Your Quotation Needs a Per-Person Price

Open the last five quotations your agency sent. Count how many show a price per person. In most agencies the answer is one, or none — everything else is a WhatsApp message that says "₹1,45,000 all inclusive for the family, let me know."

That number cannot be compared, cannot be defended, and cannot be changed without rewriting the whole quote. It fails three different people at once.

Who a lump sum fails

• The customer. They have three quotes. Two are totals for different family sizes on different hotel categories. There is no arithmetic that makes those comparable, so they compare the only thing they can — the total — and the lowest one wins for reasons nobody understood.
• You. When they say "the other agent is ₹12,000 cheaper", a lump sum leaves you with two moves: discount, or lose. With per-person lines you have a third and much better one — find out where the ₹12,000 is.
• Your own ops team. Grandmother drops out. Two friends join. A lump sum means a full re-quote and a new PDF. Per-person lines mean you change one number on the phone while they are still talking.

What a price block should actually contain

Five parts, in this order. It takes thirty seconds longer than a lump sum and it wins arguments for the next three months.

1. A line per traveller class, with the count and the rate. Adult, child with bed, child without bed, infant — each with the number of heads and the per-person rate, so the multiplication is visible. If you have never separated CWB from CNB, start there; it is the most expensive habit in Indian package selling, and it has its own guide.
2. The occupancy basis, stated. "Per adult on twin sharing" is a different price from "per adult on triple sharing", and a single traveller in the group pays a single supplement because a room costs what a room costs. Write the basis on the quote. Half of all pricing disputes are actually occupancy disputes.
3. A sub-total. The number before tax. This is the one a customer can genuinely compare against another agent's.
4. Taxes on their own labelled lines. GST at the rate that applies to how you are selling — the package rate if you are the principal, the service rate if you are only charging a fee (the GST guide has the distinction). If it is an overseas package, TCS is a separate line again, and it is not your charge — explain it properly rather than burying it.
5. What is not included. Short, specific, and in the same block as the price: visa fees, tips, meals not listed, the optional day tour they will ask about later.

The Package Price Builder produces exactly this shape — per-class lines, sub-total, GST split into CGST+SGST or IGST, total — so you can paste it into a quote or read it off on a call.

Why the sub-total is the line that matters

Customers think they are comparing prices. They are comparing totals, which are prices plus whatever each agent happened to include. One agent's ₹1,33,000 excludes visas and GST. Yours includes both. You look 9% more expensive and you are, in fact, cheaper.

A visible sub-total and a visible exclusions list turn that conversation around in one sentence: "Ask them whether their number includes the visa and the GST — mine does, and it's on the quote." You are not attacking a competitor, you are handing the customer a way to compare. They will remember who did that.

Don't quietly round

If your computed adult price is ₹20,700, quote ₹20,700. The temptation is to round to ₹21,000 because it looks tidier — and sometimes to ₹22,000 because there is room. A number that ends in a real figure reads as computed; a number ending in three zeros reads as a guess, and invites a counter-offer at ₹19,000.

When you do want to give something away, give it as a visible line — "Festive goodwill discount: −₹2,000" — rather than by inflating a rate. A discount the customer can see is a favour they remember. A rate you padded is a rate they will test next year.

When pax changes, and it always does

Groups move. Somebody's leave gets cancelled, a cousin joins, the honeymoon becomes a family trip. Per-person pricing turns that from a re-quote into arithmetic, and it lets you be the agent who answers instantly:

"If your brother-in-law joins, he's one more adult at ₹20,700 on twin sharing — but he'd be the odd one out on rooming, so it's either a triple at ₹18,600 each for that room or a single supplement of ₹6,400. Tell me which and I'll re-send in five minutes."

You cannot say that from a lump sum. You can say it from a price block, on the phone, without opening a file — and speed at exactly this moment is what closes group bookings.

The defence, when it comes

It always arrives as the same message: "We got a cheaper quote." With per-person lines you have somewhere to look. Nine times out of ten the gap is one of four things — hotel category, meal plan, whether flights or the visa are in, or whether tax is shown. Ask which, then say what you found:

"The ₹20,700 is per adult on twin sharing — six nights at the Ibis Styles with breakfast, all transfers and the two day tours. Their number is likely on a 3-star further out, or room-only. Happy to quote you that too so you're comparing like with like — it'd be about ₹17,400 per adult. Same trip, different hotel; your call."

Notice what that does. You did not discount, you did not disparage, and you gave the customer a second option at a price you are still happy to sell. That is only possible because your price has parts.

The one-minute audit

Take your last quotation and check it against five questions. Does it show a rate per person? Does it name the occupancy basis? Does it separate CWB, CNB and infants? Are tax lines labelled and separate? Is there an exclusions list next to the price?

If the answer is no to three or more, the leads are not the problem and neither is your pricing. The document is.

TourBrain's quotation software for travel agents builds this block for you — per-class lines, occupancy basis, GST split by place of supply, TCS where it applies — as a branded PDF your customer can actually read, and carries the same numbers straight into the GST invoice. Start 14-day trial.