A pricing rule can be working exactly as configured and still give you the wrong commercial result. The percentage may apply to a different cost base than you expected. Another rule might run afterwards, or a discount may reduce the money left on the booking. Checking that a rule is switched on tells you very little about the price a customer will pay.

Travel agency markup rules need a clear starting point and an understood order. Before changing percentages, agree what the incoming supplier price means. Then calculate a few bookings yourself. The numbers on the screen should be explainable without a tour of every setting.

Separate markup from margin

Markup is the amount added to cost. Margin measures the amount left as a proportion of the selling price. Those percentages use different denominators, so they won't normally match. Calling both of them "profit percentage" is an easy way to confuse the team.

Consider a fictional booking with a supplier cost of £1,000. Adding a 20% markup gives a selling price of £1,200 and a £200 difference. That difference is 16.67% of the selling price, rounded to two decimal places. To obtain a 20% margin on the same cost, the selling price would need to be £1,250, calculated as £1,000 divided by 0.80.

These examples ignore payment costs, tax treatment and the other costs of running the booking. They illustrate the arithmetic, not net business profit. Decide which measure your reports use and keep the label consistent. A colleague should be able to reproduce the calculation from the displayed cost and selling price.

Know whether the supplier price is net or gross

With a net rate, you generally start with a cost to which your agreed selling rules can be applied. Gross rates may already contain a commission arrangement. Read the supplier's commercial terms before treating either price as a blank starting point. Adding the same percentage to every incoming figure can produce quite different results.

Luna Contracting makes this distinction explicit: net pricing starts with cost and markup, while gross pricing records commission within the selling price. That is a useful model for your own rate checks. Keep the rate basis beside the supplier name in your working notes. Don't rely on someone remembering how a particular agreement works.

The cost base can also vary within a product. For example, the Luna Contracting flight documentation says its contracted flight markup applies to the base fare, with tax and carrier surcharge passed through at cost. Applying the same percentage to the whole ticket in a separate calculation would give a different result. Check the actual pricing model for the product you're selling.

Understand what happens when rules overlap

A general rule and a supplier-specific rule may both match one search. Date conditions or a promotion can add another layer. You need to know whether the system combines those rules, replaces one with another or applies them in sequence. Similar-looking settings can produce different prices.

The Travelgenix pricing rules documentation describes rules applying in priority order, including subsequent rules acting on an already adjusted price. Use that documentation as the starting point for a demonstration in your account. Ask the person configuring pricing to show the working for a booking where two rules match. The final amount matters more than the rule names.

Here's a second fictional calculation. A £1,000 cost with 10% added first and then a fixed £25 produces £1,125. Adding £25 first and then 10% produces £1,127.50. Neither answer is a software error if that is the intended sequence, but the sequence must match your pricing policy.

Choose names that explain the purpose of a rule. "Accommodation standard 12 percent" is more useful than "New rule 4" when someone returns to the settings months later. Record who approved a temporary change and when it should stop. An expired promotion that remains active is still a live pricing decision.

Test discounts against the amount left

A displayed discount tells the customer how much the price has fallen. Calculate its effect on your booking contribution too. Using the fictional £1,200 selling price above, a 5% discount removes £60. The amount above the £1,000 supplier cost falls from £200 to £140. That is a 30% reduction in the amount left before other costs.

This doesn't mean discounts are always a mistake. It means you need a reason for the reduction and a limit your team understands. Test any promotion alongside existing pricing rules before promoting it. Include a case where a customer selects an extra or changes the party size. Our travel promo-code guide covers the separate campaign setup.

Travelify brings supplier connections, pricing and bookings together, with fixed and percentage markup options. Your review should still include the final customer price and the underlying supplier cost. A dashboard number is useful only when everyone understands what it includes. Keep accounting treatment with the appropriate finance process rather than assuming a pricing rule settles it.

Keep a small set of reference bookings

Create a few fictional reference searches covering the suppliers and products you sell most often. Record the expected cost basis, matching rules, discount and final amount. Include an awkward case, such as a booking that falls exactly on a travel-date boundary. These examples give you a repeatable check whenever settings change.

Before your next promotion goes live, ask a colleague to calculate one reference booking independently. Compare their answer with the customer checkout and the booking record. Resolve every difference while the offer is still on your desk. That is a much better time to discover which percentage applies where.

Download the markup reference cases