Guide for operators

How to sell attraction
tickets to travel agents

The trade channel works differently from your gate and your website. Here is how net rates, contracting and distribution actually work, and how to get listed.

Start selling See the full system
2,349
Travel agents
102
Countries
2%
Flat booking fee

Selling to travel agents means offering a net rate to a verified trade buyer who resells your experience to their client, usually as part of a package booked in advance. You are not discounting to consumers. You are giving an agency a margin to sell on your behalf, in exchange for volume that is booked earlier, in larger groups, and far less sensitive to price than a walk up.

This page covers the commercial mechanics of the trade channel: how rates are structured, what agents expect from you, what contracting looks like, and how to get in front of 2,349 approved agencies across 102 countries without building a sales team.

Why the trade channel is worth having

Operators who only sell direct are exposed to weather, footfall and the ad platforms. Trade volume behaves differently:

  • It books ahead. Agencies build itineraries weeks or months out, so you know your numbers before the day.
  • It arrives in groups. Easier to staff, easier to schedule, better utilisation on quiet slots.
  • It is less price sensitive per ticket. Your experience is one line in a package the traveller has already committed to.
  • It repeats. An agency that sells you once and has it go smoothly keeps selling you all season.
  • It does not compete with your own marketing. These are travellers you were not otherwise reaching.

How trade rates are structured

Net rate

The most common structure. You publish a net rate to the agency and they sell at whatever they choose. Your revenue per ticket is fixed and known, and you never see or control the retail price. This is the simplest model to administer and the one most operators start with.

Commission on retail

You publish a retail price and pay the agency a percentage. Cleaner for rate parity, because the public price is the same everywhere, but you carry more administration and you are exposed to the agency discounting your headline price.

Allotment versus free sale

Allotment means you set aside a fixed number of places for the trade. Free sale means agents draw from the same live inventory as everyone else. Free sale is simpler and avoids stranded allotment, and is how the DMC Quote portal works: one inventory, one capacity number, no double selling.

What to watch

Rate parity is the trap. If your trade rate leaks onto a public page, your own direct customers will find it and your gate price collapses. A closed portal that only verified agencies can see is the protection against that.

What travel agents expect from an operator

If you want repeat trade business, these are the things agencies quietly judge you on:

  • Live availability. An agent who has to email and wait a day for a yes will sell someone else.
  • Instant confirmation. They are usually building the itinerary while the client is on the phone.
  • Accurate content. Real photos, real timings, real inclusions and exclusions, and an honest duration.
  • A clear cancellation policy that you apply consistently.
  • A ticket that works. A voucher their client can present without an argument at your gate.
  • Being honoured. A confirmed booking that gets turned away at the door ends the relationship permanently.

The slow way and the fast way to get distribution

The slow way is direct contracting: find agencies, pitch each one, negotiate a rate sheet, sign a contract, send updated rates by email every season, and reconcile bookings by hand. It works, and it is how the industry ran for decades, but it is a full time sales job and it does not scale past a handful of relationships.

The faster way is to list once inside a portal the agencies already use. Your products are entered once, verified, and then visible to every approved agency in the network. They book at your rate against your live inventory, you are notified of every booking, and there is no rate sheet to reissue when your prices change.

DMC Quote is the second of these. There are currently 2,349 approved agencies across 102 countries in the portal. Listing costs a one time USD 100 setup fee and a flat 2% booking fee on tickets sold, with no monthly licence fee.

Getting listed

  1. Create your operator account. A one time USD 100 setup fee is taken at registration.
  2. Verify your business by uploading your registration and licence documents.
  3. Add your products through the guided wizard, including the trade rate you want agents to book at.
  4. Go live once approved. Nothing is visible to any agent until you say so.

Only operators who own the experience can list. Travel agents and resellers cannot, because listing is for the business that controls the inventory.

Questions

Before you sign up

Anything not covered here, ask us during onboarding. Nothing is published until you are ready.

The price you charge a travel agency, exclusive of whatever margin they add when they sell to their client. Your revenue per ticket is fixed and known. You do not control or see the retail price the traveller pays.

Generally no, because you are reaching travellers who booked a package through an agency and were never going to find your website. The real risk is rate parity, which is why a trade rate should live in a closed portal that only verified agencies can see.

Not in the DMC Quote portal. Agents draw from the same live inventory as your own channels, sharing one capacity number, so you never strand unsold allotment or oversell your gate.

It varies by market, product and volume, and it is your commercial decision. You set the trade rate. What matters more than the number is that it is consistent, because an agency that gets a different answer every time stops quoting you.

Agent bookings settle on the terms agreed in your operator agreement, which is confirmed in writing before you go live. For your own direct bookings you keep your own merchant account.

A one time setup fee of USD 100, then a flat 2% booking fee on tickets sold. The rate is the same at any volume and there is no monthly licence fee. Or choose the Operator bundle for SGD 5,000: your listing plus your own booking website, set up for you, with the first 12 months of its SGD 50 a month subscription included.

Get in front of 2,349 agencies

List once, set your trade rate, and let verified agencies book against your live inventory.

Start selling

Related Pages You May Find Useful

Booking System for Operators The full system: booking page, ticketing, gate scanning and agent distribution.
Supplier Registration How operators and suppliers join the DMC Quote network.
Become a Partner Partnership routes for operators, DMCs and technology partners.
API Integration Partners Connect your existing system to ours over API.
B2B Travel Portal The agent-facing portal your products are sold through.
Supplier Partnership FAQ Common questions from operators joining the network.