promises from a portal's regional sales rep are not enforceable the way a signed agreement is, and terms genuinely do change year to year.

Settlement speed and support: what breaks at 11 pm

Settlement speed (how fast a refund or cancellation actually lands back in your account) and support responsiveness are the two things agents complain about loudest in trade groups, and the two things portals discuss least in their own marketing. Neither is publicly benchmarked across all four portals in any source we can point you to, so this is genuinely a "ask other agents in your city" question, not a "read the website" one.

What is worth building into your own operations regardless of which portal you pick: a documented process for what your team does when a supplier booking breaks mid-trip, because portal support tickets don't resolve at 11 pm on a Saturday.

Onboarding: what each portal will ask for

Every one of these portals runs a standard KYC and business-verification process before activating your account, roughly:

1. Business registration proof (GST certificate, Shop & Establishment or equivalent).
2. PAN and bank account details for settlement.
3. A signed agreement or terms acceptance covering deposit and credit terms.
4. In most cases, an initial refundable or adjustable deposit before your credit line activates.
5. A sales or onboarding call where markup control, white-label options and support escalation paths get explained (verbally, not always documented).

Some of these portals also offer a white-labelled booking site for your own customers, which is a separate commercial decision from the B2B sourcing relationship itself. If a portal pitches you that add-on, weigh it against what a 'free' white-label travel portal actually costs before agreeing, since the sourcing relationship and the storefront relationship carry different fine print.

Before wiring any deposit to a new portal or supplier relationship, whether or not it's one of the four named here, run it past the same vetting discipline you'd use for any new supplier. Vetting a new DMC before you wire money applies just as much to a B2B portal's sales agent as it does to an unfamiliar overseas DMC.

Which portal for which job

Your shop is mostly	Start with	Why
Hotels, package holidays	TBO or TravClan	Deeper claimed hotel/bed-bank reach
Flights, quick fare checks	TripJack	Combined flight + hotel single API
Global outbound packages	TravClan (via RateHawk)	Widest claimed accommodation footprint
Legacy relationships, GSA ties	Riya Connect	Existing trade relationship, less public data

Don't read this table as "pick one and never look back." Most established agencies of 5+ staff end up registered on two portals: one as a primary sourcing relationship and one as a fallback when the first shows a gap on a specific date or destination. The cost of a second registration is usually just the KYC paperwork and possibly a smaller starting deposit, not an ongoing fee.

Switch triggers: when to add or drop a portal

• You're checking the same property on three tabs weekly. That's a sign your primary portal's inventory has a gap your business hits often; add a second portal rather than living with the workaround.
• A refund has taken longer than your own client refund deadline. If your cancellation policy promises clients a refund timeline your portal can't match on the supplier side, that mismatch is now your liability, not theirs.
• Support goes silent during a live disruption. One unanswered escalation during a genuine crisis (flight cancellation, hotel overbooking) is a signal, not a coincidence.
• A competing portal's sales team quotes materially better credit terms. Get it in writing, compare it against your actual volume, and don't switch on a verbal promise alone.
• You've outgrown manual reconciliation. If nobody on your team can currently tell you, without digging through statements, how much credit you've used across your active portal relationships, that's an operations gap independent of which portal you're on.

Common questions

TBO vs TripJack: which should a small agency start with?

For a hotel- and package-heavy small agency, TBO's longer track record (established 2006, World Travel Award winner in 2019) and claimed 1M+ hotel reach make it a reasonable default first registration. If your business skews toward flight bookings and you want hotels bundled in the same integration, TripJack's combined flight-and-hotel API is the better starting fit. Many agencies end up registered on both within their first year, using one as primary and one to check gaps.

Is TravClan only for hotels?

No. TravClan began as a package and group-tour marketplace for agents and has since added global hotel reach through its RateHawk partnership, so it's a reasonable fit for agencies that want packaged holiday products and a growing bed bank in one place, not a hotels-only tool.

Is Riya Connect still worth registering on in 2026?

Riya remains a name many established agents already have a relationship with, particularly around GSA and legacy trade ties, but it doesn't publish the scale metrics the newer portals do. Worth keeping if you already have the relationship and it's serving you; not obviously worth a fresh onboarding purely on reputation if you have no existing tie to the group.

Do these portals replace a GDS relationship for flights?

No, for most agencies doing meaningful ticketing volume, a GDS relationship still matters alongside any B2B portal. The portals are better read as a convenient add-on for gaps and quick fare checks, not a full replacement for a ticketing desk built on GDS access.

The short version

• TBO (2006, self-reported 159,000+ buyers, 1M+ hotels) and TripJack (self-reported 60,000+ agents, 1.6M+ hotels, 900+ airlines) publish the boldest scale claims; both figures are the portals' own, not audited.
• TravClan has widened its hotel reach through a RateHawk partnership (2.9M+ accommodations, 220+ countries) after starting as a package/group-tour marketplace.
• Riya Connect is the legacy name in the room; it doesn't publish scale metrics, so weigh it on existing relationship value, not published numbers.
• Deposit, credit and commission terms are volume-negotiated and unpublished across all four; get every number in writing from the portal's own sales team, dated.
• Hotel-and-package-heavy agencies generally start with TBO or TravClan; flight-heavy agencies lean TripJack; most agencies past a certain size end up on two portals, not one.
• Vet a new portal's sales promises the same way you'd vet any new supplier before wiring a deposit.
• Treat every "best B2B portal" ranking you find online as vendor marketing unless it says otherwise, including this one's cited figures, which are all sourced and dated as of July 2026.