Home Based Travel Agent
Part Three
In Home Based Travel Agent Part Three we will delineate a Home Based Travel Agent as well as describe different approaches to it...
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What is a Home Based Travel Agent?
Broadly speaking, a home based travel agent is anyone engaged
in the marketing and selling of travel products from a home
office.
That can cover a wide variety of different types of
home based travel agents.
However, in the travel industry and more specifically in the travel distribution industry, the term "home based travel agent" is most often used to refer to someone who . . .
- Works out of a home office as an outside sales representative for a bonded, accredited ARC/IATAN travel agency, usually referred to as the "host agency"
- Works as a reseller of products of various travel suppliers, without involving a host agency, or...
- Does a bit of both. Most home based agents fall into this third category
The home based travel agent finds, qualifies, and books the
customer; the host agency prints the tickets (if any) and
serves as the conduit between the home-based agent and the
travel supplier whose product the home-based agent is
selling.
The home based travel agent and the host agency
share the commissions paid by travel suppliers according to a
negotiated percentage split that reflects (or should reflect)
the amount of work and effort expended by each party in
making the booking happen.
By definition (as well as by contract), the home based travel
agent is an independent contractor, which means that he or
she has a great degree of freedom as far as determining how
and with whom to do business.
That means that some home based travel agents function simply
as referral agents, funneling business to a travel agency but
not handling any of the booking details themselves.
Some home based travel agents bypass host agencies
altogether.
One way to do this is to become a "cruise-only"
agency.
Another way to do this is to specialize in
condominium vacations, a niche that has been undeserved by
traditional travel agencies and which is more than happy to
deal directly with home based travel agents.
Other home based travel agents simply market a limited number of travel
products and form direct relationships with individual travel
suppliers whose products they represent.
Some home based travel agents specialize in forms of travel
that have developed distribution channels outside the
traditional storefront travel agency distribution channel.
For example, some people are very content to market
educational tours that not only offer extremely attractive
pricing but allow the tour organizer (the home based travel
agent) to travel free and earn a stipend (a sort of
commission) as well.
Organizers of student travel, many of
whom are full-time students, are another example of this
approach.
Home based travel agents, of whatever description or level of
sophistication, can work either full-time or part-time or
only occasionally.
That's because the very nature of being an
independent contractor is that no one can tell you when to
work, how to work, or how hard to work.
There are home-based
travel agents who earn pin money, home-based travel agents
who earn a tidy part-time income, home-based travel agents
who bring down a substantial middle-class income, and home-
based travel agents who earn six-figure incomes.
As you can see, there are so many variations and combinations
that it is difficult to define the "typical" home-based
travel agent.
This means that virtually anyone can be a home
based travel agent, on their own terms and at their own pace,
creating the type of home based travel marketing business
that makes sense for them.
But is being a home based travel agent for you? WeŽll consider that question in the next lesson...
This mini-course on becoming a home based travel agent is
brought to you by the Home Based Travel Agent Resource Center
and The Intrepid Traveler, publisher of a comprehensive home
study course for home based travel agents.
Copyright © Kelly Monaghan
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