# What is markup, and what does hidden markup mean? Source: https://kurumsal.pro/en/glossary/markup/ — Last updated: 2026-11-04 Markup is the margin a travel agency adds on top of the net price it receives from a supplier. Hidden markup means that margin is built into the price and does not appear as a separate invoice line, while a service fee is a separate item openly shown to the client. ## In short - Markup is the margin a travel agency adds on top of the supplier's net price. - Hidden markup is built into the price: the client sees only the final price and no separate line appears on the document. - A service fee is shown to the client as a separate line, while commission is a further price layer the agency defines. - In Kurumsal.pro the agency defines the Service Fee, Hidden markup and Commission sections separately for each corporate client. - Net, markup, commission and profit fields are stripped from the corporate portal's responses, so company staff never see these values. **Markup (hidden markup):** Markup is the margin an agency adds on top of the net cost. Hidden markup is built into the price and does not appear as a separate line on documents, which is what sets it apart from a service fee. Markup is the margin a travel agency adds on top of the net price it receives from a supplier. For a flight ticket, a hotel night or a transfer, the supplier quotes a net amount; the agency adds its own margin and offers the client a selling price. For agencies serving corporate clients, that margin is often set company by company in the contract and applied either as "hidden markup" or as an explicit "service fee". ## What does hidden markup mean? Hidden markup is the model in which the agency's margin is built into the selling price and does not appear as a separate line on documents. The client sees only the final price; how much of it is net cost and how much is agency margin is not reflected on the document. This model suits agencies that agree a single all-in price with a company. In the explicit model, the agency's fee is shown to the client as a separate item. In Kurumsal.pro that explicit fee is called the [service fee](/en/glossary/service-fee/). The two models are not mutually exclusive: an agency can define both a service fee and a hidden markup for the same company. ## What is the difference between markup, service fee and commission? Markup stays built into the price, a service fee is a separate invoice line, and the "Commission" in the company price form is a separate price layer defined by the agency. A side-by-side comparison of the three items is in the [service fee](/en/glossary/service-fee/) entry. Visibility also depends on the contract with the company. Under a hidden-margin contract the service fee, too, stays inside the line price and the invoice shows a single item; under a transparent contract it is kept as a separate line. The contract type is stored on the company's root record and applies to every unit in the company tree. ## How is markup defined in Kurumsal.pro? In the panel it uses as [corporate travel agency software](/en/corporate-travel-agency-software/), the agency fills in a price form for each company. The form has three sections: Service Fee, Hidden markup and Commission. Rows are arranged by domestic or international for flights, hotels, car rental and transfers, and by country group for visas (Schengen, UK, USA, Australia, Canada, India, other). - Each cell takes a percentage or a fixed amount (with currency). - A cell with more than one rule attached is locked and edited from the detailed rule engine. - A company-specific rule replaces the agency's general rule; subsidiary companies and branches inherit it. - The "copy to other companies" option transfers the selected sections to other companies in one operation. A preview first shows the cells that will change per company, be overwritten or be skipped. Portal sales are priced in a separate sales channel; the customer is the company of the employee making the booking and its parent companies. This way the same hotel appears to staff of different companies at the price in their own contract. ## Do company staff see the markup? No. Supplier name, net price, markup, commission, cost and profit fields are removed from the corporate portal's responses. If a response cannot be sanitised under this rule, it is not sent to the portal at all (fail closed). The sales statement the agency sends to a corporate client does not contain markup and commission columns either. On the agency side, the sales and profit report breaks profit down by layer: commission, company layer and service fee. The report also shows the channel the sale came from separately, either the corporate portal or agency staff selling on behalf of a company. ## How does markup change when selling on behalf of a company? When agency staff make a [sale on behalf of a company](/en/agent-assisted-corporate-booking/), the checkout screen shows a hidden markup box. The percentage or fixed amount entered there replaces the company's defined hidden markup value for that sale. The amount does not appear on documents and cannot be changed from the prebook step onwards. What the markup rate should be is the agency's commercial decision, and there is no fixed rate in the industry. Kurumsal.pro does not set that rate; it applies the rule the agency defines for each company at the right layer. For how a corporate portal launched under your own brand works in general, see [white label corporate booking tool for TMCs](/en/white-label-corporate-booking-tool/). ## Frequently asked questions ### Is markup the same as commission? No. Markup is the margin the agency itself adds on top of the net price. Commission is a separate price layer the agency defines. In the Kurumsal.pro company price form the two are set in separate sections. ### Does hidden markup appear on the invoice? No. Hidden markup is built into the selling price and does not appear as a separate line on documents. A charge the agency wants to show openly is entered as a service fee, which is a separate line on the invoice. ### Can company staff see the markup amount in the portal? No. Supplier, net price, markup, commission, cost and profit fields are removed from the corporate portal's responses. A response that cannot be sanitised this way is not sent to the portal at all. ### Can the markup rate differ for each company? Yes. In the company price form the agency enters a percentage or a fixed amount by product and by domestic or international. A company-specific rule replaces the agency's general rule, and subsidiary companies and branches inherit it. ### Can agency staff change the markup on a single sale? On a sale made on behalf of a company, the checkout screen has a hidden markup box. The percentage or fixed amount entered there replaces the company's hidden markup value for that sale, and it is locked once the prebook is created or the sale is paid.