Table of Content

Creating a Band
Band Scheme
What Can Be Sold in a Band
Setting Product Prices

Bands are how Ventrata structures commissions for Resellers. You can edit the commission on the reseller itself, but an operation often has resellers numbering in the thousands. Because most will have the same commission structure, Ventrata operates with Bands.

1. Creating a Band

To create a band head over to Resellers -> Bands and click on + New Band. The only mandatory field for the Band is the name. We suggest using a name that explains something about the reseller type or the commission percentage given, eg Local Reseller, Hotel Porto, 15% Commission.

2. Band Scheme

Resellers, such as OTAs or travel agencies, can buy at a contracted rate or they can receive a commission for what they sell, as concierges at hotels or local tourist shops would. The difference is in how the band is set up:

Wholesale - you will add a price that a reseller will buy at
Commission - you will add a commission that a reseller will receive when buying those products

Percentage

In many cases, commission or wholesale prices are a percentage of the price of the product. By marking the Percentage checkbox when you add the prices to the band, they will be in the form of a percentage (that is 15% instead of €1.50 on a €10 hop-on hop-off train). Since it is relative to the price, it will be easier to maintain if there is a price change.

There will be times where you cannot use a percentage. For example, contractual obligations to sell a hop-on hop-off train to Viator for €10.



If you select the Percentage option, you will be prompted to set a default percentage. This will populate the products with that base percentage, which can be overridden later if you wish.

3. What Can Be Sold in a Band

You can select which products are available on the bottom section of the bands. Bear in mind that there is a Blacklist and Whitelist toggle for all these settings.

Within a band you can select what a reseller has access to:

Tax rates - choose which tax rate a reseller is liable for, if any
Destinations - specify destinations in which a reseller can sell, if any
Categories - the categories that will be displayed on a trade portal
Products - the products that will be available and displayed on a trade portal



One cool feature of bands is that you can select a default order for both categories and products. In the above screenshot, the reseller will have access to Yellow Bus Tours products first, then Tomaz do Douro, then Living Tours, and so on.

This way you can make sure that the first products a reseller has access to are your own, and then they may sell those where you make the largest profit.

Blacklisting

Blacklisting means that you can manually set the products, destinations, categories and tax rates that aren’t available for a particular band.

In the above screenshot, the resellers that are assigned to this band will be able to sell EVERY product except for Braga & Guimarães and Relax Douro.

Whitelisting

Clicking on Whitelist All Products will change the behaviour. ONLY the products that you add will be available for sale for that band. In this case, the resellers that have this band will only have access to sell Braga & Guimarães, Relax Douro, and Porto Half Day.

4. Setting Product Prices

Import / Export

If you have a band with multiple products on offer or on non-percentage bands, it might sound like a lot of work to manually add these rates. Especially because you probably have them in an Excel sheet somewhere. This is where the Import / Export functionality comes in handy.

The first step is to click the Export button which will download a .CSV file. This is because Ventrata works with a specific data model. You can then copy the rates from your separate sheet into the correct place in your exported sheet. When you’re finished, save the .CSV and import it by pressing the green Import button.

This allows you to make sure all the information you’re uploading is in the correct row and column.

Reseller Commission, Retail pricing, Cost Rates

Reseller Commission - the default commission given to resellers (Hotels, Sales Desks, Concierges etc.)
Retail Pricing - the price paid by customers per ticket
Cost Rates - the cost to you per ticket

You might want to offer a different or a reduced price for a reseller. This might be because you’re giving resellers in this band a special price, because you’re contractually obliged to do so, or because the reseller might want to have a price lower than advertised on your website, even when it means receiving less commission. If so, you can override the retail pricing by going to the Retail Price tab on the band. The Import / Export buttons work the same as with Commissions and Cost Rates.

Overriding default percentages

If you click on the band name you can override the settings of the base percentage that is set up on any product, option or ticket type.

Updated on: 06/02/2024