Customer Reviews

How to Start a Home Based Travel Agency

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I bought this book hoping to open my own home-based travel agency but decided half way through the book it wasn't really the career for me. So I received enough information to let me know that I didn't want to waste any more time pursuing a career as a travel agent. There was information on how 9/11 has negatively impacted the travel industry. It also made me realize how much more difficult it is to break into the business without negotiating with specific companies for referral commissions and that travel agencies now have to charge fees for issuing airline tickets because airlines no longer provide commissions (because most of them have never recovered from 9/11 and are on the brink of bankruptcy). I personally prefer to buy tickets directly from the airlines to avoid additional costs.

I realized that being a travel agent was going to be more effort than I was willing to put forth for what sounds like scraps - according to the authors' description of how the industry currently works.

So buy this book if you are REALLY serious about wanting to start your own travel agency but realize you may not get all of the information because of missing pages and horrible editing.

I read through this book cover to cover to learn more about the travel and home based travel agency industry. The information contained within was extremely useful, and provided a terrific overview of the steps necessary to start you own business. Perhaps it made it seem a little too easy to become successful as a home based travel agent, but the ingredients were all there. This included setting up your business, creating a marketing plan, hooking up to the travel provider network, and training involved.

However, I am only giving this book 3 stars because the editing job for this book seemed non-existent. Lack of commas throughout, many typos, blank lines in the middle of paragraphs, grammatical errors, and other basic editing tasks were obviously not done. I can't imagine why this level of polish was left out. If you can ignore this then the book is well worth it for the knowledge gained.

I also wanted to note that the authors promote their own affiliated web sites a little too often throughout the text which wasn't necessary. A more unbiased set of Web links would have been more useful.

I was a "travel agent" for GTI and just didn't get the support I needed and found the benefits non-existent. But I found out that I wanted to become a real travel agent. I bought both books from Amazon.com and found How to Start a Home Based Travel Agency the best book for anyone wanting to start a serious career selling travel. The other book is good if you want to join GTI or organizations like that. I didn't find many errors in it at all.

While there are typos in the book, How to Start a Home Based Travel Agency is an excellent book that helped me make the transition from store front to home based. After 7 years as a retail travel agent, I was forced to go home-based. I looked at both this book and the other one (Home Based Travel Agent) and found this one to represent the information necessary to make the transition. Tom and Joanie Ogg are well known and respected in the travel business and their expertise goes without rival.

Do yourself a favor, this is the book to buy.

I purchased this book and "Home-Based Travel Agent" by Monaghan. Tom Ogg's book is very, very poorly editted (tons of typos, bad grammar, etc.) It also has limited info about starting a Travel business. Most of the text is generic and would apply to starting ANY business--not specifically travel. I was disappointed with this purchase and returned the book. The other book bu Monaghan is much better.

I found this book completely unhelpfull and a waste of money. I know nothing about the travel industry and looked to this book as my introduction into it. I am more confused than ever and now have no intention of entertaining the idea of opening my own home-based agency. Thanks but no thanks.

The book has numerous typographical errors. The design of the book without page numbers seems odd especially if you have to reference it. Some of the information on the past seems redundant to people just entering the business.

Step by step how to set up a or any home office or business. Would be useful for any home business. Great ideas. Worth reading.