Wholesalers & Travel Agencies

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This page includes general definitions and rules.

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Wholesalers buy rooms at a wholesale price and resell the rooms to the guests.  The wholesalers pay the hotel for the rooms.  The guests pay the wholesalers.

Travel agencies typically do not buy rooms.  The guest pays the hotel directly and then the hotel pays the travel agency a commission.

Wholesalers and Travel Agencies may be set up as groups with permanent room blocks but this is not required; your practices will determine this.

Wholesalers:

• Direct Bill wholesalers should be set up in City Ledger  so that the wholesaler can be invoiced.  In that case, the payment type on the reservation/check-in will be DB.  In some instances the wholesaler will provide a virtual credit card.  Either way you should answer "Y" to "Split folio" so that the secondary folio can be used for posting incidentals.  The guest should not see the primary folio. 
• With the following menuini option, the rate will not print on the registration form:
  HOTEL-REGCARD-DB-RATE=NO
• Rates can be established a variety of ways, such as a particular rate code (4 for example), or within the corporate file.  This is the rate that the wholesaler will pay and should not be disclosed to the guest.  The guest will have paid a higher rate.
• The room revenue will be the actual revenue charged to the wholesaler.  For example, if rack is $100 and Expedia gets it for $80, then the revenue is $80.
• Wholesalers generally contract for a certain number of rooms to be available.  Some hotels block off rooms for wholesalers.  Some block actual rooms and some block “dummy” rooms.  The wholesaler is set up as a group.   On the group setup for the wholesaler, the cut-off date usually is -1, which means that the unreserved rooms will drop back into inventory 1 day prior to the arrival date for each date.  This way, last-minute reservations and walk-ins can utilize the rooms not picked up by the wholesaler.  Some travel agencies have this agreement but this is less common. 

 
Travel Agencies:

• If travel agencies pay the hotel, then they are set up just like wholesalers, because they are keeping their cut and paying the hotel the balance.  If the hotel collects the money and pays the travel agency a commission, then the travel agency is not a DB customer.  The TA will be set up as a travel agency with the correct commission percentage.  See Travel Agency Processing.
• When a reservation is made, the travel agency code is entered into the reservation.  After check-in the travel agency code may be assigned by clicking the "options" button in the folio.   
• After Night Audit Reorganize on the day the guest is checked out, the information will transfer automatically to the Travel Agency module where the  travel agency commission is calculated.  The guest name, folio number, room rate, number of nights, revenue, and commission will all display and print in the Travel Agency programs.  Travel agencies can be paid directly from the software, in the manager menu. 
• The room revenue will be the actual revenue charged to the guest.  For example, if the rate is $100 then the revenue is $100.  The TA commission is an expense and is not part of the hotel revenue.
• There are miscellaneous other travel agency options that only apply in rare circumstances.  Contact Execu/Tech if you have unusual Travel Agency procedures.
• Contact Execu/Tech if you are interested in our travel agency interface to Onyx Payments.

Hotels rarely send confirmation letters to wholesaler or travel agency guests.  However, such a letter can be available.

There is a setting in Market Segment Codes setup, "Print rate on reg form?".  If this is set to N, then the room rate will not print on the registration form for any guest with that market segment code.


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