How to Set Markup as a Travel Agency (2026 Guide)

Short answer: most travel agencies add a percentage markup on top of the supplier's net rate. Hotels usually carry the most room for it, flights the least, and your own packages are where you set the price yourself. Set a different markup per supplier, check your final prices against the big booking sites every week, and give your sub-agents their own rates so they can earn too.

Markup is the quiet decision behind every booking. Set it too high and customers find the same hotel cheaper elsewhere and never come back. Set it too low and you are doing the work for nothing. This guide explains how agencies think about it and how to set it up without guessing.

Net rates, sell rates and where the profit comes from

When you connect a B2B supplier such as WebBeds, Hotelbeds or TBO, you see net rates: the price you pay the supplier. The price your customer sees is the sell rate. The difference is your margin. Some suppliers instead pay you a commission on a public price. Either way, the question is the same: how much do you add, and on what?

Typical markup ranges

There is no single right number, but most agencies land in these ranges:

• Hotels: roughly 8 to 20 percent on net rates. City hotels that customers compare on every big booking site sit at the low end. Resorts, packages and harder-to-find properties carry more.
• Flights: small, often 1 to 5 percent or a service fee, because customers compare fares to the airline's own site in seconds.
• Your own packages: you build the price yourself, so the margin is whatever the package is worth to the customer. Umrah and Hajj packages fall here.

Treat these as a starting point, not a rule. Your market, your customers and your supplier rates decide where you end up.

Set markup per supplier, not one number for everything

Suppliers price differently. One gives you sharp rates in Dubai, another in Makkah. A single markup across all of them means some of your prices are uncompetitive and others leave money on the table. Setting it per supplier lets you be keen where the competition is tough and earn more where it is not.

On Travora Hub, each supplier has its own markup on its connection card in the dashboard. WebBeds, Hotelbeds and TBO take a markup percentage. Duffel flights, Billbed and RateHawk's deposit method take a commission percentage. RateHawk's standard Pay Now method has no markup setting. You can read more about each connection on the RateHawk integration and hotel booking engine pages.

Check your prices against the market

Once a week, pick five hotels you sell often and compare your final price, including taxes, with the big public booking sites. If you are consistently more expensive on one supplier, lower that supplier's markup. If you are much cheaper, you may be giving margin away. Ten minutes a week is enough to stay honest.

Markup for sub-agents

If other agencies sell through you, they need room to earn as well. There are two common models. In the first, you give each agent a commission on what they sell. In the second, you give them a different markup so they see your net plus your margin and add their own. Travora Hub supports both: each agent can have a default commission, a different commission per product, and a markup override for flights and certain hotel suppliers. A commission ledger tracks what you owe each agent, and you mark payouts as paid. See how it works on the B2B travel booking portal page.

Prices you set by hand

Not everything comes from a supplier. Deals can show an original and a sale price, so the customer sees the discount. Partner hotels you contract directly can have seasonal and weekend night prices. Umrah packages are priced per room type, so a family in a quad room pays a different price per person than a couple in a double. For a deeper look at package pricing, read how Umrah agencies take bookings online.

Know your real profit

Markup is not profit. Card fees, supplier changes and the occasional goodwill refund all come out of it. On Travora Hub the Back Office board shows what you paid and what you charged for every booking, online and offline, so you can see your real margin by month and export it to Excel. We explain it in what travel agency back office software should do.

Frequently asked questions

What is a good markup for a travel agency?

For hotels, many agencies start around 10 to 15 percent on net rates and adjust by supplier and destination. Flights carry much less. Your own packages are priced on value, not on a fixed percentage.

Should I show customers a service fee or include it in the price?

Most customers prefer one final price. A separate fee at the last step of checkout feels like a surprise and increases drop-offs.

Can I set a fixed amount instead of a percentage?

On Travora Hub, supplier markups are percentages. For a fixed price, build a deal or a package and set the price yourself.