01
Multiple parties, one booking
A single booking can carry a customer card payment, a supplier deposit, an agent commission, a consortium override and an FX margin - all tied to the same trip.
Knowledge Base
B2B payments for travel agencies.
A practical guide to B2B payments for travel agencies — what makes agent-to-supplier and consortium flows different from consumer card payments, how commission and override structures fit the booking, FX and cross-border handling, and reconciliation across the B2B chain.
Supplierpayouts tracked per booking
Commissionsettled with evidence
Reconciliationunified across parties
Why B2B payments are different in travel.
A consumer card payment is a single transaction between a customer and a merchant. A travel B2B payment usually has three or more parties: the customer, the booking agent, one or more suppliers, sometimes a consortium or head office, plus acquirers and trustees behind each leg. Each party expects its own evidence, settles on its own cadence and runs its own reconciliation. Without a connected ledger, the multi-party reality becomes the finance team's problem.
02
Different rails, different timing
Customer payments arrive via card or open banking. Supplier payouts go by bank transfer or SEPA. Consortium settlements arrive monthly. Each leg has its own settlement and reconciliation pattern.
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Booking ties them together
The thing every party agrees on is the booking. Every B2B payment should attach to the booking it relates to, so the multi-party trail stays defensible.
How agent-to-supplier payouts actually work.
The largest single category of B2B payment for a travel agency is the payout to suppliers - the tour operator, hotel, cruise line, ground handler or DMC behind the customer experience. These payments sit at the heart of the agency's commercial relationship and the finance picture has to evidence them cleanly.
01
Deposit, balance, retention
A typical supplier requires a deposit at booking, a balance at a fixed point before travel and sometimes a retention payment after travel for ancillary spending. Each leg of the payout sits against the booking and the supplier contract, so cancellations and changes can rebill cleanly.
Deposit At booking
Balance Pre-travel
Retention Post-travel
02
Bank transfer, SEPA or supplier-specific rails
UK suppliers usually take Faster Payments or BACS. European suppliers take SEPA Credit Transfer. International suppliers might use SWIFT or specialist payout providers. Each rail has its own cost, settlement time and reference-capture pattern - and the right rail depends on the value, currency and supplier.
UK Faster Payments / BACS
Europe SEPA
International SWIFT or specialist
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Evidence stays with the booking
A supplier payout that only sits against the supplier - not against the booking - loses the audit trail when a cancellation or dispute arrives months later. felloh ties every payout to the booking record so refund recovery, commission disputes and trustee reporting all have the evidence available.
Booking Attached
Supplier Identified
Audit trail Preserved
Section 02
Sub-agents, consortia and head-office relationships.
Many UK travel agencies sit inside a wider distribution model - members of a consortium, sub-agents of a head office, franchisees of a brand. The money trail flows through several legal entities and the financial responsibilities split across them in specific ways.
01
Consortium membership and overrides
Consortia like Advantage, TTNG and Hays Independence aggregate buying power and pay overrides on volume. The membership fee and override settlement both need to attach to the relevant bookings.
02
Head-office settlements
Franchise members and homeworker networks settle most or all customer money through the head office, which then settles with members. The agency-side reconciliation has to match the head-office statement to specific bookings.
03
Sub-agent commission
When the agency uses sub-agents (homeworkers, downstream agencies, affiliate networks), the agency pays commission downstream. Tracking commission per booking is the discipline that keeps margin honest.
How commission and override structures fit the booking.
Commission in travel is rarely a flat percentage. Overrides, tiered rates, supplier-specific structures and seasonal kickers all interact with the actual margin on each booking. Without booking-level commission tracking, the margin picture stays a guess.
01
Baseline commission per supplier
A tour operator might pay 10% base commission on packages. A hotel direct booking might pay 12%. A cruise line might pay tiered rates depending on volume. Each baseline rate sits against the supplier contract, ready to apply to bookings as they come in.
Baseline Per supplier
Capture At booking
Settlement Post-travel
02
Override kickers and tiers
An override of 1-3% on top of baseline commission usually kicks in once the agency hits a volume threshold with a particular supplier or consortium. Tracking eligible bookings and projecting the override forward keeps the conversation evidence-based at the contract review.
Trigger Volume threshold
Backdate Often retrospective
Forecast Booking-led
03
Per-booking margin picture
Customer paid X, supplier paid Y, commission earned Z, override accrued W, net margin per booking is X - Y + Z + W. Building this picture per booking - rather than per supplier per month - is what makes pricing and product decisions defensible at the next sales meeting.
Customer Per booking
Supplier Per booking
Margin Per booking
Section 04
FX and cross-border B2B payments.
International suppliers, multi-currency bookings and cross-border consortium settlements bring FX into the B2B picture. The discipline is to capture the FX context at the moment of the transaction so reconciliation does not lose the rate.
01
Capture the rate at the moment
Whether a payment goes out in EUR, USD or another currency, the GBP equivalent at the rate used is what reconciliation needs - not the rate from the day finance reconciles.
02
Hold supplier accounts in the right currency
For high-volume European or US supplier flows, holding a balance in that currency removes the per-payment FX margin and gives the agency forward control.
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Watch the cross-border interchange
Where the customer pays by card and the supplier sits abroad, scheme cross-border interchange applies. Capturing this evidence per booking helps finance argue about cost recovery at the right time.
How to reconcile across the B2B chain.
B2B reconciliation is multi-party reconciliation. Customer payments, supplier payouts, consortium settlements, sub-agent commission and FX all have to tie back to the booking that produced them. Without a booking-level ledger this becomes spreadsheet work that scales linearly with volume.
01
One booking-level ledger
The reconciliation engine sees customer payments, supplier payouts, consortium overrides, sub-agent commission and FX gains/losses all as movements against the same booking record. The reconciliation becomes per-booking matching rather than per-party spreadsheet work.
View Per booking
Movements All parties
Effort Constant with scale
02
Match consortium statements automatically
Consortium statements arrive as bulk summaries with line items per booking. felloh matches the line items back to the bookings they relate to - so the override accrual, commission split and net settlement all reconcile to the right bookings without manual unpacking.
Statement Per period
Match Per booking
Disputes Booking-level
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Net position per supplier per period
For any given supplier and period, finance can see what was paid, what was due back as commission, what was disputed and what is outstanding - all per booking. That visibility is what makes supplier renegotiation conversations evidence-led rather than instinct-led.
Paid Per supplier
Commission Per supplier
Net Per supplier
Section 06
Compliance under multi-party arrangements.
Where customer money flows through multiple legal entities, the compliance picture gets more complex. Trust account rules, ATOL franchise arrangements, ABTA membership and PSD2 all apply at different points in the chain.
01
Trust account discipline
Customer money held under a CAA-approved trust account has specific release rules. When that money flows out to a supplier, the trust evidence has to travel with it - so trustee reporting reconciles cleanly.
02
ATOL franchise members
For agencies trading under a head-office ATOL, the agency-side reporting has to feed into the head-office APC reporting. The booking-level evidence works on both sides.
03
Money laundering and KYB
Supplier onboarding includes KYB (know your business) checks where the agency is paying significant volume. Capturing supplier verification evidence at onboarding keeps the audit trail defensible.
What B2B payment handling looks like in felloh.
felloh treats every B2B payment - supplier payout, consortium override, sub-agent commission, FX adjustment - as another movement against the booking-level ledger. The agency reads one picture rather than four.
01
One ledger across parties
Customer payments, supplier payouts, commission and consortium settlements all sit against the booking they relate to.
See booking-level visibility02
Reconciliation across the B2B chain
Bulk consortium statements unpack to bookings. Supplier payouts match to the bookings they cover. Commission accrual ties to the supplier and booking together.
See reconciliation03
Multi-acquirer and multi-rail
Where the agency runs multiple acquirers or B2B payout providers, the booking-level ledger handles them as one picture rather than separate workflows.
See multi-acquirer setupsSee this guide running on your booking data.
Bring the workflow or rail you want to improve and we will show how felloh keeps the booking-level evidence connected end to end.