Why travel agents choose to be with a host?
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Many travel agents choose to be with a host, #1, because they get to focus on what they do best - Selling travel and providing people with life changing / once in a lifetime vacations.
As a new agent, it’s not benefiting you to be on your own because you would be starting at base commission level with all suppliers. You will pay more out of pocket than you’re profiting. This is something you can worry about once you’re making $100k+ in commission or more.
In addition, being with a host means mentorship, support, added commissions and someone to do all the backend work for you.
It’s important to know the travel industry before moving off on your own, you’d miss out on a lot of details if you don’t have the right support and training available.
As an agency owner, I can assure you that I am not making 100% commission and a lot of money is spent towards the backend and overhead of the business that an agent with a host doesn’t see.
Many times, you will make more under a host in the beginning because they have negotiated hired commissions with suppliers, and have a top consortia relationship, due to their sales volume.
If a host has excellent support and training, it can help you grow your business faster and more.
It's important to do the math and consider the commission, it's also important to consider other things such as connections, support, training, networking opportunities, etc.
To sell travel, most states require travel agencies to have a large size insurance policy. Factor in CLIA, they can keep increasing pricing for their yearly fees and insurance costs going up, and the fact it is harder and harder to maintain status with each supplier to keep premium commission amounts.
Plus, rising CRM costs and other tools we use. With a host agency, if they are a part of a larger consortia, you can now speak with the top Diamond/or Elite support desks when calling into suppliers - whereas before you might be talking to someone in Panama or some other non-English speaking country where they are robots reading scripts, which make your work life miserable. You can also receive qualified leads, better FAM offers and a support team you can go to with questions. The host agency can go to bat for you in several situations and I enjoy the perks of having a like-minded community for support and guidance if needed. All of this for a 10% cut they take - It's well worth it to me and my peace of mind.
Many people do not personally have the business mind to be an owner or run their own agency from the entire scope of things. With a host, you do not have to worry about a CRM, maintaining sales levels to qualify for commission tiers with suppliers, and other aspects that come from being on your own. The marketing support, opportunities for FAMs, camaraderie, and business support, this is what you get from a travel host company. Maybe you want to focus on selling travel and providing life changing vacations for families and do not want to be accountable for all the other things.
As agency owners - even we don’t keep 100% of our commission on our sales. We feel the need to leave a cushion to contribute toward all the expenses the business has. It is so very expensive to have your own agency and so much back end work. No one keeps 100% of their commissions, as you have to keep the business running and expenses are insane.
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To learn more techniques and how to become a travel agent, sign-up to become a travel agent today!
