How do travel sites collect commissions from the hotels or airlines they book?

valentine30528: How do travel sites collect commissions from the hotels or airlines they book?
I’m curious as to how the hospitality and travel business works. If I am a travel company that lists hotels and someone books a hotel on my site. How do I get my commission? How do I know that the customer went through with the travel and didn’t cancel, and how do I guarantee that the hotel will pay me my fee?

Answers and Views:

Answer by theoryseeker
The travel business is a messy, dog eat dog, dying business. If you are just getting into it, I wish you luck. You are going to need it. Commissions are never guaranteed. Travel agents have the same problem trying to get hotels to pay the commissions.. We usually have to hunt them down. You may want to consider seeing if you can build-in a non refundable service fee on your site that is tacked on when the hotel is booked. That way know matter what happens with the booking you are guaranteed at least that for your effort..That’s what travel agents do now with airline tickets, since the airlines no longer pay travel agents commission on tickets they book.. Good Luck…