r/TravelAgent

Is there any one working in travel agencies? What is the biggest pain are you facing in day to day activities?

My brother and I run a tiny agency from a small office in our home so everyday we’re learning new things and trying to grow.
Sometimes some issues are making us struggle a bit especially a recent case with client’s cancellation. Client booked a full day tour for a family of 6. Their booking includes early pickup, private guide, prebooked tickets, van, the whole thing. We locked everything in a month ago till they just left a last minute message justifying themselves of why they cancelled but the thing is that most of it is done for example the driver has already left to pick them up and the guide too.
We do have a 48h cancellation policy but sometimes things deviate. Since they justified themselves and everything, I had to be careful of how I respond or what I do.
The thing is I still had to pay the guide and the driver because they had already shown up and this is a loss for our agency like working for free
I'm starting to wonder how other agents handle these situations without damaging the client relationship or constantly absorbing the cost themselves.

Looking for advice for a new host agency.

My background: I have spent 12 years working for major airlines in operational roles at the airport. Ticket agent, supervisor, station manager. I also had a personal assistant business in Seattle for professional athletes getting traded to either the Mariners or the Seahawks. This was 2001 timeframe. So roughly 100 years ago.🤩 I have since had Corporate travel Agent jobs. Then extensive business travel as an executive at a railroad. I currently book my own travel and travel for people that I know. I signed up for InteleTravel. I have not found any benefit on pricing, or ease of booking. I’m looking for a new host agency that provides cutting edge technology for putting together luxury travel itinerary. I will support family offices and HNI.’s.

Look forward to the feedback. Thank you.

Does anyone here know, how long can travel agents who help with Visa application, manage to "hold" refundable air-tickets and hotel reservations ? We came across a travel agent (through several strong recommendations), who will manage the air-tickets and hotel reservations for what seems like a reasonable fee, until we get the visa, and then release those holds, for us to book, much better priced non-flex tickets (non-refundable) and similar fixed hotel reservations. I would not have been surprised with this arrangement, had she also not said that we need not pay her anything for the tickets she is holding. If I had to do this myself, I'd end up blocking a pretty large sum on my credit-cards.

The travel-agent, time and again confirmed that this is not a "dummy booking" i.e. fake ticket with fake PNR (like a counterfeit ticket), but a genuine ticket with real PNR. So how does she manage to get away without charging anything... is she really investing her own money ?

I’m building a small travel business called Go2Ceylon, based around a fairly simple service: we create personalised Sri Lanka travel itineraries for foreign tourists.

The customer fills out a questionnaire telling us their travel dates, budget, interests, preferred travel style, etc. We then create a personalised itinerary showing them where to go, how to structure their trip, recommended hotels, restaurants, attractions, and travel routes.

The itinerary costs $10, so we’re aiming for a relatively high-volume, low-ticket model rather than selling expensive tours or packages. We don't actually operate tours or book hotels for customers; we provide the planning and recommendations.

Our target customers are international travellers planning trips to Sri Lanka, particularly people from markets such as the UK, India, Germany, Australia and the US.

We’ve been working on the business and our website/social media for around two months, but we haven't had our first paying customer yet.

We’re currently looking at content marketing, Instagram/TikTok, partnerships with accommodation providers, and direct outreach, but I’d like to hear from people who have actually built or marketed small online businesses:

What are the best low-cost ways you would recommend for getting our first 10–20 foreign customers?

Would you focus on direct outreach, travel communities, Reddit/Facebook groups, marketplaces like Fiverr/Upwork, paid advertising, partnerships, SEO, or something completely different?

I’m particularly interested in strategies that can work with a very small budget and generate actual paying customers rather than just followers or views.

Any honest criticism of the business model or advice on how you'd approach customer acquisition would also be appreciated.

What’s the best “wow factor” you’ve added to a tourism experience that made a huge difference for customers (or experienced)?

I’m curious about things you’ve done (or seen others do) that genuinely surprised or delighted guests — and resulted in a noticeable increase in customer satisfaction, reviews, referrals, spending, or repeat bookings.

What was the wow factor, and what impact did it have?

(re-post with better title)

my mom (who has Alzheimer’s) and dad (her caregiver, in good health) would like to travel to Spain and Portugal in the fall. my mom has been pretty doing well on trips - they‘ve flown twice recently, but stayed at resorts. a European trip is obviously more complicated.

I'm trying to help them find a travel agent

Folks if anyone interested in this you can contact me & some part of salary will be fixed & some part will be incentive & it can grow as per time & how much leads you are able to generate..! Thanks...!

I booked an international flight through Booking.com and paid extra for a Flexible Ticket, specifically so I could change my travel date if necessary.

When I later needed to reschedule, I first contacted the airline directly. The airline told me they could not change my flight because the actual ticket issued by Booking.com was non-changeable.

That was surprising because I had specifically paid Booking.com for a Flexible Ticket.

So I contacted Booking.comto exercise the flexibility I purchased.

Instead of changing the ticket, they told me to wait up to 24 hours while they contacted the airline and found rebooking options.

I waited.

No response.

The next day, I contacted them again and explained that the first 24-hour period had already passed. Their agent acknowledged the issue, said the case had been expedited, and again promised that I would receive rebooking options within “24 HRS and less.”

That second 24-hour period has now passed too.

I still have:

• no replacement flight;
• no fare-difference quote;
• no confirmed change;
• no clear person responsible for resolving the case.

Meanwhile, my original departure is rapidly approaching.

This is particularly concerning because the Flexible Ticket displayed on my Booking.com reservation says that I can change my flight up to 24 hours before departure.

I submitted my request well before that cutoff.

But Booking.com repeated “wait another 24 hours” responses are now pushing the case dangerously close to the departure deadline.

The situation is therefore no longer just an inconvenience.

Their delay may cause me to lose the very flexibility I paid for and could result in significant financial loss if I have to purchase replacement international tickets.

It is also causing considerable stress because I do not know whether I am supposed to travel on the original flight, purchase another flight, cancel other travel arrangements, or continue waiting for Booking.com to respond.

What makes this especially frustrating is the mismatch between what I purchased and what was actually issued:

I purchased a Flexible Ticket from Booking.com/Gotogate.
Booking.com issued a non-changeable ticket to the airline.
The airline therefore cannot help me.
Booking.com is the only party that can exercise the flexibility they sold me — yet they keep asking me to wait.

I have preserved the full customer-service transcripts documenting both missed 24-hour promises.

I am concerned that if Booking.com continues delaying until the 24-hour cutoff passes, they may then attempt to say the ticket can no longer be changed.

I will not accept their own processing delay as a reason to deny a Flexible Ticket request that I submitted on time.

At this point, I am asking for an immediate rebooking or a clear written explanation of why the Flexible Ticket service I purchased is not being honored.

If this is not resolved before departure, I intend to preserve all resulting financial losses and escalate the matter through the appropriate consumer-protection, aviation-consumer, payment-dispute, and legal channels.

Has anyone dealt with a similar Booking.com Flexible Ticket situation, and what escalation actually worked?

Best travel agencies for east coast contracts?

Hi, have a quick question for people who do travel planning for a living.

I'm trying to figure out the cleanest way to handle tours for clients because some people want full help and some want to browse on their own. I keep seeing advice that sounds nice in theory, but in real life it turns into a mess fast (at least in my head).

I want to hear how you handle it, what works best, and what you avoid.

Is it worth visiting a travel agent about a $1000 domestic flight, or is that just a waste of both of our time?

I'm currently looking to explore my options about changing careers.

Becoming a Business Travel Agent got my attention.

I'm looking for somebody who is a business Travel agent who is willing to tell me more about it.

Is 30sundays reliable for booking honeymoon trip ???
Any other recommendations?

This season I've been running more tours than ever and my commission tracking has completely gotten out of hand
Every operator I asked seems to do things differently talking on percentages, payment schedules, some based on net, some on gross. Some commissions come quickly, others show up months later.
The frustrating part is I feel like I spend more time figuring out who owes me what than actually focusing on clients. I recently opened an older booking and realized I had never properly tracked the commission, so I had to dig through confirmations and payments to piece everything together.
I’m hesitant to jump into something complicated that still requires a lot of manual work behind the scenes.
For those of you working with multiple tour operators and suppliers, what are you actually using to track commissions?

Hey! I am a 25 male here and I’ve been working as a travel agent for a year and a half now and it seems as though I am still facing issues that are making my job hard but I really love my job so I’m trying to find solutions to my problems. I had a situation where I was helping a couple plan an anniversary trip for two weeks. We'd gone back and forth a few times, talked through different options and I was waiting for them to confirm their dates as a last step. Then I got an email saying they'd booked directly with the resort because it seemed quicker. Well, fair enough it's their trip.
A few lines later they asked if I could help fix their booking because the dates were wrong and their airport transfer wasn't included and now I was like What?
They booked directly so I don't actually have access to the reservation or any control over it. But I couldn’t just ignore them after all that planning. It made me realize this probably isn't the last time it'll happen.
So I'm wondering how you all handle this before it gets to that point. Do you charge a planning fee or set clear boundaries from the start?
Any good way of avoiding situations like this would be very helpful.

I’ve spent the last 7 years working on the vacation-rental side of travel, so I know how hosts and properties operate. But I’ve only ever seen travel advisors from across the fence. What I keep wondering about is where your hours actually go, because from the supply side it always looked like the selling was the small part of the job and the admin was the big one.

I’m especially hoping to hear from independent agents who’ve been at this a few years, the ones running your own book, with a workflow that’s evolved through actual pain rather than what a course told you to do.

If that’s you, I’d genuinely love to know:

1. Where does a booking “live” once it’s confirmed?What do you actually type where, and has that changed since your first year?

2. What’s the most annoying chasing you do

3. Suppliers who don’t send confirmations or invoices, clients who don’t send passports, commission that arrives short or never. What eats the most hours?

If the honest answer is “it’s all in my inbox and my head”, that’s just as useful to hear. I suspect it’s more common than people admit.

And if any of you would be up for a proper chat sometime about where the time goes and what would free some of it up for actually selling trips, comment or DM me. I’d genuinely enjoy comparing notes from the two sides of the fence.

does anyone know of a travel agency or tour group that has experience planning dementia-friendly trips?

my mom (who has Alzheimer’s) and dad (her caregiver, in good health) would like to travel to Spain and Portugal. my mom has been doing well on trips - they‘ve flown twice recently, but stayed at resorts. a European trip is obviously more complicated and I do not have the bandwidth to plan it for them 😬

Travel agents i wanna know if you relate to me or not. So i help people plan trips for a living. A lot of my work is not just booking flights and hotels, it is talking them through airport scams, figuring out how much luggage they can realistically handle, making sure they understand when any sort of village is actually a premium resort with qr code gates and weird rules.

Clients seem to love the experience part. They send long messages after they get back talking about how the hike i suggested ended up being their favorite or how the small town stop on the way to the big city felt like the real highlight. Some even say things like you saved our trip when i reroute them around a storm or fix some schedule mess. But when i look at the numbers, the trips where i do the most hand holding tweak every detail and help them navigate all the stuff that does not show up on booking sites pay me almost the same as the easy ones where someone just wants a short city break and picks whatever hotel is closest to the station.

I am wondering if travel agents here have found ways to increase earnings from client experiences specifically.

Background: traveled to 28+ countries, experience booking and planning itineraries, lived abroad for 3 years, studied abroad, forever learner and enjoy researching travel. I have an LLC for a tiny wellness business I've been building for 2 years that will merge well with travel.

Current situation: I broke into the industry earlier this year as a travel assistant at a local brick and mortar. They sell everything from leisure to corporate. I am on salary (low), but am grateful to have healthcare and gain experience.

Challenges: It is very hard for me to sit in the office 9-5 M-F. The owners are elderly (and conservative with their way of doing things). We currently use Travelport and TRAMS for invoicing. Anyways, we will be booted out and forced to switch to Travelport + at the end of the year. I could def see myself helping those who are not tech savvy with the transition. They book a lot of flights and I hear the headache daily. I want to stay away from being a booking agent with flights, and focus on booking leisure travel.

I plan to ask to transition from this position into an independent affiliate of the host agency in a few months. They already have 4/5 people working as affiliates. I started booking travel for colleagues and family last month. I know it will have its challenges, having to pay for my own health insurance and work on commission based.

**Any experience taking the leap?**