40 questions to ask before you buy travel software

You've sat through the demo. The travel software looks slick, the salesperson is friendly, and the annual plan comes with a launch discount if you sign this week. None of that tells you what happens when your GSTIN prints wrong on an invoice, a WhatsApp bill triples in peak season, or you want to leave and your data is stuck behind a support ticket.

Every year a batch of Indian tour operators signs off a good demo and finds the real terms three months in, usually mid-season or mid-dispute. The demo answers the questions the vendor wants asked. This checklist asks the ones that matter: 40 questions across eight risk areas, each with the answer that should worry you, plus five trial tests worth running yourself.

How to run this checklist on the demo call

Keep this open on your phone. Read each question as written, then wait. A vendor who knows their own product answers in one sentence with a number or a yes/no. Dodging or "let me check and get back to you" on something trivial for their own team is itself an answer.

Don't accept "it's customisable" without asking who does the customising, and whether it's built in by default. That distinction is usually where the real cost hides.

Data ownership and export: five questions before you type in a single client record

Your client list and booking history are the most valuable thing in your business. Know exactly how you get it back out, and how fast, before you type in the first record.

1. Can you export every client record as CSV or via API, not just as a formatted PDF? Red flag: export only as PDF, or gated behind a support ticket.
2. How long does a full export take once I request it? Red flag: no committed timeline, just "we'll get back to you."
3. Are passport and ID scans you store for my travellers exportable and deletable on my request? Red flag: no clear answer. The Data Fiduciary stays accountable even when a vendor holds the data, so you, not the vendor, answer to that traveller under the DPDP Act; passport scans carry real obligations regardless.
4. Who legally owns the data I upload, my client records or yours? Red flag: contract language giving the vendor rights to use, retain, or resell your data beyond your subscription term.
5. Can I export while my subscription is still active, or only after I've given notice to leave? Red flag: export is hidden or disabled until you're already walking out the door.

GST and TCS on the documents it actually generates

Every quote and invoice this software produces is a document your business is legally responsible for. Watch it generate one, live, on the call, to know if it's actually built right.

1. Can you generate a real quote right now, with a tax breakup, using my numbers? Red flag: hesitation, or a demo where "tax isn't turned on for this account."
2. Does the invoice carry my GSTIN and sequential invoice numbering automatically? Red flag: invoice numbers you type in manually, which breaks the sequence and invites a mismatch at filing.
3. Does the platform calculate place of supply correctly for an inter-state client? Red flag: "you can customise those fields yourself," meaning it isn't actually built.
4. Does the software show tax collected at source on outbound package invoices at all? The rate and threshold have shifted more than once and stay contested; confirm the current position with your CA. Red flag: the vendor has never heard the term.
5. When GST rates change, who updates the tax logic, me or you? Red flag: "you'll edit the template yourself" hands you a legal exposure that should sit with the software.

Per-user pricing: what actually counts as a "user"

"Per user, per month" sounds simple until your accountant and the weekend family member turn out to be separate paid seats you didn't budget for.

1. Is a "user" a named login, a concurrent session, or a WhatsApp-connected number? Red flag: a vague answer, or a definition that only surfaces once it's already on your invoice.
2. Does a part-time accountant or view-only family member count as a paid seat? Red flag: yes, at full price, for read-only access.
3. Does the price also scale with leads or bookings, on top of seats? Red flag: a second, uncommunicated pricing axis you discover in month two.
4. What happens the day I add a seasonal staffer for three months? Red flag: no short-term seat option, only an annual commitment.
5. Is "unlimited users" actually unlimited, or does it mean one shared login? Red flag: "unlimited" that means one login shared by five people, its own security problem the day something goes wrong.

WhatsApp and SMS: what's Meta's cost and what's the vendor's markup

WhatsApp's own pricing is public. Meta moved to per-message billing on its Business Platform from July 2025, charging only for delivered template messages in the Marketing, Utility, and Authentication categories, with replies in an open service window free (as of August 2026). Anything a vendor bills beyond that base rate is their markup, and you're entitled to see the split.

1. What does Meta charge per message, separate from what you charge? Red flag: a single bundled "messaging credit" price with no breakdown of Meta's cut versus the vendor's markup.
2. Are replies within an open service window billed or free? Red flag: charged regardless, when Meta itself doesn't.
3. Which category, Marketing, Utility, or Authentication, does my booking-confirmation message fall under? Red flag: the vendor can't map your message types to Meta's own categories.
4. Do Meta's volume-tier discounts get passed to me, or does the vendor keep the spread? See WhatsApp broadcast economics for how those discounts actually work.
5. Can I see an itemised per-message cost for a test send, right now? Red flag: no line-item breakdown, only an unauditable monthly bundle.

IST support hours, escalation, and the uptime SLA that sounds better than it is

A platform down on a Saturday in peak season isn't a hypothetical, it's a when. What matters is whether support and uptime promises hold up to that scenario, not the pitch deck's "99.9% uptime" slide.

1. What are your support hours, in IST, actual clock times? Red flag: "always available" with no stated hours.
2. If the platform is down on a Saturday in peak season, who do I reach and how? Red flag: only a chatbot or ticket form, no named escalation path.
3. What does your uptime guarantee actually let you owe me if you miss it? A 99.9% monthly target, the standard figure in cloud SLAs like Google Workspace's (as of August 2026), permits roughly 8-9 hours of downtime a year. Red flag: no service-credit mechanism attached.
4. Do I have to notice a claim within a fixed window to get that credit? Red flag: yes, the window is short and nobody tells you upfront.
5. What happened the last time your platform had a major outage? Red flag: the vendor can't, or won't, answer with specifics.

Contract term, auto-renewal, and the price-increase clause

The contract matters more than the quoted price; that price is only good for as long as the contract says it is.

1. Does this contract auto-renew, and how much notice do I need to cancel? Red flag: auto-renewal with no reminder email before the cancellation window closes.
2. How much notice before a price increase, and is there a cap? Red flag: "prices may change" with no number and no ceiling.
3. Am I locked into an annual term, or can I pay month to month? Red flag: annual-only pricing dressed up as a "discount" you can't opt out of.
4. What's the penalty if I leave mid-term? Red flag: the full remaining term is due immediately, no partial refund for unused months.
5. Can I downgrade seats mid-contract if a season is slow? Red flag: no, you're locked at your peak-season commitment all year round.

What happens to my data if I cancel a software subscription?

Grace period, lockout, and deletion timeline should be written into the contract, not discovered the week your card fails. If the vendor can't answer cleanly, assume the worst version is what happens.

1. What happens to my data the day I stop paying? Red flag: immediate lockout, no grace period.
2. Is the data locked read-only, or deleted outright? Red flag: deletion, with no advance warning.
3. How many days do I have to export before deletion starts? Red flag: fewer than 30 days, or a window that starts before you're notified.
4. Do you warn before deleting, or does it happen silently on a billing cycle? Red flag: silent deletion, no email trail.
5. If I come back six months later, is any of my old data recoverable? Red flag: a flat "no," with no backup retention mentioned.

Five things to test yourself in the trial, not ask about

A vendor can answer every question above well and still have a product that breaks under real use. Test these five things yourself before you sign.

1. Generate one real quote, end to end, using an actual upcoming departure's numbers, not canned demo data.
2. Generate the invoice from that quote and check every tax field, GSTIN, sequential numbering, place of supply, lands correctly without manual fixes.
3. Export both the quote and the invoice in a format you could hand to your CA, not a screenshot.
4. Add a second login for a teammate or your accountant and see what gets billed differently, or what access breaks, the moment you do.
5. Send yourself a test WhatsApp message through the platform and ask, before you hang up, for the exact cost of that one send.

The negotiation levers a small buyer actually has

You have more leverage than a small agency usually assumes.

• Annual prepay. Vendors discount for cash upfront and lower churn risk. Ask for the discount rather than accepting the monthly sticker price.
• Seat-count timing. Sign your minimum viable seat count now and add seats when you need them for peak season, rather than pre-buying capacity you won't use for months.
• The season you sign in. Vendors are hungriest for signatures in their own slow quarter, which often falls outside the Indian trade's peak booking window. Their quiet season is your leverage moment, not theirs.

Still deciding whether to move off Excel at all? The signs your business has outgrown it are worth reading first. Replacing an existing tool instead, see switching software without losing a season for the migration risk this checklist doesn't cover.

Common questions

What questions should I ask before buying software?

Start with data export rights, the one thing you can't fix after the fact. Then check tax correctness on generated documents, how "user" is defined, and what happens on cancellation.

What to look for when choosing a CRM?

Look past the feature list to three things: clean on-demand export, GST-correct invoices with no manual fixes, and "per user" pricing that matches how your team actually works.

What should I ask a SaaS vendor before signing?

Ask about auto-renewal terms, the notice and cap on price increases, and what happens to your data the day you stop paying, before you ask about features. Those answers determine what it costs to leave.

How do I choose the right travel agency software?

Run this checklist on the call, then test the five trial items yourself. Answers tell you what a vendor claims; the trial tells you what's true.

The short version

• Run all 40 questions on the demo call. A vendor who dodges an easy question about their own product is telling you something.
• Data export must work as CSV or API, on demand, while you're still paying, not only during an exit window.
• Watch it generate a real quote and invoice live. "Customisable" tax fields usually means the logic isn't built.
• Get the definition of "user" in writing. Read-only access and seasonal staff are where per-seat pricing quietly overshoots budget.
• Separate Meta's per-message rate from the vendor's markup. A bundled "messaging credit" price is hiding that split on purpose.
• A 99.9% uptime SLA still allows roughly 8-9 hours of downtime a year; one with no credit mechanism is just a marketing line.
• Test the five trial items: a real quote, a real invoice from it, both exported, a second user added, one WhatsApp send with its cost shown.