A monthly software price is easy to compare. The bill for running your travel business takes a little more work. One proposal may include a website and booking tools, while another covers a CRM for each member of staff. Put those figures side by side without checking the scope and the cheaper option can be the one that leaves most work unfinished.

Start with the jobs you need the software to do. Define the people using it, the suppliers you intend to sell and the services you'll continue buying elsewhere. That gives each provider the same brief and gives you a fair basis for comparing their answers.

Compare the same scope and period

Public prices illustrate why the unit matters. Inspiretec's Travel CRM pricing lists Core from £50 per user per month on monthly billing, excluding VAT. Travelgenix pricing lists Spark at £159 per month with a £2,995 setup fee and a 12-month minimum term, or £299 per month without setup on a 24-month minimum term. These are different propositions, so the figures are examples of pricing structures rather than a ranking of value.

Choose a common comparison period, usually one that covers the longest minimum commitment you're considering. Show the first year separately so the initial cash requirement stays visible. A lower monthly payment may come with a setup charge or a longer agreement. Ask for the payment schedule, renewal terms and treatment of VAT in the written proposal.

Keep optional work separate from the starting configuration. A second brand, extra supplier connection or custom integration might be a sensible later purchase. Including every possible future feature in today's budget can obscure the cost of getting the first phase working. Equally, leaving a known requirement outside the quote makes the apparent saving unreliable.

Find the costs between the headline figures

Ask what implementation includes in practical terms. Data migration, website content, design changes and staff training can each take time even when the software itself is ready. Establish who prepares the material and who checks the imported records. If your own team does part of the work, allow for that time in the plan.

Count the users and identify how access is charged. A licence per person, a shared team allowance and a charge for concurrent users produce different totals. Check what happens when a homeworker joins, someone leaves or a manager needs reporting access. The same applies to additional brands and branches.

Supplier connectivity needs more than a logo list. Confirm the connections included in the proposal and whether any require separate agreements, credentials or fees. Then distinguish the platform's booking charges from supplier charges and payment processing costs. An offer with no platform booking fee doesn't establish that taking and fulfilling the booking costs nothing.

Support is another place where scope matters. Ask which channels and hours are covered, what an urgent booking problem looks like and whether training for new starters costs extra. A named contact is useful only if you know how the wider team handles issues when that person is unavailable. Record the service you are actually buying.

Use a fictional model to expose the difference

Imagine a small agency comparing two fictional proposals over 24 months. Proposal A charges £2,400 for setup, £240 a month for the platform, £60 a month for required extras and £600 for migration. Under proposal B, there is no setup fee, a £390 monthly charge, £20 a month for required extras and the same £600 migration fee. These numbers are invented solely to demonstrate the calculation and do not describe a real provider.

Before variable charges and tax, A totals £10,200: £2,400 plus 24 months at £300 plus £600. B totals £10,440: 24 months at £410 plus £600. The difference is £240 over the period, although the monthly headline prices look much further apart. A's first-year total is £6,600 and B's is £5,520, so cash timing still matters.

Now give each quote the same expected activity. If a fictional charge applies per confirmed booking, multiply it by the same booking count for both proposals. For payment charges, use the same assumed payment value and transaction count, with the actual rate from each payment provider. Keep those assumptions visible so nobody mistakes a model for a forecast.

Don't turn promised time savings into guaranteed income. You can record how long your team currently spends on a task and test the proposed workflow during a demonstration. Whether released time produces more sales depends on what the business does with it. Treat that as a separate judgement from the contractual cost.

Price the change as well as the subscription

Allow for a period when old and new services may overlap. Future bookings might need access to the previous system even after new sales move elsewhere. Ask about read-only access, exports and any assistance needed to move documents. Check notice dates before assuming you can cancel an existing service on launch day.

Use our software buying guide to turn the financial comparison into a working demonstration. Send each shortlisted provider the same completed brief and ask them to mark every excluded cost. That is the version of the price your business can plan around.

Download the software cost worksheet