A host agency that requires no sales minimums for maintaining membership can help take off some of the pressure to perform. Fora charges travel advisers $49 per month or $299 a year to access membership benefits and support.
Embark Beyond doesn’t charge independent contractors a fee to join as a member — if they’re selected, Scully says, adding that only about 1 in every 10 applicants is chosen. The agency does charge a fee (Scully calls it “beyond reasonable”) for its apprenticeship program for travel advisers. At Fora, you apply through the website, says Vazquez. The application includes questions about your favorite hotels, who you are as a traveler and what you would bring to a travel business, she says.
So knowing what you like and don’t like when it comes to travel is an advantage.
“A successful travel adviser needs to be opinionated about travel,” Vazquez says. “To be a travel adviser, you need to be a little bossy about what you think is good and bad.”
Travel advisers earn money from commissions — usually 10 to 15 percent of a trip’s total cost, according to Fora, of which the host agency takes a cut. Fora, for example, takes 30 percent of the commission and the travel adviser gets 70 percent.
Scully says Embark Beyond advisers, who also work on a commission split, “tend to sell high-end and some incredible bookings,” with sales anywhere from $10,000 to $500,000. There were even a few sales at $1 million, she says.
Some advisers also charge consultation fees for their time and expertise. For these fees, Scully says, “advisers are independent and can charge what their time is worth per booking.” Charging $1,000 for an intensive itinerary of a week’s length is considered “normal” for the company’s independent contractors.
“We want advisers that are caring and knowledgeable and willing to share with others,” she says. “Our advisers support each other every day through [WhatsApp].… Everyone is here to help each other.”
A rewarding second career
Martha Pearlstone, 59, from Wilson, Connecticut, says she’s always been passionate about travel. But she decided to become a Fora travel adviser after a long career in advertising and once she became an empty nester.
“I was starting to think about what I could do that was maybe more passion-driven and less focused on building the career and bank account,” she says. Pearlstone filled out the Fora application in 2022 and decided she’d spend a year seeing if she could get any traction and build her own business as a travel adviser.
Once accepted, she blasted an announcement out to contacts she had accrued over more than 35 years and let them know she was working as a travel adviser.
