How travel agents add markup safely on their own website

Markup is where an online travel agency earns its living, and also where mistakes cost money. This guide covers how markup works on an Idea Holiday agent website, and the points to check before you set it, offer a discount or cancel a booking.

Set markup for each product

When you turn on online booking for your customers, you choose the products to sell: hotels, flights and fixed fares. You set Your markup % for them. Customers see your net price plus your markup. The markup itself is never shown to them, and neither are your net fares.

Remember the website fee

A website fee is charged on each booking: per passenger for flights and fixed fares, and per room-night for hotels. It is not refunded, even if the booking is cancelled later. With Idea Holiday checkout, your earning on a booking is your markup minus the website fee, so choose a markup that still leaves you something on a low-priced booking. The current fee amounts are on the pricing page.

Promo codes cannot take you below cost

You can create promo codes, for example a percentage with a maximum amount, or a flat amount, for chosen products and dates, with a minimum booking amount and a limit on the number of uses. The discount comes out of your markup only. It never goes below your net price and the website fee, so no booking costs you money.

Sub-agents have their own markup

If you let your own sub-agents book, you set a separate sub-agent markup. Sub-agents book at the net price plus that markup and pay from a sub-agent wallet that you run. This is a setting of your website and it is off by default.

Know what happens on a cancellation

• The hotel's or airline's refund goes to your wallet.
• You refund your customer yourself, from the supplier refund plus your markup.
• With Idea Holiday checkout, your pending earning for that booking is paid to your wallet at once.
• The website fee is not refunded.

Tax on your markup

Travel agents with a verified GSTIN can switch on GST invoices to their customers. The fare or hotel charges are shown as collected for the customer, and your markup is your service fee, with 18% GST inside it, so the customer's price does not change. When an invoiced booking is cancelled, a credit note reverses the whole service fee and its GST. Without a GSTIN, or with the setting off, you issue your own tax invoice to your customer for your markup.

A checklist before you publish

1. Choose the products you want to sell and set a markup for each.
2. Check the website fee against your lowest-priced bookings.
3. Decide whether to let sub-agents book, and set their markup separately.
4. Choose where customers pay, and keep your wallet topped up if you use your own gateway.
5. If you have a verified GSTIN, decide whether to switch on GST invoices.

Common questions

Will customers see my markup?

No. They see the net price plus your markup as one price. Your net fares, your markup, your bank details and airline booking references are never shown on the public site.

Can a promo code make me lose money?

No. The discount comes out of your markup only and never goes below your net price and the website fee.

Is the website fee refunded if a booking is cancelled?

No. The website fee is not refunded, even if the booking is cancelled later.