CruisePak Travel Agency Software

Referral Agents - Establishing Travel Agency Relationships

Continuing on with the discussion of becoming a referral agent, the next thing one must do is begin to get a list of agencies (agents) to whom you can refer clients.

Start with a list of agencies within a 50 mile radius of your home. Write each one down, along with the telephone number. Other good candidates are home based agents who are in business for themselves. For the agencies, a simple google search or yellow page lookup will do. For home based agents, this might be a bit trickier. You’ll have to search the internet for these.

Ironically, you might eventually establish a better relationship with the home agent as they are usually eager to get any type of new business because of the limited marketing power of their individual businesses. However, for the established agencies, they might have “programs” already established which at the outset, will make your job a bit less hectic to start out with.

In any case, once you get the list, give each agency and home based agent a call.

First ask the question of whether they support a referral agent program. If they do, then asked to be referred to someone who can better familiarize you with the program. Often, they’ll have a small document that they will just email to you. Note that it is probably not prudent at this time to ask about fees. Rather, it is better to wait until you have a client before addressing that.

If you take 3 or 4 days to do this, you’ll get a good idea of your prospective relationships. And of course, once that is done, you can begin the job of getting “clients”.

Of course if you don’t have any luck finding agencies that support referral agent programs, drop a comment and if we can, we’ll get you affiliated.

Posted in Cruises, Employment, Home Based Agents, II. General Interest, Industry Issues, Miscellaneous, Tours, Travel, Travel Agencies, Travel Suppliers | Comments Off

Starting Out As A Referral Agent

Getting started as a Referral Agent can be a daunting task; especially if you have no idea about the travel industry. So, before you get started, here are some things you should do.

First, understand that there are two basic types of travel. Cruises And Tours. Cruises are vacation packages aboard cruise ships. Tours are land packages that tour the world.

The best way to get familiar with these is to obtain brochures of vendors that sell cruise and tour travel products. For tours, you can goto http://www.globusjourneys.com (Globus) and download their e-brochure.

For cruises, you can go to both http://www.royalcaribbean.com (Royal Caribbean) and http://www.carnival.com (Carnival) and download each of those brochures respectively.

Once you get the brochures, read them and get familiar with them. Particularly, read the back of the brochures as they detail much of the nitty gritty required when purchasing a cruise or tour.

It can’t be stressed strongly enough that you should really study those brochures. Look at it like it is a final exam.

Remember, the value of a travel professional today is primarily the travel professional’s understanding of the booking and administrative process. It’s not so much about the destination anymore as most clients are in reality, more knowledgeable about the destination than the agents. After all, every tiki hut in the pacific has a webcam installed on the top of it’s roof and every cruiseline has virtual cruises available online.

In any case, study, study, study…. Once you feel confident about the products you are going to sell, then you can proceed to the next step…Announcing to all that you are in business.

Posted in Cruises, Employment, Home Based Agents, Industry Issues, Tours, Travel, Travel Agencies, Travel Computer Systems, Travel Suppliers | Comments Off

Why Start A Home Based Travel Business…

In the next 5 years, selling travel will be the most lucrative career path one can choose. Sellers of travel get paid commissions on big ticket items. Consider the average cost of a single person on a leisure package is $2745.00..of which you can get anywhere from 10 to 15 percent of that as commission…and one sees the potential of this industry.

As America completes it’s shift to a service based economy, this will become the pre-eminent service industry because of the big ticket nature of the products one sells. You aren’t getting 6% of a 200.00 stero receiver. Rather, you can get 10 - 15% on a 2745.00 package.

Sell one package a day and you could pull in $1200.00 per week….that’s over 60,000 per year…Better than flipping burgers or clerking at the mall.

If you are still interested, the only thing left now is to determine how you wish to “exist” in the travel industry…and that means the structure of your home based travel business (addressed in the previous post)

We recommend a gradual approach. This will eventually lead to quality and profitability. Plus, you’ve got to learn the industry. One can’t just open up a home based travel business, put up a website, and expect to earn a profit. It’s like any other business, you’ve got to work at it.

Start as a REFERRAL AGENT. This has the least amount of responsibility yet at the same time, earns you revenue and most importantly, pairs you up with an agent such that you begin to learn the business. Plus, the agent likes it too because you are bringing in business.

Your duties will include doing preliminary interaction with your potential customers. Of course it is your ultimate responsibility is to initially “find” customers, but once that is done, as you interact back and forth between the customer and the agent, you’ll begin to acclimate to the travel industry, i.e. learning the buzzwords, what are the travel supplier requirements, etc.

If you don’t know any “travel agents”, then contact me directly via a reply.

Posted in Home Based Agents, Industry Issues, Travel Agencies, Travel Suppliers | Comments Off

Home Based Business Definitions

With regards to technology, the type of Home Based Travel business significantly impacts the technology capability required by the Home Based Travel Professional. Thus, it is important to define the different types of Home Based Travel Businesses in use today. They are:

Referral Agent

The Referral Agent is the most simplest of home based travel businesses. The Referral agent generally works with an official travel agency and gets paid for customers of whom they refer. In essence, they get paid a finders fee. The Referral Agent has no “official” responsibility for the booking. Thus, they are not required to register with travel suppliers (cruise lines, tour operators, airlines, etc), purchase insurance, purchase bonds, etc. The referral agent may elect to simply record income as miscellaneous income for tax purposes or, may define oneself as a sole proprietorship and file accordingly.

Independent Contractor (Outside Agent),

The Independent Contractor is an official business unit that sells travel. However, the Independent Contractor works with a parent travel agency (host agency) and thus conducts business under the parent travel agency’s name. The parent travel agency officially assumes all responsibilities for the booking and it is the parent agency that must comply with all state and local licensing guidelines.

The Independent Contractor does not register with the travel suppliers nor does the Independent Contractor have to purchase insurance or bonds to do business. However, states do consider them as official business entities (sole proprietorships, limited partnerships, S or C corporations) and thus they must comply with state and local business law.

Independent Contractors do book travel packages for consumers. Independent Contractors do interact with customers. In fact, Independent Contractors perform all the tasks that “official” travel agents perform. They are service providers to the host agency. Independent Contractors get paid a percentage of the total commission on a booking with the host agency keeping the rest. The Host Agency may or may not charge the Independent Contractor administrative fees on a monthly or per booking basis.

Independent Contractors do not report to the host agency for employment and business related matters. By definition, their relationship with the host agency is purely contractual, much the same as any service provider is to you.

And lastly, Independent Contractors may utilize other Independent Contractors and Referral Agents to assist them in booking travel product.

Independent Contractor (Mult-Level Marketing)

The Independent Contractor who is part of a Multi-Level Marketing company has all the responsibilities of the Indepent Contractor (Outside Agent). This type of Independent Contractor works for a host agency, the owner of the MLM, and books travel under the umbrella of the Host MLM Agency. Again though, the MLM Independent Contractor is it’s own business and there is subject to federal, state, and local laws.

The difference between the MLM Independent Contractor and the Outside Agent Independent Contractor lies in monthly or periodic fees. The MLM Independent Contractor often has a periodic financial liability to those businesses or entities upstream in the chain and also as receivables from those businesses or entities downstream.

Commissions received by the MLM Independent Contractor are decreased by the Host Agency take and the percentage take of those businesses or entities upstream. Note that the MLM Independent Contractor often receives a portion of the commission of those businesses or entities that sell downstream.

MLM Independent Contractors may have referral agents and other independent contractors with whom they associate. In addition, MLM Independent contractors may have subordinates as defined by their MLM chain.

Independent Home Based Agent / Agency

The home based agent is an individual who by all definitions, meets the definition of a traditional travel agency. The home based agent registers with the travel suppliers, purchases insurance, purchases the appropriate licenses and bonds, market the business, supports a website, etc. The only difference between the independent Home Based Agent and a traditional travel agency is the location.

The traditional home based agent often works out of his or her house. They do not have a retail storefront. Traditional home based agents are often Home Based Agencies. In this form, other home based personnel come together to form a virtual agency. Note that the skill level of the home based agent is very advanced. These are usually true travel professionals who have been in the business for a number of years and have elected to go it on their own and thus reap full reward for their work.

Home based agents keep the full commission earned from their bookings. The suppliers credit them with volume, etc. Again, it is just like a traditional storefront travel agency except for the need to pay rent.

Conclusion

With all the above forms of independent home based travel professions, there is a need for technology such that a consistent stream of clients is available. In some cases, especially in the case of the Independent Contractor, the host agency will provide technology. They even might provide leads. However, for the referral and Independent Home Based Agent, well, they are often their own for generating business.

In any case, the needs differ but one constant remains. Each home based business entity needs to generate business, i.e. find those retail consumers who wish to travel. And that fact alone, often requires an advanced technological solution that performs accounting, marketing, contact management, and reservation tracking.

Posted in CruisePak, Home Based Agents, Industry Issues, Legal Issues, Miscellaneous, Travel Agencies, Travel Suppliers, Website, pfsSoftware | Comments Off

Technical Education Of Home Based Agents Necessary

The last two months have been quite harrowing for me. I’ve had to change the business model of cruisepak to combat the current changes in the US Economy and the travel industry as a whole.

Of course before doing such a drastic change, quite a bit of research was done into the industry and some conclusions had to be drawn about the future state of the industry. And, there is some cause for alarm.

The first and foremost issue is the Home based agent component of the industry. Recently, they have been dealt a blow by some supplier(s) in that their sales volume thresholds have been increased. What this means is that they must sell more travel product before they can receive larger commission percentages…which in a nutshell, means that they must sell more before they can make a living wage.

The volume threshold is so high, that it is pretty much unattainable by the single agent. This is a kin to the airline commission caps imposed by the airlines in the late 90’s. And that alone caused many agents and agencies to throw in the towel.

The threshold increase really means that the agent has to do more volume. And that can only be done through technology. The problem though is that the agent can’t afford the technology because they don’t make enough money, but they need the technology so that they can make more money.

This is a catch 22 that can only be solved by a massive technological education initiative. The independent agent needs to be instructed as to how to implement technology in order to meet the new sales commission thresholds. Even more so, the independent agent needs to know how technology is being used against them.

The suppliers have spoken. Sell more in order to get paid what you used to get paid. Technical education is the foundation by which the independent agent can meet the needs of their customer (yes, the suppliers are now your customers).

Posted in Home Based Agents, Industry Issues, Travel Agencies, Travel Computer Systems, Travel Suppliers | Comments Off

Massive Changes To The CruisePak Business Model

Cruisepak is now free software. This was a huge decision but because of the economy, and the value of the dollar, it is best to move this product to an advertising supported model. I don’t take this transition lightly as a free product decreases it’s perceived value.

It’s the economy stupid! The dollar just doesn’t go as far as it once did. Thus, americans are decreasing their travel allotments. This doesn’t bode well for the agency…and especially does not bode well for the independent, home based agent.

So, in a nutshell, CruisePak is a free product. If you want to expand the capability to licensed, there is a one time 34.95 account setup fee…but that is it. And, the evaluation version of the software will let you earn about 17000.00 in commissions before it requires that you license the product.

More on all of this later

Posted in CruisePak | 2 Comments »

New CruisePak Release Is Available!

Well, I’ve managed to get the new release (CruisePak 3.6.1125) up to the site for download. All CruisePak users (CruisePak 3.5 and CruisePak 3.6) can download it and install it.

This is the first release where we have upgrade capability for current CruisePak 3.5 users so have at it.

For current CruisePak 3.6 users, you’ll need to re-register your products as the serial numbers have changed in order to support the older users.

Good luck…and if you have any questions, go to the support section of cruisepak.net as all the questions can be answered there. Now on to the Web 2.0 stuff so that we can start integrating your CruisePak’s with your websites.

Posted in AJAX, CruisePak, Home Based Agents, I. Software Development, II. General Interest, Industry Issues, Inventory Manager, Legal Issues, Miscellaneous, Open Source, Other Development, Programming, Travel Agencies, Travel Computer Systems, Travel Suppliers, Uncategorized, User Website Tools, Web 2.0, Website, XML-RPC, pfsSoftware | Comments Off

Supermarket Customer Data Breach…4.2 Million Card Numbers Stolen.

Well, it happened again. Hannaford Brothers, a grocery chain in New England has exposed 4.2 MILLION credit and debit card numbers to thiefs. Of which so far, 1800 fraud cases connected with the data breach.

Is your data secured. Would you know if your customer data has been stolen. It only took the supermarket chain 3 months to figure out that their data was compromised.

The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI) has guidelines as to how your data needs to be protected. And remember, travel data is even more valuable than just credit cards. After all, passport numbers, driver license numbers, the customers credit cards (with high credit limits), and even family members (mothers name….an often used security check) is all the information necessary to open up new accounts, buy houses, and even assume identity.

BE CAREFUL if you store your customer data on the internet. If you’re just selling travel as a secondary source of income, you could soon find yourself in legal chaos if one of your client’s data gets stolen…and you are the source.

CruisePak users don’t worry though. Your data is stored on your PC….Odds are your PC has a firewall, virus checker, and your network is behind a router so Network Address Translation facilitates the security process. Plus, at the end of the day, the data stored within CruisePak is encrypted….so you’ve met the guidelines as set forth in the PCI standard.

Data theft is a very big issue in todays world so be on the lookout and read up on as much as you can because you, by the nature of your job as a travel professional, are in the business of data warehousing.

Posted in CruisePak, II. General Interest, Industry Issues, Legal Issues, Miscellaneous, Travel Agencies | Comments Off

Migration Utility….Alpha Testing

Oh goodness gracious, I jumped off the cliff and ran a test conversion on one of the users who has about 8 years worth of data in the system (55MB). I used an old system for a baseline. Specs included 733MHZ, Pentium III, Windows XP system.

It took 3 hours to convert the data from 3.5 to 3.6 format. It increased the database size to 87.5MB. And, the process is optimized. For the smaller, independents, this looks to be a 10 minute process. However, for the big guys, something else needs to be done. For those with 25MB to 1.0GB database sizes, it probably might be better to copy the 3.5 database files to a laptop, run the conversion, and then copy the databases back to the server

For the customers with database sizes of 1.2 GB or more we are probably going to have to go on over to an SQL Server based solution. That is, run a separate database server such as MySQL or Microsoft SQL, etc.

I’ll keep on testing, trying to get the process to a managable number.

Posted in CruisePak, I. Software Development, Inventory Manager, Programming, pfsSoftware | Comments Off

Back In The Saddle….

Just a quick update. Still muddling through the migration utility. I’d say about 55 percent done. Should have a beta for those brave enough some time next week. All static data conversion has been complete as well as client related data excluding reservations.

The past week has been primarily involved with custom development work. But that has been completed and now the conversion utility with some Web 2.0 interface stuff is on the slate.

We’ll probably have another CruisePak update ready for Tuesday or Wednesday next week. The current users can begin the migration on over. That should take about a month to ripple through.

Posted in CruisePak, Home Based Agents, I. Software Development, Programming, Web 2.0 | 2 Comments »