A Start-Up Agency and a Non-Refundable Lodge
Two former vocational students run a registered travel agency from a rented desk in Sonarpur with one laptop and a printer. On 2 December a family of six - four adults and two children aged 8 and 11 - asks for a 5-day/4-night Kolkata–Sundarbans package starting 24 December, budget ₹95,000 in total, including pickup from their home in Garia. The agency owns no vehicle. The lodge at Pakhiralaya quotes ₹2,800 per person per night on twin sharing with all meals; the boat safari is ₹1,200 per head; a guide costs ₹1,500 per day; a Tempo Traveller for the return road journey costs ₹9,500 for the group; the agency adds 12% to its cost as margin. The lodge demands 100% advance by 15 December and refunds nothing if cancelled within 10 days of arrival. The family wants to pay 25% now and the rest on arrival at the lodge.
1. Cost the package and state whether it fits the budget. Then name one change that makes it fit without reducing the number of nights.
Read the worked answer
Cost at adult rate for all six:
- Lodge: 6 × 4 nights × ₹2,800 = ₹67,200
- Boat safari: 6 × ₹1,200 = ₹7,200
- Guide: ₹1,500 × 4 days = ₹6,000
- Tempo Traveller: ₹9,500
- Cost = ₹89,900
- With 12% margin: 89,900 × 1.12 = ₹1,00,688
Against a ₹95,000 budget this is over by ₹5,688. Quoting it as it stands means either an argument on the last day or a loss the agency cannot absorb.
The change: negotiate child rates at the lodge. Children of 8 and 11 are normally charged 50% on twin sharing:
- Lodge: (4 × 2,800 + 2 × 1,400) × 4 = (11,200 + 2,800) × 4 = ₹56,000
- New cost = 56,000 + 7,200 + 6,000 + 9,500 = ₹78,700
- With margin = 78,700 × 1.12 = ₹88,144
This fits, keeps four nights, and leaves about ₹6,850 of headroom for forest permits, camera fees, tips and contingency. If the lodge refuses child rates, cut the guide to the two forest days (−₹3,000) before cutting a night.
2. The family's payment terms cannot match the lodge's. What do you do, and what must never be promised?
Read the worked answer
The arithmetic of the mismatch: 25% of ₹95,000 is about ₹23,750 collected now; the lodge wants ₹67,200 by 15 December on the adult-rate costing. The agency would have to fund a gap of over ₹40,000 from a rented desk - money it does not have.
Recommended route - a tripartite arrangement in writing:
- The family pays the lodge's room component directly by bank transfer by 12 December, and the lodge confirms receipt to all three parties by email.
- The agency collects its own margin and the transport/guide component separately, before the trip.
- If the family refuses, ask for 70% now instead of 25%, or decline the booking. A small agency that takes a booking it cannot fund is one cancellation away from closing.
What must never be promised: a refund the agency cannot fund. The lodge refunds nothing inside 10 days; the agency's promise to the family must mirror that exactly - same window, same wording - and must be shown to the family before money changes hands. Never say "we will adjust it somehow". Never accept the family's cash and hold it while the lodge is unpaid; if the lodge cancels, the agency is the one in court.
3. Write the four clauses the written confirmation must contain for this package.
Read the worked answer
- Payment schedule and who pays whom. Exact amounts, dates, account names and numbers, and a line saying the lodge component is paid by the family directly to the lodge, with agency margin paid separately. No cash without a receipt.
- Cancellation and refund terms, back to back with the lodge's. State the 10-day non-refundable window in the same words the lodge used, and spell out what happens if the Forest Department closes a boat route or weather cancels a safari - refund of that component only, or a date change on the same terms.
- Inclusions and exclusions. Four nights twin sharing with all meals, two boat safaris, guide for stated days, Tempo Traveller from Garia and back, forest entry permits - and then the exclusions: camera fees, tips, personal expenses, any extra night forced by a road blockade.
- Identification, safety and contacts. Vehicle number and driver's mobile, lodge name and address, names and ages of all six travellers (needed for permits), the agency's emergency number, and the time and place of pickup at Garia.
Both copies should be signed and dated, and the family should acknowledge the cancellation clause in writing - it is the clause every dispute turns on.