Booking & traveller fees

When a fee is better than a higher price

Some charges are not really part of your tour price: a national park permit, a conservation levy, a service charge, a card handling fee. Folding them into the price hides what they are and makes it harder to keep or refund them correctly. Booking & traveller fees adds them as their own line, with a name you choose, such as “Park permit”, shown on the price breakdown, invoices and bookings.

There is one standard fee in the plugin settings, plus further fees beside it that can be limited to chosen tours. The plugin is available from the Growth plan.

How a fee is charged

Choose the basis. Once per booking suits an admin or service charge: a $5 booking fee is $5 for one traveller or six. Per traveller suits permits: a $20 park permit for a family of four adds $80. A percentage of the price suits card fees: 2.5% on a $400 booking adds $10.

Fixed fees are entered in your main currency, with amounts in other currencies one per line, for example “EUR 3.00”. Percentage fees apply in every currency. A booking in a currency you haven't listed (and that isn't your main one) carries no fixed fee, so check this list if you sell in several currencies.

Showing fees honestly

By default, fees are included in the prices shown on your tour pages and still appear as their own line at checkout. The settings point out that California SB 478 and the FTC junk-fees rule require advertised prices to include mandatory fees, so keep this on if you sell to travellers in California or the US. Turned off, tour pages show “+ Park permit at checkout” next to the price instead.

Either way, the traveller sees the same total before paying. The difference is only whether the headline price already contains the fee.

Refunds and staff bookings

Decide whether the fee comes back when a booking is cancelled. If not, the fee line is marked non-refundable on the booking and its quote, so whoever handles the refund knows to keep it. Self-service cancellations follow the same rule: non-refundable fees are kept.

You can also exempt bookings your team enters in the console, such as phone, walk-in or agent bookings. A website booking that is later moved by staff or by the traveller keeps its fee; only bookings made in the console are exempt.

Setting up Booking & traveller fees

1. 1Turn on Booking & traveller fees. Switch the plugin on from Plugins (Growth plan and above).
2. 2Name the fee. Use what travellers will recognise, such as “Park permit” or “Service fee”.
3. 3Choose the basis and amount. Per booking, per traveller or a percentage. Add amounts for other currencies if you sell in them.
4. 4Decide how prices are shown. Keep fees included in displayed prices, or show them as “+ fee at checkout”.
5. 5Set refund and staff rules. Choose whether the fee is refunded on cancellation and whether console bookings skip it.
6. 6Add further fees if needed. Create extra fees beside the standard one and limit them to the tours they belong to.