Some travel agencies already have them, others are still thinking about it: Consultation fees, which also have to be paid when booking package tours, for which the agents receive commissions from the tour operators. The association "Deutscher Reisering" is now taking a middle path.

It was a long time ago, but in the past the use of travel agencies for customers was usually without additional costs, because the airlines, tour operators, hotels, rail and ferry companies paid commissions for the mediation of the services. With the increasing number of low-cost airlines, most airlines canceled their remuneration, so that the travel agencies had to introduce their own service fees, otherwise you would not earn anything from selling tickets. Very few airlines now pay commissions.

The situation is (still) different with package tours, because almost all tour operators pay for the brokerage of their products. However, the tour operators are now trying to get customers to book via their own homepage, as this saves commissions. The trend that travel agencies earn less from package tours is a gradual process that began a long time ago.

Another phenomenon is the so-called “advice theft”. Potential customers get inspiration from the travel agency, but then book online or put their trip together individually. In order to be able to counteract this trend, some brokers are now charging consulting fees, which are due regardless of whether you book here or not.

According to a report by Touristik Aktuell, the Reisering association now also wants to introduce so-called service fees in Germany. However, the individual travel agencies are independent entrepreneurs, which is why they can decide for themselves. The management of the association does not want to recommend this across the board, but depending on the regional environment.

To this end, an orientation aid is to be made available to the owners. With the help of this one should evaluate the current state of affairs in the respective region and then decide for oneself whether one wants to charge consulting fees or not. The guide should also contain a kind of map that provides an overview of the market situation.

In other words, if other travel agencies are already charging service fees, the likelihood that Reisering members could follow suit is higher than if the competition foregoing them.