Travel Advisor — Commission & Markup Pricing

Activate when: setting planning fees vs commission; deciding markup on net rates; 'should I charge a fee or rely on commission?'; pricing a service tier; low-commission or non-commissionable components. Do NOT activate when: fixed franchise pricing you can't change.

Industry front door for pricing-strategy. Adds domain triggers, example, packs only. Parent Process unchanged. Not legal advice. Disclose fees per applicable state law and card-network rules.

Activate when: setting planning fees vs commission; deciding markup on net rates; "should I charge a fee or rely on commission?"; pricing a service tier; low-commission or non-commissionable components. Do NOT activate when: fixed franchise pricing you can't change.

Why this variant

The parent pricing-strategy captures value by aligning price to willingness-to-pay and cost-to-serve. Travel advisors have a hybrid model — supplier commission + planning fees + markups — and mispricing (relying only on commission) leaves the planning labor unpaid on complex, low-commission trips.

Domain inputs → parent's Process

• Separate commission (paid by supplier) from fee (paid by client for expertise/time).
• Charge planning fees where cost-to-serve is high or components are non-commissionable (many airline tickets, some direct rates).
• Tier by complexity/value, not by trip cost alone.
• Decide markup vs net-plus-fee transparency per client segment.

Worked example

20 hours designing a complex multi-country trip, mostly non-commissionable air + direct hotels. → Commission alone underpays the labor. Structure: upfront planning fee (credited or retained) + any commission on top. Fee disclosed at engagement, protecting margin and signaling expertise.

Compliance anchors

• Disclose service fees before charging; follow state seller-of-travel and card-network surcharge rules.

Packs

• Solo: fee schedule by trip complexity tier; when fee is credited vs retained.
• Agency: segmented pricing (leisure vs luxury vs corporate).

Red flags

• Commission-only model on labor-heavy, low-commission trips.
• Fees undisclosed until the invoice.
• Pricing off trip cost instead of cost-to-serve + value.

Verification

• Commission vs fee separated in the model
• Planning fee applied where cost-to-serve is high
• Fees disclosed at engagement
• Tiering reflects complexity/value

---

Part of deciqAI Knowledge Skills. Core method: pricing-strategy.

---

Part of deciqAI Knowledge Skills — 189 open-source thinking skills that make rigor executable for AI agents. The same skills power every deciqAI agent, which runs them autonomously to operate your company. See it run → https://www.deciqai.com/c/travel-commission-markup-pricing · ⭐ Star the repo → https://github.com/deciqAI/knowledge-skills · Contributions welcome.