HOMEBASED TRAVEL AGENTS BLOG

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

ADVICE TO THE NEW TRAVEL AGENT

One of the most difficult decisions a new travel agent entering the industry can make is whether they should go it alone, join a consortium, join an organization or affiliate with a Host Agency. I will try to help you with my usual straight forward recommendations from my experiences with travel agents over the years.

Everyone would like to go it alone or to be totally independent as that is the "American way". We all think we are entrepreneurs and can do it all by ourselves. However, prudent thinking says otherwise. 95% of all new travel agents who totally go it alone will fail in the first year. The remaining 5% are those in a very specific niche or special circumstance. If you insist on going it alone, here are some suggestions to give yourself a fighting chance.

First you must be legal. Obtain a local business license and register with your State's Seller of Travel program if it has one. Open up that business checking account and purchase E&O insurance.

You must be in a position to be accredited by both IATAN as a TSI (Non-ARC) and CLIA. This is absolutely essential. There are some that say that obtaining a TRUE ID will work. It will work only minimally and over the long run will prove insufficient. Don't waste your money. In addition to IATAN and CLIA you may want to join a Consortium for their marketing and commission levels. Many Consortiums won't accept you until you are selling a specific dollar amount of travel. Another "catch 22" situation. You should try the NEST, for home-based travel agents, Vacation.Com or one of the many consortia.

I wouldn't join one of the travel agent membership organizations at first until you know more of what you are doing. They are different from each other and you should know your needs before joining. They might argue that their membership provides all kinds of training and other benefits. The truth is you can obtain the same information elsewhere free without paying a membership fee. Join one of the free social travel agent networks to communicate and ask questions of your peers.

Affiliating with a Host Agency is really the prudent thing to do for all "newbees". However this can be another confusing experience. You won't need to deal directly with IATAN, CLIA, membership organizations and/or consortia. You will receive access to all of these through your Host, saving you probably more than $2000 in startup costs. When you get on your feet and are selling volume then look again at going it alone. A few can accomplish this in a year while others prefer to remain affiliated with their Host Agency.

The next obvious problem is, " How do I choose a Host?"

• Choose a Host you have researched and that makes you feel comfortable with their program.
• Stay away from the MLMs and "card mills" which I write about all the time.
• Go to www.myhomebasedtravelagentsonline.com and read the many articles that have been written on this subject
• Visit www.path4hosts.com and see a list of Host Agency Members that adhere to a strict code of ethics and subscribe to rules of conduct.

There you have it. Please don't hesitate to email me at host@coralsandstravel.com if I can answer any of your questions. I want you to do the right thing for you and I will offer any advice I can with you in mind.

Peter Stilphen, MCC

www.americashostagency.com

MAKING THE CASE FOR JOINING STARS vs OSSN OR NACTA

 Please allow me to make one statement before I make the case for joining STARS  over OSSN or NACTA. The last thing I want to do is to bash either of these fine organizations that are dedicated to the Home-Based travel agent.

 Both organizations have served travel agents well over the years and have a loyal following. Gary and Melody Fee, the owners of OSSN, are great people and are doing a supurb job with OSSN. NACTA, on the other hand, is owned by ASTA, and owes its success to Joanie Ogg, the former President of NACTA. Scott Koeuf has taken over the NACTA reins and is doing an outstanding job.

There is a better choice of organizations for you. Please allow me to explain the basic differences between STARS, OSSN and NACTA.

The 21^st century travel agent is more independent, comes from various types of travel such as homebased, corporate, store front agencies or aligned with a Host Agency. That agent is seeking more access to training, recognition from consumers and travel suppliers and the desire to be  known as real travel professionals.

The new organization STARS is markedly different from OSSN and NACTA for the following reasons.

1) STARS is a non-profit organization to be controlled by its individual travel agent members via a Member’s Advisory Committee elected by its members. OSSN and NACTA are both profit driven with the profits distributed to its owners.

2) STARS is bi-partisan meaning it works with suppliers from all categories that can contribute  to the professionalism of the individual STARS’ members. Unlike OSSN and NACTA that have been feuding with each other for years and have their own favorites or as they may call them “Preferred Suppliers”.

3) STARS will provide access to the same training, news events, seminars at sea, and networking as OSSN or NACTA except on a much larger scale. The STARS’ member’s website is larger with more interesting content and resources.

4) STARS has only individual travel agent professionals that vote for its leaders and has a say as to who becomes a Preferred Vendor. Host Agencies, Consortia and Suppliers have no voice in STARS’ operations. They are welcomed as supporters.

5) STARS does not promote a travel agent ID card or number unlike TRUE from OSSN and TRAVEL SELLERS from NACTA. ID cards may have their place if they are properly administered and the requirements prevent the travel agent hobbyist or pseudo agent from obtaining them.

6) STARS has authorized the “Certified Travel Professional” designation to further recognize those agents who have obtained their  CLIA or Travel Institute designations or are proven graduates from the “school of hard knocks”. I believe we need a single umbrella for all of our accredited agents that would make certification even more sense to the traveling consumer.

 CLIA, unknowingly, used much of these same requirements when they recently upgraded their CLIA photo ID requirements for 2009.

There is a stark difference between the 20^th century OSSN and NACTA and the 21^st century STARS. I personally believe in the individual professional travel agent and have invested thousands of dollars into STARS without any expected return because I feel the real travel professionals need more recognition and the time is right.

I hope you take a little of your important time and check out STARS for yourself at www.thebrighteststars.com

Sincerely,

Peter Stilphen, MCC

peter@stars.travel