Starting A Home Based Travel Agency

Starting A Home Based Travel Agency

Starting home based travel agency today is your best choice if you love to travel and are looking for ways to generate an income from home!

Travel agents help their clients make the best possible travel arrangements.

They offer advice on destinations and make arrangements for transportation, hotel accommodations, car rentals, and tours for their clients.

Starting home based travel agency requires for you to get training in regulatory agencies, trade organizations, local weather conditions, type of transportation companies, local regulations and customs, lodging, food, local attractions, and exhibitions.

If you want to do it internationally you’ll need information about customs regulations, required documents such as passports, visas, immunizations, where to exchange, international taxes and surcharges, travel advisories, and currency exchange rates.

In addition, you’ll need information about hotels, resorts, transportation, restaurants, and tourist help centers. The best you could do is having first hand information about these services.

You should, if possible, visit these places to evaluate comfort, cleanliness, and quality of services so that you can give accurate recommendations to your customers.

Technology is changing the way businesses are conducted today. Particularly when starting home based travel agency technology is on your side, because you can do it from home as so many are already doing it.

Other useful skills are: excellent communications, people and computer skills. In addition, having a good background in geography, foreign languages, world history, organizational and detail oriented skills would add value to your offering.

There are many vocational schools where you can get excellent training and the necessary certifications.

To be successful in any business or career today getting continuing education is critical, and even more so for a travel business. So, you’ll need to develop a continuing education program.

An aspect that will help you get credit with suppliers in the travel industry when starting home based travel agency is having previous experience as a travel agent or consultant.

This will help you gain approval from suppliers or corporations, such as airlines and ship lines to get extended credit on reservations because they need to make you’ll pay them.

The companies that approve you, as an agency for airlines, are the Airlines Reporting Corporation and the International Airlines Travel Agency Network.

To gain their approval your company should demonstrate ability to pay your bills, a good business plan, and employ at least one experienced manager or travel agent (US Dept. of Labor).

If you start home travel agency your earnings will depend mainly on commissions and service fees charged to clients for trip planning. Love to travel? Make it your business! Learn more here!