Pricing & rates · Travelers + trade
Net rate
Also called net price, wholesale rate, net
What it means
A net rate is the price a rental company (the supplier) agrees to charge a broker, tour operator or other reseller for a rental. The reseller then sets its own selling price on top. The customer usually never sees the net rate, only the final price.
Why it matters
Net rates are how much of car rental gets sold through third parties. For a reseller, the gap between net and selling price is the business. For a traveler, it explains why the same car can show different prices on different sites: each seller has its own net deal and its own margin.
Example
Example only: a supplier's net rate is 100 for a week. A reseller sells it for 120 and keeps 20 as gross profit, before its own payment and marketing costs.
Related terms
- Gross rateA price that already includes the seller's commission; the seller keeps its share and passes the rest to the rental company.
- Markup / marginMarkup is profit as a share of cost; margin is profit as a share of the selling price. Same profit, different percentages.
- CommissionA percentage of the rental price paid to the agent or partner who made the sale.
- BrokerA company that sells rentals from many rental companies but doesn't own the cars; the rental itself is with the company at the counter.
Also related Commissionable rate, Rate parity