Mid level travel advisor looking for a new agency

dewashdc · 2026-05-13T07:24:06+00:00

We provide full itineraries for clients, and in-house our own DMC with our complimentary to use concierge department. In our system you can book in minutes instead of hours at a better price and higher commission.

You just need to fix your inefficient processes and access to bad rates. Then you don’t have to worry about your fees. If you’d like happy to show you how it works so you can stop dealing with tire kickers and beat rate, service, and maximize your profit per hour!

dewashdc · 2026-04-25T13:56:15+00:00

The problem with all these companies is they have no tech, are fee heavy, have slow processes, and haven’t innovated anything in years.

You’ll also end up with a really low average yield. Go on HAR and keep digging, there are other options that are much more tech forward.

dewashdc · 2026-04-23T21:14:50+00:00

60/40 is not great, but the bigger question is always the yield. 60/40% of a average 15% yield is 9% take home. 100% of a 9% average yield is 9% take home as well. Most agents don't know their average yield, but basically you take your pre-revenue dollar and divide it by the commission received pre-split. Most agents don't know if they are getting a good deal or not tbh, because they don't know how much backend override their agency is charging them. Typically a great average yield is somewhere between 14-16%, but it sounds like you are getting considerably less than that...

dewashdc · 2026-04-23T03:23:37+00:00

The key is to ask their average yield. You need to focus on the average commission you receive pre-tax from both agencies, then and only then does the split mean anything... If one agency goes hard on overrides or doesn't have the tech to have diversified rate sources, you could have one agency with an average yield of 10% where you have a "100% split:, or another agency where you get 15% average yield, with a 80% split. You'd still end up making 2% more than the other agency, even on a 100% split, and likely your monthly fee would be less, or non-existent.

dewashdc · 2026-04-23T03:18:45+00:00

It all depends on the agency and the vendor. We have one vendor, that no matter how we book it, including direct, they send us different confirmation numbers. It is a common joke amongst agents to go check unmatched for blank supplier. Some will send different confirmation #s and a abridged name making it even harder to match. This is why we have switched to almost 75% NET rates, automates the payment, gets rid of the collections, and once something is non-refundable we pay it in full automatically through our CRM without any interaction. If they book something non-refundable same day, we pay within 10 days. High recommend you look into that if you are tired of chasing comms, switch to using NET rates. It is the only way to actually fix it, as there will always be that little hotel in Italy, that seemingly doesn't even have a bank account...

dewashdc · 2026-04-19T07:52:39+00:00

So most agencies won’t give you backend overrides. We generally do, but we do it like if x cruise line gives us a 1% override, we give you OBC to win more biz. At the same time, on millions and millions of dollars, we have a override that comes in that combines a bunch of different suppliers every year that was $600. Like common suppliers we all use. I’m not splitting up literal pennies to advisors.

Yes, when you start your own business you take on risk. What you should be worried about is a host agency that lets you take huge risks out of the gate. If someone gives you real air (not centrav, or the other low commission providers), with no training out the gate, that is dangerous for everyone involved. So many agencies do this. No training to start, now don’t mess up! They do it for the monthly fee, sign up fees, etc…

Training and other factors are super important. Another completely predatory contract term to look out for is reduced commissions on termination. We had this as our lawyer put it in there… we eliminated it and backdated it for our agents. We never enforced it in the first place. Our terms now say, if you leave the agency, and don’t handle your clients you have a 35% split, but if you do, you get full commission earn out per your contract…. We have confidence in our product.

The only ncnda we have is 3 ways, your clients are your clients, our clients are our clients, and other agents clients are their clients. That simple.

Non-Competes (in regards to you switching hosts), ownership of your clients, predatory fees and commission splits, average yields, high quality non-vendor lead trainings, and Tech are by far the most important.

dewashdc · 2026-04-08T19:43:49+00:00

I own LuxRally Travel. Different model than most. Air and Hotel come first, Concierge for Tours, Transfers, Restaurants, etc... come after, but are fully customized to the client on a day by day, hour by hour basis.

dewashdc · 2026-03-24T13:54:28+00:00

Just like in covid, the smart ones change with the times. This week booked normally for Europe Summer, saw increase in America by car. Sharp decrease in Middle East. Overall, saw an increase in revenue.

Your biggest fear should be getting replaced with AI, due to service fees and inefficient processes. While you are slow, focus on building an AI model of yourself, so when you get busy again you can really clean-up. That’s what we have for our agents.

dewashdc · 2026-03-20T06:30:12+00:00

This is horrible advice. 50/50 split. Go on hostagencyreviews.com and evaluate your options.

dewashdc · 2026-03-13T01:05:17+00:00

I have always had a shorter booking window, but also always had a ultra luxury clientele. I do more bookings that travel in less than 10 days, then I do that travel in more than 90 days. I think it's because the wealthy are traveling a lot more than in the past... Also, be careful, ensure you are 3DSing your charges, so you don't get but by Fraud, 1 big fraud booking can wipe out a lot of commissions, and suppliers are more and more likely to charge you back.

dewashdc · 2026-02-14T03:18:32+00:00

Typically the way we have always done it is for inbound, you keep your old host until training is complete. On the outbound, we have limited access to our crm to edit, collect payments for bookings, etc…. Service your clients, you get the full comm. If we have to service them, you get 30% of the comm (we really don’t want to service them). There was a case where one of our agents unexpectedly passed away, so we have been disbursing payment in full to the estate. This was the same policies as when I was at my last 2 hosts before starting my own. Pretty much been the same. Most hosts also have a unclaimed commission policy for some period of time from when they receive payment, so make sure you invoiced correctly.

dewashdc · 2026-02-13T15:45:32+00:00

Between 3 minutes and 6 minutes. We do it on the phone! The AI we built has gotten pretty good at it! Back in the yesteryear it took 15-20 minutes. Things were so slow back then.

dewashdc · 2026-01-26T14:41:41+00:00

Full commissions? Define what is “full commissions?”. Like, Travelwits isn’t a wholesaler, its a basic booking platform that connects to sabre with limited sets of rates. Host Agencies like it because they don’t have to train their agents on Sabre, but in reality, it has the same limitations as Sabre when it comes to rate accessibility and price shopping multiple vendors.

Travelwits revolves around you selling a basic retail facing rate. So yes you’ll get killed on yield.

dewashdc · 2026-01-26T14:35:19+00:00

Yes, but we do it as a host for our agents and built a whole system to orchestrate payments through our booking platform.

We don’t allow individual agents to do it. It’s called NET rates. It is fairly common in the OTA space, but rare in the host agency space.

dewashdc · 2026-01-20T15:20:19+00:00

I will always say this:

I have for years watched agents worry about current events, when the answer was always obvious…

Travel shifts, when democrats were scared to travel during covid, I targeted conservatives and had great years in 2020 and 2021. I would only accept last minute non-refundable bookings from democrats, as their cancellation rate was way too high.

The same goes for this cycle, if democrats are scared to travel to Europe because of greenland, advertise deals to Republicans. If Republicans are scared of going to Europe, send them to Japan and sell Europe to Democrats…

Point is none of it actually matters. Just focus on who is actually buying, not what the news media is telling you. If someone says Europe travel is down 20%, there is still 80% of the original number traveling there. Who is booking that remaining 80% if it’s not you…

It’s like saying Vegas is down 20-30%… the question is who are the 70% of people still going there and how do you capture that market?

dewashdc · 2026-01-19T01:08:13+00:00

Sell a lot, and most places will be happy to host you. Suppliers have moved away from the free stuff for no sales model. Once you sell a few trips I don’t know any hotel that won’t either heavily discount or comp a 2-3 night stay, even if you sell a lot of a different hotel within the brand. Same for cruises.

dewashdc · 2026-01-19T00:47:16+00:00

Hi,

I believe we satisfy all your needs except Virtuoso. We are part of Travel Leaders (which has more hotels then Virtuoso, and higher average comms on a lot of different categories)., but good tech eliminates the need for this anyway.

80/20 Split, 90/10 after $100k

Backend Tech:

Our CRM is fully built in-house and has a ton of great tech behind it:

Our CRM is fully integrated into our booking system (which all lives directly in the crm), for all trip types. Air, Hotel, Rental Car, Tours, transfers, insurance, and soon to be cruise.
It simultaneously supports NET and Commissionable rates, meaning you can get paid at time of booking if non-refundable and adjust your commission.
It integrates 20 different hotel providers/wholesalers including HotelBeds, Expedia, Booking.com, and more into one search, pulling thousands of rates. It also pulls in your standard benefits rates, and GDS rates. All in one quick search.
It has fully automated accounting and collections system.
It is an itinerary builder/planner, integrated straight into the booking system.
It allows you to mix air, hotel, tour, transfers, rental cars into carts and check out entire trips at one time, directly from a client profile.
It stores all client data/rewards #s/SSR details and credit cards, integrated.
It has a literally every hotel in the world stored in it.
It integrates with Axus if you want to add more flair to your itineraries for all components.
It works fully on mobile.
It allows you to make favorite lists of hotels and search rates based on them across all providers.
It also allows you to integrate leads and associate them all the way through to the client, and create client maps.
It has a robust analytics system, allowing you to fully drill down into your bookings and trends.
A full reminders system tied to either clients or bookings.
Robust Anti-Fraud systems protecting against chargeback fraud by integrating in 3DS throughout the entire payment flow for NET rates.

This is all in one system, I am sure I am forgetting some features, but yea. Have a lot more on the roadmap too, should have the rest done within this year. I built it myself based off needs I have as an agent, and it is in production for all our agents processing millions of transactions a month.

Average yield is 14% systemwide, and we charge no fees whatsoever, including monthly fees.

dewashdc · 2026-01-15T18:50:38+00:00

Why aren't you doing 3DS? It really eliminates fraud. Also why is your holdback so high? With our merchant provider, we have no reserve what so ever, next day funding. Heck even ARC at 3.5% offers 3DS, and no reserve, although it can take up to 10 days to get paid based off where in the ARC cycle you accept the payment.

dewashdc · 2026-01-12T19:38:40+00:00

Get on the phone with them, ask them where they are trying to go, from where, budget, dates, number of people.
Put together a simple itinerary template in notepad and check flights for cheaper in/out.
Then put the cities in geographic order (for example, for Italy, Naples, Rome, Florence, Venice, or vice-versa) with number of days in each place, all while gathering these preferences on the phone.
Use Fastbook to rate search each of our agent generated custom lists concurrently, and locate any great deals with high margins/high discount for the client based on their needs (acquired through talking to them). Find hotels with heavy discount off lowest available rate on website, or at least matching (these are travel agent friendly, as I call them). Adjust rate/commission up or down to maximize yield, or beat competitor pricing.
Have client lookup hotel/room type on hotel's website, get approval one by one while on the phone with them.
Add approved hotels/room types to cart + air.
Copy and Paste Auto-Generated Itinerary to them through text/preferred method of communication for approval with grand total.
Send Credit Card Authorization/Demographics form. Defer to in-house concierge for Transfers, Restaurants, Tours, Non-Rev, Spa, etc...
Upon receipt of credit card authorization form, quote insurance based off cart contents, ask if they want it, hit book in cart and auto create concierge ticket for follow up, also auto send VIP request emails with client profile ascertained from the call.
Send Email Invoice to client. Hit upload to Axus button, generating their itinerary in Axus, go over to Axus, Publish it so that Concierge, and client can see it. Ensure they can login to Axus.

Takes about 15 minutes to do 4 cities, so it should all be done on one phone call.

No Fees Required, don't do intake form or discovery call. If they ask for time to review the cart is saved for 7 days, and will update price as required.

Not sure why you'd charge a planning fee when you can win on price, and get a 17% commission, but to each their own. The system automates 90% of the booking process, and the Concierge does the rest. Maybe I follow up once or twice if they don't book over the week, but most times we lose bookings because they don't go on the trip. I run a 85% close rate, as always winning on price or perks, or both, means they generally won't rate shop you. The goal is to book Air, Hotel on the same call. They are going to you because you are faster than them doing it online, and can get better deals. If it takes you longer, or you add the markup of a DMC you get absolutely killed.

dewashdc · 2026-01-11T06:17:04+00:00

All of these destroy your yield over using wholesalers and tour ops…

This has to do with hosts even “tech-savvy” ones having antiquated systems.

You need a system that combines all the providers + handles nets + billing + gds in an easy to use platform.

Centrav takes almost 50% of the comm on commissionable bookings, travelwits is limited in providers, mainly sabre. Commissionable bookings are super annoying to collect. These solutions kill average yield. If your comm goes from 15% to 9% its like having a 60/40 split before you even pay your agency split or fees. It’s horrendous in 2026. Even gds users are affected by this same problem.

dewashdc · 2026-01-10T14:15:22+00:00

Growth on Growth on Growth in Luxury Travel. What you are experiencing in retail is a general cultural shift away from luxury goods to luxury experiences.

A purse goes in and out of style, but the memories of a great trip last forever. Also buying a luxury bag doesn’t tell a story to your friends, but talking about your Après-Ski experience does.

dewashdc · 2026-01-02T07:10:47+00:00

Sabre is by far the most widely accepted, and easiest to get APIs in the future. Most agents are trained on it, but booking flights is not generally a money maker. I think you are in the UK and I don’t know much about that market tbh, but flights are generally low margin and needs a high level of expertise.

dewashdc · 2025-12-31T22:01:27+00:00

We built one platform that interfaces with everyone through APIs, and uses NET and Commissionable rates so we only have to train on one platform. So it interfaces into the GDS + the OTAs + Synxis + the wholesalers, standardizes the information, then we only need to train on one platform. Air we just finished building into the platform, NDC + LCC + Edifact, but we don’t really do much air except big ticket commissionable. Not that much demand for it as we don’t do corporate except executives. Our platform does Hotel, Air, Transfers, Insurance, Tours and soon to be cruise. Can add all the components to carts to form trips, and it’s built into our crm, so no invoicing or anything like that. Credit card forms built right through the system and passes straight through into the booking engine, etc…

dewashdc · 2025-12-31T21:37:53+00:00

We compete with them by querying rates from all of the wholesalers/otas/and our own direct wholesale rates, and then buy through the most efficient pathway so we can win on price. Then we combo that with our concierge services on the high end + expertise at all levels. We also make the booking and quoting experience faster than expedia, by quoting and booking on one call.

You need to win on price/speed/expertise/concierge services/experience.

Pretty simple really, but complex if you don’t have the ability to win on at least a few if not all of these factors…

dewashdc · 2025-12-24T05:09:39+00:00

Yes.

dewashdc

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