In a major change to its business model, Avoya Travel this weekend announced a new program that offers 100% commission on some bookings to its top agents.
Under the Elite 100 program, top-producing Avoya agents who book a customer of their own, and not an Avoya lead, will keep 100% of the commission rather than the current 80%. The program defines top producers as those who have earned $50,000 in commission from customer travel in the past 12 months.
Avoya’s model traditionally has focused on customer leads that Avoya pushes out to its travel advisors, making it an especially attractive host for newcomers to travel. Its Million Dollar Expo in Seattle last week, for example, hosted 10 travel advisors who sold $1 million in travel in their first year in business, much of it thanks to Avoya leads.
Recent research has shown that the industry has changed, Avoya co-CEO Jeff Anderson said at a press conference announcing the program, “we haven’t changed our compensation plan for 15 years.” In today’s market, “most independent advisors aren’t looking for everything we offer, and there’s a bit of a misconception that you only went to Avoya because they offered leads. That’s pretty cool, I think we’ve by far had the best program in terms of that. But if somebody thought that’s all we were about, then we’ve missed an opportunity. We needed to change up our message so the industry knows we’re as much of a host as everyone else.”
Of the 90 agencies that joined Avoya in August, more than 80 are brand new to travel, Anderson said; “that’s where the vast majority of our network comes from. There’s nothing more important than bringing great people into this business, and the more we sell the better it is for everyone.”
Still, though, Avoya doesn’t want to lose its very best experienced advisors; “ultimately, we want to build the host agency of the future.”
The research also found that Avoya customers spend 60% more on their vacation than the average agency customer, Anderson noted, so even an 80% split will be profitable.
Avoya currently has about 1,800 travel advisor members and hopes for 2,000 by year-end, up from about 1,600 in 2019 and 1,500 in 2022.
For more on the Avoya announcement and reactions to it, please see my column here at Travel Research Online on Friday.
