Third-party fees: park tickets, city taxes and border fees in your bookings
A third-party fee is money your tours, lodgings and rentals carry that belongs to someone else, such as a national park ticket, a city tax or a border fee. Set it up once under Tours → Third-party fees: the tours, lodgings and rental items that carry it then count it the same way wherever they are sold.
Three ways to collect a fee
| Way | What customers see | In the total |
|---|---|---|
| Included in the price | The tour’s price, which includes it | No: it is part of the price |
| Collected for the payee | A line of its own: “Park ticket, paid to Park office on your behalf” | Yes, passed on in full to the payee |
| Paid on site | A line beside the price: “Border fee: 150.00 BOB, paid on site” | No |
Use Collected for the payee only on your accountant’s word. A collected fee is saved on a Collected for others rate, which you add on the Taxes page.
Create a fee
- 1
Open the page
Go to Tours → Third-party fees and click Add fee.
- 2
Name it
Enter its Name, as customers see it, and the Payee the money is owed to.
- 3
Count it
Choose How it is counted: Per person, Per person per day, Per booking, Per vehicle, Per stay for a ticket valid several days in a row (its days under Valid for), Per room per night for a stay, or Percentage of the price. On a stay a day is a night, and on a rental Per vehicle counts each item rented. A fee counted per day or per night can stop after a number of nights: enter it under At most. Only the ways that suit everything it applies to are offered: a rental item, for example, has no travellers.
- 4
Set its amounts
Choose the Currency the payee charges in and enter the amount. Switch on Different amounts per age group or Different amounts for nationals and foreigners where they differ, and use Change from a date when the payee announces new prices. A percentage needs no currency and no age groups: enter the percentage instead.
- 5
Choose how it is collected
Pick one of the three ways under How it is collected. Under Applies to, add the tours, lodgings and rental items that carry it, each with its own way if it needs one, then click Save.
Examples: city taxes and permits
- A city tax per guest per night, at most 7 nights: choose Per person per day, switch on Different amounts per age group with 0 for children, and enter 7 under At most. At 4.00 EUR per adult, a 9-night stay for 2 adults and 1 child is charged 2 × 4.00 EUR × 7 = 56.00 EUR.
- A city tax as a percentage of the room price: choose Percentage of the price and enter 12.5%. It is worked out on the price before the stay’s own tax: a stay of 1,000.00 EUR including 9% VAT is 917.43 EUR before it, so the fee is 114.68 EUR. If a line’s tax is not known, the fee is left off it and the booking form says so.
- A fee per room per night that changes with the season: choose Per room per night and add each season’s amounts with Change from a date. Each night is counted at its own date’s amount: at 5.00 EUR in high season and 1.50 EUR in low season, a two-room stay with two high-season nights and one low-season night is charged 2 × (5.00 EUR + 5.00 EUR + 1.50 EUR) = 23.00 EUR.
- A permit for each bike rented: add the bike under Applies to, choose Per vehicle and Paid on site. For 2 bikes, customers see “Bike permit: 6.00 EUR, paid on site” beside the rental’s price, and the voucher lists it.
More options
- Tax number and Provider: the payee’s tax number, and the provider you pay for its tickets in Pay tours.
- Tour item: the item of your tours’ Included and Not included lists the fee stands for, so online travel agencies show the fee in its place.
- How it is collected per channel: a channel can collect it its own way. Online travel agencies never collect it: their commission would change its amount.
- Ticket in the traveller’s name: staff enter each traveller’s ticket number on the booking, and the voucher lists them.
On a booking
The booking form shows each fee under its tour, stay or rental, with its counts and its amount. Staff can change how it is collected on that booking, set the travellers’ Residency where the amounts differ, and record its Status and Ticket numbers. A collected fee is a line of its own inside the total, and a fee paid on site is listed under it. The voucher lists the ticket numbers and what to bring, such as “Bring 150.00 BOB in cash per person”.
On online travel agencies
Online travel agencies connected through OCTO get your fees with each product, as included or not included. GetYourGuide and Viator do not: on their page in the channel manager, open a product’s menu and click Third-party fees for the text to copy into its listing there.
Questions we get asked
No. Promo codes, package discounts and agent discounts never reduce a fee, and an online travel agency’s price never scales it: the payee is owed the same.
Enter the fee in its own currency. A booking in another currency converts it once, when it is sold, and keeps that rate.
Open it and choose Archive fee in its menu: new bookings stop carrying it, and bookings that have it keep it. A fee upcoming bookings carry can be archived once they are over.