Traveloka was established in 2012 by information technology practitioners who returned from the United States to Indonesia, among others Derianto Kusuma, Ferry Unardi and Albert Zhang. They were joined in 2013 by the initiator of KawalPemilu.org, Ainun Najib. This idea arose when Ferry Unardi often had difficulty in plane reservations, especially when he wanted to return to Padang, Indonesia, from the United States.

At the beginning Traveloka served as a search engine to compare the price of airline tickets from various other sites. In mid 2013 Traveloka then turns into a ticket reservation website, where users can place an order on its official website.. In March 2014, Ferry Unardi stated that Traveloka will soon enter the hotel room reservation business. In July 2014, hotel booking services are available on the Traveloka website.

According to wikipedia