A travel agency franchise sells you a brand and a system. A host agency lends you its supplier contracts and takes a share of every commission. People mix the two up all the time, and the difference shows up in the bank account a year later. This guide puts the published fees of named companies side by side, works through a commission split with real numbers, and lists the questions to ask before you sign anything.
Quick answer: There are four ways to sell travel without being someone's employee.
DMC Quote is none of the four. It's a free B2B supplier of hotels, transfers, attraction tickets and tours that agents can use under any of these models, where their contract allows outside suppliers.
A franchise costs the most to enter and gives you the most structure. A host agency costs the least and takes a slice of every commission. A consortium suits an agency that already has sales, and going independent avoids splits entirely but leaves every problem on your desk.
| Model | Up-front fee | Ongoing fee | Commission split | Brand | Training | Who owns the client | Exit terms |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Franchise | The highest. About USD 8,000 to 11,000 up front in the US (Dream Vacations, Cruise Planners); £295 to £5,000 + VAT (Travel Counsellors, UK) | Monthly fee, royalty or both. Travel Counsellors UK: £40 + VAT a month | A royalty on sales or commission, or a profit split (Travel Counsellors: 60% to you) | The franchisor's, sometimes with your name added | Structured; part of what you pay for | Set by the agreement. Read the clauses on leaving | Fixed term. Renewal isn't automatic |
| Host agency | Low. USD 0 (Fora) to a USD 149 registration (KHM Travel Group) | USD 299 a year (Fora); USD 64.95 a month or USD 649 a year (KHM) | You keep 70% to 90% (Fora) or 80% to 90% (KHM) | Your own business name | Online courses and coaching; quality varies by host | Normally you, but check data access if you leave | Set by the contract. Ask about notice and trips not yet travelled |
| Consortium | Membership dues, rarely published | Annual dues | None. You keep your commission; the network negotiates better rates | Your own | Supplier events and education | You | Membership terms; often by application or invitation |
| Independent + B2B supplier | Your company registration and any licence. A DMC Quote account is free | Nothing to us. Your own insurance, software and marketing | None. You set the markup on net rates | Yours, though supplier vouchers carry the supplier's name | You find your own | You | Nothing to exit |
Checked November 2026. Sources: Dream Vacations, Cruise Planners, Travel Counsellors UK; host plans from the Host Agency Reviews profiles of Fora (updated 15 Sep 2026) and KHM Travel Group (updated 9 Nov 2026); contract terms from the US Federal Trade Commission.
The fees above are only the entry ticket. Company registration, insurance, a laptop, a website and marketing come on top under every model, and a storefront adds rent and staff. Our travel agency startup costs guide adds those up by country.
A travel agency franchise is a licence to run your own travel business under an established brand, with the franchisor's booking systems, supplier deals, marketing and training, in return for fees. You own the business. They own the name.
There are two broad kinds. Home-based franchises have low entry fees and suit people starting out. Storefront franchises cost far more and are really about managing a shop and its staff. In the US, franchisors fall under the Franchise Rule of the Federal Trade Commission: you must receive the Franchise Disclosure Document at least 14 days before you sign or pay anything. The FTC also warns that royalties are usually due even when you're losing money, that agreements can run for as long as 20 years, and that renewal isn't automatic.
Published fees run from a few hundred pounds for experienced agents to five figures for the bigger packages. These are the named examples we could check on the franchisor's own site or in dated trade reporting.
| Franchise | Market | Up-front | Monthly fee or royalty | Commission terms |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cruise Planners | US, home-based | USD 10,995 initial franchise fee, with incentive programmes for current agents, military, veterans and first responders | Not listed on the site; set out in its disclosure document | Not listed on the site |
| Dream Vacations | US, home-based | USD 10,500 franchise fee in its newer articles; its cost page shows a USD 7,950 investment. US veterans get 30% off; experienced advisors may qualify for a USD 0 initial franchise fee | Not listed on the site | Not listed on the site |
| Travel Counsellors | UK, home-based | £295 + VAT (Leisure, Corporate, Business Development routes); £995 + VAT (Return to Travel, Travel Trade); £5,000 + VAT (Travel Academy, for people new to travel) | £40 + VAT a month once trading | 60/40 split, 60% to you |
| The Travel Franchise (trades as Not Just Travel) | UK, home-based | Elite £14,995 + VAT; Lite from about £3,000; Entrepreneur from £29,995 | Elite £99 + VAT a month. The Lite fee differs between sources (£299 on the franchisor's help page, £50 in the April 2026 TTG profile) | Sliding scale on booking profit, paid the month after departure. Percentages not published |
| Travel Counsellors | South Africa, for agency owners | R5,000 joining fee, excluding VAT | R500 a month, including VAT | 60:40 split of commission and service fees, 60% to you |
| Thomas Cook (India) Gold Circle Partner | India, retail outlets | Not published | Not published | Not published |
| EaseMyTrip Franchise | India, retail stores | Not published | Not published | Not published |
Checked November 2026. Sources: Cruise Planners, Dream Vacations, Travel Counsellors UK, The Travel Franchise and TTG, 5 Apr 2026, Travel Counsellors South Africa, 24 Apr 2023 (older, so confirm), IIFL, 26 Apr 2022, Business Standard, 23 Jan 2023.
Two things stand out. Travel Counsellors publishes its split in both the UK and South Africa, while the US cruise-led brands publish the entry fee and leave the ongoing royalty to the disclosure document. The Indian brands publish neither. Ask for the agreement itself before you weigh anything up.
A host agency is an established, accredited agency that lets independent agents book under its supplier contracts, accreditation numbers and insurance. The supplier pays the commission to the host, and the host pays you your share.
The model is most developed in the US and Canada; Host Agency Reviews lists about 200 hosts. Elsewhere the same arrangement goes by other names. UK homeworking companies let self-employed agents sell under the company's ATOL, which the Civil Aviation Authority allows because an agent for an ATOL holder is exempt from needing their own. In India, small agents often book air tickets as sub-agents of a consolidator, a similar arrangement.
Fees are low by franchise standards. On their Host Agency Reviews profiles, Fora lists no start-up fee and USD 299 a year, and KHM Travel Group lists USD 64.95 a month with a one-time USD 149 registration, or USD 649 a year with a USD 50 registration, and no per-booking fees. Some hosts charge nothing and earn only from the split; others sell training, errors and omissions insurance or a website as extras. The fee alone tells you little until you set it against the split.
Most commission is paid after travel. With a host that pays that way, a cruise sold in January for October pays you nothing until the ship has sailed, so plan for a thin first year.
Published US splits start at 70% or 80% to the agent and climb to 90% with volume. The Fora range is 70% to 90%. KHM starts every agent at 80% and moves them to 90% once they reach and keep at least USD 5,000 in paid commission in a calendar year. Host Agency Reviews describes the wider market as roughly 50% to 100%. For what suppliers pay in the first place, see our travel agent commission rates guide.
Franchises take their cut in one of three ways: a royalty on your sales or commission, a share of the profit on each booking, or a flat monthly fee. Host agencies take a percentage of every commission. Both usually charge a fixed fee as well.
Most do, in one form or another. Travel Counsellors keeps 40% of the profit on each booking and pays 60% to the franchisee. The Travel Franchise uses a sliding scale on booking profit that moves in favour of the franchisee as sales grow. US franchisors set their royalty in the cost section of the disclosure document (Items 5 to 7), and the FTC notes that royalties are typically a percentage of gross income, due even in a losing month.
Say a client books a USD 4,000 package and the supplier pays 12% commission, so USD 480 in total. The rates below are round numbers for comparison, not any company's contract.
| Arrangement (illustrative) | How it's calculated | You keep |
|---|---|---|
| Host agency, 70% split | USD 480 x 70% | USD 336 |
| Host agency, 80% split | USD 480 x 80% | USD 384 |
| Host agency, 90% split | USD 480 x 90% | USD 432 |
| Franchise, royalty of 3% of the booking value | USD 480 - (USD 4,000 x 3%) | USD 360 |
| Franchise, 60/40 profit split | USD 480 x 60% | USD 288 |
| Independent, buying at a USD 3,520 net rate | USD 4,000 - USD 3,520 | USD 480, before your own costs |
A single booking flatters the high splits. Fixed fees change the picture at low volume. Take two made-up hosts: Host A pays 80% and charges USD 649 a year, Host B pays 70% and charges USD 299. The extra 10 points of split only cover the extra USD 350 in fees once your gross commission passes USD 3,500 a year. On USD 2,000 a year, Host B leaves you USD 1,101 and Host A USD 951. On USD 20,000, Host A leaves you USD 15,351 against USD 13,701.
The same sum works for a franchise. A USD 10,995 fee spread over five years is about USD 2,200 a year before any royalty, so the brand and the leads it brings have to earn you more than that.
The last row is the one people underrate. Selling at a net rate means nobody takes a split, but you carry the client's money, card fees and the supplier risk yourself.
A consortium is a buying group for agencies that already trade under their own name. It negotiates higher commissions and perks with preferred suppliers, runs training and events, and leaves the brand and the clients with you.
Examples: Travel Market Report describes Signature Travel Network in the US as a member-owned travel cooperative (Travel Market Report). In South Africa, the Club Travel franchise and Sure Travel, described as two established travel networks, announced a collaboration in March 2026 while keeping separate brands (Travel News, 29 Mar 2026).
New agents rarely join a consortium directly. Many hosts belong to one, which is how hosted agents usually reach consortium terms. KHM Travel Group, for instance, lists Travel Leaders Network as its consortium on its Host Agency Reviews profile.
Most offers advertised as a free travel agency franchise in India are agent accounts on a B2B booking portal, sometimes with a white-label website, rather than franchises in the legal sense. There is no joining fee. You earn from the markup you add, or from commission.
That's a perfectly workable way to start, and plenty of Indian agents begin exactly like this. The word "franchise" can set the wrong expectation, though. There's usually no brand you can lean on, no territory and little training. You normally prepay a wallet before you can book, and the website, domain or extra modules may carry a yearly charge later. Flights are often the main product.
Before you sign up, ask:
If more of the pitch is about signing up other agents than about selling travel, ask how the income is earned before you go further.
Ask these of any franchisor, host or portal, and get the answers in writing. In the US the disclosure document answers several of them by law; elsewhere you'll need to ask.
One rule worth keeping: the brochure is marketing; the agreement is the product. If the person selling it won't send you the contract before you pay, that tells you most of what you need to know.
New to travel, little capital, maybe part-time: a host agency. It's the cheapest school, and you can leave without losing a large fee.
New to travel with some capital, wanting a known brand and a set routine, ready to commit full-time: a home-based franchise.
Already running an agency with steady sales: a consortium, or independence with your own supplier accounts.
Experienced, with a niche and a client list: independent, buying land arrangements at net rates.
One caveat applies to all four. None of them finds clients for you. Travel Counsellors says so plainly on its own fees page: you won't be given a ready-made client base. Our guides on how to become a travel agent and starting a home based travel agency cover the first-client problem, and if you're still choosing what to sell, see our list of online travel business ideas.
Franchise options in India are mostly retail outlets of large travel brands, plus the "free franchise" portal accounts described above. Thomas Cook (India) runs Gold Circle Partner franchise outlets alongside its own branches: in April 2022 it reported six of each in Delhi NCR (IIFL). EaseMyTrip launched franchise stores in January 2023 and said applicants need a strong network of high-net-worth clients and the ability to generate walk-in business (Business Standard). Neither publishes its fees.
There is no national licence to clear first. Ministry of Tourism approval is "purely a voluntary scheme" (PIB). You need GST registration where it applies, and IATA only if you'll issue air tickets yourself (our IATA accreditation guide explains when). The full set-up is in our India start-up guide, and Indian agents on DMC Quote top up an INR wallet by bank transfer.
Franchise offers are common in the Philippines, but the buyer has to do the checking. The country has no statutory franchise disclosure rule, so fee schedules, territory and termination terms come only if you ask for them (ASEAN Briefing, Sep 2025).
The licensing question matters more than the brand. The Department of Tourism says travel agencies, online sellers included, fall under its accreditation rules (DOT via Philstar), so find out whether a franchise gives you your own DOT accreditation or only lets you sell under theirs. We couldn't find a Philippine travel franchisor that publishes fees and splits we could verify, so there's no table here. The franchise-or-independent comparison and the DOT steps are in our Philippines travel agency guide. PHP is one of our wallet currencies.
Most UK travel franchises are homeworking models, and the fees are published. Travel Counsellors charges £295 to £5,000 + VAT to join, £40 + VAT a month and splits commission 60/40 in your favour. The Travel Franchise, whose franchisees trade as Not Just Travel, is part of Hays Travel Group and an ABTA member, according to its TTG profile.
The question to settle is ATOL. Anyone selling flight-inclusive packages or flight-only seats to UK consumers needs an ATOL or an exemption, and acting as the agent of an ATOL holder is one of those exemptions (CAA). Ask whose ATOL your clients' bookings will sit under. Our UK portal page covers what UK agencies need to register with us.
The US has the most host agencies and the most regulated franchises. Hosts compete openly on fees and splits, and you can compare roughly 200 of them on Host Agency Reviews. Franchisors must hand over a disclosure document at least 14 days before you sign.
Check seller of travel registration. California, Florida, Hawaii and Washington run their own registration, and a good host lists the states it covers (KHM lists all four). See our US portal page for booking Asia and Middle East ground arrangements from the US.
South Africa has no government licence for travel agents. The chief executive of ASATA, Otto de Vries, said in February 2026 that "no equivalent government licensing baseline exists" (Travel News), and ASATA says joining it is optional (ASATA FAQs). The Consumer Protection Act and the Consumer Goods and Services Ombud still apply.
Travel Counsellors' South African offer for agency owners, published in April 2023, was R5,000 to join excluding VAT, R500 a month and a 60:40 split. It asked for at least five years of senior retail or corporate experience, a full-time commitment and, from year two, average gross sales of R150,000 a month. Confirm current terms before you rely on them. South African agencies book with us in USD, topped up by bank transfer; see our Africa portal page.
DMC Quote is a B2B supplier. We don't sell a brand licence, we don't take a share of your commission, and we don't hold accreditation on your behalf.
What you get is a free trade account: net rates on 1.5M+ hotels in 190+ countries, airport transfers at 15+ airports, attraction tickets and 10,000+ tours and activities. You pay the net rate and set your own selling price. For packages, the AI package builder adds one markup percentage and produces a client quotation.
What we don't do matters just as much. We don't sell flights. Our vouchers are issued under Travel DMC Group, not your brand. We don't train you, find you clients or protect your clients' money under a licence of ours. Those are the things a franchise or host agency is selling, and if you need them, pay for them.
If you're hosted or franchised: read the supplier clause in your agreement before you book with us. Some contracts limit bookings outside the approved list or charge more for them. Independent agents have no such limit.
The registration guide lists the documents by country. Register free →
A franchise sells you the right to trade under its brand and system, usually for an up-front fee plus a royalty or a profit share. A host agency lets you trade under your own business name using its accreditation and supplier contracts, and takes a percentage of each commission. Franchises cost more to enter and give you more structure. Host agencies cost less and leave the business building to you.
Published entry fees we checked in November 2026 run from £295 + VAT (Travel Counsellors, for experienced agents) to USD 10,995 (Cruise Planners) and £14,995 + VAT (the Elite package at The Travel Franchise). Monthly fees and a royalty or commission split come on top. A storefront franchise costs far more once you add a lease and staff.
Most do. Some charge a royalty on your sales or commission, some split the profit on each booking (Travel Counsellors pays 60% to the franchisee and keeps 40%), and some add a flat monthly fee. The franchise agreement, or in the US the Franchise Disclosure Document, sets out the exact basis.
Published US plans we checked start the agent at 70% (Fora) or 80% (KHM Travel Group) of the commission and rise to 90% with volume. Host Agency Reviews puts the wider range at roughly 50% to 100%. A higher split that comes with a higher fee only pays off once your yearly commission passes the break-even point.
Anything from nothing to a monthly or yearly fee. KHM Travel Group lists USD 64.95 a month plus a one-time USD 149 registration, or USD 649 a year. Fora lists USD 299 a year with no start-up fee. Some hosts charge no fee at all and earn only from the split.
Offers sold as a free travel agency franchise in India are usually free agent accounts on a B2B booking portal, sometimes with a website attached. There is no joining fee, but you normally prepay a wallet before you can book and may pay for the website or add-ons later. Ask for the full fee schedule in writing.
For most beginners, a host agency. It costs less up front, you can start part-time, and you learn under someone else's accreditation. A franchise suits someone with capital who wants a ready brand and a fixed routine and can commit full-time. Neither model brings you clients.
Yes, if your agreement allows bookings with outside suppliers. DMC Quote is a free B2B supplier of hotels, airport transfers, attraction tickets and tours at net rates. It is not a franchise or a host agency, takes no share of your commission and does not sell flights.
DMC Quote (dmcquote.com) is a B2B travel portal run by Travel DMC Group, Singapore. It is a supplier, not a franchise or a host agency: travel agents register free and book at net rates under whichever model they trade.
What we are
A B2B supplier. No joining fee, no subscription, no minimum volume and no share of your commission.
What you can book
1.5M+ hotels in 190+ countries, airport transfers at 15+ airports, attraction tickets and 10,000+ tours and activities. No flights.
How you earn
You pay the net rate and set your own selling price. The AI package builder adds a markup and creates a client quotation.
Approval
Every application is reviewed. Documents depend on your country, and IATA is optional.
Paying
Wallet top-up by bank transfer. Credit limits are rare and set manually.
Vouchers
Issued under Travel DMC Group with the hotel confirmation number and our 24/7 emergency line. Not white-label.
Contact: [email protected] · +65 8034 8190 (Singapore) · +62 815-1153-4545 (Indonesia)
Free registration. No subscription and no commission split. Hotels, transfers, attraction tickets and tours on one login.
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