← Smart Travel: Upgrade Your Getaways
Smart Travel: Upgrade Your Getaways
How to Start a Side Hustle as a Travel Advisor and Get Paid to Plan Trips
00:38:21
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- [00:04]
A
When did making plans get this complicated? It's time to streamline with WhatsApp, the secure messaging app that brings the whole group together. Use polls to settle dinner plans, send event invites and pin messages so no one forgets mom 60th and never miss a meme or milestone. All protected with end to end encryption. It's time for WhatsApp message privately with everyone. Learn more@WhatsApp.com Sally, last time I saw.
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B
You, you were in a big white wedding dress. How are you feeling post wedding?
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C
Megan, this is cliche, but it really was the best day ever. We had a jam packed wedding, we had lion dancers, we had so much good food, we had Hawaiian barbecue, we had a drone show. After all of this, I feel totally jet lagged though.
- [00:50]
B
Well, I recorded some audio there so don't worry, you'll get to relive this best day ever very soon.
- [00:55]
C
Yay. Can't wait to hear it.
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B
Until then, let's talk about a company that's making it easy for people to make some money on travel bookings. Welcome to Smart Travel, a deep dive into the tips, tools and tactics to maximize your travel dollars. I'm Megan Coyle.
- [01:12]
C
And I'm Sally French and we're the.
- [01:14]
B
Travel nerds ready to help you plan your next big trip. Quick note, we'll mention some credit cards from companies that are nerd wallet partners that doesn't influence how we discuss them. Benefits terms and fees are accurate as of recording, but they can change and some offers may have expired by the time you're listening. For the latest details, check the link. The Episode Description first up, this one.
- [01:31]
C
Got a little lost in all the news about the Amex Platinum stuff last week, but Chase announced some changes to the hotel credits on the Chase Sapphire reserve card. This card comes with up to $500 in credits to the edit, which is Chase's luxury hotel collection. Right now that $500 credit is split into actually two separate $250 credits where you get one in the first half of the year and another you get in the second half of the year. So if you don't book one of those hotels between January and June, you do lose credit for that half of.
- [02:01]
B
The year, but not anymore. Starting in 2026, those credits are gonna get a little bit easier to use. So those 250 credits will just apply to the first two eligible bookings no matter when in the calendar year you book them. I still want to remind everyone though that you still have a two night minimum and that means you could book two separate two night bookings for the edit on January 1st and you'll get the two $250 credits.
- [02:27]
C
Interesting. So that could be at the same hotel. If you really wanted to be a savage, you could technically do four nights somewhere. You would just have to let the hotel know to do two nights, check in, check out and then do the other two nights. And often the hotels will be nice and let you stay in the same room.
- [02:42]
B
But we should mention that the edit properties are not cheap. For most properties you'll be paying more than $250 for one night. So with this credit you'll have to stay at least two nights anyways. Like you're going to be spending some money to use these two credits.
- [02:55]
C
You know. Megan, that has been my biggest criticism of this credit any way. Especially if you compare it to the Amex Platinum's credit for prepaid hotel bookings in the Amex Fine Hotels and Resorts or the Hotel Collection. So the Amex Platinum only has a two night minimum on the Hotel Collection properties. The most expensive properties are usually in the Fine Hotels and Resorts Collection. However they do not have that two night minimum stay requirement.
- [03:21]
B
As listeners might have heard in last week's episode about the changes to the Amex Platinum card, the Amex Hotel credit is actually worth slightly more than the Chase Sapphire reserves credit too because the Amex Platinum has two $300 credits. But in the Amex version you actually do have to use each one in each half of the calendar year. So wow, that's confusing. But just make sure you know which card you have and when the expiration dates on your credits are okay.
- [03:45]
C
And then we don't want to sleep on the other news. But it really does feel to me like Chase did not want to be outdone by all the AMEX Platinum news last week. So they also announced they are adding a separate hotel credit for properties outside of the edit collection. This one, Megan is up to $250 in statement credits in 2026 on prepaid Chase Travel hotel bookings. Now this is only with certain brands, but some examples are IHG Hotels and Resorts, Montage and Pendry, Omni, Virgin Hotels, Minor Hotels and Pan Pacific.
- [04:17]
B
I wanna give a shout out to Minor Hotels. They have some gorgeous properties all over the world. Some of them are luxury, some are like more mid scale. I stayed at the Anantara Palazzo Naiadi Rome Hotel. I hope it's. I know and guess what, it's in Rome. And I think it exceeded all of my expectations of a five star City Hotel Usually I'm more of like, oh, I want to do a five star hotel at like a beach somewhere. But wow, this one made me think you should be looking for five star hotels in cities.
- [04:45]
C
Megan, I know you. You will do any five star hotel.
- [04:48]
B
True.
- [04:49]
C
You know me and I'm down with any sort of hotel. I really like that they included IHG Hotels & Resorts in this because they have quite a range. They have the Holiday Inn, then they have the fancy ones like Intercontinental. And a lot of listeners say they love Kimpton, which is an IHG brand. Kimpton is by far the most pet friendly hotel brand.
- [05:08]
B
Good to know if you're traveling with your dog. Okay, early 2026 is going to be a great time to book these hotels and get a start on using these credits. Just make sure you read the fine print on your Chase Sapphire reserve credits so you know your booking will actually trigger the credit.
- [05:22]
C
In other credit card news, Capital One added three new transfer partners yesterday. Japan Airlines, Qatar Airways and I prefer hotel rewards.
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B
That brings the number of Capital one partners to 22. That's the most among any major credit card rewards programs.
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C
And you know Japan Airlines is great for award flights to Japan from North America, especially because Capital One is running a limited time 30% bonus available during the first month of launch.
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B
Transferring to Qatar Airways can also unlock some really cool redemptions, including the Q Suites. That's the airline's super swanky business class. And I prefer rewards. It's a hotel loyalty program and that can be really useful for booking boutique hotels.
- [06:03]
C
Love always to have more transfer options. Of course, before you transfer, check awards space first and confirm the transfer ratio. Also confirm the transfer time. Sometimes it's instant, but not always. Also, once you transfer, you typically cannot undo it. So be sure, no go backs.
- [06:20]
B
Good reminder. And then this was some fun news that came out last week. Delta let their customers and employees vote on a new destination that Delta will fly to in 2026. Whoa. And the winners are. Malta and Sardinia.
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C
Amazing democracy in action, ending up with beaches and pasta and more beaches.
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B
My friends got married in Italy and they just did their honeymoon in Sardinia. So I'm really excited about that one because I didn't get to go. Too bad they didn't invite me on their honeymoon.
- [06:51]
C
Well, it sounds like you can now go on Delta if either of these spots is on your list. Start tracking FER and award availability. Now, even with new routes, early award seats typically do go fast.
- [07:01]
B
All right. And PSA for everyone listening, the end of September is fast approaching.
- [07:07]
C
That means the end of a quarter. So if you do have an Amex Platinum card, of course we talked about all those changes last week. Remember, you have $75 to spend at Lululemon before the end of the quarter. You also have $100 to spend on a Resi restaurant by September 30th. Use them because otherwise these are lose them. We will link to our articles about the Amex Platinum in the episode description so you know all the deadlines of when to use your credits.
- [07:32]
B
There are also a couple of transfer bonuses ending next week. The 30% bonus on transfers from Capital One to Virgin Atlantic ends on October 1st. The 20% bonus on transfers from Chase Ultimate Rewards to Flying Blue, the joint program of KLM and air France. And September 30th, we'll link to our article on current credit card transfer bonuses in the episode description.
- [07:53]
C
You know that Flying Blue transfer is great if you need to book any flights to Europe, especially if there's a Flying Blue promo from your city this month. Houston, Denver, L.A. new York, Las Vegas, Chicago, Boston, Washington. I am looking at y'. All.
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B
I've already got it open in a tab on my computer, if I can find the tab. All right, you're up. Here I come.
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C
Way ahead of you. I'm actually going next month. We'll have more in a moment. Stay with us. So good, so good, so good.
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D
New fall arrivals are at Nordstrom Rack stores. Now get ready to save big with up to 60% off Vince, Kurt, Geiger, London and more.
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C
How did I not know Rack has Adidas?
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E
Cause there's always something new.
- [08:35]
D
Join the Nordy Club at Nordstrom Rack to unlock exclusive discounts on your favorite brands. Shop new arrivals first and more. Plus get an extra 5% off every rack purchase with a Nordstrom credit card. Great brands, great prices. That's why you rack.
- [08:51]
F
Abercrombie Denim is everything right now. Denim should feel like this. Confident, easy. Like your butt has never looked better. If you didn't know, Abercrombie's Curved Love Denim went viral in 2019 for eliminating waist gap, and it's still a game changer. Between that and their classic fits with a straighter line from waist to hip, the perfect denim does exist. Shop Abercrombie Denim in the app, online and in store.
- [09:20]
B
So if you're listening to this episode, I'm going to assume you're planning some travel. Maybe your own, maybe your families, maybe.
- [09:26]
C
For your friends, or maybe for your 25 closest relatives.
- [09:29]
B
Like I did with the Bush Bash, right? And did you ever have a Moment where you're like, man, someone should pay me to do this.
- [09:36]
C
This is mean, because I know I have family members who listen to this, but I was like, these guys are so lucky they have me and their family. Am I allowed to say that?
- [09:44]
B
Totally. So I'd been hearing a bunch of news this year about a company called for a travel. And they are a travel agency that were founded in 2021, and they've essentially built an online platform that helps people become travel agents and make money from the bookings, maybe the ones that they're doing for their family or friends. And what's interesting is that FORA is really marketing itself as a way to help new people enter the industry and do it part time if they want, you know, kind of get a little commission.
- [10:13]
C
You know, I love a side hustle. So this is interesting. If people are booking hotels or flights for their family or friends, they could actually kind of make some money out of it and make a little side hustle going on. I love it.
- [10:22]
B
So in industry terms, for it is called a travel host agency. There are other companies that do this out there. And what happens is an individual travel advisor would join the travel host agency, and that agency provides some of the infrastructure to run the business and do some of the training. So the host agency will have the relationships with different hotels or cruise lines or other travel companies, and they would provide access to their travel advisors at those special rates or give them extra perks if they book a stay there. So the hotel agency also gives their travel advisors access to the agency's IATA number. That stands for the International association of Travel Agencies number. And that's like an identification number that these people need to be able to book travel and make money from it. And then again, like, these travel host agencies can provide training. So, you know, most people haven't been everywhere, and travel advisors have to book trips all the time to places they've never been. So these host agencies can provide a community where they can ask for recommendations and sometimes even more formal trainings like webinars and stuff like that. So I think that all sounds pretty good for trying to get into the industry.
- [11:34]
C
So it does sound like FORA does a lot of the legwork to help you get started creating this side hustle. So even though you can potentially make money out of it, you do have to pay some money upfront, I'm guessing. Right?
- [11:44]
B
So for Fora, you can buy either a monthly subscription and that's $49 a month, or an annual subscription for $299. A year. And then they also do a commission split with their travel agents. So fora does a 7,030 split for new advisors. That means that the agent will get to keep 70% of the commission and Aurora will take 30%. And remember, commission itself is already a percentage of the amount that your client spent on travel.
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C
What's the average commission that we're talking?
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B
I think most commissions range anywhere from 10% to 25% of the total cost of the trip.
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C
Whoa, that's good.
- [12:23]
B
Yeah. So let's say you booked your friend like this luxury hotel stay, and that cost $1,000, and that hotel's commission is 10%. That means that the total commission would be $100. But then because of the commission split, you would keep $70 of that.
- [12:40]
C
Okay, I got it. Interesting. So I'm like, okay, you could book $4,300 worth of travel at a 10% commission rate, and then you would make back basically the annual fee you paid for Fora.
- [12:53]
B
Exactly. You can kind of think about it like the same way we think about our credit card annual fees.
- [12:57]
C
Can I justify all these statement credits?
- [12:59]
B
Yeah. Depending on how much you travel or how much your friends are traveling, you might start seeing like, dollar signs, like, just flashing in your brain. And that's probably what was happening for investors. They were so hot on for this year for raised $40 million to be able to keep expanding the business.
- [13:16]
C
Wow. So it's a growing company.
- [13:18]
B
Yeah. So I spoke with for a co founder, Henley Vasquez to learn more about how the travel agency model works and what Fora travelers are spending on. Welcome to Smart Travel. Henley.
- [13:30]
E
Hi. Thanks so much for having me.
- [13:32]
B
Henley, let's start with. Can you tell us what Fora is?
- [13:36]
E
We always say we are the modern travel agency, but what does that really mean? So we are a community and a platform where travel advisors can build their businesses using the tech, the tooling and the training to scale faster and also to be able to do this, whether it's full time or part time, as part of a community dedicated to travel planning.
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B
So you are a travel veteran. What made you want to start Fora?
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E
Well, I sort of fell into travel by accident. I'm not somebody who grew up traveling a lot in sort of accidentally ended up in this industry. Once I found it, I loved it. I mean, what could be better than getting to plan incredible trips for people for a living and getting to go to some of these places as well. But having spent, gosh, going on almost 20 years in this industry, there were a lot of problems that I saw. So when we were looking at Fora and that was sort of coming out of, we were saying there's a real lack of technology, there's a lot of gatekeeping, we haven't really let new people into this industry much. And we felt like if we could have something that would not only provide job creation because we know during COVID women in particular were heavily affected by having lost their jobs or having left the workplace, then we could create this like really incredible community of people who wanted to do this, who were new to this industry, but who were also building businesses on a better platform than had existed before.
- [14:56]
B
What kinds of success stories have you seen with Fora now that you've been running a couple of years? Who are the users that are building their businesses there?
- [15:06]
E
Who aren't they, I think is really the question. When we started, what I imagined is a particular kind of person who had sort of maybe was mid career and was shifting into this or coming back into the workplace after time off. What we found is it really is everyone. The success stories are sort of the younger advisors, many of them working in tech or in media, who are doing this sort of on the side in addition to their other jobs. They are the parents that are reentering the workplace or looking for something that is a little bit more flexible. But then we have incredible advisors who I call second career starters. So they are in their 50s, in their 60s, they are sunsetting their corporate jobs and they're funding their retirement doing something that they really love to do. So I would say the success stories to me are like they, they hit my inbox, they hit my DMs, they hit my text messages every single day from people sharing stories about being given this chance has done for them both in terms of sort of personal happiness and also in terms of financial freedom.
- [16:06]
B
And what do you think were some of the barriers to getting into this industry before now?
- [16:11]
E
Traditionally, the way the travel agency industry has run is that in order to join an agency, so you would apply and the traditional luxury agency would expect you to quit your full time job. So you had to be financially secure enough that you could do that. The training courses are mostly offline or done in person, but only a couple times a year. Sort of your cycle has to line up with that and then commission payments typically don't get paid out until after the travel happens. So let's say I can afford to quit my full time job, let's say that I have the right timing and I can afford that training course and I can wait until it happens. Then even if I start going, I'm hitting good numbers. I'm not getting paid until those trips happen. And if I don't hit the minimum sales requirement required of my agency, I'm out of there. They actually aren't going to let me stay. So because of that, it really limited the amount of people who could give this job a shot. And also because you're limiting the number of people who are entering it, you're also limiting the general knowledge that this is even a job. So what we found is when we started talking about it and saying, hey, do this while you're doing something else. Do this on your own time. We have live and recorded trainings. Do this while you're still building other things in your life. A lot of people said, oh, wait, I actually didn't know I'm doing this anyhow. I'm planning trips for my friends, I'm planning trips for my network. I actually didn't even know that I could get paid. So you kind of push this out into the ether, let the awareness happen, and then give people flexibility to build on their own schedules.
- [17:40]
B
And what makes this profession easily accessible as something you can do on the side or something that you can learn about and grow kind of in a part time manner?
- [17:50]
E
I think it wasn't before. Because of these requirements and minimum sales targets and because we said, do what you want to do. You want to build a big business, we're here for you. And our advisors, our top advisors are exceeding $10 million in sales.
- [18:02]
B
Wow.
- [18:02]
E
Which is an incredible feat. And they're building their businesses quite quickly thanks to a great platform and a great community. But by saying, if you want to do a smaller business, that's okay too. What do you want to get out of this? Do you want to earn enough money to pay for summer camp or to upgrade your car? That's fine. What we found is that people said, well, I can manage this while I'm doing something else. I can manage this while also doing a tech job that I love. And I think that flexibility of allowing people to choose their own path in terms of how they build their business is something we've seen in other industries, but not so much in the travel agency industry. And to me, this is perfect. Do you want five clients? Do you want 50? Do you want 500? That should be your choice as a business owner.
- [18:44]
B
Oh, I love that. Sally and I are big side hustlers. And the ability to kind of choose your own adventure that way is perfect.
- [18:51]
E
Yeah.
- [18:52]
B
So how Many hours. Do you think most people need to be successful and making a significant amount of money from being a travel advisor?
- [18:59]
E
Success and making a significant amount of money may not be the same thing because again, for some people, success is actually having a smaller business. But if you don't have at least 10 hours a week to get going, it's going to be hard. So this isn't something you can do with just, you know, a couple hours. I think when you're getting started and you're starting to work through your training, understanding the lingo, what this, how this all works. Just because you love travel doesn't mean you immediately know how to plan it professionally. You're going to have to start with a time commitment of at least 10 hours. Now, our top advisors are spending 60 hours a week on this. More. It becomes very much, you know, you live and breathe your job. But I would say the ones who are just getting started are probably between 10 and 20 hours a week. What's fun is we actually have done a study recently where we're looking at their hourly production, and what we see is at the beginning, and this is probably not surprising to you. At the beginning, these advisors are putting in a lot of time to learn and sort of get their feet under them. And they're not necessarily producing a lot of sales, but as they get better, that time becomes much more efficient. They know what they're doing. So the ones that are putting in more hours and are farther down the road are typically selling more per hour than they would be when they're starting.
- [20:08]
B
Let's talk about a host agency in general. Can you explain for people what that is and what sorts of resources you offer for new travel advisors?
- [20:17]
E
Host agency is such internal lingo, and I think that can be hard for people to get. But the easiest thing to compare it to is real estate, because everybody understands that. Okay, so you're a real estate agent. You work with a real estate company, that real estate company. So it's compass or it's elementary. They are the ones that are sort of your affiliation so that you can go out your dude. Your job of selling houses, a host agency and travel is the same thing. So you as an individual person can't just go out and start booking trips and collecting commissions. You need to be affiliated with a host agency. And what they do is they power you. They're your sort of platform. But being a platform and being powered by one in my industry can look quite different depending on where you are. So we do, as I said, about 80 hours of live training a month that varies from like sort of travel 101 to quite advanced and live office hours. We have a live booking platform where you can search, compare, quote and book rates for your clients. We have the internal community that you're connecting to. We have marketing materials. And by the way, the, the way that the money flows is you book the trip same as the house. The commission comes to the agency, agency keeps a portion of it and gives the rest to the agent. So what you're getting for that portion is access to all the training, all the tools and all the community.
- [21:30]
B
And let's dig in a little bit to the commission part of it. What is a commission split and how does that really work as you scale your business?
- [21:38]
E
So almost everything in travel is commissionable, which is often surprising to people. They don't realize that the hotel down the street costs the same Whether you're booking through a travel advisor or whether you're booking it directly. There is a commission built into it, which is typically between 10 and 15% of the price of whether it's a hotel, a cruise, a tour. And then that gets paid to the advisor after they travel at no additional cost to the consumer. And actually it's generally a better deal. So like if I book the hotel for you, often I'm getting you breakfast and upgrades and all that good stuff. Now, once that commission comes to your agency, what the agency does is keeps anywhere from. So for our advisors that are just getting started, it's a 70, 30 split. 70% goes to them, but then as they build up their sales, that goes up to an 8020. And so other agencies that, that's kind of how this world works. Often they're starting a little bit lower while they're learning, but typically it's sort of the majority of the commission does go to the travel advisor.
- [22:36]
B
And how do Quora Travel advisors know that they're getting the best prices for their clients if they're working commission based, Are they trying to look for more expensive properties, for example?
- [22:48]
E
I'm glad that you asked this because one of my biggest frustrations, having been in this industry for a long time is yeah, I'm making a lot of comparisons to real estate. You're going to sell somebody house like once every 10 years, right. For a travel client, you're booking probably four trips for them a year. Some might be bigger, some might be smaller. So trying to give them the best price is actually really important because it's actually about building trust and building the lifetime relationship more than it is Let me just like make one good commission off of this. Now, the problem has traditionally been we're talking about, okay, so the Four Seasons is right across the street. I'm, you know, if I, I'm telling you, well, here's the price, but then what if you better price on Expedia and you go, well, Henley, now I don't really trust you. I feel like you're trying to upsell me. So one of the things that we've done in our platform is actually our goal is, as we say, all the rates. So in our platform, our advisors can see the Expedia rates, the direct rates, the rates that are part of preferred partnerships. We've actually affiliated with tablet hotels as well. So they can see the rates there. So what they can go to their client with is, hey, here's this price. This includes the breakfast. Here's this other price. It's cheaper, but it doesn't include breakfast. There's this one, it's a non refundable rate. Are you comfortable with that? But you'll get a discount. So we want them to not be just sort of ticket takers, but actually be able to present all of the pricing to a client because they can build trust better that way.
- [24:08]
B
I love that you mentioned people don't really know about the commission splits. They'd be surprised that you can kind of make a commission on anything in travel. What are some other things that. But people who are outside this industry coming into it for the first time, what are they surprised to learn as they get further into it?
- [24:26]
E
Oh, there's. So I think there's a lot that can be surprising to me. One of the biggest things for us is that our community is very collaborative, not competitive. Now, the world of travel agents only actually own about 8% of hotel sales worldwide. So that can be surprising to people. Oh, wow. Like, we're actually like a very small piece of this larger pie, this very large pie. So there's a lot of space for us to grow, a lot of space to bring new people in and actually start to capture some market share away from these other channels. I think the second thing is understanding how little technology did exist. So people who are typically used to, like, consumer apps that we have don't understand that in travel we were operating like one of the first things we built was a way to securely collect, hold and use payment information. So prior to this, I was like writing people's credit card numbers down. And then after that, we've just iterated on top of that to give people better tech Which I can tell you a little bit about one that I love called price drop, which really surprises people because this is actually something most consumers don't have and most travelers don't have.
- [25:30]
B
Yeah, tell us about price drop.
- [25:32]
E
So price drop is now a way that any booking that goes through our system is monitored for when the price changes. There's like no worse feeling then you book the hotel and then you're like, wait, what? It's now like $100 less. So our system, this is a feature we just launched recently, actually will now alert the advisor. So let's say I do book you over there in the Four Seasons and then it changes. If it changes more than 5% or $50, I'm going to get an alert. So then I can go to you and say, Megan, that same room is now this price instead of this price. Do you want to rebook at that rate? Or actually, you know what, for the same price now you could get a suite. Do you want to do that instead of. And so we can give all of our clients the ability to sort of not over commit to something and then later feel a little bit duped again. It's all to me about building trust and building that relationship with the traveler. And that's the kind of thing where if you're just looking online like your credit card company isn't going to tell you that the price is now cheaper for that hotel, your four advisor will.
- [26:33]
B
That's one of the advantages of using a travel agent is they are kind of watching this stuff for you. One of my favorite tips is I always put a price alert on things like flights, even after I've booked them. Because if it does drop, I still get that notification. It's a great hack. It saved me a couple hundred dollars for sure.
- [26:50]
E
And that matters.
- [26:51]
B
I want to talk a little bit about travel agents. Probably haven't traveled the entire world. So should people consider specializing if they're thinking about becoming a travel agent, maybe even a part time one? Is it better to kind of focus your energy on a place you know, or maybe a type of vacation, you know, like cruises for example. Is that something you would recommend?
- [27:13]
E
I think it depends on the person. Usually people start by planning trips to the places they know and love best. And of course it's impossible. Who can know the whole world? I've done this forever and I can't. But really what you want to do is become an expert in your traveler. So we have a great network of suppliers that are everywhere. Our travel partners are all over the world. You have a great network of other advisors. That's a huge deal because given the size of the network, you will always have somebody you can go to to say, hey, did you just have a client there? Did you just go yourself? What have you been hearing to know if a hotel. Because things are always changing. But I think the very important thing is to know, well, Megan has an allergy or she only likes rooms that face this direction or she really needs a balcony. Knowing the personal preferences and the quirks that go along with all of us when we travel and is incredibly important. It's like having a first date again and again and again. Nobody wants to really tell their whole story again to another travel advisor. So usually the way most of our advisors work is just becoming an expert in their travelers and then using the education, their own travel to expand their knowledge so they can really plan a trip anywhere in the world. Some people prefer to specialize, but again, it's up to them.
- [28:23]
B
What are some trends you've been seeing in the travel industry that could be some of these things that people might not know about but are becoming super popular? I'm thinking like luxury cruises, for example. What are some of these elements of travel that you're like? Oh, these are things that new travel advisors and old ones should educate themselves on.
- [28:45]
E
You nailed it with luxury cruising. Cruising is not something that before was blowing up in the same way that it is right now. There are lots and lots of travelers out there who previously did not consider themselves interested in cruises that are now very interested. You've got all the luxury yachts coming out. Ritz Carlton has now launched their third ship, Four Seasons. Orient Express will be launching next year. Amman has one going. Explora is out there doing an incredible job. And then even actually the larger ships have created these ships within a ship so that you can have a more boutique small ship experience while access to the, you know, all the large ship amenities. This is an absolute trend. And one of the things that we say to our advisors is, is it's really important that you should know about this because this trend is happening and you don't want to get left behind. Your travelers are going to want to know about it. So even those like me who don't come from a cruise background are really keen to actually wrap our arms about what's happening there right now.
- [29:39]
B
If you are interested in travel at all, the kinds of resources about the trends in travel can be really fun. Just as a passion project.
- [29:47]
E
Oh, so fun. I love digging into the data and because it's really? I think a lot of people go by hunches in travel and you'll see that even in travel media like, oh, we think this is happening. And I always go, let me just look at the data and go back to the numbers. They keep us honest. They tell who's really trending or who you're just hearing about a lot.
- [30:03]
B
You noticed some really interesting trends around second cities and outdoor destinations near big cities. Can you tell us a little bit about that?
- [30:11]
E
The secondary cities? And I say that with no shade. Well, first of all, we've seen just massive growth in domestic travel in particular this summer. You may look at Instagram and think everybody you know is in Italy. And yes, quite a bit of them are. But a lot of people are also adding in much more last minute travel domestically. Not sure about the state of the world. Flight prices are expensive. So what we see is they're going to the Charlestons, the Nashville's, the Austin's, these sort of smaller cities that are easy to get to, more affordable, but have wonderful hotels within them and have incredible food scenes and often access to more outdoorsy areas as well. So like Austin, you can go, you can eat well, you can stay in a cute hotel. You can also go for hikes or runs or bikes. So you have that combination of having both a city escape as well as something that's a little bit closer to nature and you can do it in a matter of two to three nights. You don't have to have the commitment of going far away.
- [31:03]
B
We're coming up on a really big travel season that I love, which is shoulder season, like September, October, a lot of kids are back in school and this is a really great and affordable time to travel. What are some underrated places that you think people should go this year as.
- [31:19]
E
Much as we're talking about these domestic destinations which are wonderful in that season, I actually having just, just come back from Sardinia, which is like the trending place in Italy right now. I would say go in September when you're going to some of these coastal areas in Europe that can be very expensive and very crowded over the summer. If you go in the shoulder season and shoulder season extends into October now, you get the great places at a lower price. The sea is still warm, the sun is out and your flights aren't as crowded to get there. So I'm a big fan of kind of bucking the trends. I will say too that yes, hurricane season is a thing, but you know when one is coming and the hotels in the Caribbean that are open and some be aware that some close during hurricane season, but the ones that are open have incredible prices and it's a great time to get away. And you know what, if it rains a little bit, go to the spa.
- [32:11]
B
I love that. And make sure you have some travel insurance because you never know what could happen.
- [32:17]
E
You never know.
- [32:18]
B
And what is the first step people should take if they're interested in becoming a travel advisor and looking more into this career?
- [32:25]
E
Well, the first step you should take. Come look around, see what our advisors are doing for a travel dot com. If you go to the join us page, there's a lot of information. We just launched a whole new page that showcasing what our advisors are like, what does the job look like. And you can go through and apply there and then connect with our team who can explain a little bit more about how to get going. But I think the main thing is be passionate about travel, be opinionated about travel, because travel and what is great travel comes in every shape, size and form. It might be an all inclusive, it might be a cruise, it might be mountain climbing, it might be spa oriented. Whatever you want to build as your business and travel is great because the more diversity that we have in our community, the better we reflect. The travelers out there, they can find somebody who feels like them and has the same interest. But you do need to be opinionated, dedicated and sort of detail and customer service oriented.
- [33:19]
B
And what do you say to people who are a little nervous about finding clients? Like, I am the person that books the trip for all of my friends, but I not sure that I would know exactly how to go about outside of my network.
- [33:33]
E
You just have to talk to everybody. And I remember I was with one of our advisors who had built an incredible business very quickly. And she said because some other advisors have been like, wow, what's your, what's your trick? What do you do? And she's like, oh, Henley. Like, I just don't know that I, I'm so great at giving advice on this. I mean, I don't do social media. I just talk to everybody. I talk to everybody in the coffee shop. I talk to everybody in the spin class, I talk to everybody when I'm out walking my dog, I just tell everybody what I'm doing and I share some tips. Like, right, that's marketing. So the most important thing I think is don't get caught up on the shiny stuff.
- [34:05]
C
Stuff.
- [34:06]
E
Creating a logo, naming your business. Just put it out there. Hey, I'm the person that loves travel. I've been helping you Anyhow, I'm doing this as a business. This is what I've learned. I'm serious about this. This isn't something that I take lightly. Trust me. Give me a shot and support my business. And I think the more that people put themselves out there, the more that business comes back to them. But you do have to have a little bit of that grind in you.
- [34:30]
B
Yeah, for sure. And how much does it cost to become a travel advisor with Aura, for example?
- [34:38]
E
So the yearly membership is 2,99. There's also a monthly membership that's $49 a month. I will say you're not going to get that far in a month. It's much better. Just give yourself some time, commit to it and get going. But you will find that the membership costs. You basically earn that back in commission quite quickly.
- [34:54]
B
And speaking of being opinionated in travel, we do this fun segment called Hot Takeoffs, which is just your hot takes on travel. Do you have any for this week's episode?
- [35:06]
E
Who My hot takes on travel right now? Let's see. What can I tell you? Well, I mean, having just come back from Italy, one of my hot takes is Sardinia is in the process of happening at the moment. Corsica, just to the north, is going to be the next one. So keep an eye on that. My other island that I would say to focus on a group of islands is the American Caribbean. So U.S. virgin Islands, which had a new hotel, Livongo, that opened a couple of years ago that's now really starting to take off. It's got incredible tree houses and glamping tents. And Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico is really going to be popping. I think this winter. You've got Bad Bunny doing his residency there. Now you've got the Four Seasons opening. You've got more developments coming in. And I think there is this feeling of like, it's so easy to get away. You don't have to worry about your passport. The sort of American Caribbean is gonna start to catch up with some of what we've seen in the other islands.
- [35:59]
B
Ooh, that's exciting. I love a good island vacation. So that's perfect. One question we wanted to ask before we finish up is what does fora mean?
- [36:09]
E
It's a good one. You appreciate this. So my co founder, Evan Frank, like many other men, is obsessed with the Roman Empire. And so when we were starting, we were looking at things and he said, you know, the Roman Empire Forum was this place that people would go to, right, to do business, but it was also a place that people came to see their neighbor and build community and have a conversation. And that's what we wanted our company to be. We wanted it to be a place to come and do business. Yes, but also a place that you connected with other people, with other travel planners and other travelers, and you created a community dedicated to doing something really well together with travel. So fora is the plural of forum. Also, we were able to get for a travel.com and I always say that it is harder to name your company than it is to name your band. So you got to just find one that isn't already taken.
- [36:58]
B
I love that, especially because I just visited the Roman Forum and I can imagine all the community that's happening. That's amazing. Okay, Henley, thank you so much for joining us today.
- [37:09]
E
Thank you so much for having me, Henley called it.
- [37:13]
C
With more luxury cruises and more interest in the American Caribbean, I'm always down.
- [37:17]
B
For an island vacation. So I thought both of her picks for destinations to watch were excellent.
- [37:21]
C
And before y' all jot off to an island somewhere. Subscribe to follow Smart Travel on your favorite podcast app, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts and iHeartRadio. To automatically download new episodes, I'm gonna.
- [37:32]
B
Shout out our producers, Tess Viglin and Hilary Georgie. Claire Sosi helped with fact checking and Nick Karismi mixed her audio. Thanks, y'. All.
- [37:39]
C
And we gotta do that disclaimer. We are not financial oriented investment advisors. This information is only provided for general and educational and entertainment purposes.
- [37:47]
B
We hope you're inspired to keep your passport full and your wallet even fuller. See you next time.