Agency or Independent Agent? Choose the Right Downfare Account
Understand how Downfare Agency and Independent Agent accounts differ, who each account is for, and how teams, markups, margins, and payouts work.
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Downfare gives travel sellers two ways to work with clients: an Agency account for established travel businesses and an Independent Agent account for individuals who sell travel on their own. Both can search and book real travel inventory, but their workspaces, controls, and earning models are designed for different needs.
What is a Downfare Agency account?
An Agency account is a shared business workspace. It is designed for a registered travel agency, consultancy, tour company, or travel management business that serves multiple customers and may have several team members.
The agency owner manages the workspace and can invite staff into it. These invited users are agency team members working under the same agency—not separate independent agents. Their access can be assigned according to the work they need to perform.
Agency accounts are built for teams that need to:
- Search and book live inventory for flights, hotels, stays, tours, transfers, cars, activities, and other available services.
- Maintain a customer directory, traveler profiles, preferences, documents, and communication history.
- Create client-ready quotes from real inventory, including traveler details, travel dates, pricing, and expiry information.
- Apply agency markups and commercial pricing rules by service or transaction.
- Use agency branding on eligible quotes and customer documents.
- Manage bookings, confirmations, changes, cancellations, refunds, schedules, and support cases from one workspace.
- Track wallet activity, commissions, statements, balances, and team performance.
An Agency account is the right choice when the business needs shared customer records, branded selling tools, team access, and structured financial controls.
What is a Downfare Independent Agent account?
An Independent Agent account is intended for an individual travel seller who is not operating inside an agency workspace. The agent registers personally, submits the required identity and business information, completes KYC verification, and waits for approval before agent features are activated.
Once approved, an agent can book travel for clients and add a client margin at checkout when margin selling is enabled for the account. The original inventory price remains clear, while the agent chooses the additional amount the client will pay.
How agent margins work
Downfare administrators can control whether an agent may add a margin, which collection methods are available, and whether a maximum margin percentage applies. Depending on the enabled method, an agent can use one of these approaches:
- Downfare collects: the client pays the full selling price through Downfare. The eligible margin is recorded against the booking and moves through pending, available, and paid-out stages according to the booking and payment status.
- Agent collects: the agent collects the margin directly from the client and pays Downfare the required booking amount. Because Downfare did not collect that margin, it is not added to the agent's Downfare payout balance.
Margins are added per booking rather than saved as a permanent price rule. This gives the independent agent flexibility to price each client transaction while allowing Downfare to enforce account-level controls.
Agency account vs Independent Agent account
| Feature | Agency | Independent Agent |
|---|---|---|
| Designed for | A travel business or organization | An individual travel seller |
| Users | Owner and invited team members in one workspace | One independently verified agent account |
| Customer management | Shared directory, travelers, preferences, documents, and history | Client booking details and personal sales activity |
| Selling tools | Branded quotes, markup rules, commercial pricing, and team workflows | A flexible margin added to an individual checkout |
| Earnings | Agency commissions and commercial margins tracked in the workspace | Eligible booking margins tracked for payout when Downfare collects |
| Approval | Agency verification and workspace onboarding | Personal KYC review and agent approval |
Which account should you choose?
Choose an Agency account if you represent a travel business, need multiple users, want shared customer management, or plan to issue branded quotes and manage commercial pricing across a team.
Choose an Independent Agent account if you sell travel by yourself and want a simple way to add a margin to individual client bookings after verification.
If you work for an existing Downfare agency, ask the agency owner to invite you as a team member. You should not create an Independent Agent account for work that belongs to that agency.
How to get started
- Travel businesses can learn more on the Downfare Agencies page and create an account through Agency registration.
- Independent sellers can apply through Agent registration.
- Complete the requested profile and verification information.
- After approval, sign in to the appropriate workspace and begin serving clients.
Whichever path you choose, Downfare keeps the booking connected to real inventory and gives you the tools appropriate to the way you sell travel.