How to Price Travel Packages Profitably | Beginner's guide - Travel Agent Guide 2025

How to Price Your Packages Profitably - Beginner's guide
Please click here, for our updated, next steps, guide

Travel Agents, Here’s What You Need to Know

Pricing is one of the most important decisions you make as a travel agent, but also one of the easiest to get wrong. Undercharge, and you feel resentful or burnt out. Overcharge without delivering value, and clients disappear. Worse, many agents copy what others are doing, without actually understanding their own costs, margins, or FX exposure.

At Antravia, we’ve worked with dozens of travel professionals who struggled with profitability, even when they were making bookings every day. The problem was never the bookings. It was how they priced.

This blog breaks it all down. No jargon. No theory. Just what you need to know to price your packages profitably and sustainably.

Know what you’re selling

Are you offering a full package, such as hotel, flights, tours, transfers? Or are you simply booking components like a hotel or cruise and adding service on top? You need to be clear on your role because that affects how you price.

Start by writing down exactly what’s included in your package. If the client is asking for a full itinerary, your price needs to reflect your time and effort, not just the cost of the components.

Choose how you earn

There are three main ways travel advisors make money:

1. Supplier commissions (usually 10 to 20 percent)

2. Planning fees or service charges

3. Markups on net rates or wholesale prices
   

You can use all three if you want. Just make sure you’re transparent and consistent. If you’re collecting a planning fee, let the client know what it covers — and charge it before you start building a custom itinerary.

Don’t forget the hidden costs

Many new agents forget about costs that eat into their profit. These can include:

• Credit card or Stripe fees

• Currency conversion costs

• Time spent planning or adjusting bookings

• Client support during travel
  

If you’re working with a host agency, they may also take a cut of your commission. Make sure you understand your commission split and whether you’re expected to pay any monthly fees.

Keep it simple at the start

When you’re new, it’s better to start with easy-to-price packages. Use clear templates or tiers like:

• Basic: hotel and flights only

• Mid-level: hotel, flights, and a few activities

• Premium: everything plus concierge service or on-trip support
  

This way, you’re not reinventing the wheel for every client. You have structure, and they have options.

Watch your hours

Time is money. If you’re spending hours building a proposal and not getting paid, that’s a problem. Either you need to charge a planning fee, or you need to limit how much work you do before the client commits.

Be honest with yourself about how long things take. You might earn $200 commission on a hotel booking, but if it takes five hours of back and forth, you’re making less than minimum wage.

Track what works - Even a basic spreadsheet is enough to start tracking:

• How much you made per trip

• How long it took

• What types of clients or trips were most profitable
  

Over time, this helps you make better decisions. You’ll start to see patterns — which trips are worth your time, which types of clients drain your energy, and where you’re undercharging.

⸻

Start With Your True Costs

Before you can talk about markup or commissions, you need to know what each package actually costs you. That includes:

• Net rates from suppliers

• Any currency conversion fees or FX losses

• Booking platform costs

• Payment gateway fees

• Your own time if you are handling client service, itinerary planning, or documentation manually

If you do not build in a buffer for your time, you are not charging sustainably. You are running a high-touch, high-risk service for free.

Also remember that net rates are not always net. You may need to add taxes, resort fees, service charges, or local handling costs. Always double check the small print. Suppliers often quote rates that exclude mandatory extras like tourism taxes, especially in destinations like Thailand or the UAE.

⸻

Commissions Are Not Profit

Many agents fall into the trap of thinking commission equals income. It does not. Commissions can be delayed, clawed back, or reduced depending on payment terms, refund policies, or changes in booking volume.

You also have to factor in things like:

• Host agency splits

• Platform overrides

• Commission tiers that only apply after a certain sales volume

• FAM trip or incentive clawbacks if the booking gets cancelled
  

If you are earning 10 percent commission on a 3,000 dollar trip, but paying out 25 percent of that to a host, plus 3 percent in payment fees, you are really earning closer to 217 dollars. And that is before you account for your time.

⸻

Markups vs. Service Fees

There are three ways to structure your pricing:

1. Markup on net rates

2. Charging a planning or consultation fee

3. Hybrid model with both
   

If you are doing anything custom, long haul, or high complexity, a service fee should be non-negotiable. You are not just booking flights. You are using years of knowledge, experience, and destination insight. That has value.

We have seen too many agents undercharge because they are afraid of losing the client. In reality, the right clients will value your service more when they know what it costs.

A good rule of thumb is to use planning fees to cover your time and admin risk, and use markup or commission to cover the actual transaction.

⸻

Build in Currency Margins

If you are working with overseas DMCs, cruise lines, or hotel partners who quote in another currency, you need to understand FX risk.

Many agents lose money simply because the exchange rate moved between quoting and client payment.

Solutions to manage this include:

• Quoting in the supplier currency but charging an FX buffer

• Using a multi-currency account to lock in exchange rates

• Being clear in your terms that the price is subject to exchange rate variation if applicable
  

If you are quoting a trip in US dollars but paying your supplier in euros, and you only mark it up by 5 percent, a bad FX day can wipe out your margin completely.

⸻

Package Pricing: Be Transparent but Smart

You want your pricing to feel clear to the client, but not so itemized that they start comparing each part on Google. Package pricing helps with this. You sell value, not components.

If a trip includes transfers, hotels, private tours, and custom planning, bundle it in one line unless the client specifically asks for breakdowns. This helps protect your markup, avoids unnecessary price comparison, and keeps the focus on experience.

Just be prepared to justify the total if asked. The best agents can explain the value without having to justify every dollar.

⸻

Test and Review Your Pricing Regularly

Your pricing model should not be static. Review it quarterly, or even monthly, depending on volume.

Ask yourself:

• Are you earning enough per booking?

• Is your time being covered?

• Are you consistently underestimating certain destinations or service types?

• Do certain types of clients push back more often, and why?

Also review cancellations and refunds. Are you protected, or are you constantly absorbing losses?

If you are refunding more than five percent of your sales volume due to supplier terms, it may be time to change who you work with or review your client contract.

⸻

Summary: Price for Profit, Not Just Volume

Booking more is not the answer if you are not pricing profitably. The real question is whether you are earning enough per booking to grow, stay motivated, and cover risk.

At Antravia, we work with travel agents at every stage to review their pricing models, test different strategies, and fix the gaps. But if you want to get started on your own, this guide is here to help.

Profitability is not about charging more. It is about charging smart.