If you wish to find the best holiday available, you will need the help of a travel agent. Their job is to ensure you get the holiday you want at the most affordable price. Working as a travel agent can be an advantageous experience. If you want to try yourself as one, you can find online travel agent jobs on job aggregators such as Jooble. They can recommend hundreds of openings based on your skills and experience. One of those experiences is learning how to become an online travel agent and work from home. It means helping holiday lovers from the comfort of your computer. Here is everything you need to know about the position.
Do You Need Prior Experience?
Most online jobs require no prior work experience in the selected field. However, you may be required the proper skills and qualifications. Most of the jobs will entail you using skills trained when you receive the job, though. The online training they provide may be through tutorial videos or from a live employee. Having qualifications in travel-related subjects will offer more help for your application.
Being a Travel Agent
Your primary purpose will be to plan the holiday for your client. Even when you aren’t working as a travel agent, anyone can recognize the time and effort it takes to prepare something like this. It can often be complicated to look for where to go and how much money needs to be spent.
Travel agents help take the load off by offering bookings, locations, payment confirmations, and more. That way, the ones going on holiday can worry about the more minor things like seeing how much can fit in a suitcase.
Average Work Day
Being an online travel agent can involve being glued to your computer. Your duties range from answering phone calls, chatting with customers, and gathering research. You will speak closely with your client about what they are looking for. Based on their preferences, you will get to work and put together a plan. Sometimes you will be using social media too to perform the research. For example, using Facebook to find holiday ads. On special days, you may log into online conferences where you can network with colleagues in your field.
How you Earn Money
How an online travel agent makes money depends on the clientele they receive. This means that you will be paid with the commissions asked for by your clients. Whenever someone wishes to book a holiday with you, they will pay you once you have booked their holiday, flight, and accommodation. The annual salary can range from $28,000 to a possible six-figure sum (an average rate is $38,700 in the U.S.). Having regular clients who trust you to book their holidays is an excellent way to find more secure payments. If people are looking for a more expensive holiday, they could possibly pay you more for the work you put in.
Pros and Cons of Travel Agents
Here are a few advantages to being an online travel agent, as well as some of the drawbacks:
Pros
- The work is flexible, allowing you to work from anywhere you please.
- You can organize your clients yourself instead of following a company’s whims.
- There is no limit to the number of clients you have, meaning you can earn as much as possible.
Cons:
- It can be hard to juggle your clients depending on how many you decide to tackle.
- Being commission-based means there is no secure salary.
Differences Between Freelance and Franchise
Working as a freelancer can offer much more freedom in organizing your clients. Working for a company or franchise simply means deciding these things for you. You will be given an office to work where you will meet clients face-to-face. You will receive a full salary as the company will always be sure you have work to do. This may be performing other tasks in the company, such as finding new clients or documenting research beforehand. Working online provides its advantages as it lets you work only as much as you need to.
How to Apply
You can choose to set up your own travel agent business yourself or find places to jump off from job sites. Many of these sites will find clients for you, who can be potential customers looking for an agent to help them. Put together a portfolio of your available skills and qualifications. If you have had successful clients in the past, mention them to prove your legitimacy. As mentioned earlier, most of the training can be provided online, so you have an opportunity to be certified as a real travel agent.
