Free Tour Costing Sheet and Group Pricing Calculator
Price a group tour at 10, 15, 20 or 30 people in one table. Free, in your browser, no sign-up.
1. What the trip costs you
Add every cost at the price you pay. Costs for the whole group are paid once. Per-person costs are paid for everyone travelling. Per-room costs are paid for each room needed.
2. Your group and your price
Currency
Group sizes to price (paying people)
People per room
One free place for every
Contingency %
Price by
Margin %
Round price up to
Tax % shown on top
Markup and margin are not the same. A 20% margin needs a 25% markup.
3. Your price, by group size
Paying people
Free places
Rooms
Total cost
Cost per person
Price per person
Profit
Margin
10
0
5
$6,352.50
$635.25
$795.00
$1,597.50
20.09%
15
1
8
$8,904.00
$593.60
$745.00
$2,271.00
20.32%
20
1
11
$11,250.75
$562.54
$705.00
$2,849.25
20.21%
30
2
16
$15,708.00
$523.60
$655.00
$3,942.00
20.06%
Free places travel but do not pay, so their costs are spread across the paying people. Rooms are worked out from everyone travelling. Prices are rounded up, so profit can be slightly above your target. This is arithmetic on the numbers you enter. Check supplier rates before you quote.
A costing sheet answers one question: what must I charge each person so the trip makes the money I want, whatever size the group turns out to be? The method is the same in every agency.
Sort costs into three kinds. Costs you pay once for the group (a guide, a coach, a private venue). Costs you pay for every traveller (entry tickets, meals). Costs you pay for every room (accommodation).
Count who is travelling. Free places are travellers too. They use rooms, meals and tickets even though they do not pay.
Add a contingency. A small percentage covers costs that run over, such as exchange-rate movement and small extras.
Divide by the paying people to get the cost per person.
Add your profit as a markup or a margin, then round the price so it is easy to quote.
Markup and margin are different
A 25 percent markup is a 20 percent margin. If you think you are earning 25 percent and you are earning 20, every trip is quietly short by five points of the price. The sheet shows your actual margin and markup in each row so you can see what a price really leaves you. To hit a margin, divide cost by (1 minus the margin). To apply a markup, multiply cost by (1 plus the markup). Our guide to pricing a custom trip goes further.
A worked example
The sheet opens with an example you can change. A coach and driver at 1,400 and a guide at 600 are paid once. Tickets cost 55 and meals 140 for each traveller. Hotel costs 420 per room for all the nights, two to a room. A free place for every 15 paying people, 5 percent contingency, a 20 percent margin, and prices rounded up to the next 5.
For 20 paying people, one free place makes 21 travellers and 11 rooms. Costs come to 11,250.75 including contingency. Dividing by 0.8 and by 20 paying people gives 703.17 per person, rounded up to 705. At 10 people the same trip needs 795 per person, because the guide and coach are shared by fewer people.
From costing sheet to client proposal
The price is only half of what a client sees. They also need the itinerary, hotels, inclusions, exclusions and terms in one clear, branded page they can accept. Story of a Trip turns your costing into that proposal, with a link the client opens on their phone, accepts, and pays the deposit on. See a sample proposal.
Questions
How do you price a group tour?
Add up every cost. Split them into costs paid once for the whole group (guide, coach), costs paid per person (tickets, meals) and costs paid per room (hotel). Divide the total by the number of paying people for the cost per person, then add your markup or margin to get the selling price. Do it at several group sizes, because the fixed costs are shared by more people in a bigger group.
What is the difference between markup and margin?
Markup is the percentage you add to your cost. Margin is the percentage of the selling price that is profit. A 25 percent markup gives a 20 percent margin, because profit is measured against the higher selling price. If you want a 20 percent margin, divide your cost by 0.8, or use a 25 percent markup.
How do free places for a tour leader work in the price?
A free place travels and costs you money for the room, meals and tickets, but pays nothing. Their cost is spread over the paying people. This sheet lets you set one free place for every set number of paying travellers and includes them when it counts rooms and per-person costs.
Why does the price per person fall as the group grows?
Fixed costs such as a guide or a coach are the same whether 10 or 30 people travel. A larger group divides them by more people. Per-person and per-room costs stay roughly the same, so the cost per person drops and flattens as the group grows.
Is my data saved?
No. The calculation happens in your browser. Nothing you type is sent to or saved on our servers. If you copy the link, your numbers are held inside the link itself so you can come back to them or share them.