5% Markup Explained
With Inertia Tours Greek Formal travel company, we go beyond the lame “lowest price guarantee.” We offer our 5% mark up on all Greek Formals over the hard costs of the trip. No more. This is unheard of in travel where the typical markup is 20 to 30%.
We are a for-profit business, but rather than try to nickel & dime your group or play games on the costs, we are 100% transparent to your Chairperson for the weekend package.
You can bet that other travel organizers don’t like this – but transparent pricing makes selecting our Company to put your Formal together very easy to justify to your Fraternity or Sorority.
How does this work?
Easy. We send an industry leading workbook online we share with your Greek Chairperson that shows all the hard, or actual wholesale trip prices we negotiate for your group once you have signed an agreement with us to handle your weekend. These actual costs are marked up just 5% to Inertia for its work. The 5% is collected on the total price including credit card fees.
Well, how do we know you don’t markup the trip beyond the real costs?
Simple. We provide enough unadulterated information on our group travel agreements that your Chairperson will be able to see what we paid and passed on to your Fraternity or Sorority trip upon request.
We have an iron-clad 150% assurance that if it is discovered any aspect of the trip has been marked up beyond the plus 5% add on, we refund 50% on top of that markup!
What about credit card fees?
As our online payment system allows for individual payments by your group, we need to accept credit cards. We flat rate this by adding 4% to every transaction by each member paying. It is not marked up. Some debit cards are 3%. However like AMEX travel cards are as high as 4.5% fee to us, we simply pass along a flat 4%
Guess what? You can AVOID credit card fees! We do accept bank checks like money orders and cashiers checks if your group is super price sensitive to these credit/debit card fees. That is up to your Formals Chairperson to decide.
Can we mark up the trip beyond 5% Inertia charges and our group takes that profit?
Yes you can. If the formal has a per couple “hard” or actual cost of $500, that price to your members per couple would be $500. The credit card fee on this trip would be $20. The cost would be $520 x 5% to Inertia (so $26).
The total trip price per couple in this scenario would be $546.
If your group asks for any additional markup, 95% of that markup goes to your group, and 5% of that additional markup to Inertia Tours.
Therefore, if you want to have some additional funds for things like gratuities, incidentals, libations or more – you tell us what percentage or dollar amount to mark the trip up and we do as your Chairperson or group wants.
Those additional trip “mark up” funds are paid out within (7) days of everyone being paid in full.
What about cancellations?
Please understand, as we only do a 5% markup on actual costs, the agreement terms have to be understood by your Chairperson or decision maker prior to deposits being made and honored.
We use leading industry standard contracts on all aspects of the formal weekend. Therefore, your group could stand to lose the contracted terms, as well as the 5% that goes to Inertia Tours out of the initial deposit on the entire trip price.
Typically, hotels and bus companies have 31 day refundability – sometimes less if you cancel. We will cover these terms with your Chairperson or group leader. Food & DJs, etc are 7 to 30 days on refundability, though sometimes deposits are lost.
Have no worry here, we are not out to rip anyone off. No matter what our max profit is 5%. We have nearly 25 years of hospitality experience with negotiating agreements that takes this burden off of a college student. We are here to protect your Fraternity and Sorority!
Need more information or explanation on our 5% Total Mark up? Please email us info@inertiatours.com subject line FORMALS or call us 800.821.2176. We are here to give friendly, helpful advice & information.
