Over the past few years, the Travel Industry Survey indicates, travel advisors have shied away from charging service fees.
In 2016, service fees accounted for 22% of total agency revenue, a number that dropped to 18% in 2018.
Among
the different agency sizes tracked by the survey, the largest
traditional agencies have always recorded the most significant revenue
percentage from service fees.
Home-based agents are far less likely
to charge service fees, but as with traditional agencies, those with the
largest volume have a higher proportion of revenue from fees.
However,
according to the survey, even the largest traditional agencies are
shying away from service fees. In 2016, agencies with $10 million or
more in sales indicated that 39.7% percent of revenue was from service
fees. This year, that number fell to 30.2%. Among those with less than
$1 million in sales, the number has fallen from a peak of 26.9% in 2012
to 17.3% in 2018.