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 152 Steph co-hosts with the one and only Jenn of TPI and the chat on TPI’s new franchise, Vacation Planners! 

1.	What is your view on terms and conditions? I see so much talk about them but do I need to invest in getting custom terms and conditions for my agency? That seems crazy to me. —Anonymous

2.	Hi Steph! I signed up for a host agency on your site and he asked me to Venmo over the payment to get started. He seems legitimate but it just has me worried. Is sending Venmo to a host agency normal?  —Anonymous

3.	First I would like to say how helpful your website and podcasts are. I listen to Spotify, watch YouTube videos and read all the articles every chance I can. Everything is SO HELPFUL! Thank you so much. 
I am still in the process of finding the best host to join and here's my question: I am a Brazilian and US resident and I was wondering if I could have customers from other countries as Brazilians would be a huge network of clients for me visiting the US. Do host agencies accept that or does it depend on the agency? 
Do their software of payments accept international credit cards/currency exchange? I would still be a US-based TA under a US-based host agency. Thank you! --Camila S.



TODAY’S RESOURCES:

https://hostagencyreviews.com/blog/seller-travel-laws-service-fees (Tom Carpenter explaining how charging service fees interacts with seller of travel registrations)
https://hostagencyreviews.com/blog/travel-industry-lawyer-list (List of travel industry attorneys)
https://asta.org (ASTA provides free T&C templates to members. Use TPI50 for $50 off ASTA membership.)

https://travelindustrysolutions.com/ (Legal templates for travel agencies with membership)
https://hostagencyreviews.com/hosts (List of host agencies.) 
https://hostagencyreviews.com/blog/tips-on-how-to-find-the-best-travel-host-agency (Advice on how to find the best host agency.)
https://hostagencyreviews.com/blog/independent-travel-agent-contracts (Things to look for in your contract with your host agency)
https://hostagencyreviews.com/hosts/travel-planners-international  (TPI’s profile on HAR)
https://www.facebook.com/groups/fiercelyforwardtraveladvisors/ (Fiercely Forward FB group for all advisors. Doesn’t need to be a part of TPI)
jennl@tpionline.com (Jenn’s email)
https://vacationplannersfranchise.com/ (Vacation Planners’ website to get on the franchise waitlist)
https://hostagencyreviews.com/franchises/vacation-planners (Vacation Planners’ HAR profile)

Ask Your Questions

(152) Custom Terms and Conditions? Venmo for HA Payments? International Clients for US-based Agents?

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!

(152) Custom Terms and Conditions? Venmo for HA Payments? International Clients for US-based Agents?

Travel Agent Chatter :and: Friday 15

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