So You Wanna Be A Travel Agent?

I love explaining how to become a Travel Agent!! This is very long and extremely informative because I believe in being thorough. 

We will occasionally offer Q&A sessions on zoom. To register for one of those, please visit our website. 

https://calendly.com/explorevad

A little about me… I am a busy mom of 3 kids and we travel as much as we can.  We love to explore new places.

A little about the company. 

The company I work under is Archer Travel Service. They have been in business over 70 years and maintain an A+ rating with the BBB.  https://www.bbb.org/us/ca/la-crescenta/profile/travel-agency/archer-travel-service-inc-1216-13144896 

I chose Archer Travel Service specifically over all of the other agencies out there. Here are 21 of my reasons why:

1. NO large start up fee! 

2. They allow us to have CLIA (Cruise Line International Association) access as early as day 1.

3. Our agents get a $50 discount on the CLIA membership, making it $79! The regular cost is $129!

4. We are not required or asked to recruit other agents. EVER.

5. They have a convention every year in Las Vegas.

6. They have in office corporate support and several corporate FB groups if we need help or have questions! 

7. They do not require an extensive travel history.

8. They have trainings almost every single day. We will train you how to do this! 

9. They pay us 80% commission from our first day. That is the highest commission split I could find! 

10. There are NO sales quotas. NONE. No quotas of any kind.

11. They have a 10 day money back guarantee. That is plenty of time to join and get some training under your belt and make sure the company is a great fit for you! 

12. They are in the top tier of sales volume at most vendors.

13. We have access to the Marriott Famtastic rate. This is an amazing discount that some companies have lost access to. 

14. Archer Travel Service has been in business over 70 years!

15. They maintain an A+ rating with the BBB! (See the link above.)

16. They do not require a contract. 

17.  They do not require a non compete clause. 

18. Incredible tax benefits are available to you as a small business. (Please consult your accountant.) 

19. You can earn free cruises by completing training for certain vendors! 

20. The commissions and Travel Agent perks & benefits are absolutely amazing. Here are a FEW of the companies we can qualify for those things at. There are so many more than this though! Disney, Universal Studios, SeaWorld, Marriott, Wyndham, Hilton, Holiday Inn, IHG, Margaritaville, Hyatt, RIU, Iberostar, Sandals/Beaches, Atlantis, Carnival, Royal Caribbean, Princess, Cunard, Celebrity, MSC, Margaritaville at Sea, Enterprise, Avis, Thrifty, Hertz, and so many more!

       21.  We have Evo+ which is an amazing booking engine where we get the best discounts on hotels that can be passed on to our clients! 

We offer unlimited training and support.  We make sure that you have access to all of the vendors you want to book with or travel with.  You can join whenever you are ready, there is never any pressure! I absolutely love what I do, and I’m an open book.  I will answer as many questions as you can think of at anytime. 

You can sign up for CLIA as soon as you want! CLIA is short for Cruise Line International Association.  They are an organization just for official Travel Agents!  When you join, they send you a digital membership card as soon as you are approved.  They will also send you a physical membership card in the mail several weeks later.  You will need to provide proof of the digital or physical card to most vendors when you utilize a discounted Travel Agent rate.  CLIA memberships are usually $129 per year, however we get a $50 discount bringing our price down to $79 for each year.    You will need a CLIA card to utilize your Travel Agent discounts and it is also needed to properly register for and to complete the Marriott training program. 

Here are a couple of commission and Travel Agent discount examples. 

(Please keep in mind that there may be portions of trips and cruises that are considered non-commissionable, but these examples are pretty standard using 10% & 16% rates.) 

If you book a $10k vacation, most vendors will pay 10% of that trip as a commission, which is $1k.  You get 80% of that payout which is $800. 

If you book a $10k cruise, most vendors will pay 16% of that trip as a commission, which is $1600.  You get 80% of that payout which is $1280.

In September, a travel agent and her family of 4 spent 7 nights at Coronado Springs in Walt Disney World in a club level room for $2300 total. The normal cost was $4800.  That was over a 50 percent savings they were able to obtain because she was a Travel Agent and she had completed Disney’s College of Knowledge Training Program. 

For October Halloween on the High Seas Disney cruise, a travel agent and her family paid less than $3500 for 7 people! They were in 2 verandah rooms on the Disney Fantasy for 7 nights on the 10th deck. The price included all food, port fees, taxes, and gratuities. The regular cost for those 2 rooms was over $14,000. She was able to obtain that discount because she was a Travel Agent and had completed Disney’s College of Knowledge Training Program. 

We have stayed in several discounted rooms at Marriott using the “Famtastic” rate.  This is a special rate available to Travel Agents who have completed the Marriott Training Program and whose company is permitted to book the rate.  Some companies are disqualified from using this rate and that is unfortunate.  Using this rate, an agent was able to save $17k on their trip to the Maldives.  You read that right, 17 THOUSAND dollars was saved due to this amazing Agent only rate. 

We have gotten amazing rates on property at Universal Studios and at several hotel brands including Wyndham, IHG, Hilton, and Hyatt to name a few. 

The best part is, we have a 10 day money back guarantee, so there is no risk. You can join and make sure you love everything we offer within 10 days! 

I’m here to help every single step of the way! We have a private FB group and group chat, as well as several corporate FB groups.  We have an entire corporate support staff as well. 

If you are interested, here is the sign up process in a nutshell.  As soon as you are ready we send you a sign up link.  Once you sign up, I add you to our FB group and FB group chat. I send you our agent guide and direct you to your training modules. You will need to complete those modules in the back office of our website once you sign up. The training modules usually take less than one hour to complete.  Once that’s done, we move on from there.  We do everything in steps so it’s not overwhelming to you. 

If you are not already a member, I encourage you to join my FB group called “So You Wanna be a Travel Agent”. I have several pinned posts right at the top that are very informative.  Here is a link: https://www.facebook.com/groups/soyouwannabeatravelagent If you can join the group chat, there is a lot of info you can read over there as well. 

Benefits of being a Travel Agent:

As a Travel Agent, you can earn full commission on any of your vacations, rental cars, cruises, etc that you have not taken a Travel Agent Rate on.  

You can earn a FREE cruise with Princess Cruise Line, MSC & Cunard! 

Marriott has 2 special rates just for Travel Agents, including their “Famtastic” rate! 

You can earn full commission or get AMAZING discounts at Disney, Universal, SeaWorld, Marriott, Wyndham, Hilton, Holiday Inn, IHG, Margaritaville, Hyatt, RIU, Iberostar, Sandals/Beaches, Atlantis, Carnival, Royal Caribbean, Princess, Cunard, Celebrity, MSC, Margaritaville at sea, Enterprise, Avis, Thrifty, Hertz, and soooo many more. There are so many places, the possibilities are endless. 

Disney Benefits:

A deeply discounted stay (of up to 7 nights) once per calendar year (2023, 2024, etc) at Walt Disney World Resort, Disneyland Resort, AND Aulani.  You can stay once a year at all 3 locations!!  Disney does not specify a specific percentage off, but In my scenarios that I’ve priced out personally, the discount has been right around 50 percent off at Walt Disney World and 25-50 percent off for Aulani and Disneyland. You also have access to book Vero Beach or Hilton Head once per year in the place of your Walt Disney World discounted trip. 

Walt Disney World: 

50% off of (1) 2-10 day single park or Park Hopper ticket or 1 complimentary 1 day Park Hopper ticket 

Disneyland: 

Complimentary 1 day Park Hopper ticket

Disney Cruise Line: 

Disney offers 2 different deeply discounted cruise rates

*See above for my Disney Cruise Line example.

Universal Studios Benefits:

Up to 45% off of your room stays

1 complimentary 3 park, 3 day, park-to-park ticket

50% off of (4) additional 3 park, park-to-park tickets