Become a Home Based Travel Agent

Google, Bing, Yahoo and eBay, What’s Going On?
By Tom Ogg

Joanie and I just returned from a cruise aboard the Radiance of the Seas doing a southbound Alaska itinerary. I am working on my new cruise sites and needed to update the port reviews for Alaska. Doing the port reviews always requires a lot of research and these were no different. However, while researching each port I stumbled upon what I believe to be a significant trend that will definitely impact the way that travel agents do business.

Before I go much further let me make a point. Google “El Anclote Condo Rentals” and you will find my site www.PuntaMitaCondoRentals.com is in the number one spot. Consumers use “Puerto Vallarta Condo Rentals” research keywords to search condo rentals in the Puerto Vallarta area and then “Punta Mita Condo Rentals” shopping keywords after deciding to vacation in Punta Mita (note my site is the number three choice for these keywords) they will use the buying keywords “El Anclote Condo Rentals” after drilling down to the specific condo that they want to vacation at. This would occur after doing research at online communities and informational sites, shopping at various multi-property sites and finally buying direct from single purpose specialty sites.

Why would I choose to market our condos in this fashion, rather than going through a condo management company? I can offer our condos at lower rates to consumers who benefit from a superior product at more competitive rates. It is that simple. Condo management companies that serve the Punta Mita area generally take 35 to 40% of the rental rate as their cut. I can offer lower rates, make more money and be selective about who I rent to. The only people interested in staying with us are surfers and fisherman and we have had clients from around the world come and enjoy Punta Mita’s outstanding surfing and fishing. We communicate using SKYPE and settle across currencies using PayPal or Google Checkout, whichever the client wants. We advertise worldwide on the Web for free, we communicate worldwide for free and we settle across currencies worldwide efficiently and effectively and at minimal cost.

Soon, with Google Voice (http://voice.google.com) I will be able to let callers dial my Google telephone number for free and have it ring on any numbers that I elect. They will be able call my Google number (free call) and I can have it ring my cell, my business line, Joanie’s cell and her business line, or any combination of numbers, so that we never miss a call again.

Google and eBay both have the technology right now to make this happen. Microsoft is close on their heels.

Why does this matter to travel agents? Because of these developments, our world is about to change big-time. Here is how.

Global Social Media: Remember when you used to read newspapers for news? Do you remember the first bulletin boards that you dialed into with your 1,200 baud modem; fast forward to today’s social media. I have my eCruiseReviews.com and ePortReviews.com twitter account and one also on Facebook. I can learn more about the cruise industry in 5 minutes on Twitter than I could in days just a couple of years ago. The instant I complete and publish a review I tell the world about it on Twitter and Facebook and they are reading it seconds later. Travelers know how to research travel information, which is why TripAdvisor, CruiseCritic and others are so successful. Social media is only going to become a stronger factor in travel research, as it evolves, rather than weaker.

Global Communication: Google Voice changes everything. Now, with a single Google telephone number you can communicate with the entire world for free. You can distribute telephone calls to anywhere in the world for free. You can use one telephone number and have it ring in your call center in India, you cell phone while on vacation in Hawaii, your business telephone at home and at your secretary’s telephone in Manila. For free. It will be just as easy to call someone at a hotel or restaurant across the globe, as it will to call a local service provider. VoIP will replace traditional telephone services and cell phones will continue to morph into effective and portable business communication tools where it will not matter where you are located on the globe to conduct all facets of your business.

Global Search: Google, Yahoo and Bing are making sure that search is only going to get better and better. After completing rewrites of reviews for the various cities in Alaska from our recent cruise, I was stunned at just how much specific information is on the web and how easily it was accessed. Keyword searching is only going to become more effective, rather than less.

It is also much easier to optimize web pages for keyword searches, so that the content can be crawled by the search engine robots and the page favorably ranked for the keywords it was designed to serve. Anyone with even a mediocre knowledge of building web sites can perform SEO effectively and gain high page rankings for specific buying keyword searches.

Global Settlement: PayPal, 2C0, Google Checkout and others have enabled global commerce to take place at an unprecedented rate. Once settling an International transaction across currencies was a formidable task requiring much effort and expertise. Now anyone with a bank account or credit card can settle even the smallest transaction with complete confidence and ease.

When I first got into this industry, there were no computers and no toll free telephone numbers. If a client wanted to research their travel plans, they went to a local travel agent. When they wanted to book their vacation they booked it with their local travel agent because it was the most efficient way to complete the transaction. The travel agent provided the communication with the suppliers that made up their vacation and then settled the vacation with the various suppliers on behalf of the client. The travel agent thrived because they provided research that the client needed and could not perform on their own. They needed someone to handle the task of booking and documenting their vacation and someone to settle the process. A travel agency was the primary focus of travel distribution.

What does all of this mean to travel agents? This is part one of a two part article that deals with the topic. I would love any input that you might have of this subject, as it is sure to affect all of us in one way or another. Email me at TomOgg at aol.com (format like a normal email address.)

Part two will appear in next month’s newsletter.