Video Tutorial:
The core business of travel companies that operate online and help people with bookings is earning commissions from the hotels, resorts, and destination vendors that customers book with through the travel agency website. This is a scaling business model nowadays, not an office with an actual travel agent who plans things for you personally.
In the template, you can configure up to 12 travel segments based on starting bookings per month, monthly growth over time (adjustable each year), and the average value of a booking event. To drive revenue, there is an input for the average commission rate earned per booking event.
There is one other somewhat popular business model in this space, which is where the travel company collects a one-time fee from the customer and then handles all the logistics / booking hotels / accommodations and anything else the guests want. They earn a markup on the final cost vs. what they collected from the customer. This is configurable for up to three travel segments and includes assumptions for three cost categories (variable per special booking event).
Both models above can be used, or you can zero out one or the other, depending on how you are forecasting revenue.
As far as costs go, the main variable costs are going to be customer service reps for the website, which will scale based on the ratio of customer service reps needed per 1 booking event (it can be a decimal, so entering something like 0.001 means you need 1 CS rep per 1,000 bookings per month).
There are plenty of fixed expenses to configure based on the start month, cost per month, and this is adjustable by year.
Output summaries include a 3-statement model (IS, BS, CF) and a DCF Analysis / IRR, as well as an executive summary by year.
The model solves for the minimum equity required (minimum investment) to keep the business cash balance above 0.
I built the model out for 72 months so you can have a partial start year and still do a full five-year forecast after that if needed. There is also an option to include a terminal value based on trailing 12-month revenue and a defined multiple.
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