The travel and transportation industry runs on real-time data, high-volume transactions, and complex integrations with third-party platforms like Global Distribution Systems (GDS), booking engines, and fleet management systems. If you’re providing SaaS solutions in this sector, your SaaS agreement needs to reflect the unique risks and expectations of your customers—airlines, booking aggregators, logistics platforms, and travel management companies alike.
Here are the 5 must-cover issues for your SaaS agreement:
1️ Uptime and Peak Load Performance
Why it matters:
Travel systems face major traffic spikes during holidays, promotions, and unpredictable events like airline cancellations or weather disruptions. Downtime isn’t just inconvenient—it causes immediate revenue loss.
What to include in the agreement:
- Tight SLAs with real-time availability commitments (e.g., 99.99% uptime monthly).
- Peak load guarantees—ensure your infrastructure can scale to handle seasonal demand.
- Performance benchmarks, like page load time or transaction processing limits.
- Credits tied to lost transactions (if applicable), not just flat service fees.
2️ Critical Integration Dependencies (GDS, APIs, Fleet Data)
Why it matters: Many travel SaaS products don’t work in a vacuum—they rely on integrations with GSDs, airline booking APIs, car rental databases, fleet tracking tools, or maps.
What to include:
- Disclaimers for third-party system outages—clarify you’re not liable for GDS/API failures.
- Integration support language—spell out whether your team will assist with setup, maintenance, or troubleshooting of third-party connections.
- Data flow responsibilities—who ensures the integrity and security of data coming from external platforms?
3️ Real-Time Data Accuracy and Sync Timing
Why it matters: Travel bookings are volatile—an available seat can be sold seconds later. A syncing delay or stale inventory can cause double bookings, overbookings, or pricing errors.
What to include:
- Warranties and disclaimers about data accuracy, and how quickly inventory is updated.
- Timing commitments for syncing with third-party data (e.g., every X minutes).
- Liability caps specific to transactional errors caused by data lag.
4️ Cancellation, Refund, and Chargeback Handling
Why it matters: Travel services often involve changes and refunds. If your platform automates or facilitates booking, your customer wants clarity about how your system handles reversals.
What to include:
- Roles and responsibilities—does the SaaS platform trigger refunds or merely pass them through?
- Support obligations for disputed transactions.
- Indemnification or limitation of liability for chargebacks and failed refunds.
5️ Business Continuity and Incident Response
Why it matters: A software outage during peak season can shut down an airline’s reservation system or prevent a logistics firm from dispatching trucks. Customers need assurance that you have disaster recovery and incident response protocols in place.
What to include:
- Disaster recovery plan references—consider attaching a high-level summary.
- Incident response timing commitments—e.g., “Severity 1 issues responded to within 30 minutes.”
- Escalation processes and customer involvement during incidents.
- Optional: Redundancy guarantees for mission-critical services.
🎯 Conclusion
Travel and transportation clients expect your SaaS agreement to reflect their real-world risks—not just boilerplate terms. Build your contract to cover the realities of integrations, transactions, and uptime, and you’ll earn trust (and longer deals) in a competitive and volatile market.
𝗦𝗲𝗲 𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗽𝗼𝘀𝘁𝘀 𝗮𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗧𝗲𝗰𝗵𝗹𝗮𝘄 𝗕𝗹𝗼𝗴 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘀𝘂𝗯𝘀𝗰𝗿𝗶𝗯𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝘆 𝘂𝗽 𝘁𝗼 𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗲𝗰𝗵 𝗹𝗮𝘄 𝗶𝘀𝘀𝘂𝗲𝘀: http://galkinlaw.com/blog/ or follow me on LinkedIn to receive my posts.
If you require assistance with drafting or negotiating SaaS agreements tailored to the unique challenges of the travel and transportation industry, please contact an attorney at Galkin Law.