Working Travel Agent | Recruitment Advise

Homeworking for Travel Entrepreneurs….

At Kwik Travel we like to call ourselves the “caring homeworking company”. While we are quite particular who we take on, anyone that becomes one of the family really will find we look after them. This is one of the reasons why many of our Homeworkers are attracted to us by personal recommendation.
We appreciate that you may be apprehensive about taking the leap in to homeworking, probably because of the uncertainty around your income in the early months.
Don’t worry Kwik Travel have the answer!
Unlike most homeworking company’s we pay you the commission you have earned from a booking straightaway, we don’t wait for the customer to pay the balance before we pay you.
This means for example that in January when you may be making Summer bookings you will get paid in February rather than wait until May or June for the commission to be paid to you. This makes a big difference for new Homeworkers, as your income will not take months to build up. You should be able to ‘hit the ground running’ as we say.
Since we introduced homeworking in 1996 we have developed many variations of the homeworking concept. In fact some of our team don’t actually work from home, they work from an office or shop and employ others to meet the demands of their business. The vast majority though work from home and manage successful homeworking businesses from their dining room, converted bedroom or conservatory.

Here are just a few variations of the homeworking model that have developed over the years.

Sally like many of her homeworker colleagues ‘logs in’ to receive the (company generated) advertised calls and is gradually building her ‘client bank’ by providing exemplary service to her customers and by networking in her locality.

Ruth ‘logs in’ to receive the advertised calls occasionally, but concentrates mostly on her own ‘client bank’ of regular loyal customers, many of which she brought with her when she joined Kwik Travel 3 years ago from a high street travel agent.

Annie creates her own demand mostly. She works on manually loaded HOD’s (Teletext website) selling specific destinations or products, like the Cape Verde Islands or Skiing holidays to Bulgaria. We have built her websites to promote the same destinations and she manages her own Google adwords campaign. Annie does regular e-shots to her customer database and she gets a good response to offers and promotions.

Bob works from an office and gets business from his own extensive ‘client bank’ Before Bob and his wife joined us they had their own high street travel agency business, but came to us for financial shelter. Bob networks locally and runs a strong HOD campaign. He also does wedding fayres and organises golfing groups.

Carol focuses again on developing her own demand. Carols husband Mike works for Greater Manchester Police and Carol puts all her marketing resource into developing demand from Mike’s colleagues and from Police Federation members throughout the UK.

The secret to our success...
As one of the first travel retailers to operate entirely with a homeworking sales team, Kwik Travel now contracts Personal Travel Advisors all over the UK. Together we have transformed the working lives of many travel professionals. In addition to our pro-active internal culture, we strongly believe in and provide:

Close channels of communication between our Sales Force and Central Office
The best IT systems and support
Round the clock support from one of the best management teams in the business, who are very much hands on.
Dedicated administration and customer services support
Strong commercial relationships with the leading suppliers
A comprehensive range of sales tools including the best 'dynamic packaging' holiday booking system in the business.
The full support of our Marketing Team, to help you generate your own demand and where appropriate full and comprehensive training will be provided.

Working with Kwik Travel as a homeworker is all about developing mutually rewarding and profitable business partnerships, with the all-important benefit of retaining your freedom. Join us and we will help you manage your career so that it not only suits you but also enhances your lifestyle. So if you are passionate about selling travel, have a dynamic get up and go personality and a desire to build a business around your career, your future may be with Kwik Travel
Self-assessment - How many boxes can you tick?
Please have a look at the list below and assess your suitability for homeworking with Kwik Travel. If you cannot tick all the boxes, don’t worry. You may still be of interest to us. Just call the recruitment line and we will provide an honest assessment of your suitability.

Do you have a minimum of three years (Ideally more) fulltime ABTA travel sales experience, accumulated during the last five years working in either a high street ABTA Travel Agency or Call Centre selling holidays to the general public?

We have to register you with ABTA as an outworker under our ABTA license so this box does need to be ticked before continuing

What are your motives for considering homeworking at this time? The answers may be convenience, flexibility and lifestyle. But do you see it as a business opportunity to start up, develop and run your own business?
How successful do you want to be? Our most successful homeworkers areentrepreneurs like Annie, Bob and Carol, who are very hard working, they ‘think outside the box’, and invest time and effort developing their own niche products and benefit from a high conversion of enquiries to sales.
Do you know the holiday business inside out? Do you have excellent general product knowledge especially for our key selling areas in the Mediterranean, Aegean, Canary Islands and the Red Sea or expertise in a particular market or niche destination?
Do you have experience of ‘dynamically packaging’ short haul holidays by using bed banks and low cost airlines?
Do you have a proven holiday sales record with the drive and enthusiasm to convert a high proportion of enquiries in to sales? This is not a role for average sales performers.
How good are your IT and key board skills? Do you know your way round Travel systems, the Internet and email?
Are you prepared to work (be available for calls) for at least 30 hours per week, some of which will be evenings and weekends? This is not a 9 to 5 opportunity.
Do you have a quiet area in your residence where you can work, which can be segregated to allow you quality time to concentrate on your enquiries? .
Have you given some thought about how you might promote your business to your local community? We will provide you with a comprehensive marketing support package through Teletext and the web, but your friends and family network may also have a role to play to top up your enquiries.
Are you organised, methodical and have good attention to detail.
Are you self motivated, enthusiastic and have the drive and determination to be successful? The rewards in homeworking come to those who work hard.

By joining Kwik Travel as a self-employed, home-based travel advisor and selling holidays under our trusted and powerful brand names, the opportunity to develop your own successful business is well within reach. True success will only come from working together and in return for providing the following infrastructure, we require that you be completely committed to making a success of your career.

Administration and Customer Services Support

Our highly experienced Central Office team in Tamworth will provide you with comprehensive support in all areas. Our Customer Services team will assist you in a majority of administrative duties, including customer confirmations and invoices, the dispatch of ‘paper’ tickets. They will also provide support in relation to booking amendments and balance collections. All we ask of you is to create a Tarsc file and receipt the payment you have taken. Most of our customer documentation (receipts, confirmations, invoices) are sent out by email. You will be required to issue some documentation for customers travelling imminently or for bookings involving low cost airlines.
You will have direct access to the management team both during and out of office hours should you require immediate assistance.

Earning, Time Commitment, Commission Levels and Training

You will be self employed and responsible for your own Tax and National Insurance. Don’t let self-employment put you off, there are many benefits of being self-employed and the documentation is straightforward. We can provide you with all the information you need.
In your first year working full time, we would expect your earnings to be between £12,000 and £17,000. However we do have new homeworkers who earn £25,000 in their first year. As your bank of customers grows and your confidence develops, your earnings will increase year on year. We have many homeworkers regularly achieving annual incomes of £30,000, £40,000 and £50,000 and above.
What remains clear is that sales and profit are directly related to the time and effort expended and your ability to sell.
We would expect you to be available for calls for a minimum of 30 hours each week. This is not a 9 to 5 job. Your hours will need to include at least 2 to 3 full evenings a week and some quality time over the weekends. At peak periods your commitment will need to be greater to maximise you sales.
On the ‘basic’ commission scheme, you will receive 30% OF THE COMMISSION ON YOUR BOOKINGS TO START WITH, RISING IN EASILY ACHIEVED INCREMENTS UP TO 33% commission.

We also provide ‘various’ hybrid commission schemes paying up to 60% commission. The hybrid schemes would apply to applicants who are looking to create their own demand and who do not rely on the company generated enquiries.

In addition £63 will be deducted from your commission each month for your contribution to your running costs (e.g. Advertising, Telephone line rentals and calls).
At Kwik Travel we do not normally charge a commitment or joining fee. This would be agreed with you as we process your application. If a fee were applicable the cost would be £295 plus VAT.
All new starters will be provided with a comprehensive, (one to one) 3-4 day induction training at our Tamworth Head Office and on going assistance especially in your early months. We pay for your travelling costs and your accommodation if appropriate.

Making your phones ring…

Employing a range of both established and innovative routes to market, we are committed to delivering high quality sales leads to our sales force. Join us and you will receive calls from:

Teletext - (ITV) and Digital (Freeview & Sky TV)
On-line resources including Kwik Travel’s website

Kwik Travel main website www.kwiktravel.com
Holiday City’s website www.holidaycitysuperstore.com
Med Beach website www.medbeachholidays.com

We also work very closely with many UK based travel ‘portals’ like -

Our most successful Homeworkers, don’t just rely on the enquiries that we generate, they work with our Marketing Team to create their own demand. This can include your own Text page or website and loading manual HODS for specific destinations and creating e- shots to your customer database. Full training on how to create your own demand will be provided.

We enjoy enviable commercial deals and incentives through our affiliation with the Freedom Travel Group. We are totally independent so you’re never forced to sell specific suppliers. You benefit from the best commissions in the industry with the main suppliers like Thomas Cook Group, TUI Holidays Group, Virgin and Cosmos. We also work very closely with specialist suppliers like Balkan Holidays Red Sea Holidays and Serenity Holidays.

In addition we work very closely with the ‘Bed Bank’ market leaders like YouTravel, Holidaybrokers, Med Hotels, Lowcostbeds and Hotelbeds.

Technology and Kit

You will be provided with all the tools necessary to run your own travel business from home, including.

PC and 15 inch TFT flat monitor
BT cordless digital telephone and a fax/ phone/ answer machine
Two telephone lines, plus ADSL Broadband data connection.
Your own freephone 0800 direct line number, for your customers to call you back on.
Colour printer and ink cartridges
Internet and email facility
TARSC (front and back office software),
‘Magic Professional’ our advanced late availability search system.
Software to enable you to send personal e-brochures to your customers
Access to ‘Kwik Search’ our in house dynamic packaging software
Kwik Travel Intranet, your internal on line help and news desk
Automated credit card authorisation
Comprehensive office stationery pack
All branded stationery, such as letterheads, business cards, compliment slips, luggage labels and ticket wallets

Kwik Travel Group - A brief history

Kwik Travel was founded in 1994 and is today a highly respected and successful UK holiday and travel business. The company was privately owned until the business was acquired by the Preston Travel Group in November 2006.
The Preston Travel Holiday Group is a wholly owned subsidiary of Rosedale (JW) Investments, a substantial Jersey based trust which owns Flybe Airlines and Blackburn Rovers Football Club, plus other substantial investments within an extensive and diverse portfolio.
Preston Travel Group Holdings own the UK’s largest Channel Islands Tour Operator Preston Holidays, as well as Jersey Travel Service. They also own Amathus Holidays, who specialise in Greece / Cyprus and Peltours the Egyptian Tour Operator.
The Kwik Travel Group is a member of the Freedom Travel Group travel agents consortium, which is a division of the Cooperative Travel Group, one of the largest and most profitable independent travel distributors in the UK.
In September 2007 the Kwik Travel Group acquired Holiday City Ltd, a South Wales based Teletext and Web Travel Agency.
Quality is the key word at Kwik Travel. The focus is on providing a quality value for money holiday proposition to our customers and the highest possible level of customer service before, during and after they travel. This ensures that our customers stay loyal and even become ambassadors for Kwik Travel, telling friends and relatives of their experiences.

So, if you like what you see and believe our future could lie together, please get in touch today by calling Jenny or Steve on 0800 655 6804 for an honest assessment of your suitability for homeworking. Alternatively you can complete and submit our online application form or email steveb@kwiktravel.com.
Kwik Travel Group Victoria House, Cygnet Drive, Tamworth, Staffordshire, B79 7RU.
Tel 0844 77 007 44 - Fax 01827 311655