Travel agent websites.

I have a background in travel and haven't considered using it on a website because i didnt think people would use my site since is a small little mom and pop type website on travel. I just assume people would use travelocity or expedia or liberty travel over a small no name travel agent. Am i missing some money potential with this attitude? Should i start up a travel agent website? What are my chances of making money with all the competition of the big boys?

 

How about a niche??

What do you offer that others perhaps don't?

Most businesses can benefit from a website, its just a matter of how much. For one thing, it's a storefront thats always there, 24/7.

 

Just think about what can you offer and not travelocity. If you have some kind of service like that, a good marketing promotion (in internet can be very cheap) and you can begin to fly...

Just think that flight-tickets are sold alone, but a hotel or a pack need someone to be sold.

 

Not all the time, people want to save money when travelling so they will shop around.

Can you match the pricing of other sites or even under cut them? If so then yes get yourself a site up and running. In saying that you dont always need to be better priced, some of our offers can be more expensive but we still have people using our service - its about knowing the market as you probably already know.

You can still make your money against the so called big boys by offering a better service than they do. I would consider trying to go the personal approach with your visitors and one example would be giving them the option to contact you by telephone - this can open so many different doors for your business.

Its actually funny that the company I work for is a small family company and our competition is the big boys but yet we out rank them all for most of the main keywords for our travel business.

It can be done but its not easy money.

 

Travel is a mega hugh market vertical which generates billions of USD on the net, there is just so much business out there, that yes if you work hard with unique content and concepts you will make money.

But it will take you time and money to get there

 

I have never used a travel agent, and always opted for online packages through expedia, orbitz, etc. Like others have said, if you can find a niche, you may be succesful.

Keep in mind that every business has competitors, so don't let naysayers prevent you from doing something you enjoy. Good luck with it, should you decide to take the plunge...

 

Very true, so if you mange to optimize your site to the top of Google then you will have some success....Oh and one other thing, Wheres your optimisim boy! (or girl)

have some faith, if you think its a good ide then go for it. Richard Branson dint waste his time asking people on internet forums if his record shops would be a success!


Jazz

 

Jazz has said the one and only truth, if you are in the top10 of any google search, your site will go alone!!!

 

I think you need to add an angle on this -- you'll not be able to compete on price, so need to add value some other way -- perhaps a personalised service, providing a full itinery and catering to customers who don't want to get their hands dirty on the web (high-end type business)...?

 

Yeah i think you could launch a luxury holiday agency website! There are 4 or 5 big players in the budget holiday online market eg. travelocity,lastminute and expedia mainly so why not try offering visitors something different. Plus you'll be organising luxury holidays which i think would be great fun!

I think thats the route you should go down. Thats the way i would work it because its a niche market. I heard that offline dating agencies are still making a mint even though there are online agencies like match.com etc. Point is, the people using the offline ones tended to be wealthier more "upper class" clients, not the masses.

I think you should consider it mate otherwise il steal it! lol


Jazzy

 

I'm planning out a site that would do well with an affiliation with a travel person.
Perhaps we can help each other out.
PM me if you are into doing some travel stuff online.

 

Something to bear in mind that I don't think anyone has mentioned.

You mention the word 'travel agent' here in the UK you have to be ABTA / TTA / ATOL or subscribing to a travel association before you can sell holiday packages - the US have similar travel associations.

You have no chance of competiting with the likes of Expedia unless you have a multi-million marketing budget - forget about trying to compete against the big giants in the industry, and create your own niche, research it well, before even thinking about creating a business.

It's not an easy industry to be involved in BUT it's lots of fun, and if you market and promote your business properly, you can earn a very good income from it.

BTW, I run a travel company, and a travel blog, so I'm talking from experience not out of my arse

 

That is pretty accurate do not compete create your own sector, we have being doing it for years and we continue to expand and increase our customer base in a business that is very much a 'real time experience'

So you must be able to give excellent support services as clients want an interactive process with a result

 

That's a good point about support services.

I hate to say this but people think that creating a travel business is easy, but they don't realise the hard work and time you have to put into it. More businesses fail than succeed.

If your just wanting to create an affiliate site - any monkey can do that, and unless you pay for Google Adwords, ranking for competitive travel keywords will not be an overnight success story.

I'm not trying to put you off - just warning you of the job ahead of you.

 

Personally I will not use any of the online travel agencies (the big boys). I had a real bad experience using EXPEDIA that I decided to run a website (just search for victimsofexpedia in Yahoo or Google) to alert as many people about how bad they are. After my horrible experience I found that the other "big boys" have also plenty of unsatisfied customers (ranging from poor customer support to fraud). Just put the name of any of those big guys and "complaints" or "victims" and you will find horrible stories.

I would encourage people to go back to a classic travel agent where you can knock a door if something goes wrong. Saving few bucks is not worth comparing with the nightmare you can have with online travel agencies.

 

Take a look at the TrufflePig link from this page, they certainly different approach to travel agency...

http://ma.gnolia.com/groups/WhereWhenWhy