B2B travel is the trade side of tourism, where suppliers sell to travel businesses instead of travellers. This guide covers what B2B means in hotels and tourism, what a B2B rate commits you to, who sets each price between the hotel and the guest, and how to become a B2B travel agent, including the documents portals ask for.
Quick answer: B2B travel (business-to-business travel) is the trade side of tourism: hotels, transfer companies, attractions and tour operators sell to other travel businesses rather than to travellers, usually at net rates the public never sees. A B2B rate is that trade price, and the travel agency or tour operator adds its own markup and sets what the client pays. A B2B travel agency is a travel business that buys at those rates, from a bedbank, a wholesaler or a B2B portal, and resells them.
B2B gets attached to almost every word in the trade. These are the combinations people search for most, in plain English, with an example of each.
| Term | What it means | Example |
|---|---|---|
| B2B (full form) | Business-to-business: one company selling to another, not to the public. | A hotel selling rooms to a wholesaler. |
| B2B travel | The trade market in which suppliers sell travel services to agencies, tour operators and other resellers. | A Dubai transfer company selling airport pickups to agencies abroad. |
| B2B rate | A trade price shown only to approved travel businesses. Usually net, with no commission inside. | A room the public sees at USD 115 shown to an agent at USD 90 net (illustrative). |
| B2B booking | A reservation a travel business makes for its client through a trade channel. | An agency booking a Phuket hotel for a family on a B2B portal. |
| B2B room | The same room anyone else gets, sold through a trade channel at a trade rate. Nothing about the room changes. | A deluxe room booked through a bedbank rather than on the hotel website. |
| B2B hotel | A hotel bought through trade channels, or a hotel that sells to the trade as well as direct. | A resort with contracts with three wholesalers. |
| B2B travel portal | A booking website where approved travel businesses search and book supplier inventory at net rates. | DMC Quote, or the trade sites that bedbanks run for agencies. |
| B2B travel agency | An agency that buys at B2B rates and sells to travellers. Sometimes used for a business that sells only to other agencies. | A home-based agent booking hotels on a portal for her clients. |
| B2B2C | A supplier sells through another business to that business's own customers, often under its brand. | An agency website whose hotel search runs on a wholesaler API. |
For the rest of the trade vocabulary, from allotment to rack rate, see our travel industry glossary.
In the travel industry, B2B means a sale between two businesses: a supplier sells, and a travel company buys to resell or to book for someone else. The traveller sits at the end of the chain and usually never sees the trade price.
Tourism runs on it.
Most of the hotel rooms, airport transfers and day tours that agencies sell were bought from someone else first, often more than once. The opposite is B2C, business-to-consumer, where the traveller books for themselves on a hotel website or an online travel agency at the public price. Plenty of companies do both. A hotel can sell a room B2C on its own website and the identical room B2B through a wholesaler on the same night.
In hotels, B2B means rooms sold to travel businesses rather than to guests: wholesalers, bedbanks, tour operators, destination companies and travel agencies, each buying at a contracted or net rate. Our B2B vs B2C hotel booking comparison sets the two models side by side with pricing examples.
A typical B2B hotel booking passes through five hands: the hotel, a bedbank or wholesaler, a B2B portal, the travel agency or tour operator, and the traveller. Everyone except the traveller sets a price for the next link.
| Step | What this link controls | Illustrative price, one room-night |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Hotel | The contract rate it gives the wholesaler, and its public rate on its own website (here USD 115). | USD 80 net to the wholesaler |
| 2. Bedbank or wholesaler | Its margin on top of the contract, plus payment and cancellation terms. | USD 86 to the portal |
| 3. B2B portal | Which sources to show, its own margin and the net rate the agent books at. | USD 90 net to the agency |
| 4. Travel agency or tour operator | The markup, the selling price and whether the room goes into a package. | USD 108 to the client |
| 5. Traveller | Nothing in the chain. They choose between your price and the public one. | Pays USD 108 |
Illustrative numbers for one room-night, not a real hotel or a real margin. Margins vary by hotel, season and supplier.
Not every booking uses all five links. A tour operator with volume may contract hotels directly and skip the wholesaler. Bedbanks also buy from each other, so a room can pass through two wholesalers before an agent sees it. Some portals hold their own hotel contracts as well: DMC Quote contracts some hotels directly and pulls the rest from several connected sources into one search. Our hotel bedbanks and wholesalers list names the big ones and explains who sells to whom.
The link that decides your margin is step 4. Everything above it is a cost to you, and the gap between your price and the public price is what makes a client book with you instead of online.
Hotels, transfer companies and tour operators can sell into the chain too. On DMC Quote, suppliers pay a one-time USD 100 setup fee and no monthly fee, then pay only on confirmed bookings, with payouts on a 30-day cycle. Supplier sign-up is at dmcquote.com/supplier-registration.
B2B sells to travel businesses, B2C sells to travellers, and B2B2C sells to travellers through the shop front of another business.
| Model | Who sells to whom | Price the buyer sees | Travel example |
|---|---|---|---|
| B2B | Supplier to a travel business | A trade rate behind a login, usually net | An agency books a hotel on a B2B portal |
| B2C | Supplier or OTA to the traveller | The public price | A couple books the same hotel on Booking.com |
| B2B2C | Supplier to a business that sells to its own customers, often under its own brand | A public price set by the middle business | An agency website running a hotel feed from a wholesaler, or a loyalty site powered by a bedbank |
For an agency, the difference comes down to margin and control. Buy at a B2C price and there's nothing left for you to add; buy B2B and you set your own price on top of a trade rate. B2B2C is how many agencies sell online without holding contracts, usually through an API connection to a supplier. The full side-by-side, with worked pricing, is in our B2B vs B2C hotel booking guide.
B2B rates for hotels are trade prices that a hotel or its wholesaler gives travel businesses, not the public. Most are net rates: there is no commission inside, so the agency pays the B2B rate, adds its own markup and charges the client whatever it decides.
That is the short answer to "what is a B2B rate in a hotel". The longer one is that a B2B rate comes with strings attached. The supplier gives it to you on the understanding that you'll resell it, and it usually carries conditions like these.
Not every B2B rate is net. Some hotel trade rates are commissionable, meaning the hotel pays the agency a percentage of a gross price instead; our guide to net rate vs commissionable rate explains how each one is paid.
Rate parity in Europe has changed. Parity clauses are promises a hotel makes to an online platform not to sell cheaper on other channels. Booking.com has been a gatekeeper under the EU Digital Markets Act since 14 November 2024, the Act bans parity requirements of any kind, and Booking.com removed parity clauses from its terms in the EEA in July 2024. Trade contracts can still carry their own resale conditions, so read yours.
Checked November 2026. Source: European Commission DMA factsheet on Booking.com, 28 September 2026.
B2B pricing is the method around the rate: net rate in, your markup on top, client price out. The maths of markups and margins is in our B2B rates and pricing guide, and how to read a hotel B2B rate sheet walks through the columns of a real sheet.
Agents in India mostly use the English term. If you want a Hindi gloss, a B2B rate is closest to थोक दर (thok dar, wholesale rate) or व्यापारिक दर (vyaparik dar, trade rate).
Any business that resells travel, or books it for someone else, buys B2B. The main buyers are these:
The phrase has two meanings, and both are in use. Usually it means a travel agency that buys at B2B rates: it books hotels and services through trade channels and sells them to travellers. Sometimes it means a business that sells only to other agencies, such as a wholesaler, a consolidator or a B2B portal.
If a supplier calls you a B2B agency, check which kind they mean. The consolidator vs wholesaler explainer covers the second kind.
A tour operator that sells its tours or packages to travel agencies rather than direct to travellers. The agency resells them at a commission or at a net price plus its own markup.
Almost everything a trip contains is sold B2B somewhere. What changes from product to product is who supplies it and how the trade price is set.
| Product | Who usually sells it to the trade | How it's priced | On DMC Quote |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hotels | Bedbanks, wholesalers, B2B portals, hotel chains' trade desks | Net, sometimes commissionable | Yes, 1.5M+ hotels in 190+ countries |
| Airport transfers | Local transfer companies, destination companies, portals | Net per vehicle or per person | Yes, at 15+ airports |
| Attraction tickets | Ticket distributors and portals | Net per ticket | Yes |
| Tours and activities | Local tour operators, activity platforms, portals | Net per person or per group | Yes, 10,000+ tours and activities |
| Packages | Tour operators, or built by the agency from the parts above | A net package price, or an agency markup on the parts | Yes, through the AI package builder |
| Flights | Airlines through GDSs, consolidators and IATA agencies | Commission, service fees or net fares via a consolidator | No. We don't sell flights. |
Flights are where B2B suppliers differ most. If air is most of your business, you'll need a consolidator or an IATA agency alongside a hotel and ground portal.
A GDS (global distribution system) such as Amadeus, Sabre or Travelport is a booking network built mainly around airline seats, used by agencies under a GDS contract and usually by staff trained on it. Hotels are in it too, mostly chain properties.
A B2B travel portal is a website. You log in, search hotels, transfers, tickets and tours at net rates, and pay from a wallet or an account. There's no terminal and no training course. The trade-off is scope: a portal like ours doesn't sell flights, and we wouldn't go to a GDS for a net rate at an independent resort or an airport transfer in Bali. Our GDS vs DMC booking comparison goes through the differences in detail.
To become a B2B travel agent you need a registered travel business, the tax and licence registrations your country requires, and approved accounts with B2B suppliers or a B2B portal. If you're new to the trade altogether, start with how to become a travel agent; the steps below are the B2B side.
Each supplier sets its own list. This checklist shows the usual items and what DMC Quote asks for.
| Document | Usually asked? | On DMC Quote |
|---|---|---|
| Business or company registration | Almost always | Business registration for South African, Nigerian, Kenyan and Egyptian accounts; Companies House registration for UK companies |
| Trade or tourism licence | Where the country issues one | Trade licence for Saudi accounts |
| Tax number (GST, VAT, TRN) | Often | Asked where your country issues one; VAT is optional for UK accounts |
| Insurance certificate | Sometimes | Required for UK accounts |
| ATOL number | Only from UK sellers of flight packages | Optional |
| IATA or TIDS code | Rarely required for hotels and ground services | Not required: IATA accreditation is optional |
| Owner ID and proof of address | Sometimes | Only if the KYC list for your country asks for it |
Checked November 2026. Source: DMC Quote registration form and KYC rules. Other suppliers' lists vary, so check each one before you apply.
When B2B access won't help. A trade account doesn't bring you clients. Net rates aren't always below the public price either: a hotel's flash sale or a member price on an OTA can beat a net rate for a night or two, so check before you quote. And if most of what you sell is flights, a hotel and ground portal will only ever be a small part of your business. B2B pays when you sell hotels, transfers and tours to clients who would rather pay you than book it themselves.
DMC Quote is a B2B travel portal run by Travel DMC Group in Singapore, operating since 2012. Registering takes one form, and it's free.
Two things to know before you start. Vouchers are issued under Travel DMC Group and are not white-label, so many agents send clients their own voucher carrying the same hotel confirmation number. And we don't sell flights. There's no joining fee, no subscription and no minimum volume; the registration FAQ answers the common questions.
B2B means business-to-business. In travel it is the trade market where hotels, transfer companies, attractions and tour operators sell to travel agencies, tour operators and other resellers, usually at net rates the public doesn't see. The reseller adds its margin and sells to the traveller.
B2B rates for hotels are trade prices that a hotel or wholesaler gives approved travel businesses instead of the public. Most are net rates with no commission inside. The agency adds its own markup, and it usually agrees not to publish the net price on its own or advertise below the hotel's public rate.
Usually a travel agency that buys hotels, transfers, tours and tickets through trade channels at B2B rates and sells them to travellers. The term is also used for businesses that sell only to other agencies, such as wholesalers, consolidators and B2B portals.
Register a business, get the tax registration and any licence your country requires, then apply to B2B suppliers or a B2B portal, which will check your business documents before showing trade rates. On DMC Quote registration is free, IATA accreditation is optional and our team reviews each application.
B2B is a supplier selling to a travel business at a trade rate. B2C is a supplier or OTA selling to the traveller at the public price. B2B2C is a supplier selling through another business to that business's own customers, for example an agency website running a wholesaler's hotel feed.
Not as they are. Trade rates are usually supplied on condition that the net price is not published on its own, so you show your selling price with your markup included, or a package price. Check each supplier's terms, because some also limit where, or to which nationalities, a rate can be sold.
No, not for hotels, transfers, tours or attraction tickets. IATA accreditation matters if you want to issue airline tickets yourself. DMC Quote doesn't ask for it, and we don't sell flights.
No. A GDS such as Amadeus, Sabre or Travelport is a booking network built mainly around airline seats and used by agencies under a GDS contract. A B2B travel portal is a website where approved agencies book hotels and ground services at net rates, with no terminal or GDS contract.
DMC Quote (dmcquote.com) is a B2B travel portal run by Travel DMC Group, Singapore, operating since 2012. 10,000+ travel agencies use it to book hotels and ground services at net rates.
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.
Cost
Free to register. No joining fee, no subscription, no minimum volume. You pay the net rate and set your own selling price.
Who can join
Travel agencies, tour operators and other travel businesses. Our team approves each application after a KYC check; IATA is optional.
Paying
Wallet top-ups by bank transfer, in currencies including USD, SGD, EUR, GBP, AED and INR.
Vouchers
Issued under Travel DMC Group with the hotel confirmation number once the hotel issues it. Not white-label.
Your team
Sub-users with their own logins and permissions for hotels, transfers, tours, packages, bookings and the wallet.
Contact: [email protected] · +65 8034 8190 (Singapore) · +62 815-1153-4545 (Indonesia)
Free registration. No subscription, no minimum volume. Our team reviews each application.
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