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 154 Steph co-hosts Stephanie Gries of Travefy. (It’s a special Stephanie and Stephanie episode!) They’ve got some big questions to cover, so grab your note-taking materials and get ready to study up!

1.	Hello HAR, I have learned so much from your site and have found it to be an invaluable resource, I only wish I had found it sooner!
I been a travel advisor for about 3 years. I recently left my host. There were some areas of the business that I did not feel the owners were keeping the same priorities as when the agency was first started and not providing support that had also been promised.
On top of taking a 60%/40% commission split- which I now know is not industry standard! In the IC contract that I terminated with my previous agency, there is a paragraph that reads:
"Directly or indirectly, continuing for one year after the termination of this Agreement, contractor shall not, hire, solicit,induce, or attempt to induce any independent contractor working with the Company to terminate his/her/their Commission Sales Agreement with the Company, or otherwise cease his/her/their relationship with the Company."
Do you think this holds any weight? Can they really hold me to not hiring anyone else from their agency for one year? We are all ICs, so I just don't see how they could actually enforce that?
I appreciate any insight or resource you may have on this matter.  —Anonymous


2.	Hi Stephanie. When does it make sense from a money standpoint for an advisor to join Travefy? With all the startup costs what would you say is the tipping point where it makes sense for an advisor to switch over?  —A Fan Named Stephanie with the Last Name Lee


3.	What are some tricks for balancing a full time job with starting an agency? —Melissa A.





TODAY’S RESOURCES:
https://hostagencyreviews.com/blog/travel-industry-lawyer-list (List of travel industry attorneys)
https://hostagencyreviews.com/blog/independent-travel-agent-contracts (Things to look for in your contract with your host agency)
Jeff Ment’s website (the attorney we reached out to): Connecticut Law Enforcement Lawyer & Travel Lawyer | Ment Law Group
https://hostagencyreviews.com/page/travel-advisor-research-reports/ (Annual hosted travel advisor report gives average commission split for new vs. experienced advisors.)
https://hostagencyreviews.com/blog/best-travel-itinerary-builders (HAR’s comparison chart of travel itinerary builders for agencies.)
https://hostagencyreviews.com/blog/free-travel-itinerary-template-for-advisors (HAR’s free travel itinerary building template.)
https://travefy.com/ (Check out Travefy!)
https://www.tiquehq.com/ (recommended Travefy resource)
https://www.letslucia.com/ (recommended Travefy resource)
https://travelindustrysolutions.com/ (recommended Travefy resource)
https://www.facebook.com/groups/726852665417747 (Travefy user group)

Ask Your Questions

(154) Contract obligations after leaving a HA? Switch to Travefy? Balancing FT job with TA work?

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!

(154) Contract obligations after leaving a HA? Switch to Travefy? Balancing FT job with TA work?

Travel Agent Chatter :and: Friday 15

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