As an owner/agent, I am celebrating 25 years in the industry, and it is my second career. Previously, I had spent 27 years with Canada Safeway, as a manager for several years at the end of that career. I am married with three grown step daughters and two wonderful grandchildren.
I wasn’t feeling satisfied at Safeway, and needed a change in lifestyle as I now had a new girlfriend who had children, and wanted something that would allow me to be more flexible in my daily life, for work and family. I saw an ad for a travel agency expanding from the USA to Canada, met with them and then decided to roll the dice and opened our agency, from scratch, with no personal experience other than I had booked some of my own travel. I always figured if it did not work out, then I could always go back to retail with my previous Safeway resume.
The clients I have worked with who have become great friends, making memories for people and families, and the other agents who over the years have become family/friends. It also hasn’t hurt being able to travel myself over the years, on fams and personally.
Dealing with cancellations and schedule changes with the airlines, especially when they are last minute.
Always be professional with clients and the trade/suppliers. Learn as much as you can, you can never know it all, don’t be afraid to ask for support or help from other agents in your office or other agent friends, I do it all the time, and don’t tell a client you know something and you really don’t. just tell them you’re not sure but will get them the answer.
For us and talking with other agents, business is still very strong… I think Covid put the thought of “I need to enjoy my life now, while I can, so let’s actually do the things we’ve talked about” and luckily for us, travel is one of those things.
I think once a person who usually books themselves uses a travel agent for the first times and has a good experience, they will continue. We always work on educating our clients about how working with us benefits them, how pricing is almost always the same as the ‘online guys,’ as well as the online guys are travel agents in a sense, so why not support someone who is giving you personalized service and is someone who is just trying to make a living, not big business. Covid and the issues it caused helped those who booked themselves see the value of an agent in extreme circumstances.
Average age is likely 40 –45 + in our office but we have younger clients as well, usually the children of clients or friends of clients who recommend us. Again, once the younger clients have tried using a travel agent and see the value, they will return, at least for their larger or more detailed travel requests.
Travel for the most part is for making and creating memories. A special one for me was eight years ago, we had a family holiday to the Riviera Maya planned, myself and girlfriend, the step daughters and grandkids. After being together for 20 years we decided to get married while we were there on vacation… Could not have been better if we tried to plan it ahead of time.
I have had a few individual bookings over $100K and am lucky enough to have a few clients who do travel a few times a year, which adds up too.
We charge fees in our office. There is a set amount and depending on the amount of work for the file, it could be a bit more. For new clients, we will usually explain how our fee system works, but may waive it, so they can take us for a test drive so to speak and see if they like our services.
