Travel Agency advice

[Matt1966]

Hi guys, I'm not new to business - I own a fairly large SEO Agency which is doing fantastic, however, I'm wanting to help my girlfriend live her dreams in regards to her working life & help her become a freelance Travel Agent. Right now, she only wishes to be completely independent & the vision of employing and expanding is not even within her thought process.

She's done three years of travel & tourism at college and has a little bit of experience as an air hostess. I'm highly into software development and SEO, so I feel I can fairly easily get her the leads (especially with her wanting to focus on one, very popular location) & building the website / with potential APIs is also something easy - and for her, free.

The problem we have is the supply of the travel industry. I see many very small businesses with an office on the high street, clearly making a fairly good living from it. I go on their website and you cannot even book directly online - it's incredibly old school and it's not the root we want to take.

Although she is obviously more than willing to meet people / discuss the holidays in question, in 2021, booking online should be something that is available too.

I have seen a variety of APIs which you can use on your website, such as Expedia: https://expediapartnersolutions.com/products/api which is a possibility. However, I hear their commission rates are HORRIFIC and I don't envisage small businesses on the high street would make a sufficient income through going through a solution like this. Furthermore, these small businesses are not capable of sourcing all the hotels & flights individually so they're using SOMETHING to do it...

I was just looking for somebody who perhaps has experience within the travel agency to know what the average Travel Agent would use to source the flights/hotel etc & make a good commission.

 

[fisicx]

My parents use Travel Counsellors who are well know for doing what your girlfriends wants to do. But their need it becomes less relevant for the aging customer base they serve. Haven’t seen a high street travel agent locally for years and haven’t been in one since before the internet.

There is lots of opportunity for building personal holiday packages. As you say, all you need to do get her the leads.

 

[Matt1966]

My parents use Travel Counsellors who are well know for doing what your girlfriends wants to do. But their need it becomes less relevant for the aging customer base they serve. Haven’t seen a high street travel agent locally for years and haven’t been in one since before the internet.

There is lots of opportunity for building personal holiday packages. As you say, all you need to do get her the leads.

Thanks for your response

With generic holidays I agree - there is absolutely no need to even call the travel provider to sort it out.

With Adventure holidays for example, and extremely thinned down niches where verbal communication is often needed, I think there's still a demand. I should note, she only wants to be a travel advisor online, so wouldn't be one of these high street travel agents who will be extinct in a matter of years.

It'd more be... book online, but make it very clear that {name} is available to chat about the package. And also obviously allow them to call/Zoom her so she can talk through the details and book in a personalised manner.

It's basically super personal, to put the customer at ease, which I think would also boost conversion rates.

But yeah, leads aren't an issue. I'm very confident about that - I have ranked much harder terms on Google, & there are also other avenues to go down. It's purely finding a good, modern supplier with reasonable commission rates.

 

[japancool]

especially with her wanting to focus on one, very popular location

This is a huge risk though. What happens if that location goes into lockdown or onto the government's red list?

 

[Matt1966]

This is a huge risk though. What happens if that location goes into lockdown or onto the government's red list?

Like any business, it's a long-term project. I'm guessing it'll take ~6 months for the website to be fully functional and live as I'll be doing it in my free time, with custom code.

We're already at the stage of being ~70%+ fully vaccinated I believe. If another 6 months go by and restrictions like you mention are in place, then we might as well all give up and jump off a bridge together. (sorry for getting a little political)

I'm not saying you don't have a valid point though, because it is still possible for sure - however I hope not, and even if it does indeed happen - we wait.

Saying that, there are many other risks besides COVID when creating a startup. Generalising travel (through Google) is near impossible as competition is next-level insane - so I'd argue following that route is perhaps riskier.

Moral of the story: although most business decisions are calculated, you need to be brave & unfortunately the COVID issue is now an extra risk factor with most startups.