When was the last time you got something (good!) for nothing? Probably never! Let’s talk about how travel advisors are paid.
Like most industries, you will find a variety of different business models among travel agents. Some agents will advertise as “FREE TO YOU!”, while others work entirely on a service planning or itinerary-only model with no booking or commissions involved. All of these agents will provide different levels of planning and bring different levels of experience and training to the table. (We always recommend talking with a few agents first to see who may be the best fit for you and your travel needs!)
Like the majority of professional ASTA Member agents out there, we operate as a hybrid.
“Back in the day”, when travel wholesalers, suppliers and airlines depended on agents to be the go-between for their products, almost all of these items were commissionable. With the rise of direct sales via the internet (along with other variables!), many travel components (including most flights) are either lower commission or not commissionable.
There are many suppliers that we work with that do pay commission, and we are happy to work with them, but ultimately, YOU are our client, not the supplier – and we want to keep it that way! The supplier is paying us for (in short) bringing the client to the booking, but they are not paying for any servicing of the booking, including planning those important details to improve your experience before you even get there, creating your itineraries, crossing the “ts” and dotting the “i”s to make sure everything is in order. While commission is factored into our business model, it does not (and cannot) represent all of it. Commission is not a compensation for our time, knowledge or experience, and fees allow us to stay in business while giving the kind of attention and service that we believe you deserve.
We do not want to make recommendations with commissions in mind – and we will happily recommend an excursion, hotel or transfer company that offers less or no commission for a client if I think that is the better option for them – I promise!
In almost all cases where commission is involved, it is not paid until after the client has traveled – which means that cancelled bookings are non-commissionable. Our fees allow us to be paid fairly for the work that we do before a booking or after a cancellation – because we understand sometimes things happen! (Ask any agent who went through this business during the pandemic!)
We believe that our time is valuable AND your time is valuable. Hiring an experienced, professional travel planner means you are not the one spending hours on hold with suppliers, hours doing the research (not to mention actually taking the trips to do the in-person research), juggling final payments and packing lists, creating that final itinerary so that everything is in one place and (in some cases!) being the person to answer ALL of Aunt Susanne’s detailed questions about that cruise your extended family is going on. (Just send her our way!)
(Note as well that as a team of agents that come with different levels of experience, you will find each agent at Chronicle may have different fees. Agents are fully free to set their own fees based on their service models and the level of work the trip itself involves.)
Ultimately, we never want our business and services to be reliant solely on that of a third-party supplier, because we want to serve YOU in the best possible capacity that we can, as experienced professionals, giving you our time and access – freeing YOU up to sit back, relax and enjoy your travels.
We are always happy to answer any questions about how we are paid or how we work – so please do not hesitate to ask!
