Monetization & Unit Economics
Revenue streams, cost structure, unit economics per booking, and the path to profitability.
Revenue Streams
Booking Commissions
PrimaryDuffel: $3 flat + 1% per flight order. Hotels: 8-15% revenue share. Ancillaries: $2 per paid add-on (seats, bags).
Credit Card Affiliates
Highest Margin$100-$700 per approved premium card application (US). Rs 2,000-4,000 per card in India. Contextual recommendations during travel conversations.
Premium Subscription
Future$5-10/month for price alerts, priority support, award search, multi-destination planning. At $5/mo: ~80% retention. At $10/mo: ~50-60%.
Cost Per Booking (End-to-End)
| Cost Component | Flight ($400) | Hotel ($320) |
|---|---|---|
| Claude API (Sonnet 4.5 w/ caching) | $0.05-$0.15 | $0.05-$0.15 |
| Duffel API | $7.00-$11.00 | Revenue share |
| WhatsApp API (India) | $0.01-$0.03 | $0.01-$0.03 |
| Payment processing (Stripe 2.9%+$0.30) | $11.90 | $9.58 |
| Infrastructure | $0.30-$0.50 | $0.30-$0.50 |
| Total Variable Cost | $19-$24 | $10-$11 |
Unit Economics Per Booking
Flight Booking
Flights alone are unprofitable at low volumes. OTAs use them as loss leaders for hotel bookings.
Hotel Booking
Hotels are the profit center. 3-8x the contribution margin vs flights.
Blended ARPU (Per User Per Year)
| Revenue Stream | $/User/Year | Penetration | Blended ARPU |
|---|---|---|---|
| Flight bookings (2/yr) | $10-$30 x 2 | 40% | $8-$24 |
| Hotel bookings (1.5/yr) | $27-$80 x 1.5 | 25% | $10-$30 |
| Credit card affiliate | $150 (one-time) | 2% | $3 |
| Travel insurance | $10-$30 | 10% | $1-$3 |
| Subscription | $60-$120/yr | 5-10% | $3-$12 |
| Total Blended ARPU | $25-$73 |
For comparison: Hopper ARPU ~$24/year (35M users). NerdWallet ~$9.67/year (19M users).
The WhatsApp CAC Advantage
Traditional App
- CPI: $3-$6 per install
- Cost to acquire buyer: $75
- Cost to acquire subscriber: $64
- App store discoverability: low
WhatsApp-Native
- CPI: $0 (no app to install)
- Viral sharing: free
- Customer-initiated msgs: free
- Bot sits in chat list forever
With $25 ARPU and $2-$5 effective CAC, the LTV:CAC ratio is 5:1 to 12:1 — exceptional by industry standards.
Year 1 Revenue Projection
Conservative estimate at 500 flight + 200 hotel bookings. At 10K active users: ~$350K/year.
B2B Opportunity (Year 3+)
White-Label for Banks
Hopper Technology Solutions: 66% of Hopper's revenue. $3B+ in incremental bookings through bank portals. Capital One Travel is powered by HTS.
Tourism Board Partnerships
GuideGeek model: custom AI chatbots for DMOs. Clients include Visit Idaho, Tourism Greece, Visit Aruba. Est. $50K-$200K/year per DMO.
API Licensing
Charge $1-$3 per booking + 0.5-1% of order value for developers embedding the travel agent in their apps.