Is OTA Builder legit? How it works, plainly.

Is OTA Builder legit? OTA Builder is a free travel website builder, run by the company named below, and every claim on this page can be checked by you rather than taken on trust. This page is written for a skeptical reader, so it says what OTA Builder does, what it does not do, and how to verify a booking without asking anyone for permission.

Two kinds of people read this page. Some of you are about to pay on a travel site you had not heard of yesterday, and you found the small "Built with OTA Builder" line in its footer. Others are thinking about building a site and want to know what they would be putting their own name on.

One thing explains most of the confusion, so it is worth saying first. A website built with OTA Builder carries the name of the person or business who built it, not the name OTA Builder. The travel agent whose site you are on picked that name, set those prices and answers that email. OTA Builder is the software underneath.

Who runs OTA Builder

OTA Builder is operated by [operator company name to be published], at [operator address to be published]. The same entity name and address appear in the terms and the privacy notice, and in the footer of every page on this site.

OTA Builder makes booking software. It does not run the travel websites built with that software, and it does not pick their names. A site built with OTA Builder belongs to the person or business whose name is on it, and that owner decides what to sell, what to charge and how to answer their customers.

The "Built with OTA Builder" line in a site footer tells you which software the site runs on. Website builders in other industries put the same kind of line on free sites. It is not a statement that OTA Builder runs the site, and it is not a recommendation of the site owner.

What OTA Builder is not responsible for

OTA Builder does not set the prices on sites built with it. The site owner adds their own markup on top of the prices shown, keeps that markup, and is the party you are buying from. The site owner is also responsible for their own business registration and for the rules that apply where they trade. Those rules differ by country, and OTA Builder does not check them on an owner's behalf.

Where your customer's money goes

Customers book and pay online, on the owner's website, at the moment they book. The price a customer pays covers the travel itself plus the markup the site owner has set, and the confirmation, tickets and vouchers arrive by email.

Nothing in that flow happens over a phone call, a bank transfer arranged in a chat, or a payment link sent by message. If a travel site asks you to pay any way other than through the checkout on the site itself, stop and ask why. That request does not come from OTA Builder.

Site owners see their markup settings and their bookings in their OTA Builder account. Before OTA Builder sends an owner a first payout, that owner has to verify their identity. The check exists so that anyone taking money from travelers on a site built with OTA Builder is a person OTA Builder can identify.

Who issues the ticket

Flight tickets sold on sites built with OTA Builder are issued through OTA Builder's ticketing partner. They are ordinary airline e-tickets, and the PNR is in the passenger's own name.

That last part is the part to read twice. Your booking sits in the airline's own system, under your own name, so you do not depend on the travel site to prove that it exists. You can look it up yourself, and the next section shows how.

Every ticket follows the rules of the fare that was bought. Refund and change rules are shown in the search results where the source provides them, so a customer can read them before paying. The glossary explains fare rules and e-tickets if those words are new to you.

Hotels and activities work differently, because no airline ticket is involved. A hotel booking produces a hotel voucher by email carrying the site's name, and the full hotel policies (the check in window, children, pets, meals and deposits) are shown before booking. An activity booking produces a voucher by email, with ticket types by age.

How to check a ticket is real

You can confirm a flight booking yourself, on the airline's own website, without help from the travel site that sold it. You need two things from your confirmation email: the PNR (also called the booking reference or record locator, usually six letters and numbers) and the passenger last name exactly as it is spelled on the ticket.

1. Open your confirmation email and find the PNR and the airline name.
2. Check which airline operates each flight. On a codeshare, one airline sells the seat and another flies the aircraft, so use the operating airline.
3. Type that airline's web address into your browser yourself. Do not follow a link from an email or a message.
4. Open the part of the airline site called Manage booking, My trips or Check in.
5. Enter the PNR and the passenger last name.
6. Compare what the airline shows against your confirmation: passenger name, flight numbers, dates, times and cabin.
7. If the airline cannot find the booking, or something does not match, write to the travel site you booked with first. If you get no useful answer, write to OTA Builder at hello@ota-builder.com.

A real booking appears on the airline's own site under the passenger's own name. That is the check that settles the question, and nobody should talk you out of running it. Hotel and activity bookings do not have a PNR; keep the voucher that arrives by email and bring it with you.

Why OTA Builder is free

Building and running your website is free. The optional bundle is $99 per year.

The free plan includes the website, the booking engine, selling, your brand and colors, your own markup, a free subdomain on ota-sites.com (for example sunway-travel.ota-sites.com), the help center and guides, and a small "Built with OTA Builder" line in the site footer. You can use your own domain on the free plan too.

The bundle adds a free domain of your choice, removes the "Built with OTA Builder" line, and includes premium support. If the bundle is not renewed, the site stays online on the free plan, and the domain and premium support end with the bundle. A bundle refund is available within 14 days if no domain has been registered, and domain fees are not refundable once a domain is registered. The pricing page lists both plans side by side.

What OTA Builder does about scam sites

OTA Builder screens the names of new sites, verifies the identity of an account holder before a first payout, and can suspend an account. Every account agrees to an acceptable use policy that sets out what a site built with OTA Builder may not do.

Name screening catches the obvious cases: a site borrowing an airline's name, a hotel chain's name, or the name of a company it has nothing to do with. It does not catch everything, and OTA Builder does not pretend otherwise. Software that lets anyone build a website will sometimes be picked up by someone who should not have it, which is why the right to suspend an account and the reporting page both exist.

If you think a site built with OTA Builder is misleading people, report it on the report abuse page. Name the site, say what happened, and say what you were asked to pay and how. OTA Builder reads every report.

How to contact us

Write to hello@ota-builder.com. OTA Builder replies within two working days, and bundle holders get premium support.

Tell us which site you are asking about, and include the PNR or booking reference if you have one. If your question is about a booking you already made, start with the site you booked on, because the owner can see that booking in their account. The contact page has the same address and a form.