It was a welcome article for those in the industry, I suppose, because it recognized the not inconsiderable value that knowledgeable travel agents provide their customers. It also represented a somewhat belated
acknowledgement from a major media outlet that, no, not everyone books travel on the Internet and that, in fact, there are some travel experiences that you will simply never discover by trying to book
online.

The article began by recounting what you and I realize is a pretty common experience: “The V.I.P. treatment at the Cheeca Lodge and Spa in the Florida Keys last month hadn’t come with an extra cost. In fact, Ms. Griffin said, she paid about $100 a night less than the standard rate for her room. And the deal wasn’t the result of hours of tedious online research either. She had finagled her savings the old-fashioned way: through a travel agent.”

So, all in all, the article was good news for us. Hopefully more and more people are getting the message. Still, I was irked by the underlying assumption of the headline: that travel agents has somehow “gone
away” and were only now fighting their way back by providing superior service and better deals.

The author, Michelle Higgins, wrote of “years during which all signs seemed to be suggesting that travel agents would soon go the way of telex operators. And it’s true that the numbers are stark: During the industry’s peak years of the mid-1990s, there were about 34,000 retail locations booking trips. Today, there are 14,000 to 15,000…In 2009, alone, in the throes of the recession, bookings through traditional agencies plummeted by 23 percent.”

I have long been dismayed by the conventional wisdom put out by so many in “the media” about our business. “Travel agents are a dying breed.” “Everyone books online now.” “If you want the cheapest fare,
just go to the ‘Net.” All of it nonsense, of course, but long accepted as true by reporters who would have known better if they had done some, you know, reporting.

So I responded to the article by writing the Times. Here’s what I had to say:

Travel agents never went away, they just became invisible to the media. Here’s what happened.

Those 34,000 retail locations Ms. Higgins mentioned existed because the airlines required travel agents to maintain commercial premises as a condition for selling airline tickets. Then airlines stopped paying
commission to travel agents. Many travel agents asked themselves, “Why do I need to pay this high overhead when I can sell high ticket,  high margin products like cruises and tours from home?”

Many agencies closed their doors and went home. What I like to  call the home-based travel revolution was born. These home-based  travel agencies, which are legally separate businesses from the ‘host agencies’ though which they funnel bookings, comprise former agency owners, former agency employees, and a growing number of entrepreneurs who started their careers working from home. Most of them don’t sell airline tickets, preferring to concentrate on cruises, tours, and bespoke travel consulting. That’s where the money is.

The idea that you can always get the best deal on the ‘Net has always been a myth, albeit a myth that the media was more than happy to nurture. Kudos to Ms. Higgins for getting it right.

https://www.facebook.com/hometravelagency

While you’re there, take a moment to click the “Like” button (it’s
at the top, toward the right, just under our spiffy new “cover
photo.”

You can join our Twitter feed, too, at

http://www.twitter.com/hometravelagent

However, I noticed that some people didn’t receive the email. People move, email addresses change. Perhaps some students changed from generic email addresses (AOL, Yahoo, e.tc.) to ones based on their own domain names, as I suggest.

So if you are one of those people and are reading this, read on.

You can get access to the new version of Module 7 in the password protected area of this site.

If you haven’t accessed your course modules in a while, here’s how:
Go to http://hometravelagency.com/login

Type in your user name and your password, then scroll down to the new Module 7 and download it.

If you’ve forgotten your password, click on the link below the login information and we will send you a new temporary password. You can then change it by clicking on “membership details” on the right-hand column.

Of course, if you are NOT a student of the Home-Based Travel Agent Success Course, you will not be able to access any of the course materials. You can remedy that sorry situation by clicking here.

I have a strict policy not to recommend for or against any host agency. If you’d like to know why, I explain at some length in this article. But in a nutshell, the agency that’s right for me might be absolutely the wrong one for you.

If I were to help you one-on-one to choose a host agency I would have to sit down with you, get to know you, learn about your goals, your level of experience and travel knowledge, your need for services and training and on and on. That takes time and time, as some wise person once said, is money.

In fact, I can help you choose a host agency and for a lot less than I would charge for a personal consultation. One module of the Home-Based Travel Agent Success Course is a Host Agency Directory, which lists over 300 host agencies, provides profiles of many of them, and cross-references them by location, cost of entry, commission split, and so forth.

Even more important, another module provides a very detailed methodology for performing the due diligence necessary in analyzing any host agency offer. This is after all a very important business decision and no court is going to dry your tears when you learn you’ve made a dreadful mistake by picking the first host agency that had a snazzy web site.

I believe the information in the Host Agency Directory is worth the entire cost of the entire course. It would take weeks, perhaps months to gather that information. For a host agency or someone who wants to start a host agency, that Directory contains a treasure trove of competitive intelligence of the sort that many businesses pay thousands of dollars to obtain. My staff and I work darned hard to gather that information and keep it up to date.

But the people who ask me out of a clear blue sky to tell them what host agency to join don’t seem to get this. Perhaps they are simply naïve. But there’s something more disturbing about these questions.

The people who are asking these questions presumably want to go into the business of selling travel, that is they want to be businesspeople. Yet they seem to have no real concept of what my business is and no respect for the value I bring to the table or my right (let alone need) to make an honest living.

Obviously there’s no way to know, but I strongly suspect that people like that are doomed to fail if they start any business, travel-related or not. Why? Because they don’t understand the principle of selling fairly at a fair price and being adequately compensated for their professional expertise.

As I noted in an earlier post, as a travel agent you are selling first and foremost your expertise. Respect it. If you don’t, on one else will.

To take advantage of my expertise, not to mention the expertise of all the experts I learned from, click here.

Some people, who recognize the nature of this “trick” question will say that a travel agent sells herself (or himself, as the case may be). That answer, too, is true enough, but it can be misleading.

Some people think that if folks like you then you will be successful in sales. (Remember Willy Loman from “Death of A Salesman”?) But just because you are a wonderful person with a great personality and ready quip for every occasion does not necessarily translate into travel sales.

So what is the answer to this trick question?
What clients and potential clients are looking for in a travel agent is expertise: solid knowledge about the products they represent. That – and not a sparkling personality – is what makes a travel agent a trusted advisor and wins repeat business. That’s what you’re selling

So if we are going to say that travel agents sell themselves we are really saying that they are selling their expertise. Of course, being a nice person doesn’t hurt. It helps, in fact. But your expertise in your chosen profession is where the rubber meets the road.

There are a couple of things to bear in mind about expertise: How to acquire it and how to protect it.
Gaining expertise in travel can be fun – think of fam trips. But it can also be hard work – think of fam trips again. I have written before about fam trips as work, so I won’t repeat myself here. But fam trips work best for people who derive satisfaction and enjoyment from making an effort to learn more about things they love.

The sheer volume of travel products means that there’s no way you can know everything. You should however know what you don’t know and know how to get the information you need to fill the gaps when you need to. This is one reason so many travel agents specialize.

Once you have built up your expertise, you should protect it. This can be a tricky proposition, but to put it simply, you are not in the business of dispensing free travel advice.

Do you remember the furor that was created last Christmas when Amazon encouraged people to go into bookstores and shop for books they liked then order them online? Something similar happens in the travel business.

People will meet a travel agent at a social gathering and start pumping them for information. What’s your favorite hotel in Capri? When’s the best time to get a good deal on an Alaska cruise? Then they take their new-found information and head straight to the Internet.

It can be tricky to deal with this kind of situation, but your goal should be to turn casual questioners into clients by steering them to a more formal meeting. One tactic is to answer questions with questions. If someone asks what your favorite hotel in Capri is, you might say, “I try not to send people to my favorite hotel. My job is to find the hotel that’s right for them. Why are you interested in going to Capri?” As the conversation progresses, you can suggest that you’ll be better able to serve them if you have a meeting the next day at a convenient coffee shop.

One way to protect your expertise, is the plan to go fee which I discuss in the Home-Based Travel Agent Success Course. That has proven to be an excellent way to separate the tirekickers from the kind of travelers who will appreciate the value-added benefits only a travel agent can provide.

The article, by Seth Kugel, is called “Is the Best Travel Search Engine Around the Corner?” Check it out. It deserves some commentary, which I provide below the fold.

You will notice that Kugel just didn’t consult any old travel agency. Instead, he sought out agencies that specialized in his intended destination. The result was predictable. He got better prices than he could find on the big Internet booking sites. Even more important, he got far better information and on-the-ground intelligence from these agents. And that is a point too often overlooked by reporters (who should be a little more intelligent) when they flack for the alleged superiority of the Internet in travel planning.

In the Home-Based Travel Agent Success Course, I stress the importance of specializing. Surprisingly, many people resist this advice. They think that specializing limits them or “leaves money on the table.” Far from it. If anything, specialization frees an agent to become the best he or she can be.

Here is a story that illustrates the point. One of my earliest students took specialization to what many people would consider an extreme. She sold only one product — an upscale all-inclusive resort chain. Then she went a step further. She sold it only to honeymooners!

Had she painted herself into a corner? Did she live to regret it? Far from it. She became that chain’s number one producer, negotiated a splendid commission arrangement (she obviously had no need for a host), and financially she did very well indeed.

Specializing means you know your product line inside out, you are the undisputed expert. It means the suppliers you work with get to know you and will extend themselves on your behalf. It means that you know your target market every bit as well as you know your products. Because you have clout with the supplier, you can get deals and benefits for your clients that other agents can’t. That, in turn, means your referral business goes through the roof.

So if you’re wandering in the wilderness, selling a bit of this and a bit of that, please avail yourself of my course and consider the considerable benefits of specializing.

But to go back to the metaphor of agent-as-employee while on a fam, if there are problems with a supplier’s product, don’t you have a professional obligation to share that information with the appropriate person? Another tricky question. I’d like to say, “Well, of course you do!” And yet, discretion is often times the better part of valor, as the old saying has it. Maybe the best thing is to just let it slide.
The most important thing to remember is that it is never wise to react in the heat of the moment. Let’s say your fam is being escorted by a member of the local tourism board and you are up all night because some unsavory form of wildlife is rummaging around in your beachfront suite while a leak in the ceiling has forced you to move the bed. Collaring the unsuspecting tourism rep first thing next morning and yelling about what a dump they’ve put you in is not really very productive.

Like Wordsworth’s definition of poetry, negative feedback is best recollected in tranquility. A good strategy is to contact your BDM when you get back, after you’ve had a chance to get some perspective on what happened. After all, it wasn’t the supplier’s intention to give you a bad experience.

Be sure to start the conversation with praise. The food was terrific, the staff was responsive. Then something along the lines of “However, there were some issues that I think Brand X might want to address.” Present the problem factually not emotionally. If you had to change rooms in the middle of the night because of some maintenance issue, you don’t have
to add that your husband was cursing a blue streak and blaming you for becoming a travel agent in the first place. The BDM will understand that you were upset without the gory details.

Think of yourself as a fan of the product, which in fact you should be. Stress that you are merely pointing out a few minor flaws in an otherwise excellent product precisely because you enjoy and admire it so much. Don’t lay it on too thick, but be diplomatic.

Don’t be afraid to ask questions, especially about when the problem will be addressed. A resort or ship that is rundown and rough around the edges may not be something you want to book next week, but after it’s been refurbished, it could be a terrific product to sell.

If you are in a situation like the one in which all the agents on a fam are connected to a single agency, share your experiences with the appropriate person at headquarters, on the phone if possible. That way, there’s no paper trail. If you must do it in writing, use old fashioned snail mail and stress that this is “For Your Eyes Only correspondence. That way there’s less likelihood that your critique will be disseminated inappropriately.

Of course, if you want to shout about a lousy fam experience from the rooftops, that’s your privilege and right. Just don’t expect to win much share of mind from the supplier down the road. Above all try to be aware of the collateral damage you may cause to fellow agents in the process of getting your grievances off your chest.

However, I think it’s important that we keep this terrible event in perspective. Here is what I believe we know:

1.) The cause of the tragedy was a disastrous decision by the ship’s captain and nothing inherent in the way the entire cruise industry operates.

2.) The incident highlighted some gaps in Costa’s policies, procedures, and training, which I have no doubt will be addressed swiftly and thoroughly.

3.) While the tragedy will live forever in the hearts of those directly affected, the memory will fade quickly for the traveling public.

The news media, of course, concentrated on the negative, which is perfectly understandable. There was a lot of talk about how this would affect the cruise industry with the predictions tending toward the dire end of the spectrum. But I was pleased to note that when a news web site that serves my local area posted a poll that asked people if they would cruise again, the vast majority said they would.

To their credit, many news outlets pointed out that cruising is among the very safest modes of transportation.

Also, the recorded scolding administered to the ship’s captain by the Italian Coast Guard skipper served the very useful purpose of educating the public about how a ship’s captain should conduct himself, underlining just how much of an aberration this particular captain was.

So, no, this is not a death knell for the industry. Carnival, the owner of Costa, is a strong company with extensive resources and a deep
commitment to the future of the cruise industry. They will bounce back from this and bounce back strong.

In the short term, look for some bargains in the months to come as the skittish cancel bookings. Look on this as an opportunity, for that is exactly what it is. I just put a young couple of a Carnival cruise, their very first, and I smell a honeymoon cruise in the near future.

Keep positive. Keep selling. Keep succeeding.

They have brand recognition. They offer terrific support to their travel agent partners. There a fewer additional expenses to keep track of, making budgeting much easier. They offer a wide range of activities. They offer the traveler the reassurance that they know what they will be getting, no surprises. Most are located in the Caribbean, making things a little easier for the travel agent, since getting to know the islands of the Caribbean is a relatively simple, not to mention highly enjoyable task. The list goes on.

In fact, one of the students of The Home-Based Travel Agent Success Course specialized in selling Sandals, with a concentration on the honeymoon market. She became Sandals top producer and made a very nice living indeed.

But there are alternatives to the AI experience as I was reminded during a highly informative meeting with Cyndi Miller Aird hosted by my local OSSN chapter. Cindy is a marketing rep (a sort of BDM if you will) for a number of independent Carribbean resort properties that operate on an AP basis.

AP stands for American Plan and refers to a hotel pricing structure that  includes three meals a day. And since most of the resorts Cyndi represents also offer a wide range of recreational activities they are, in effect, all-inclusive resorts.

So what’s the difference and why bother taking notice?

As Cyndi explained to me, these properties are independently owned, often family owned, which means they are much more representative of the culture and ambiance of their home islands. It’s all to easy to move from all-inclusive resort to all-inclusive resort and get the idea that every island in the Caribbean is pretty much the same. Nothing could be farther from the truth.

Each resort is different in ways that chain resorts never are. If variety is the spice of life, it is also the spice of the vacation experience, Cyndi
points out. Clients who have enjoyed the all-inclusive experience might welcome the opportunity to sample something a little different, a place that not all their friends have been to.

Some of these resorts also offer plans that include two meals a day instead of three or breakfast only, offering your clients greater flexibility.

Cyndi represents resorts on Antigua, Barbados, Belize, Canouan, Grenada, St. Kitts, St. Lucia, St Maarten/St Martin, and St. Thomas, as well as
some properties in Spain.

On her web site, http://www.awresorts.com, you will find links to all the properties as well as a section of “News & Offers” that you can take
advantage of. Cyndi also assists travel agents with events like bridal shows and offers co-op radio and TV promotions. Become one of her travel agent partners and you might even be in line for a fam to scope out new properties!

Meeting folks like Cyndi is one of the major benefits of joining an association like the Outside Sales Support Network (OSSN) and getting active in your local chapter. You can download a discounted OSSN application here.

I suppose there are some circumstances – a trip offered by a supplier as a reward 
for outstanding production, for example – when you can afford to just relax, 
go with the flow, and just enjoy yourself. But even in that kind of setting there 
is still work to be done.

Here are just a few of the things an agent should be attempting to accomplish 
on a fam.

Most obviously, a fam is an opportunity to learn more about the supplier and 
the particular product or products being showcased on the fam. But agents 
should go beyond the brochure talk and once-over-lightly briefings. How big 
exactly are those staterooms? Is the layout convenient? is there enough 
closet space? Which are the best rooms in that resort (and don’t forget room 
numbers)? How long a walk to the main dining room, the pool, the beach, the 
gym? What is really cool about this feature and what is not? Which rooms 
should you definitely NOT book your clients into? The list is almost endless.

This kind of intelligence, often lumped under the heading “product knowledge” 
is valuable, but it becomes truly powerful when it is combined with your 
psychographic knowledge about your target clientele or, better yet, specific 
clients. You should constantly be asking yourself questions like “Will this appeal 
to my target market of young families?” or making mental notes like “These 
bungalows are exactly the sort of thing at appeals to Dr. Frobisher.”

Another goal of a fam should be to make contact with and develop relationships 
with supplier personnel that can be turned to your advantage down the road, 
when you need some information, face a tough sales challenge, or need the 
rules “bent” just a teeny bit. Always be sure to write thank you notes to the 
salespeople, BDMs, or on site personnel who have helped make your fam a 
success. Creating warm relationships is an underrated factor in travel agent 
success in my opinion.

Also, the “down time” spent with fellow agents, while great fun, is not just about 
mindless pleasure, hard drinking, or trading “war stories.” Most successful 
agents will tell you, if asked, that some of their best strategies were picked 
up from fellow agents. So don’t hesitate to ask “How did you do that?” when 
a colleague brags about some big booking.

Won’t your fellow agents be annoyed if you pepper them with questions about 
their methods and maybe even their “trade secrets”? Not at all. At the risk of 
sounding like Dale Carnegie’s ghost, one of the best ways to forge close 
relationships with people is to get them talking about themselves. And most 
experienced agents will be flattered to take a newer agent under their wing 
and answer questions over the phone – especially if that neophyte agent 
plies their trade in a distant state.

If you think about the topics I’ve touched on so briefly in the last several 
paragraphs, you should see that we are talking about a lot of work. And since 
most of this activity is investigative or reportorial, good note taking and record 
keeping is essential. On the many fams I have had the privilege of taking, 
I have consistently observed that the most obsessive note takers and question 
askers tend to be the most successful agents.

So if going on a fam means going to work, that ship or that resort becomes 
your workplace and, since you are a professional, you should conduct 
yourself in a professional manner. That much is pretty obvious to most agents, 
although you’ve no doubt encountered a few who seem to forget. But let 
me take this train of thought a step further.

I would like to suggest that – in a sense – you become an employee when 
you are participating in a fam. Yes, yes, I know that is not literally true, 
but let’s just pretend for now. You are no longer just any old agent, but an 
agent for this particular supplier. For the duration of the fam, you are working 
in that supplier’s place of business. That supplier is providing you with an 
experience of which they are proud, not to mention feeding you and 
occasionally plying you with drink. They have certain expectations of what 
you owe them in return, just as they do about their employees.

In the corporate world (and some home-based travel agents may have
transitioned from that world), companies can take a dim view of inappropriate 
behavior on the job and even what their employees do or say in their “off” hours. 
The same tends to be true of travel suppliers vis a vis agents on their fams.

Now in most cases, this is not an issue. Every sane travel agent knows enough 
not to brag to “regular people” they may encounter about how little they paid 
for their trip or to hand out business cards and try to poach business from other 
agents. Some agents, however, are not so careful about what they say in 
”private” or share online with “friends.” For better or worse, we live in an 
electronically interconnected world in which gazillionaire Mark Zuckerberg, of 
Facebook fame, can blithely say there is no such thing as privacy.

What this means is that what you say and do, during and after a fam, even 
among “friends,” can come back to bite you. All the more reason to think of 
yourself as an employee when you are on a fam, even if you know it’s really 
not true. All the more reason to stick to the highest standards of professional 
conduct.