Work from Home as an Online Travel Agent

Travel industry has been a mystery for many people. Travel agents share the same attributes of their jobs as real estate agents. You can be a travel agent or a home based freelance travel agent, or you can also start travel agent work after your retirement. For a number of people, this is a full time job, while others enjoy it doing as a part-time work. Travel industry is an ever growing industry. If you are looking for a home based work then you can start working as a free home based travel agent. Just by learning few things you will be become able to work as an independent travel agent and earn a good amount of money.

Responsibilities of a Travel Agent

The responsibilities of a travel agent include the booking of travel customers. A travel agent provides information about the available travel options to the customers and makes booking for them with their suppliers. In return to this suppliers pay them a commission based on the number of booking they have made. A travel agent is free to change their suppliers if they see existing supplier not paying them commission. A travel agent is also independent of changing their client service fee for the time which they are giving to their work.

Amount of Commission a Travel Agent Gets

Many hotels pay 10% of the cost of the hotel excluding taxes and fees. If you book your hotel a customer with a $100 per night then you will get $10 on that reservation. In some cases, travel agents can get paid a better price of performing the same work. Booking through an online travel agent doesn’t cost a lot to the customer unless the travel agent charges for the services.

Who Can Do This Job?

Anyone who has set up an account with travel agents can do this job. Many suppliers require their agents to have an IATAN, CLIA or ARC number. IATAN sits for International Airlines Travel Agent Networking. CLIA sits for Cruise Lines International Association. ARC sits for Airline Reporting Corporation.  Memberships for all these companies require certain things such as sales, money in the bank, training in the relevant industry or experience, and membership fee. Most require the Errors and Omissions insurance of $1,000,000 or above.  However, an average travel agent, membership is exceptional, as they can work with some organizations as an independent agent. It is advantageous to work with a travel agency. That is because most of them many of these are unable to make sufficient sales with a specific supplier in order to gain high commission levels and bonuses.

There are more chances to get increased commission percentages when you work with many travel agencies. You also get a consistent support from your agency and it holds importance.

Scope of a travel agent

Travel industry is an ever changing industry. These changes sometimes bring good news for its workers, while sometimes bad news. According to recent changes that have been made, airlines have cut the commissions for their travel agents. Nevertheless, there are still many other suppliers who are paying good amount to their agents. In past, cruises were booked only by the rich people, but this trend has changed now and people belong to all income can book them. Every year more and more people book cruises.

On which services you can earn commission?

Following are the services on which you earn good commissions:

• Hotel reservations

• Rental cars

• Tour packages

• Cruises

• Some airline flights

• International airline tickets

• Travel insurance

• Ground transportation

• Attraction tickets

• Train tickets reservation

People always need travel agents to make their travel booking practices easier. Selling travel services is not a tough job because people need to travel from one place to another with varying reasons.

How to get into travel industry?

Most people think that they need to have any special training to start their career in travel industry. In reality, truth is quite different from it. You can step into this industry anytime and after getting in start training. Training doesn’t take a lot of time. You can join training courses offered by organizations like ICTA; CLIA etc. working with suppliers is also the best practice to learn this work.