ARE YTB REFERRAL AGENTS HURTING THE PROFESSIONAL TRAVEL AGENTS

I receive many letters about the antics of MLM agents especially the YTB crowd. When are the suppliers going to put a stop to this? Here is one recent letter.

 

Dear Peter,
I just came back from a fam to the Philippines which was wonderful. However, I want to mention to you that we, the real travel agents, were very disturbed to see that out of 26 “agents”, there were 15 of them from YTB. The ones in charge at the Philippines Office didn’t know anything about YTB but when I filled out the survey, I let them know how we felt about them and what was going on with members of that MLM. Others also mentioned it on their survey. To qualify for that fam, after doing the test online at the travel agent academy to become specialist, we had to show our business card, our CLIA card and a letterhead from our company.  Some of these YTB cards were so unprofessionally done, it screamed “illegitimate”. One even had an address but no city or state on it. Anybody can have a business card made and say they are travel agent. I’m glad CLIA tightened their rules starting 2009, hopefully that will help weed some of them out.

Many of us told them off early during the trip because some of them were trying to recruit us to join them. They acted all innocent and said they didn’t know anything about the lawsuits against YTB from their own members and from 2 states (Ohio and California), even though many of them were from California. Either they were lying or they don’t read the travel magazines.  How can a tourism office not know about YTB? Some of them were only there for the “free trip”, some to recruit us, another one was there to let people know that he was a dance teacher (surely not a professional one because I am a dance student and know more about the dancing that he showed us that he did).  Oh yes, there was another one who was there for “his vacation of the year” and he was meeting with this travel agent on different fams so they could have an affair (and now she said she was going to file for divorce when she got home) and they would each turn in their room to get a free upgrade; they also took the last day of the fam off to enjoy themselves instead of following the rules of doing the whole fam with the rest of us. I must admit that out of the 15 from YTB, there were 2 or 3 of them who were talking about getting out of YTB because they were in it for the right reason and they were booking travel.

When I was on a 2-day fam at the Wynn last July, again there were tons of YTB people there telling us in our face with a big grin that they were in it for the perks and fams and they were making money recruiting people. This is really sickening to see them still being able to join on FAMS knowing that they will not bring any business to the companies who takes them on these fams while other real travel agents were not able to join the fam because the group space had been filled with the YTB people.

Do you think you can mention anything on your blog about these unsavory people? Is there anything we can do to prevent these people to come on these FAMS? What would you recommend?

Regards,

M Kaplan

Comments

[firemedic]

If this story about the YTB reps is true, then that is not right. I may be wrong but the story really seems exaggerated. Just like most of the stories against YTB are exaggerated. Not saying there are not people that abuse the system, but I can bet that it also happens with the non networking business. Travel weekly just published a story where a TA from St.Louis stole over $100,000 from peoples trips.

[jp]

I have to throw the BS flag on this one. Just doesn't seem possible that over half the people on this trip were from YTB and they were conducting themselves this way. Anyone can say anything on the internet and I believe this is nothing more than an agenda driven story. And to say that the people that actually do take the FAM trips (very few actually do) won't bring any business to the place is also ridiculous. If they enjoyed themselves they too will talk about it, just like the other people there. I agree with Fireman and this story is just too exaggerated.

[Kruusstty]

Mr. Stilphen,
Your obsession with YTB is starting to become to much and this exagerated Philippines story is just way to much. If true shows YTB people are taking more initiative then real agents. And real agents would not be bothered by these people if they did not feel some kind of real competition from them.
I would love to know since M Kaplan has taken a Phillipines Fam and a Wynn Fam , How much sales they have made for these two locations? Since they are so professional and only on these fams for buisiness.

Kruusstty

[June]

This type of behavior is all too common on fam trips. The majority of YTB think they are for personal enjoyment and a vacation. Sorry, but a fam is a working trip and should be treated as such.

[M Kaplan]

This story I sent to Peter is the exact truth of what happened on these 2 fams. I even had some of the other travel agents read what I sent to this blog and they all agreed and said I did a great job by reporting exactly the way it happened. I have witnesses to these fams. I don't feel threatened by them and I encouraged a few of them who are planning to distance themselves from YTB because they said they were embarrassed by what was going on and they were on these fams to learn about the business and sell travel. But that was only 2 out of 15 on the Philippine fam that were serious about the business.

I just feel that it is unfortunate that the true travel agent who would have liked to go on that fam was not able to because there were no space available for them.

I book a lot of clients to Las Vegas and the Wynn is more a resort than just a hotel and I recommend it highly to all my clients. As for the Philippines, I will recommend it to all my clients who want to go to Asia. I just came back from this fam but I am preparing promotions and working hard at it.

Why we were bothered by these people was because they didn't act like professionals because they were taking this fam more like a vacation trip than work, and they were also trying to recruit us. That doesn't mean we didn't talk to them. We were a group so we acted professionally with them and around them.

Frankly and personally, I don't see other travel agents as my competitors because we all have different clients and different specialties. I work with a big group of travel agents all over Arizona and we all help each other any way we can.

I also have the business cards of everyone who was on that fam (Philippines) and you can see how unprofessional their cards look like. They are so proud to be with YTB and it is just for the perks. Many of them admitted it and laughed about it in our faces while we were in Las Vegas.

So please don't tell me this is exaggerated because I was with other travel agents who saw the same things.

Peter is just reporting what I sent him. If you think it is an obsession, then it is your problem. We are just trying to warn people.

[matt]

that story is bogus don't believe it they are liars

[matt]

that was the real problem they was not space for the real travel agents read between the lines of the story. YTB people are not worthy of fam trips because we did not pay thousands of dollars to be a travel agents

[matt]

Yeah I get it you people need to worry about your own business in these times of the recession and I guess about now you wish you had some of that marketing money in your bank account.

[V]

I"m not a YTB fan for many reason but you guys also need to look at the facts. YTB was featured in Travel Weekly's Power List as the number 26 top seller of travel, selling $414 million in travel in 2008! And you still think they don't sell travel? Or maybe you're going to say that Travel Weekly are crooks too?

It's so easy to criticize without looking at ALL the facts. In fact, it's easier to criticize then do your research.

I'm sure there are people who don't deserve to go on the FAM trips because they are not doing anything but it's not fair to crucify everyone because of some bad apples.

[Trudy Richardson]

I have been an agent for 30 years. I love what I do and have always been sickened by the agents who do not sell but show up for the goodies. When I was approached by YTB who wanted money from me to sell for them and who wanted me to sell YTB over travel I quickly explained the way a professional agent behaves and that "real" agents are in it for the love of travel and the desire to bring the world together with travel and communication. I have no desire to sell what I knew immediately was an MLM and would be a black mark on our industry. There are those of us out here who still have standards, who still take joy in helping people plan their dream trips. We will come out on top in the end. Sadly many clients will probably not have a great vacation and many vedors will be cheated by a Person (not an agent) who will never sell his product. It will come back to the legitimate travel agent and we will again have the respect we deserve for showing many people the joy of travel in a safe and conscientious way.