Cruise Booking Platforms & Cruise APIs — Built for You, or Build It Yourself
Two ways to sell cruises online: we custom-build a cruise booking platform you own outright — or we give you our cruise APIs and your team builds the platform itself. We're a tech implementer, not a distributor: your cruise line agreements stay yours. No per-booking fees, no per-call fees, no call limits.
Book a demoTwo ways to launch your cruise business online
Most travel businesses evaluating cruise booking software are choosing between licensed, off-the-shelf products — setup fees plus per-booking or subscription costs, with the storefront, data, and roadmap living inside someone else's product. Maukaa offers two different paths, depending on how much you want to build yourself.
We build your cruise booking platform
A cruise booking platform designed and built specifically for your business — your brand, your domain, your commercial rules.
- You own everything we build — code, architecture, and data
- Cabin selection, deck plans & dynamic packaging
- Agent commissions with B2C and B2B sub-agent portals
- Built the way you sell cruises in your market
Cruise API — you build the platform yourself
For businesses with their own development team: we provide the cruise APIs and your team builds the storefront on top.
- Search, cabin availability, pricing & booking via one interface
- Build in React, Next.js, or any stack you run
- A very low one-time onboarding fee, then a minimal monthly retainer
- No per-call or per-booking charges, and no call limits
An important distinction either way: Maukaa is a technology implementer, not an API distributor. We are not authorised by cruise lines to distribute their content and we don't sit in your commercial chain — the cruise line agreements are yours, held directly with the lines. Four cruise line integrations are live in production today, and we integrate additional cruise lines on request, free of charge. We've built and operated booking platforms for cruise operators including Resorts World Cruises.
What we build into a cruise platform
Deck plans, cabins & multi-cabin booking
Cabin category selection, add-ons and ancillaries, and multi-cabin flows for family and group bookings. Deck plans are managed through the CMS we build into your platform.
Multi-language & multi-currency*
Multi-language storefronts — including right-to-left scripts like Arabic — and multi-currency pricing with configurable FX markup rules per currency, channel, or agent.
Cruise line & GDS integrations
Live content from the cruise lines you contract with, via their APIs or through Amadeus, Sabre, and Travelport cruise connectivity. Four line integrations live in production, and we integrate additional lines on request, free of charge.
Payment gateways for your market
We integrate the gateways your market runs on — with local currency settlement, 3-D Secure, and PCI-DSS-compliant card handling across the UAE, Singapore, Malaysia, the US, and India.
B2B portal, commissions & group quotes
Sub-agent portals with role-based permissions, per-agent commission and markup rules, group quotes and series departures, and consolidated reporting for head office.
Dynamic packaging
Combine cruise fares with flights, hotels, and transfers into packaged itineraries — priced live, with your markup logic applied across every component.
* Conditions apply.
Why travel businesses choose the tech-implementer model
No per-booking fees. No per-call fees. No call limits.
Volume-based pricing means the software vendor's revenue grows with yours. Neither of our paths works that way. A platform we build for you is yours — a build cost, then running costs you control. The cruise API is a very low onboarding fee, then monthly just the minimal retainer plus API hosting on actuals. Either way, your cost per booking falls as you scale.
Your supplier relationships stay yours
Because we're a tech implementer rather than a content distributor, the fares, commissions, and market rights negotiated with each cruise line belong to you — not intermediated through a platform vendor's agreements. We supply the technology; you keep the commercial relationship and the margin.
Compliance and localisation for your market
PCI-DSS-compliant payment handling, GDPR-aligned data practices, and tax-compliant invoicing for your jurisdiction (VAT, GST, or sales tax). Because the platform runs on infrastructure you own and control, you choose the cloud region and hosting arrangement that suit your data residency needs. Demos and support are scheduled around your time zone — Gulf, Singapore, India, or US hours.
Why Maukaa over a general software company
If you're also evaluating general development firms, here's an honest look at how that comparison tends to play out for a project of this kind.
| A typical software vendor | Maukaa Solutions |
|---|---|
| Little or no cruise industry experience — learning on your project. | Already built DeckPro, the Star Dream Cruises website, mobile app, and CruiseBuddy — cruise tech is our domain. |
| A generic booking-system approach, not built for cruise distribution. | Built for the whole cruise distribution chain — cruise lines, OTAs, and B2B and B2C travel agents. |
| A low quote upfront, with scope creep and change requests later. | Fixed scope and transparent pricing — no surprises after you sign. |
| Handoffs to junior teams after kickoff. | The same senior team from discovery through to launch. |
| Delivery ends at launch — no roadmap ownership. | We stay on the roadmap — your platform evolves as your business grows. |
The real cost of choosing cheaper: a lower quote rarely means a lower cost. Vendors who underprice this kind of project tend to cut corners on features or quality, and the gaps return as change requests — by which point you've lost time and momentum. We've already solved the hard problems in cruise tech, so you're paying for what we know, not for us to figure it out.
Proven in cruise: four platforms live across three clients, every client still with us
Star Dream Cruises — website & booking portal
A unified booking portal we designed and built for Star Dream Cruises — real-time availability, a seamless booking flow from search to confirmation, an integrated CMS, and payment integration. It's now their primary sales channel, driving $1M+ in monthly online revenue. Live at stardreamcruises.com.
Star Dream Cruises — mobile app (iOS & Android)
Native iOS and Android apps giving passengers and agents on-the-go access to bookings, itineraries, cabin details, and real-time updates — running on the same booking engine as the web portal, so there's one source of truth across every channel.
DeckPro — cruise operations platform
A purpose-built cruise operations platform we built for ARK Travel Group, handling end-to-end operations — cabin inventory, itinerary management, agent tools, and back-office workflows — designed for the complexity of multi-liner cruise operations at scale. Live at deckpro.in.
StarDream CruiseBuddy — travel agent rewards platform
A loyalty and rewards platform we built for StarDream Cruises Asia's travel agents. Agents register, log their bookings, and earn reward points against them — giving StarDream a direct incentive channel to its agent network and a clean record of agent-driven sales. Live at stardreamcruisebuddy.com.
Markets we serve
We currently work with travel agencies, OTAs, and cruise operators across five markets, localising each platform for the languages, currencies, payment gateways, and tax rules that market runs on:
UAE & GCC — Arabic (RTL) storefronts, AED pricing, regional payment gateways, VAT-compliant invoicing, and demos in Gulf Standard Time. See our dedicated cruise booking platform for UAE & GCC travel agencies page.
Singapore & Malaysia — SGD and MYR pricing, GST-compliant invoicing, and support hours aligned to Singapore time. Our cruise experience began in this region, building for operators sailing out of Singapore.
United States — USD pricing, US payment gateway integrations, and sales-tax-aware invoicing for US-based agencies and OTAs.
India — INR pricing, Indian payment gateway integrations, GST-compliant invoicing, and delivery teams working in Indian Standard Time.
* Conditions apply.
A cruise API without per-call or per-booking fees
If your team prefers to build the booking platform itself, we provide the cruise APIs and you build on top. The API connects your website or app to the cruise lines you contract with, through a single interface — search, cabin availability, pricing, and booking — ready for headless storefronts built on React, Next.js, or any stack you run. You control the front end entirely; we keep the connectivity running underneath.
The commercial model: a very low one-time onboarding fee; after that, your entire monthly cost is the minimal retainer plus the server charges (billed on actuals) for the infrastructure the APIs are hosted on. No licence fee, no volume tiers, no API call limits, and no charges for extra calls. Explore the API documentation, or contact us for sandbox access.
Frequently asked questions
What's the difference between the platform and the cruise API?
With the platform, Maukaa designs and builds a complete cruise booking solution for you, end to end, tailored to your business — and you own it. With the cruise API, we provide the technology for search, availability, pricing, and booking, and your own development team builds the platform on top of it. Choose the platform if you want it done for you; choose the API if you have a dev team and want full control of the front end.
Is Maukaa a cruise API distributor?
No. We're a technology implementer — we are not authorised by cruise lines to distribute their content and we don't sit in your commercial chain. Your cruise line agreements are held directly by you; we supply and run the technology that connects to them.
How is the cruise API priced? Are there call limits?
There are no API call limits, no per-call charges, and no per-booking fees. After a very low one-time onboarding fee, the monthly cost is simply the minimal retainer plus server charges (on actuals) for the infrastructure the APIs are hosted on — no licence fee, no volume tiers.
Which cruise lines do you support?
Four cruise line integrations are live in production today, and we integrate additional lines on request, free of charge — alongside GDS cruise connectivity through Amadeus, Sabre, or Travelport where applicable. Content runs under the agreements you hold directly with each cruise line.
Does the platform support multiple languages and currencies?
Yes — multi-language storefronts including right-to-left scripts like Arabic, and multi-currency pricing* with configurable FX markup rules per currency, channel, or agent.
* Conditions apply.
Can you migrate data from our existing system?
Yes. Data migration is part of delivery. We map and migrate existing bookings, customer profiles, and supplier data from your legacy system — and because we also build data warehouses, migrated data lands in a clean, structured foundation your reporting can trust.
What about PCI-DSS, GDPR, and data residency?
Card payments run through PCI-DSS-compliant gateway integrations so card data never touches your servers. Platforms follow GDPR-aligned data practices and support your market's tax-compliant invoicing (VAT, GST, or sales tax). Because the platform runs on infrastructure you own and control, you choose the cloud region and hosting arrangement, so data residency requirements sit in your hands.
Is there vendor lock-in?
If we build the platform for you, you own it outright — code, architecture, and data — so there is no licence to cancel. On the cruise API, the engagement is a transparent onboarding fee plus monthly retainer, and your booking and customer data is always yours and fully exportable.