Travel partner group is not the first business to provide infrastructure for travel agents to set up and run their own business. In fact the pioneer of this business model is a company called Travel Counsellors. Yes- we are happy to tell you about the competition because what we offer is very different. In fact, we need to get this off our chest right now. The following companies all provide people that want to join the travel industry with the infrastructure to be able to set up their new business:
Directory of Home-Working Travel Agencies
You may be wondering why I would want to share a list of every homeworking travel agency group in the UK. Afterall, if I am recommending people to start a travel business with travel partner group, I should not technically want you to know who the competition is. Fortunately, I am not the travel partner group. I just operate my business under their license and therefore can write what I want.
When I presented this article to Travel Partner Group they did not object to the contents because they believe that the product, service, technology and terms of remuneration that they offer is so far above all of the competition they are happy for people to check out what each of the other travel agency homeworking groups offer. Below is a list of companies in the UK to allow you to start your own travel business or operate as a travel agent homeworker.
- Hays Travel (haystravel.co.uk/careersexplorertravel.co.uk)
- Co-Op The Personal Travel Agents (www.jointhepersonaltravelagents.co.uk)
- Brilliant Travel (brillianttravel.co.uk)
- Holidaysplease (www.travelhomeworking.org)
- Travel Counsellors (people.travelcounsellors.com)
- Independent Travel Experts (thetravelnetworkgroup.co.uk/independent-travel-experts)
- Personal Holiday Advisors (personalholidayadvisors.com)
- Personal Travel Consultants (www.personaltravelconsultants.com)
- Travel Specialists by Advantage (www.travel-specialists.co.uk)
- Simplexity Travel (simplexitytravel.com)
- Not Just Travel (notjusttravel.com)
- Travel-pa (join.travel-pa.com)
- GoCruise & Travel Franchise (https://www.joingocruiseandtravel.co.uk/)
- Inspire Homeworking (https://www.homeworkingbyinspire.co.uk/)
- Blue Bay Travel (https://bluebaytravel.co.uk/careers/homeworking)
- Designer Travel (http://recruitment.designertravel.co.uk/)
- Brilliant Travel (https://www.brillianttravel.co.uk/home-based-agents)
- Travology (https://www.travologytravel.co.uk/travel-homeworking)
- The holiday village (https://www.theholidayvillage.com/careers.phtml)
- Elite Travel (https://www.elitetravelgroup.co.uk/homeworkers)
- Arrive Relax Travel (https://www.arriverelaxtravel.com/homeworking-travel-agents/)
- Vertical Group (http://www.verticaltravelgroup.co.uk/homeworker-recruitment.php)
I am sure that a number of the travel homeworking groups listed above will be upset by what I have written in this blog article. To avoid causing any offence, I encourage you to check out everyone of the franchise travel operators on the list above before coming to travel partner group. That way you will only because someone I am proud to call one of my colleagues if you have examined and then rejected all the other travel umbrella organisations.
Reasons why you shouldn’t join another homeworking travel agency group
There are many reasons why you shouldn’t join other travel agency groups but below are just some of the key reasons:
Snobbery: Most homeworker travel agent groups in the UK believe that you should only start a homeworking travel business if you have experience working as a travel agent previously. These groups turn their noses up at anyone who is new to the industry. There are a few exceptions who do look to bring new entrants into the travel sector but I could count these on one hand. So even if you are accepted into one of these travel homework in groups you will always be a second-class citizen.
Fees: I have never understood why travel homeworking companies charge so much money to their members. Joining often costs many thousands of pounds in addition to monthly fees that are in the hundreds of pounds. A travel agency homeworking group should make money only if the agents make money. The level of fees charged to join and on an ongoing basis should reflect the value proposition and not treated as a cash injection for the homeworking travel group.
Commissions: Homeworker travel agent groups like to keep a lot of your hard earned money. Some keep as much as 50% with the average across the board being in the region of 60%. I chose travel partner group because they allow me to keep up to 80% of the commission I generate. Even with the 20% that they keep, they invest the majority of that in helping you drive more business and securing conversions when you do get the enquiries.
Training and support: TPG don’t just welcome new entrants to the travel industry they actively thrive on this. It doesn’t matter how little your experience of the travel industry is, they give you the training and the ongoing support to ensure that you have all the knowledge and tools to succeed. I realised that with many of the other travel homeworking businesses, your success is irrelevant because they are earning so much money from the ongoing monthly fees they charge you. Even if you are only doing very few bookings a month, because they keep such a high share of your commission, you will always be profitable for them.
Technology: Just because travel agents aren’t as big as the online giants doesn’t mean that they don’t need the most cutting edge technology. We have invested in our technology to provide you with the level of sophistication enjoyed by some of the biggest online players in the market. This means that you can leverage the power of technology combined with a personalised service to really take market share away from online travel players. When I asked other travel homeworking organisations as to what technology they offered, the vast majority only had a very basic booking management tool. Most bookings would have to be done on the phone with a tour operator. Travel partner group have a system that brings in product and pricing with availability from hundreds of suppliers that allows me to create bespoke itineraries for my clients without having to call anyone.
