Questions we get asked

We build booking and reservations software for tour operators, OTAs, multi-brand travel businesses and consortia. At the centre is the Interactive Reservations System, which brings supplier stock and your own contracts together and automates the quoting, booking, accounts and customer communications around every booking. We've been doing it since November 2001, from Peterborough.

Tour operators and OTAs mixing supplier stock with their own contracts across flights, accommodation and extras. Multi-brand operators and consortia running several brands, currencies, or trade and direct channels. And established businesses that have outgrown their current system and want a partner who'll keep developing with them.

Agencies selling only tour-operator packages, because you'd be loading bookings rather than building them. And single homeworkers or very small start-ups, because our setup and infrastructure suit growing teams. If you're planning to grow, talk to us anyway.

Yes. We have customers in the UK, Spain, Australia and India. Each brand in the system can have its own language and currency, and the system can be hosted where it suits your time zone.

No. We connect you to the suppliers you work with and manage your own contracts. If you need stock, we can talk through which suppliers suit your business.

Yes. Our supplier connectivity (Infinity Web Services) and cached availability (MegaCache) are available on their own. Tell us what you use and we'll say what's possible.

Every system is tailored, so there's no price list. Licences are per user, usually bundled into one monthly cost and itemised in your contract. Once we understand what you need, we'll give you a clear figure.

Your proposal sets out what's included in your licence, what's optional and what's charged separately, and keeps what exists today apart from anything we'd build for you. TripBuilder is included for every new Reservations System customer.

Yes. Try the Reservations System demo and build a holiday and quote yourself, watch the walkthrough, or open a real TripBuilder quote now. When we talk, we'll show you a live online demo built around your kind of business, not a generic tour.

We call you for a short conversation about your business and what prompted the enquiry. Then we show you the software in an online demo. If it looks like we can help, we get to know your team, in person wherever we can, and come back with a proposal and a plan for your project. If we don't think we can make your business better, we'll tell you.

It holds full customer records, booking history and automated communications, which covers what most travel businesses need day to day. It isn't a standalone sales CRM.

Yes. Each brand has its own branding, language, currency, terms, and trade or direct pricing, all run from one system. Brands are licensed individually: your quote includes the ones you need, and you can add more as you grow.

Yes. ContractsBuilder and FlightBuilder hold your own hotel and flight contracts, and they appear in the same search as your supplier stock.

Yes. ManageMyBooking lets customers view their booking, download their documents, pay their balance or instalments, and send you change requests online.

Where it helps. TripBuilder rewrites supplier hotel and resort descriptions into personalised copy for each customer, and TravelAI lets your team research ideas for a proposal. We'll only ever describe what's live today.

Yes, in one of three ways: a fully bookable Universal Website, a search-and-book panel added to the website you already have, or APIs for a website you build yourself, with bookings written back into the Reservations System. See the options.

Cruise content can be switched on in the Reservations System today. Infinite Cruises, with live booking direct with cruise lines and cruise and stay, is in development. We don't publish dates until they're agreed.

UK pricing rules expect the price you show to include the unavoidable local taxes and fees your customers will pay. Local Fees works them out and adds them to your prices automatically.

Yes, it's a big part of what we do. Agreed developments and new integrations go on your roadmap, kept separate from what's available today.

At least 12 weeks from contract to go-live for a team new to the system, covering branding, documents, data import, training and testing. It takes longer with lots of direct contracts or a website alongside, which we sometimes launch in stages.

We look at what data you have and its quality, case by case, and agree a plan for what comes across, and how, during scoping.

Yes. Training is part of onboarding, for everyone who'll use the system.

We recommend our own hosting centre in Peterborough: secured network, off-site backups, failover systems, backup lines and generators. You can also host it yourself or with a third party. One of our Australian customers does, for the time difference.

If we host your system, yes, in our Peterborough hosting centre. If you host it yourself or with a third party, it's held wherever you choose.

Support runs to agreed service levels, with Monday to Friday office hours as standard and out-of-hours or weekend cover if you need it. Any major incident is dealt with whatever the time.

Upgrades happen in the early hours and are announced to you in advance.

Top Dog is ISO 9001:2015 certified for quality management and a member of the Travel Technology Initiative (TTI).

Since November 2001. More than £5 billion of travel has been booked through our systems since then, and most of our customers have been with us for years.

Top Dog is independent and privately owned. It was founded in 2001 by Steve Miller, from the travel industry, and Lindsay Gauton, from travel technology. Lindsay has since retired, and Top Dog is run by its two directors, Steve and Lindsay's son David Gauton. More about us.

Customers include Broadway Travel, Plan My Tour, Entire Travel Group and The Swiss Holiday Company. Read their stories.