Travel Platforms Built by Industry Insiders
Booking systems, search infrastructure, and high-performance architecture shaped by two decades inside global travel technology
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Booking systems, search infrastructure, and platform architecture built by people who have been inside the industry since before it was digital.
Travel is in our DNA
Most digital agencies describe travel as a vertical they serve. For Gradion, it is the industry the founder came from.
Lars Jankowfsky founded Swoodoo in 2006 - Germany’s leading flight metasearch, acquired by KAYAK in 2010. He stayed as VP Engineering for KAYAK Europe, inside a platform that today processes over 2 billion consumer queries annually across 60 markets. In parallel, NFQ (represented by Gradion) built and ran a high-performance engineering team embedded in KAYAK’s product development over more than a decade - a partnership that ended in 2018 when KAYAK acquired approximately 40 of those engineers directly into KAYAK Lithuania.
Gradion also developed HotelQuickly, a last-minute hotel booking app that operated across the Asia-Pacific market. The result is two decades of direct experience across flight search, accommodation, experiences, and rental mobility - in both DACH and Asia-Pacific markets.
Built for Search, Scale, and Volatility
Travel systems operate under pressure most industries never experience.
- High-frequency search queries with sub-second response expectations
- Real-time pricing and inventory volatility
- Complex integrations with airlines, GDS, aggregators, and PSPs
- Seasonal traffic spikes and campaign-driven load surges
- Multi-market localization across currencies and regulatory environments
We build infrastructure that remains performant under peak demand and market volatility.
From Query to Conversion
Travel is not just about search. It is about conversion under friction.
Our engineering experience spans:
- Flight and accommodation search optimization
- Caching and indexing strategies for high-volume query handling
- Booking flow optimization and payment integration
- Fraud prevention and transaction integrity
- Post-booking automation and customer service workflows
At scale, milliseconds impact conversion. Architectural decisions impact margin.
EUR 1B IPO, 7-year partnership
HomeToGo grew from founding to a EUR 1 billion IPO with Gradion as engineering partner for seven years.
Proof in production
NFQ (represented by Gradion) built HomeToGo from founding in 2014 through a EUR 1 billion IPO in 2021. Up to 150 engineers, 15 million listings, 100+ partner APIs, 25 markets.
roadsurfer: full booking platform rebuilt in 20 days. Bookings and revenue doubled within a year. Fleet expanded 40%.
GoVibe: experiences booking MVP in three months. 290% booking growth in the rebound year.
What we deliver
Booking engine architecture
IBE design and implementation: search, availability, reservation, payment, and confirmation engineered for conversion. Covers flight, accommodation, experiences, and rental verticals.
Search and availability infrastructure
Real-time inventory search across distributed supplier systems. GDS connectivity, channel manager integrations, property deduplication with GIATA, and caching architectures calibrated to supplier update frequency.
Multi-sided platform architecture
Supplier onboarding, partner API integration, inventory normalization, commission engines, and the AI-assisted agent tooling that lets human travel specialists compose personalized itineraries at scale.
Mobility and fleet platforms
Vehicle availability, booking integration, maintenance workflows, telematics, and multi-depot operations for rental and mobility businesses.