Where the money behind your trip actually goes

You have probably heard that booking through a travel advisor does not cost you anything extra. That is true. But it raises a fair question that almost nobody bothers to answer: if I am not paying the travel advisor, then who is?

Somebody is. And the short version is this — the price you were going to pay already has that money in it. Every cruise line and resort builds the cost of selling their trips into the prices they publish. It is the same money whether you book on their own website, on Expedia, or with me. It is already in there. The only thing that changes is who ends up receiving it.

First, who’s who — because the words get confusing

Travel has about five words that all sound like the same thing: supplier, agency, advisor, agent, travel company. Almost nobody outside the industry can tell them apart, and you should not have to. There are really only two kinds of company here.

The companies that actually run the trip. Royal Caribbean, Carnival, MSC, Viking, Sandals, Marriott, Disney. They own the ship, the resort, the rooms, the buses. They set the price.

The companies that sell those trips but do not own any of it. Expedia, Kayak, Trivago, Hotels.com, Costco Travel, VacationsToGo — and Ministry Vacations. Every one of us is selling somebody else’s ship and hotel rooms. The big ones are websites with call centers behind them. Ministry Vacations is one person. But we are all the same kind of business, and we all sell the same cabin at the same price.

And what is an “agent”? It is just the person you talk to. The confusing part is that the same word gets used no matter who they work for. The person who answers the phone at Carnival is an agent — a Carnival employee. The person in the chat window at Expedia is an agent — an Expedia employee. I am an agent too. I work for myself.

So how does the agent at the cruise line get paid, if the commission is already in the fare? They get a salary, and it comes out of that same fare you paid — the same way your fare pays the cooks, the housekeepers and the cruise director. The commission is a separate line in that fare. It is set aside to pay whoever sold you the trip. If you book straight with the cruise line, they simply keep it. If you book on Expedia, Expedia keeps it. If you book with me, 5% of your booking goes to the church or missionary you name, and the rest supports my family on the mission field.

So nothing gets added to my price?

Nothing. Not a fee, not a markup, not a service charge.

The cruise line publishes one price, and it set that price knowing that some of the people selling it would need to be paid. So the money is in there before you ever start shopping. When you book direct to “skip the middleman,” you do not get a discount — the cruise line just keeps the piece it had already set aside. You don’t get any perks or special discounts for booking directly with the cruise or hotel, so we might as well redirect those built-in commissions to further God’s kingdom.

Do I still get the deals?

This is the part people worry about, and the answer is yes — every one of them.

Kids sail free. Buy one, get one. Free drink package. Free Wi-Fi, which cruise lines normally charge for by the day. Onboard credit. Fourth night free. The Black Friday sale. Those promotions belong to the cruise line and the resort. They do not belong to the website. They are attached to the fare itself, not to the place you happened to click.

So you get the same price and the same deal you would get booking direct or on any of the big sites. Same cabin, same perks, same everything. The only difference is where the commission lands.

How much is the commission?

It varies, and more than most people expect. Rates are set contract by contract, and they change over time — it is usually anywhere from 5-18%.

Cruises and escorted tours pay the most; they are the complicated bookings the industry has always leaned on advisors to sell. All-inclusive resorts are similar. Hotel rooms pay less, and some hotel brands pay nothing at all on a room booked through their own site. Flights are the lowest of all — around 5%, and on plenty of fares, nothing. So, most agents aren’t making any money off of selling flights unless it is group travel like for a mission trip.

That last one has a consequence worth saying out loud. On a flight booking, the 5% that I give to your church or ministry is most if not all of my commission. So there are bookings I earn nothing on. I book them anyway. A ministry family that needs flights sorted needs them sorted, and taking only the profitable trips is not what Ministry Vacations is all about.

The rate is set by the cruise line and the product type, not by how much work a trip takes. A complicated set of flights for a family of five can take longer than a cruise cabin that pays several times more.

How do commissions at Ministry Vacations work?

On most bookings, a good chunk of my commission (5% of the total booking cost) leaves straight away as a Gratitude Gift — to the church, the missionary or the ministry you name. The amounts are published by booking size on the Gratitude Giving Program page.

The rest becomes part of my income. I have been a support-raising missionary for nearly thirty years, and I still am. Ministry Vacations is not a separate business that happens to fund the ministry from outside it — it is part of my Business as Mission venture.

The commission on your booking is part of how a missionary family stays on the field, and it is what pays for the gift to your ministry at the same time. Those are not two competing claims on one pot of money. That is how I take money that was previously just going into the pockets of large corporations and now putting it to good kingdom use as I minister and as I give to your ministry.

And the alternative was never that the money goes nowhere. It is that it goes to a booking website that is not raising support for anything.

Are you going to try to convince me to book a cruise ship or itinerary that is not the best for me just to get a better commission?

Never. I genuinely want what is best for your family, and I will fight to keep you inside your budget — we are called to be good stewards in every area of life, and that includes this one.

I will also say plainly that the incentive is real, because rates do differ between cruise lines and between products. Any advisor who tells you that temptation does not exist is either not paying attention or not being straight with you.

This is verifiable instead of just a promise. Go and price the trip on the cruise line or hotel’s own website, then bring me what you found. That invitation is given throughout this site, and it is not rhetoric. If what I put in front of you is worse than what you dug up yourself, let me know since I can always offer those same deals and would love to do so.

A cheaper trip, a different cruise line, or not going this year, is a recommendation I will make when it is the right one. A commission I do not earn costs me a lot less than a ministry family who should not have gone.