Taking Off As A Home Based Travel Agent!

In previous posts I talked about some potential scams circulating out there promising to turn you into an instant travel agent thereby entitling you to free travel and thousands of dollars in commissions.

These inflated promises have really stretched the truth but YES YOU CAN legally, legitimately and honestly work and earn as a home based travel agent.

Technically a home based travel agent is anyone engaged in the marketing and selling of travel products from a home office. Your home office could be your lap top, an Internet connection and a cell phone. There are a wide variety of home based travel agent programs for you to explore so do your homework. You can spend thousands of dollars to get started or affiliate with a host agency for nothing.
As a field based travel agent you find your customers, determine their needs then book the appropriate travel products. You act as an authorized outside representative of an accredited licensed travel agency usually referred to your "host agency." You use their credentials when you book with the cruise lines, tour operators, hotel and other industry suppliers. The host agency normally handles the business transactions, provides/supplies the travel documents and functions as the liaison between you, your clients and the suppliers.

In exchange for your services the host agency agrees to share the commissions paid by travel suppliers according to a negotiated percentage split. This commission split is based on how much work you do or don’t do. Do all the work yourself and you should earn the bulk of the commission.

I’ll continue to expand home based travel agent opportunities this in future posts. Please due your research invest plenty of your time before you invest your cash!
Getting affiliated with a host agency is the easy part. The hard parts are learning who (product knowledge) to sell, how to sell (oh say can you say salesmanship) and where to sell (who are my customers & how do I market to them).

Happy travels!