What a travel enquiry costs on Meta and Google: data from 7 live accounts

What did we measure, and how?

We read the Meta Ads Manager and Google Ads screenshots for seven accounts (Travel Junction, Himalayan Musafir, Safarnama with Anu, GCI Adventure, Prakriti Escapes, Jupiter Travels and Next Cab), captured on 13 October 2026 with the date range visible. For each campaign row we transcribed spend, results and cost per result, then computed spend-weighted averages, medians and ranges. Every number below can be traced to a screenshot on the relevant case-study page.

What does a WhatsApp chat cost on Meta for a travel brand?

For travel brands that optimise for “messaging conversations started”, the spend-weighted cost per chat ranged from about ₹10.65 to ₹26.59 across three accounts, and single campaigns ranged much wider.

The lowest single result was ₹4.58 (a Holi campaign at Travel Junction, ₹210.80 spent) and the highest ₹54.48 (an Udaipur campaign in the same account). That is a 12× gap inside one business, which is why a single “average cost per enquiry” is a poor guide.

What does an instant-form lead cost?

Himalayan Musafir’s Meta account uses instant forms for most of its 128 campaigns. Among the lead-form campaigns with at least 30 leads in the rows we read, cost per lead ranged from ₹19.50 to ₹163.43, with a median of ₹86.43. By destination, spend-weighted:

Campaigns optimised for qualified leads, a stricter event, returned 6 sets of results of 5 to 37 each at ₹197.24 to ₹1,838.73 per qualified lead. They filter better and scale worse.

What does a Google Ads conversion cost for cabs and packages?

Next Cab’s account (₹13,48,482 of cost, 54,909 clicks, 9,278 recorded conversions, ₹145.34 blended) shows the spread by route. Among campaigns with at least 40 conversions:

The cheapest sits near ₹48 and the dearest near ₹763. Read these as relative between routes: the conversion actions the account counts are not visible in the screenshots. For the same reason we do not quote a cost per lead for Jupiter Travels, whose account shows a 64% “conversion rate”.

Why does cost vary so much?

• Destination and price point. Domestic multi-destination forms cost a fraction of Dubai or Singapore forms because they attract browsers rather than high-ticket buyers.
• Season. A campaign built for a booking window (Holi, Goa Diwali, winter Spiti) behaves differently from an always-on one.
• The result you optimise for. A chat is cheaper than a lead, which is cheaper than a qualified lead, which is cheaper than a booking.
• Creative and offer. In one account, a story-led boosted post cost ₹9.82 per chat and urgency posts cost up to ₹50.26.
• Budget and learning. Tiny test campaigns are noisy; large ones average out.

What can this data not tell you?

• Cost per booking. The screenshots show chats, leads and recorded conversions, not paid bookings.
• A benchmark. Seven accounts of one agency are not an industry benchmark. The result types differ and the windows differ.
• Today’s price. Auctions change with season and competition. These are historical views.
• Selection. The rows we transcribed are the highest-spend campaigns visible in each screenshot; the very smallest campaigns are under-represented.

How should you use it?

Use it to set expectations for a range, not a number, and to ask your agency for the same breakdown on your account: cost by destination, by season and by result type, with the screenshot. If an agency quotes a single cost per lead without a window, a definition or a screenshot, ask for all three.