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For many booking and ticketing platforms, the fee now dominates most commercial conversations. Clients compare it with other platforms, competitors offer to charge less, and over time it can start to define what your platform is worth.
Platforms that keep clients long term tend to do more than charge less. They help those clients take more bookings, earn more from each customer, and give people a better experience at checkout and after it. Ancillary products and services are one of the most practical ways to do that.
Why competing on fee is hard to sustain
Processing and booking fees are easy to compare, so competitors usually start there. Cut your fee to win a client, and you've only won them until someone undercuts you. You've also taught the market that price is what matters most.
Fee-led relationships are fragile, too. If cost is the only thing a client measures you on, there's little to stop them moving, and switching platforms gets easier every year.
Meanwhile, your clients' customers want more from a booking than a seat or a room. They want the confidence to commit months ahead, a smoother journey, a way to stay connected when they travel, and a choice about their impact. When a checkout can't offer those things, customers either go without or go elsewhere.
A more useful question for your strategy is what you could add, once, that every client on your platform would value more than a lower fee.
Why ancillaries suit platforms
Airlines have earned income from extras for years. Seat selection, bags and other add-ons gave customers more choice and gave airlines revenue beyond the fare. Booking and ticketing platforms are even better positioned to do the same, because one integration can bring new products to every client at once.
The ancillaries that work best for platforms share four traits:
- They solve a real customer need. They answer a worry or a want that already exists at the moment of booking, rather than asking customers to think about something new.
- They earn rather than cost. They create shared revenue for you and your clients, on top of the booking itself.
- They fit the checkout you already control. Customers meet them at the moment of purchase, inside your flow.
- They create no extra work. The provider handles fulfilment and customer service, so you and your clients don't need new teams or processes.
Over time, this changes how clients see you. Your platform still handles their tickets and reservations, but it also becomes a revenue source they'd lose if they left.
Choosing the right ancillaries for your platform
Offering more products doesn't always help. A checkout crowded with extras can lower conversion and frustrate customers. It's better to show each customer a small number of offers that fit their booking.
A useful starting point is to look for the moments in your clients' customer journeys where people hesitate or need help:
- Before they commit. Price, timing and uncertainty all make people hesitate. Flexible or refundable options, price locks, instalment plans and seat or room upgrades can help customers feel ready to book.
- Getting there. Travel to a trip or event brings its own worries. Transfers, parking, fast-track entry, disruption support and airport services make the journey easier.
- On the day or at the destination. This is where customers look for a better experience. Premium access, food and drink pre-orders, merchandise, local tours and activities, and mobile data all add to it.
- After the booking. The relationship doesn't have to end at the gate or the check-out desk. Memberships, loyalty rewards, photos and content, and ways to reduce their environmental impact give customers reasons to come back.
Then match the mix to each vertical. A festival ticketing platform, a hotel booking engine and a tours marketplace need different combinations. The best platforms make that curation part of their service, rather than leaving every client to work it out alone.
Finally, think about how each offer is priced and presented. Testing wording, placement and price, and tailoring them to the booking often matters as much as which products you choose.
Putting an ancillary strategy into practice
Every platform's client base is different, so there's no single playbook. These are the questions we'd suggest working through first:
1. Start with your clients' goals, not a product or service list
Ask each client segment what it most wants to improve. That might be conversion, average order value, repeat bookings, or fewer customer service calls. The answer tells you which ancillaries are worth exploring.
2. Use the data you already have
Your platform sees booking patterns across many clients: lead times, basket sizes, customer mix and where people drop out. That view helps you spot where demand for extras already exists.
3. Vet providers as carefully as you vet clients
An ancillary carries your platform's name at checkout. Look closely at each provider's customer service, how quickly customers are paid or attended to, and what customers say.
4. Agree on the commercial model early
Decide how revenue is shared between you, your clients and providers, who sets the price and how results are reported. Clear terms make it easier for clients to say yes.
5. Pilot with a few willing clients
Choose a small group of willing clients, run the offers for a set period, and make results accessible. Real results from peers will persuade the rest of your client base more than any pitch.
What this means for your platform
Fee pressure isn't going away, but booking and ticketing platforms are well placed to respond. You already own the checkout, the client relationships and the reach. A well-planned ancillary strategy uses all three to help your clients sell more, earn more and give their customers a better experience.
Your fee will still matter to clients, but it no longer has to be the main reason they choose you.
