Working Travel Agent | Recruitment Advise

Making Homeworking work for you...

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 long haul holidays.

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.

Careers & Recruitment

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.
Well 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.

The secret to our success...
As one of the first travel retailers to operate entirely with a homeworking sales team, Kwik Travel now employs over 70 Personal Travel Advisors and has 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.
Comprehensive one to one 3 day induction training in our Tamworth Head Office and a comprehensive ongoing training programme. We pay for your travelling costs and your accommodation if appropriate.
“Support when you need it, freedom when you want it”..

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
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 two years (Ideally three years) 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

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?
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?
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.
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 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 adviser 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.

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. Please note that all telephone installation charges, line rentals and business call costs will be paid for you by Kwik Travel.
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 our ‘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
A supply of first and second-class stamps

Administrative and Customer Services Support

Our highly experienced Central Office team will provide you with comprehensive support in all areas.
Our Customer Services team will deal with the vast majority of administrative queries, including customer confirmations and invoices, the dispatch of most travel documents and the collection of balance payments. All we ask of you is to create a Tarsc file and receipt the payment
Direct access to senior and middle management is also available for any queries that you may have, such as potential marketing initiatives and technical assistance.
In your early months you will be working closely with a Team Leader who will provide assistance when appropriate.

Earning, Time Commitment and Commission Levels

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.
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 your potential.
You will receive 30% COMMISSION TO START OFF WITH INCREMENTS UP TO 33%.
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).
We do have other hybrid schemes, which will provide higher commissions up to 60%. These schemes are aimed at established homeworkers or Travel Agents who have established a substantial customer database and will not require the marketing package to provide enquiries. Further information will be provided on request.
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

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 home-workers. Join us and you will receive calls from:

Teletext - both Analogue (ITV & Channel 4) and Digital (Freeview & Sky)
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 -

www.teletextholidays.co.uk ,
www.icelolly.com,
http://uk.travelzoo.com/
www.dealchecker.co.uk
www.travelsupermarket.com
We also provide a sophisticated programme of online mailers, allowing you to build and sustain lifelong relationships with your own bank of customers.

Being ATOL bonded, you will even be able to create and sell unique, tailor-made packages directly to the public. You will have direct access to uniquely priced bed stock through our strategy of contracting direct with 4 & 5 star hotels throughout the Mediterranean, Aegean and Canaries. In addition we work very closely with the ‘Bed Bank’ market leaders like YouTravel, Hotels4u, Holidaybrokers, Med Hotels, Lowcostbeds and Hotelbeds and somewhere2 stay.com.
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 Thomas Group, Thomson Holidays Group (TUI), Cosmos and Libra Holidays.

So, if you like what you see and believe our future could lie together, please get in touch today by calling Steve Briggs 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 Ltd, Victoria House, 60 Lichfield Road, Tamworth, Staffordshire, B79 7QW.
Tel 0870 499 3101 - Fax 0870 499 3101