There's No Free Lunch For Travel Agents

What do Obamacare and travel agents have in common?  

When the sales pitch for Obamacare was in full swing, everyone was being told about how they would get free preventative care, free birth control, free doctor’s visits and more. 

Free, free, free, was the cry in the passage of this new bill.  That’s one of the reasons why it was able to get passed in the first place.

As people sign up today under this new law, what they are realizing is that nothing is indeed free.  In fact, for many, the cost of all this free stuff is making it difficult for them to actually get the coverage they want.  When the carnival barkers have stepped away, the true cost emerges and it is hardly free. 

So how is this relevant to travel agents?  Let’s look at agents who work from home, roughly 50 percent of the travel agent market today.  

These independent travel entrepreneurs will, in many cases, seek to work with a host agency. Get matched with the right host agency, and a long term partnership ensues that benefits both parties.  That is how it should work, and with the right combination, it typically does work. 

The key is the right tools to get the job done; and that job is selling travel.

One of the key tools for building a business in travel today is a website that actually works to represent your business while giving the customer the information they are seeking in the process of making a travel buying decision. 

Unfortunately, this aspect of travel is ignored by many host agencies, or worse, given short shrift in the guise of a “free” solution that is nothing more than an online business card. 

You can get a free website solution via sites like www.Wix.com or www.Weebly.com, and build that site in just a few minutes, with or without a host.  They are the equivalent of an online business card unless you keep them updated daily, making your job that of webmaster or content writer, and not one that sells travel. 

Since you only make money when you actually sell something, this could prove challenging.

If all a potential or existing client needs is a place to find your phone number, then a business card is all you need …whether in their hand or via the click of a mouse.  Since consumers typically visit 22 sites when researching travel, how relevant will your site be if it’s one of these free solutions? 

if you believe, as I do, that customers are interested in more than simply a phone directly when researching travel, then I’d suggest all independent contractors/home based travel agents take a long hard look at what some are providing as free solutions. 

It could be that the free website your host agency is providing is actually costing you money. That loss can add up to the thousands when potential clients don’t take you seriously and never pick up that phone, or existing clients don’t book much more than an annual cruise or tour with you, despite far more frequent trips.

Free isn’t really free. Just ask those who are trying to sign up for Obamacare today.  There are either hard costs, or opportunity costs, or a bit of both.  There is no free lunch when it comes to healthcare and there is no free lunch when it comes to building a website solution.

If you are interested in a solution that will truly build your business in travel, I’d suggest taking five minutes to test drive a site at www.AgentStudio.com. 

It’s not free, but it will actually make you money in selling travel instead of costing you the opportunity to build a travel business.

Follow me on Twitter @MurphyTravels.