How many of your clients turn to you for cruises, tours and other more “complex” products where they need your expertise and advice to ensure they have a trip of a lifetime? Based on industry research and market share, travel agents still book the vast majority of these products. That’s good news for you as travel agents since these tend to be higher-commission opportunities.

But what about booking simple hotel stays? When you take a look at your client list, do you know how many times they travel, whether it be for business or a quick weekend getaway, and don’t utilize your services? And when they book these hotels, do you know what channels they are using?

The vast majority of hotel bookings occur outside your realm of business, depriving you of income. Most of your customers do book hotels on their own for shorter getaways, but they simply choose other channels to book them, either directly with the hotel or the chain, or via third-party online travel agency sites like Expedia, Orbitz, Hotels.com or Priceline.

The question to ask yourself is why are you leaving that money on the table when you are the person your customers trust to book their travel? For years, agents have had the misconception that booking such travel wasn’t worth their effort, time and money. Not to mention, the process was often discouraging, requiring them to chase down their hotel commissions, which in turn took time away from booking more higher-ticket items that paid much bigger commissions.

Eight years ago, this all changed for travel agents when HotelRewards.com launched. HotelRewards.com was built exclusively for travel agents, understanding their need to capitalize on these hotel bookings without the hassle of chasing down commissions. This site was launched by travAlliancemedia, the very same company behind the products you trust to build your business, including this publication you’re reading right now.

HotelRewards.com was launched on a simple idea: to give travel agents the ability to quickly find and book hotels at the same rate other online travel agencies offer and then make it quick and easy to get paid. This would allow agents to spend their time making clients’ dreams come true and not spend time chasing commissions.

Today, more than 33,000 travel agents use HotelRewards.com to find and book hotels around the world for their clients. HotelRewards has an inventory of over 144,000 properties and is powered by Expedia, making it a win-win situation for both you and your clients.

As travel agents, you win by being able to capitalize on offering your clients the same inventory as Expedia and Travelocity with a bonus of earning 10 percent commission on every completed stay with a single commission check arriving in your mailbox every month. Your clients win because when you book their hotel stays they have you standing behind each booking – and the best part of all, it costs them nothing more for that personalized, high-touch service.

As a travel agent you can utilize HotelRewards.com — built only for travel agents to book hotels on behalf of your clients OR you can give them the tools to research and book those same hotels on their own. The latter option saves you both time and money in the process but still gives your customers the ability to have you as their personal travel concierge.

There’s a catch though, you need an AgentStudio.com–powered travel agent website, which comes with a hotel booking engine that integrates seamlessly into your site. This will allow clients to come to your site and book directly.

As a travel agent, having choices allows you to take control of your business. One thing is for sure, you want to make sure that in some way you’re going after your share of the U.S. hotel market, which is over 100 billion dollars. If you’re not yet a part of the HotelRewards family, simply visit HotelRewards.com and start booking today to give your business a big bottom-line boost.

Every month, we will be back to give you tips on how you can increase your hotel bookings and capitalize on this very lucrative hotel market. What are you interested in learning about when it comes to increasing your hotel sales? Let me know at vbenecke@travalliance.com.