There’s a lot of confusion about how travel agents earn money. A common misconception is that travel agents charge their clients a service fee upfront on top of whatever a trip itself costs.
Generally speaking, this is not the case.
Travel agents actually earn their money through commissions. Whenever a travel agent makes a booking with a particular travel supplier, that supplier pays the agent out a certain percentage of the total cost of that booking.
Here is an example for a better understanding. Let’s say you’re a travel agent and you book a hotel for your client on BedsOnline, one of our hotel booking suppliers. For 2 guests and 3 nights, the total cost comes out to $600. We know that BedsOnline gives 16% commission on all bookings. 16% of $600 is $96 – so the commission projected is $96 for this booking.
As a BWJ Agent, you will be getting 80% of all the commissions that you earn on your bookings. Most other host agencies only give their agents about 50% of all the commissions. So for the example given above, as a BWJ Agent, you’d earn 80% of $96, which is $76.80.
It’s important to note that commission percentages vary based on the booking type and the travel supplier. It’s also important to note that flight-only bookings offer the lowest commission. If you book a flight only on Expedia TAAP, for instance, you would actually earn $0 because Expedia TAAP does not give commission on flight-only bookings. That’s why we also have another supplier we work with called Mondee. Mondee is the only supplier that allows for commissionable airfare on flight-only bookings.
Have any more questions about how travel agent commissions work? Visit our info page on Commission Rates or contact BWJ support by emailing support@bwjagents.com or by calling/texting (818) 450-8085.