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Travel Agent Fees
This article is excerpted from:
=============================================
THE HOME-BASED TRAVEL AGENT
=============================================
A Newsletter for Those on the Cutting Edge
of the Travel Distribution System
http://www.hometravelagency.com
GETTING SERIOUS
ABOUT TRAVEL AGENT FEES
Charging a fixed per ticket fee for airline tickets is one thing,
but if you really want to get serious, you might want to start thinking
the way lawyers do.
That’s
what one travel agent did after getting fed up with clients who ate
up his time for help with elaborate wedding trips and then booked
much of it direct with suppliers.
"I charge
a consultation fee based on an hourly rate, with a two hour minimum,"
he says. "If something like a wedding is involved, I’ll
set a separate fee for that, with the travel research billed separately."
Just like
a lawyer, he has clients come in so he can explain his procedures
and have them sign a contract that spells out all the fees in detail.
These include pure research, billed in 15 minute increments at $100
an hour, phone time spent with the client at the same rate, making
overseas phone calls ($5) and receiving overseas faxes ($3), and so
forth. He also insists on receiving his minimum fee upfront, before
he’s done any work.
"They’ll
either tell you to go to h---," he notes, "Or they’ll
pay. Either way, you’re not wasting your time."
Another cornerstone
of his system is keeping detailed records of the time spent on the
client’s behalf, again just like a lawyer. He’ll track individual
phone calls to the minute and then add them up before billing. If
his time and services add up to more than $200 (his minimum fee),
he presents periodic itemized bills detailing all time spent and miscellaneous
fees, such as those overseas phone calls and faxes. If he spends less
than two hours, then his minimum fee still stands.
I’m not
sure this travel agent fees strategy will work for everyone, but I
do know from what I hear on the grapevine that it is working for some
travel agents. If you decide to go this route, just make sure everything
is spelled out to the client, in detail, before you start presenting
him or her with bills for your services.
Of course
it will also help if your knowledge level is such that paying you
to do research is worth the client’s hard-earned cash. Paying
an expert $100 for an hour of research is one thing, paying an amateur
$500 for five hours of research to come up with the same information
is clearly unacceptable.
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