These are some of the things to get you started on being a travel agent with us!
1. Come up with a name for your agency. Make sure you register it with your state. Ask your accountant what the best type of business is for you. Typically either a sole proprietor or an LLC.
2. Get an email address for your agency. Joestravel@gmail.com or joe@joestravel.com are great! Up to you if you want to buy an email address that matches your name.
3. After you get your paperwork back from the state, it's time to open your business checking account. I use Found as my business bank account. I love everything about it. Check it out 👇🏻
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I also have an account with my local credit union. I get better benefits from both of them than I would say at Wells Fargo or Bank of America.
4. Business cards are great to have. I have a business card I wear on my wrist and have never ever used it. I think paper business cards are the way to go. Here's a copy of mine. With you using a different company name you have to add "Affiliated with Destinations 24/7 Travel Services LLC" to be covered under our E&O policy.
5. Ready for the Internet? First of all, I've been a travel agent for 34 years now. Ever since the webpage thing began until now, I've never gotten a sale from my multiple websites. However, I have gotten sales by posting my personal trips on Facebook or TikTok. So I'm a very big believer in getting set up on Google and having a company page on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.
6. Tools to use. I only have 3 tools I constantly use. My phone (I do bookings on my phone) my Chromebook, & my printer. I go through a printer every two years, so I always buy the $49 or less printer.
7. By working with us as an independent contractor, you get benefits that others don't. We are members of CLIA & Travel Leaders. Both have yearly conventions and regional events. They both have excellent training opportunities. Travel Leaders offer promotion mailings to our ICs of postcards & travel magazines. They post supplier promotions on our social media accounts, and they have a personal webpage with you and what you sell, & client reviews. It's called an agent profiler. And their training is amazing. To access that you need to sign up for Agent Universe. I'll get you the link whenever you are ready.
8. Personal travel, unfortunately, whenever I go on a personal trip, I still have to take my commission cut due to accounting problems if I don't. Sometimes, MSC & other cruise lines will offer free cruises, but you still have to pay taxes. So we don't get a commission on those types of promotions.
9. Everything you sell in travel has to go through our booking credentials to be covered by our insurance and our policy with CLIA. So, say you booked a client on a cruise, and they need a ride from the airport to the ship. You find out you have a friend who does it and will only charge you, say, $50. You pay him $50, and you told the client $70, so you pocket $20. What happens if they are in a car accident and someone gets hurt pretty badly. None of our agency insurance policies will cover it. Because it didn't go through our credentials.
10. Speaking of legal things. We have to get every charge, every insurance accepted or declined, and our terms and conditions signed for every trip. Also, unfortunately, I need to have a contract with you being my agent. It basically says you are responsible for all your sales from beginning to end, you won't do anything fraudulent, & you are an independent contractor & not an employee. At tax time you will get a 1099 with no taxes taken out instead of a W-2. After you make your first sale, I will send you a link to add your bank information & fill out a W-9. You are responsible for your own taxes and expenses.
11. Every once in a while we'll have an agency meeting or training by a supplier that will be offered online. This is for you. One year, I did a meeting online and ordered my agent's pizza, and we just talked and ate pizza for an hour. We will do something like that once or twice a year.
12. When booking with a supplier, always use our company name at the time of booking. So tell the person on the phone I'm with Destinations 24/7 Travel Services & not your agency name like Joe's Travel. To get into a supplier's website or to get info over the phone, you will need two things. Our CLIA number is 00437216 (remember that we use this number a lot.), and my phone number is 443-703-6600. If they ask for our address, tell them 2389 Zeek Drive, Loris SC 29569. Please don't tell them your address. Also if there's a new supplier you want to use, let me know ASAP so I can sign up with them to get our commission. If you have documents being sent to you, they must be sent to my above address. Once I receive them I will mail them to you. Try to get e-docs emailed to you first.
13. Lucky number 13 is about commissions. I try and pay twice a month. I pay a direct deposit, and it takes a few days to hit your account. I'll send you your payment confirmation as well as a spreadsheet with the breakdown of what clients the payment is for. If you need a check I pay those once a month & it will take 7-10 business days to reach you. I think it's mailed from Utah.
14. Reaching me. I try to be available 24/7. I have 2 small dogs and 2 large dogs who can do no wrong and they do something wrong all the time that I overlook. So anyway, I could miss calls due to health or I'm running with the dogs in our backyard. My preference for communication is texting followed by email. If you haven't guessed yet I absolutely hate talking on the phone. So here's my info. My cell phone number is 443-703-6600. Text it or call if it's major. My WhatsApp number is +1-443-703-6600 (yes you have to add the +1 when dialing on WhatsApp). I use that whenever I'm outside of the USA 🇺🇲. I have a few email addresses. The one for business is sfaust@idotrips.net & the one to send every sale you make to D247finalagencyinvoice@gmail.com. After your sale send me a copy of the agency invoice. Or if you don't get one, send an email with the guest's names, suppliers' names, dates of travel, date of sale, total invoice $ amount, commission amount, and anything else about the sale I should know about. If you try to reach me and it's an emergency, call my wife Joan's phone (no guarantee she will answer) at 443-540-0402. She also texts as well. Her email address is jfaust603@gmail.com.
15 Training Sites:
Do these trainings at your own pace.
I would also suggest supplier training on their website. Cruise lines sometimes give away a free cruise after you do their training. Just have to pay taxes. I put Disney training above because it's probably the best agent training course available.
16 We really don't sell air. We have access to SNAP in Agent Universe, where we can book flights & add a service fee, too, or we get commission on business class & first class travel when they purchase an international flight. We can also get consolidator rates and make them up at one of our suppliers CenTrav. I can help with that as well.
17 Credit card payments. Make sure you know the client's rules on credit card payments. Some suppliers want a form filled out with copies of the front & back of the client's credit card and driver's license. We just require that the client signs a Travel Joy sales slip. If you don't have access to Travel Joy yet, I will email your clients a copy to sign off on. Make sure you feel like the client is legit and not a fraud. If they are booking a trip within 2 weeks of travel, I'd like to talk to them, or if your gut feeling is no, I'll talk to them too. Same with insurance. Clients need to be offered insurance and told the benefits. If the client has questions have them call the insurance company for answers. We are not licensed to answer even simple questions.
18 Suppliers, I will send you a list of suppliers and will add you to up to 10 suppliers/cruise lines & 2 insurance companies to start out with. Some suppliers you sign up for and I approve you. Some I have to enter you into their system and you create your own password.
19 Industry events and fam trips. While at events dress business casual & take plenty of business cards. Act like a business owner. Please don't take food home or ask for more at vendor's tables of something they are giving out. For events and fans, please do not do a no-show. Let the leader know ASAP that you can not make it. Also, on fams, dress business casual and take some business cards as well. On fam trips the suppliers are very strict. Do NOT give out any business cards to prospective clients while on a cruise or on the property of and hotel or resort. Also, do not sit on anything in the rooms that you tour, use the bathroom, set a bottle of water down on furniture in the room, or use the bathroom in the rooms. A maid has already cleaned the room and doesn't want to come back and clean it again. I'll close for now by saying that the Jamaica tourist board was in town once and agents were taking food home to their other halves & kids. Putting it in pocketbooks and napkins, and even asking for to-go containers.
20 Unfortunately we do not take any cash or checks for payments on trips at all. If the person has cash send them to Dollar General or CVS to get a prepaid credit card. Do not use your credit card at all for your clients even if they give you the money.
21 Trip cancellation. Make sure before they make their first payment boost they know that the trip has a no refund policy or that they know what they get back in cash or they get back in vouchers. Call in the cancel order as soon as you get the email from your client. If one cancels, two cancel the person going trip price is going to go up. What the supplicancel is cancels the entirrebookand rebooks it.
22 Buying leads and advertising. None of it works. I've tried everything. Occasionally a Facebook post ,boost works but not all of them. Buying leads has once worked, one for me and never again has it worked out.
Here's my contact info again:
☎️ 443-703-6600
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🧑🏻⚖️ Info About Me
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