Become a Home Based Travel Agent

Home Based Travel Agent or Travel Professional?
By Tom Ogg

I have a good friend that is a CPA and has been very successful. During the course of his career he has moved from being home-based into formal offices and is now located in a beach front office in San Diego, but prefers to do most of his work in his bluff home in Leucadia.  Another friend owns a very sophisticated advertising agency that specializes in the health care industry. While he does have offices, he prefers to work from his home in Manhattan Beach and lets his partner run the office portion of their business.  Another friend has a tax, trust and probate law practice and gave up his office in downtown San Diego to work from his home on Point Loma overlooking the Pacific and Coronado Islands.

None of my friends refer to themselves as “Home-Based”.

When Joanie and I first saw the reality that the retail travel business model was about to change dramatically because of the confluence of technology, reduced commissions and inflation, it became obvious that travel agents needed to reinvent themselves and moving into a home-base made a ton of sense. But then, being home-based carried a stigma of unprofessionalism to the orthodox travel community.  In fact, there was a time when orthodox storefront agents would barely even acknowledge the existence of home-based travel agents. One of the largest challenges of the 1990s was elevating the perceived level of professionalism of home-based travel agents.

And, there were many challenges. Suppliers couldn’t tell who was a real travel professional and who wasn’t. The proliferation of card-mill factories and subsequent card-mill agents who, numbered in the tens of thousands, were eroding any sense of professionalism at the home-based agent level with consumers or suppliers alike. Because of the overwhelming number of “agents” walking around the trade show floors with travel agent credentials that issued for under $500.00 each, suppliers quickly set up defenses that many times also blocked real home-based travel professionals from accessing their booking structures. To make matters worse, The IATAN ID card was replicated by many of the card mills and was presented as the real thing confusing the industry as a whole.

Fast forward to 2011 and the evolution of home based travel agents has come full circle. Many suppliers have identified home based travel agents as one of the most lucrative distribution channels available to them. Suppliers have reached out to agents in a way that enables even the smallest operator to have a relationship with a supplier and receive training, commissions and recognition from suppliers while operating in a number of different and innovative ways. The fact is that it really doesn't matter whether an agent is home-based, in a storefront, operates virtually, or any number of other options that are available to entrepreneurs. The Airline Reporting Corporation (ARC) has introduced its VTC program to  verify non-ARC airline appointed agencies in a way where shortly it will be able to document ALL travel professionals.

Don't you think it is time to stop referring to ourselves as "home-based travel agents"?

I see no difference between a storefront agent, home-based agent, virtual agent or any other form of agent actively selling travel. They are all Travel Professionals! So we are in the process of re-branding our components to reflect this evolution and I would encourage you to do the same. Our newsletter, which has been named Home Based Travel Agent NEWS since 1998 is now the Travel Professional NEWS starting this issue. I hope that you like the new layout and design. Look for even more changes coming as the Home Based Travel Agent Community has now become the Travel Professional Community and the Home Based Travel Agent Network becomes the Travel Professional Network.