Even in an AI world, competition for really smart, knowledgeable and experienced travel advisors is stiffer than ever—not just among high-end customers but apparently among host agencies as well. At its annual conference last week, Avoya Travel Network announced upgrades to the commissions it will be paying its independent advisors (IAs)—and a $5,000 sign-on bonus to newcomers bringing in a book of business of their own.

Avoya traditionally has paid its advisors 30% of the commission on bookings obtained through its Avoya Live lead program, or 80% on bookings of their personal customers. Last year, it began testing an Elite 100 program that raised commissions with preferred suppliers to 100% on bookings of personal clients. Read the rest of this entry »

With almost $2 million in sales within the first year of his travel business, Rick Ables feels like he “has the Avoya system down”—and he’s ready to move on.

His career in travel started when he was sitting in the hospital with a child on chemo. During that time he talked with a nurse about travel, and then about selling travel, and then about how the nurse was selling travel on the side through Avoya Travel. He was hooked.

For the past year, the proud owner of Nimble Travel LLC in Lindon, Utah, has been building his business almost entirely through four key suppliers—AmaWaterways, Oceania, Collette, and Globus/Avalon—and mostly with Avoya leads, on which he earns the standard 30% Avoya commission Read the rest of this entry »

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.

There was so much good advice at the Avoya Million Dollar Expo in Seattle last week that I guess you just had to be there to absorb it all. But here are some highlights:

You don’t have a responsibility to tell your clients about commonly known issues like COVID, says travel attorney Mark Pestronk, but if you read in the trade press (where a client would not normally be) that a supplier is having financial problems, you do have a legal responsibility to advise your customers. Have them sign a disclaimer (there are several on his website, Law Offices of Mark Pestronk, P.C. – The Travel Law Office – Legal help for Corporate Travel – Online Travel Agencies – Home Based Independent Travel Contractors). And for heaven’s sake protect your assets from disgruntled clients and the IRS with an LLC. E&O insurance in most cases covers damages but not legal expenses, which can add up to $50,000 in a case that involves death or injury. Always sign contracts in the name of the LLC and not your own—and note that if you deduct travel expenses as a business expense, you are five times more likely to be audited if you file on Schedule C than if you file as an LLC.

Grow your business by creating a simple referral program of some kind. Reach out to your Pied Pipers and incentivize them to talk about you. And don’t forget to celebrate them, perhaps on a Facebook page for only your top customers. In any case, always send an email asking for feedback and for referrals when clients return from a trip. (Travel advisor Carri Kersten, of Carri Kersten Travel Design, told me that during Covid she raffled off a $10 gift certificate to a local business to anyone who shared her Facebook posts or tagged a friend. In return for an $80 expenditure over eight weeks, her followers quadrupled, from 500 to 2,100.)

Keep two questions top of mind when meeting with suppliers: Does my client base have synergy with your product? And, can you help me develop a client base that matches your product?

Celebrity’s new round of shorter Caribbean cruises that stop at Perfect Day in CocoCay offers travel advisors a great opportunity to try the ever-improving product. While you might not think of RCCL’s private island as a perfect fit for Celebrity clients, the itineraries included have seen a high number of immediate bookings as soon as they are announced.

Need a little inspiration? Envision how other people’s lives are better because you are living your dream, says keynote motivational speaker Lucia Onieva (Life and Relationship Coach | Lucia G Onieva | Life Aligned). Write down your dream and then “bring your people into your dream” by visualizing how it will positively your family and your customers.

Don’t overlook the value of selling air. Every single day travel advisors have to prove their value to their customers, and part of that proposition is having a conversation about air. Things will go wrong and you will have to be an advocate for your customers, but you can charge the customer and also retain them by being their airline and travel document advisor.

There was a lot of news—and a record number of travel advisors and suppliers sharing tips on how to sell land vacations—at the Avoya Land Forum in Mexico last week. Some of the numbers bordered on astounding. The biggest growth was Cindy Roller’s 216% year-to-date; the top seller, Andrew Wells, booked $1.7 million in land alone; and the top land rookie, Ana Serpa, sold $167,000 in her first nine months in business. The largest sale of the year was Carri Kersten’s $63,000 Delta vacation; the largest group was Annamaria Livdal’s, at $100,000.