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!

****** Transcript + Show Notes: https://har.news/vol28

Starting a business is not easy. Starting a successful business is even harder. Judi Lombardi has done both the past 9 months with her newly opened travel agency, Memories on the Move Travel.
 
A seasoned traveler with a passion for planning, she finally made the leap a decade after she first started exploring the idea of starting a travel agency. In 2023, she took the plunge! You’ll hear what gave her the push she needed to make that leap, why she chose to take HAR’s Accelerator course versus doing it on her own, and how she had a lightbulb moment about being an entrepreneur while watching Host Week EduSpots.  

Opening in June of 2023, Memories on the Move is on track to replace Judi’s previous salary by June of 2024. While Judi has shied away from doing any formal advertising, her agency is a great case study in the power of referrals, hand written notes, and client testimonials. Oh, and did we mention she has a 100% testimonial return rate from her clients? She’ll share her secret sauce for that too!

When it comes to fees, this Massachusetts based advisor came up with a creative workaround that her clients loved, gave her a little more time to figure out her fee structure, AND helped paved the way for charging fees when she was ready. It’s a must listen for any new advisor or veteran advisors getting ready to start implementing fees.

And for any entrepreneur that feels overwhelmed with ideas to implement and has trouble staying on task, this former speech therapist has a solution for that too. It’s called her tickler file and every advisor should have one. 

Whether you’re new or experienced, there’s a little something for everyone in this episode! We’ve got inspiration. We’ve got effective organic marketing tips that don’t take a lot of time but have a lot of impact. We’ve got advice for newbies, from a successful newbie, Won’t you join us?

Transcript + Show Note

Vol. 28 | Opened in June. First booking June 2023. Previous salary replaced by June 2024. Meet Judi.

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!

Vol. 28 | Opened in June. First booking June 2023. Previous salary replaced by June 2024. Meet Judi.

Travel Agent Chatter :and: Friday 15

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