Powered by
Accredited By:
Powered by
Accredited By:
Let’s talk about the types of holidays you can sell, and how it all works.
With this model, you’re not limited to a few fixed packages or tied to one tour operator. You can sell a huge variety of holidays, from relaxing beach breaks and city escapes to luxury honeymoons, tailor-made itineraries, round-the-world trips, cruises, weddings abroad, rail journeys, ski holidays, family packages, adventure travel, safaris, motorhome hire and more.
The way it works is simple.
When a customer comes to you, you act as a travel agent. That means your job is to find the best holiday for them, not just sell what you’ve got on the shelf.
If they walk into a high street brand like TUI, they’ll only be sold a TUI holiday. But with your business, you’re independent. You have access to a wide range of trusted suppliers and tour operators, so you can offer the holiday that’s right for your customer, not just the one that’s right for a brand.
You’ll use the supplier search tool, which we covered in the systems video, to find the most relevant suppliers. This includes big names like Kuoni, Jet2holidays, Gold Medal, Classic Collection, EasyJet Holidays, Beachcomber, Wendy Wu, G Adventures, Explore, Intrepid, and hundreds more.
You then go to the supplier, who puts together the holiday for you. This could include flights, hotels, transfers, car hire, day trips, or longer, complex itineraries — it’s all flexible, and completely customisable.
They give you a final price, which includes your commission and you sell that holiday to your customer. Once they book, that commission is yours.
And because you’re part of the Hays Travel Independence Group, you get access to all of their negotiated rates, relationships, and support. It gives you the scale and credibility of a nationally recognised travel group, while still running your own brand.
You’ll also benefit from our in-house, non-profit tour operator, which only serves franchisees in our group. For the right holiday, this means you can earn even higher commission, often above the industry average, while still offering competitive prices to your customer.
Now, at this stage, we also want to learn a bit more about you and the type of travel agency you’d like to run.
Some people come in with a clear idea. Others are still figuring it out. Either way, it’s important to understand your goals so we can give you honest advice about what’s likely to work and what isn’t.
“With such a large selection of suppliers it’s never hard to find the right holiday for my clients. Whether it’s a standard fly and flop or a completely bespoke itinerary, there are always plenty of options at my fingertips. There are still so many tour operators I haven’t yet used and I love that thrill of making a new contact and exploring what is available when I reach out to a new supplier. “
For example, if you’re mainly interested in selling flight-only bookings or focusing heavily on low-cost European beach breaks, we’ll be upfront with you. Those types of holidays often come with small margins, low commission, and high admin, it’s not where we focus, and not where we’ve seen the best success.
Instead, we tend to focus on higher-value, long-haul, and tailor-made travel. Things like safaris, luxury honeymoons, complex itineraries, and once-in-a-lifetime trips. Of course, you can absolutely still book Europe, we do plenty of that too, usually through referrals and repeat customers, but we don’t spend money marketing it directly.
That said, if you already have a strong personal network or social following that’s likely to book short-haul trips through you, let us know. We’ll talk it through together and work out the best approach.
The goal here isn’t to steer you into one direction, it’s to help you build a travel business that actually works for you, with a clear plan and real earning potential.
As you can see, you’ve got the freedom to sell a wide range of holidays, with the backing of major suppliers, trusted systems, and the scale of Hays Travel behind you, while building a travel business that’s truly your own.
In the next video, we’ll talk about how our franchise fees work, including exactly what you pay, when you pay it, and what you get in return.
