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Where is this? Mount Nelson, a Belmond Hotel, Cape Town, South Africa

"The hospitality community can feel intimidating and vast. This is because it is."

A (reputable) host travel agency provides the infrastructure for agents to thrive. Building this infrastructure would be difficult and expensive for a single agent. Let's break it down.

Apply to Join Our Team

Are your currently a travel agent?

Highlight relevant skills. Tell us how you plan to get your first clients. Share why you think you would be a good fit for our team. Failing to complete this field fully will cause your application to be automatically rejected. Helpful hint: "I love travel" is not enough of an answer.

Napasai-Belmond-Koh-Samui.avif

Where is this? La Samanna, a Belmond Hotel, St. Martin

What does a host agency provide to agents?

Licensing and credentials: Host Travel Agencies carry the needed licensing and credentials for travel agents to legally sell travel and earn commissions. Selling travel without the correct licensing can have serious legal repercussions. Selling travel without an IATA number, for example, will mean you cannot earn commissions. A host simplifies this process and dramatically reduces start-up costs.


Support and Training: The level of support and training varies quite a bit from host to host, so make sure to factor this in when trying to select the best host agency for your goals. The travel industry is complicated, but good training and a supportive community will shorten your learning curve and keep you from making expensive mistakes.


Booking Systems: Host agencies also provide their agents with access to booking systems. Most host agencies will simply provide logins to various vendors. However, we have programmed a portal where you can shop nearly all vendors in one place.


Industry Connections: The hospitality community can feel intimidating and vast. This is because it is. Your host will either have a good reputation or a poor reputation, but choosing a host agency with a stellar reputation will mean that doors open easily for you (and your clients).


Volume: Host agencies aggregate the sales volume of all of their agents, meaning that maintaining minimums to be part of benefits programs like Rosewood Elite is more feasible. An agent attempting this on their own would need to be pushing millions of dollars through each brand.


Consortia Benefits and Tools: Travel consortia aggregates the volume of host agencies for additional benefits and perks. A reputable host agency will participate in one of the many travel consortia and offer access to the their benefits and resources.


CRM Tools: Most host agencies offer CRM and accounting tools for their agents. Unfortunately, these systems can be slow, hard to use, and spread across multiple portals. Some host agencies still send out unmatched commissions via PDFs (a nightmare). We offer our agents a custom CRM that is directly connected to FastBook, our proprietary booking engine, so that managing customer information, reminders, commissions, accounting, etc., is fast, easy, and oftentimes automated.


Marketing: Host agencies may also provide marketing support and materials, i.e., landing pages, business cards, designed assets, etc. Additionally, a host agency's brand will oftentimes be stronger and more credible than a single agent's brand. We provide free, comprehensive, and practical marketing training, landing pages, plus LuxRally designed materials to our agents.


Leads: Host agencies will often say they have a leads program, but it is underwhelming; they may have a handful come in per month. Our agency has a serious leads program. It is currently invite-only, so you will need to first prove you can handle clients, but once you're in, you can supplement your income from inbound leads. We are always expanding our leads program to include more sources and opportunities for agents.

Ready to join our team?

Our agency might just change your life. We will give you a new skill, new community and new way to earn serious income. Go ahead and apply and know within 48 hours whether you've made the cut. Remember, no travel agent experience required.

Belmond-Cap-Juluca-Anguilla-Boat.avif

Where is this? Cap Juluca, a Belmond Hotel, Anguilla.

How it Works

Generally, an agent will apply to join a host agency. The host may or may not have an interview process. Some let you participate by simply paying a commission. Some hosts will require you to complete some form of training before accessing your logins and IATA number. When you start booking trips, your host agency will receive commissions from a travel supplier and disburse the payments to you on a pay schedule.


Working with a host agency is pretty straightforward and simple. Just keep in mind that if you are paying a host agency a fee or subscription, their business model ensures they make money whether you are successful or not.


Commission splits are something else to be aware of. Our starting commission split is 80%/20% (you keep 80%). Most host agencies start at 70%/30%. Beware of 100% commission host agencies. They advertise that you keep 100% of the commission. Most agents assume this means that the agency only makes money on the subscription fees. This is a "dirty little secret" in travel. Host agencies are offered overrides. Overrides are an additional percentage of revenue. For example, an agent with a "100% commission will see a 10% commission on a booking, but the agency is actually getting a 13% commission. We know this because we are a host agency and have overrides. We give our overrides back to our agents in the margin (so they can beat more rates or earn higher commissions) or, with cruise lines, as onboard credit opportunities for clients. This helps our agents be competitive and close more deals. Most host agencies charge subscriptions, commission splits, and pocket overrides. Just be aware. We are the only host agency (as far as we know) that is even talking about this. We keep it clean and transparent with a straightforward override.

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Where is this? Aman Summer Palace, Beijing, China

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Where is this? Aman Venice, Italy

Our Host Agency's Offer

Upon completing our program and filing their independent agent exemption with the State of Florida, we offer our agents all licensing and credentials. Our training is thorough. We have mentorship and a collaborative community. We have the most advanced booking portal on the market. We have extensive industry connections. Our volume is not only strong but also exponentially increasing year after year, so travel suppliers watch us closely. We are partnered with Travel Leaders, one of the most reputable travel consortiums in the world. Our CRM tools shave hours off of administrative tasks when compared to traditional travel agent tools. Our marketing support is bar none; after completing our marketing training, agents can schedule marketing one-on-ones with our marketing team for personalized help, and our leads program is proactively managed and expanded. Our commission split is competitive and straightforward.


Beyond all of these benefits, we offer even more. Our in-house concierge is free to our agents on trips when the client is spending more than $1,500 a night on average. We are not aware of another agency that offers in-house concierge support to their agents. We are always building out continued education opportunities. We provide strategic insights each month on what to focus on, i.e., when you should start preparing clients for the ski season. We have events nearly every day where agents can ask questions and build upon their expertise. Because we build all of our tech in-house, we can respond quickly to agent feedback.


Lastly, we offer all of this to our agents for free. The only cost our agents have is the $51.50 exemption fee paid directly to the State of Florida each year.

What is a host agency?

Last Updated:

01/17/2025

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