A growing agency eventually reaches the limits of a single office. A partner selling in another town, a branch, or a smaller agency selling your products to its own customers, in other words a sub-agent, is the natural way to grow. Working with sub-agents raises its own questions, though. Who sold what? How are earnings shared? How do you keep settlement tidy? This article covers the principles of managing sub-agents and how a lead agency manages its sub-agents on the LONDONOS agent portal.
For an overview of the portal, see our guide to a B2B travel booking platform; for every feature, visit the travel agent portal page.
What is a sub-agent, and why work with one?
A sub-agent is a partner who sells using a lead agency’s products and agreements. The lead agency deals with the supplier; the sub-agent concentrates on its own customers. For the lead agency, the benefit is a wider sales network without a bigger office. For the sub-agent, it is access to a broad product range without negotiating with every supplier on its own.
Four principles of a healthy sub-agent network
- Clear responsibility: the lead agency is responsible to the supplier; its relationship with each sub-agent is its own arrangement.
- Visibility: the lead agency should be able to see every sale its sub-agents make.
- Consistent pricing: sub-agents should not sell the same product on different terms; one set of rates avoids confusion.
- Orderly settlement: who owns each earning should be recorded on every sale.
How sub-agents work on the LONDONOS portal
On the LONDONOS agent portal, the lead agency adds its sub-agents from its own panel and invites them by e-mail. A sub-agent that has been added can log in straight away, with no separate approval to wait for. This is how it works:
- Prices: sub-agents sell with the lead agency’s rates per product, so the whole network works on one price structure.
- Agency commission: agency commission from a sub-agent’s sales is credited to the lead agency’s wallet, tagged with the sub-agent it came from.
- Settlement: LONDONOS deals only with the lead agency and pays the wallet to the lead agency. The lead agency settles with its sub-agents on whatever terms it has agreed with them.
- Control: the lead agency can block or remove a sub-agent from its panel at any time.
Tracking sales
In the lead agency’s panel, the reservations list shows both its own bookings and those of its sub-agents, and can be filtered by sub-agent. In the wallet history, every agency commission entry shows which sub-agent it belongs to. Both lists can be exported to Excel or CSV, so at month end you can produce each sub-agent’s sales and earnings statement in a few minutes.
Setting up the earnings split
The portal’s part ends when it pays the lead agency’s wallet; how you share with sub-agents is entirely your decision. Common approaches include:
- Percentage split: a set share of the agency commission from a sub-agent’s sales is passed on to that sub-agent.
- Net-rate selling: the sub-agent sells at net rates and adds its own markup for the customer; the lead agency may then earn nothing from those sales unless it agrees a separate arrangement with the sub-agent.
- Fixed fee: in some networks the sub-agent pays the lead agency a regular fee for access to products.
Whichever method you choose, put the rule in writing and share it with each sub-agent. Vague sharing rules are the quickest way to spoil a partnership that is otherwise going well.
Keeping settlement tidy
- Follow the weekly cycle: LONDONOS pays the wallet balance weekly. Settling with sub-agents on the same cycle makes tracking simple.
- Keep currencies apart: the wallet tracks and pays each currency separately. When you settle with sub-agents, share sterling and lira earnings on separate statements too.
- Allow for cancellations: agency commission on a cancelled booking is reversed, and refunds after payout are deducted from the next payment. Adjust what you pass on accordingly.
- Share the statement: the list filtered by sub-agent, exported from your panel, is the clearest record you can give a partner.
The sub-agent’s experience with customers
Sub-agents use the same customer-friendly tools as the lead agency. They can enter their own markup as a percentage and show prices with it, hide their cost with the eye icon, and hand customers a voucher that never shows their cost. Every office in your network offers the same professional experience.
What can sub-agents sell?
Sub-agents can book every product the lead agency can: فنادق, flights, tours, airport transfers and packages. The focus is Türkiye and the UK, with the most requested places such as Antalya, Istanbul and London all in the same panel.
Onboarding a new sub-agent
A short checklist helps every new partner start well: agree the earnings split in writing, explain how to choose between net rates and agency commission at checkout, show them how to set their markup and use the eye icon, and agree the weekly settlement day. Ten minutes at the start saves many questions later.
Common mistakes to avoid
- Verbal agreements: sharing rules that are not written down tend to turn into disputes at the first cancellation or refund.
- Mixing currencies: showing sterling and lira earnings as one total makes settlement unclear; keep them apart as the wallet does.
- Forgetting inactive partners: when you stop working with a sub-agent, block or remove their access in the panel the same day.
- Settling irregularly: paying sub-agents whenever there is time, rather than on a fixed day, is the quickest way to lose track of who is owed what.
Conclusion
Managing sub-agents well is one of the most efficient ways for an agency to grow: more points of sale, one supplier relationship and a recorded share of earnings. The LONDONOS agent portal lets you add sub-agents from your panel, follow their sales and see where every agency commission came from, while leaving settlement to your own rules. To start building your network, apply for an agent account.