A self-proclaimed perfectionist, Erica Carr stumbled into travel in 2019, booking a jaw-dropping 100 trips her first year … just in time for the worldwide pandemic. But ain’t no pandemic stopping this lady. Nope, Erica and her team of three employees are on track to bring in $2.2M in sales for 2022!

Bookitbox TRAVEL is a luxury travel agency with a spin. Every client gets a box pre-departure with travel info and gifts personalized to their unique itinerary. As they say at Bookitbox, “All boxed up and TSA approved.” Join us as we take a peek inside her boxes and Erica shares why she thinks the boxes have been so instrumental in helping her agency grow. 

Oh, and copy cats. Most of us face them at one time or another. As you’ll find out, Erica is entirely transparent in what she does with the boxes and how it’s helped. So how does she deal with other businesses taking pages from her playbook? It might surprise you! 😊 

We’ll chat with Erica on how she made the transition from never having really traveled in the high-end luxury space ended up opening a successful agency that has a $10k minimum spend for clients. She’ll share with us her approach of ‘loving on her clients’ and how she surprises clients throughout their journey with small gifts and unexpected touchpoints.  

We’ll also touch on how she used the pandemic to systematize her agency so that coming out of the pandemic, she saw hockey stick growth in her sales. Through all this, she grew her team of employees throughout the US. If you’re wondering how to manage a remote team and hire the right people for your agency without being able to be in the same office, Erica has some tips for you on that too. 

Settle in and get ready as we take a deep dive into yet another success agency owner’s story!

****** Special thanks to our sponsor, Levarte Travel: https://hostagencyreviews.com/hosts/levarte-travel ******

 ****** Transcript + Show Notes: https://har.news/vol24

Travel Agent Chatter

Trascript + Show Notes

Vol 24 | $0 to 2.2M in 4 (pandemic) years. Surprise travel box w/goodies for clients. Meet Erica!

In episode 149 Steph co-hosts with April Swales of Uniglobe. Here are the questions they’ll cover. Got some fun ones this week! 

1.	How do HAR courses differ from an IATA course or something offered through a host agency? –Anonymous

2.	Hello HAR and team! I have a question about commissions. For travel agents based in Europe, as far as I know most airlines do not pay any commission. But it seems to me that this is not the case for TAs based elsewhere. I am asking this because I just got my IATA accreditation, and my business is mostly flight consulting. But I do this for clients based worldwide. 

3.	Most travel agents where I am from have to add a ticketing fee to their customers, and if they sell flight only then their only revenue will be that fee. In the end, if I don't get any commission from airlines, what is my benefit in using a GDS?

TODAY’S RESOURCES:

https://uniglobetravelcenter.com/mentor-u (UTC’s 3 month mentoring program)
https://hostagencyreviews.com/blog/become-corporate-travel-agent (List of trainings specific to corporate advisors, including IATA)
https://hostagencyreviews.com/blog/travel-agent-training-travel-agent-education (List of other travel agent training opportunities)
https://har.news/roadmap (HAR’s course through ASTA. The Roadmap to Becoming a Travel Advisor.)
https://hostagencyreviews.com/7DS-lite (HAR’s 7 Day Setup LITE is a free online course that helps you start your agency. It does not have support and takes you through resources to help you make things happen)
https://hostagencyreviews.com/7DS-accelerator (HAR’s 7 Day Setup Accelerator course with 70+ easily digestible videos, 48 exclusive resources, monthly live meetups with HAR team and others for support and accountability, priority email support)
https://hostagencyreviews.com/blog/travel-industry-terms (HAR’s travel industry glossary)
https://hostagencyreviews.com/blog/travel-agent-commissions (All about travel agent commissions, including airline commissions.)
https://hostagencyreviews.com/blog/travel-agency-accreditation (A list of the different travel agent accreditation options.)
https://hostagencyreviews.com/blog/what-is-gds (An article on what the GDS is)
https://hostagencyreviews.com/blog/airline-fare-types (All about airline fare types)
https://hostagencyreviews.com/blog/travel-agency-debit-memo (What is a travel agency debit memo?)
https://hostagencyreviews.com/blog/3-ways-travel-agents-save-you-money (3 ways travel agents save you money that OTAs can’t)
https://hostagencyreviews.com/page/travel-advisor-research-reports/ (Travel agent survey data on fee charging practices: what they charge for, how much, fee structures and more.)
https://hostagencyreviews.com/blog/what-is-gds (In-depth information on what the GDS, global distribution system, is and which travel advisors use it.)
https://hostagencyreviews.com/blog/become-corporate-travel-agent (Tips on how to become a corporate travel agent.)
https://hostagencyreviews.com/travelagentchatter/travel-agent-chatter-vol-5-karen-hurlbut-hurlbut-travel (Podcast episode with a corporate travel agent that does meetings and corporate travel management.)
https://hostagencyreviews.com/travelagentchatter/lary-neron-airfare-consultant (Podcast episode with an advisor who books air only and charges $50-500 fees per ticket.)
https://hostagencyreviews.com/blog/travel-agents-guide-to-charging-fees (Travel agent guide to charging fees.)

Ask Your Questions

(149) What makes HAR Courses Special? Flight Commissions for International TAs? Benefits of GDS?

We’ve got two listening delights for you on this channel, folks! 😲 

The first is Travel Agent Chatter (TAC), a spotlight interview of a wide variety of travel advisors that we publish every quarter. 

The second is our shorter, but more frequent Friday 15 series, where every Friday we answer your travel industry questions for — you guessed it — 15 minutes!

Travel Agent Chatter -- a Host Agency Reviews audio series -- talks about all things travel. We specialize in-depth interviews with travel agents from all walks of life.

Whether you’re a new or experienced travel advisor, we help you up your game by sharing where other travel agencies have found success and offering inspiring stories from the front lines!

Transcripts, videos and show notes of the TAC episodes can be found at https://hostagencyreviews.com/TAC

And every Friday at 12pm CT we publish the Friday 15 to our TAC feed. It’s 15 minutes over the lunch hour, where we answer your travel industry questions. Submit your questions and watch videos of the Friday 15 at https://hostagencyreviews.com/friday15.

Travel Agent Chatter and the Friday 15 are hosted by Steph Lee, the founder of the website Host Agency Reviews and travel industry veteran. She's insatiably curious. A lover of travel, writing, gardening & the stars. Most importantly, she ♥'s her dogs, Fennec and Orion!

(149) What makes HAR Courses Special? Flight Commissions for International TAs? Benefits of GDS?

Travel Agent Chatter :and: Friday 15

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