Cruises Inc.^® Host Disney^®-Themed Bon Voyage Party for Make-A-Wish^® Child Santiago

Nine-year-old Miami resident’s wish to go on a Disney cruise was granted by World Travel
Holdings

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (May 1, 2013) – CruiseOne^® and Cruises Inc. ^®, the
nation’s leading cruise retailers as part of World Travel Holdings, concluded National
Volunteer Week by hosting a Disney^®-themed
bon voyage party for nine-year-old Miami resident Santiago, through its
corporate partnership with Make-A-Wish^®.

“Community
service is engrained in our company culture from the top down. Not only is Make-A-Wish
our signature charity for which we fundraise throughout the year, but we also
encourage all employees and agents to volunteer within their local communities,”
said Dwain Wall, senior vice president and general manager of CruiseOne and
Cruises Inc. “The bon voyage party was the perfect way for us to end our
National Volunteer Week celebrations.”

CruiseOne
and Cruises Inc. employees welcomed Santiago and his family with fanfare, with
Disney^® decorations and Santiago’s favorite foods — chicken tenders,
French fries and cake.  To wish the
family a bon voyage, the company also provided a care package with gifts for
the whole family such as a Mickey Mouse beach bag, water bottles, beach towels,
autograph book, a Disney model ship and much more to use as they embark on
their cruise.

“We’re
indebted to everyone at CruiseOne and Cruises Inc. for helping make Santiago’s
wish a reality,” said Norman Wedderburn, president/CEO of Make-A-Wish Southern
Florida.  “The special bon voyage party
and Disney cruise will no doubt be experiences he and his family will cherish
forever and a tangible reminder that hope, strength, and joy can be delivered
by those right here in our community.”

In
partnership with its signature charity Make-A-Wish, World Travel Holdings
granted Santiago his wish of going on a Disney^® Cruise where he can
laugh and play with his favorite characters.

About Make-A-Wish

Make-A-Wish^®
grants the wishes of children with life-threatening medical conditions to
enrich the human experience with hope, strength and joy. According to a 2011
U.S. study of wish impact, most health professionals surveyed believe a
wish-come-true can have positive impacts on the health of children. Kids say
wishes give them renewed strength to fight their illnesses, and their parents
say these experiences help strengthen the entire family. Based in Phoenix,
Make-A-Wish is one of the world’s leading children’s charities, serving
children in every community in the United States and its territories. With the
help of generous donors and more than 25,000 volunteers, Make-A-Wish grants a
wish somewhere in the country every 38 minutes. It has granted more than
226,000 wishes since its inception in 1980; nearly 14,000 in 2012 alone. Visit
Make-A-Wish at wish.org to learn more.

About CruiseOne^® and Cruises Inc.^®

CruiseOne^®
and Cruises Inc.^® are part of World Travel Holdings, one of the
nation’s leading travel retail networks. With a mission of delivering a
remarkable experience, vacation specialists at both brands use cutting edge
technology and strong relationships with every major cruise line and many tour
operators to provide consumers the lowest possible pricing on cruise and land
vacations. For more information, visit www.CruiseOne.com or www.CruisesInc.com.

In  Celebration of Teacher Appreciation Week, Cruises Inc.^® Awards Teachers’ Extra Credit With New Business Opportunities

Cruises Inc. giving away five home-based business opportunities

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (May 1, 2013) – In celebration of Teacher Appreciation Week May 6 – 10, Cruises Inc. invites teachers to put down their pencils and grade books and start their own travel business this summer. Cruises Inc. is awarding five travel business opportunities to current or past educators who are interested in pursuing a second career in the travel industry. The contest begins on Wednesday, May 1, 2013 and continues throughout the entire month, with the winners being notified in June, just in time for summer vacation.

“Many teachers start hobbies or seek summer jobs to keep busy during the months when they are not working,” said Tim Courtney, director of network development at Cruises Inc. “Pursuing a business opportunity with Cruises Inc. is the best of both worlds — it affords teachers the opportunity to earn supplemental income in an exciting industry.”

The Cruises Inc. contest is open to current, laid-off or retired teachers, teachers’ assistants and professors who are at least 18 years old by May 1. To participate or learn more about how to earn “extra credit” at a work-from-home summer job please email name and contact information to TeachersSellCruises@wth.com or complete an entry form found on www.Facebook.com/SellCruises.

A Cruises Inc. representative will educate interested participants about the company and the exciting
opportunity to become a Cruises Inc. independent vacation specialist and work from home. The last step of the process invites candidates to submit their resume and a 1,500-word or fewer essay about “how your skills as an educator and passion for travel will result in a successful business.”

“Educators are among our most successful agents because of their large networks, creativity and attention
to detail,” said Courtney. “We are pleased to share this opportunity with them.”

Five grand prize winners will be announced by Friday, June 21. Each winner will receive a Cruises Inc. home-based business opportunity, which includes a waived $249 initial start-up fee and virtual training that teaches how to run a successful business to new and experienced travel professionals.

About Cruises Inc.^®

Contest begins at 12:01 a.m. ET on 5/1/13, and ends at 11:59 p.m. ET on 5/31/13. Void where prohibited. Open to current, laid-off or retired teachers, teachers’ assistants and professors who are legal residents of U.S. or D.C., are at least 18 years of age as of the start of the Contest Period, who have a computer and an internet connection. If selected as winners, contestants must commit to a Cruises Inc. home-based business, which requires attendance at a Virtual Initial Training Class (for more information, go to www.sellcruises.com or call 800-473-6687).  Only one (1) submission per contestant. To enter, complete the online entry form available at http://www.Facebook.com/sellcruises to move to the next round after a phone interview, Semi-Finalists must submit a résumé, Cruises Inc. business opportunity disclosure, and 1,000-1,500 word
essay. Submissions must comply with the Submission Guidelines in the Official Rules. Only complete, valid submissions will be accepted. Sponsored by Cruises Inc. 1201 W. Cypress Creek Rd. Ste. 100, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33309.  Go to http://www.SellCruises.com/ for full Official Rules and details.

REGIONAL TRAINING PROGRAM GIVES CRUISES INC.^® AGENTS COMPETITIVE EDGE

More agents attending trainings and seeing increased sales

Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. (April 18, 2013) – CruiseOne^® and Cruises Inc. ^® – which are part of World Travel Holdings, one of the nation’s leading travel retail networks – today announced a 23 percent
increase in sales among agents who participated in the companies’ award-winning training programs.  And, with vacation specialists seeing the value in continuing education, attendance has nearly
doubled at the regional trainings with approximately 80 attendees at each of the first two seminars in Galveston, Texas and New York.

“We are dedicated to making our vacation specialists the best and most knowledgeable in the industry,” said Drew Daly, vice president of sales performance for CruiseOne and Cruises Inc. “Our regional training events provide a platform for agents to share best practices and learn more about the industry, which are essential tools in growing their business.  In addition, it gives the team from our corporate office the opportunity to interact and stay connected to the agents in the field and have fun.”

Regional training sessions, held throughout the year across the U.S., last two to three days and are free to CruiseOne franchisees and Cruises Inc. vacation specialists. The sessions provide education on the cruise and travel industries, business development strategies, supplier product overviews and ship inspections.
Specific curriculum includes vendor training, marketing and public relations, system and technology training, sales and product training, agent best practices and knowledge sharing.

“Headquarters did a great job presenting pertinent information and trying to find an angle we
might not have considered or known about before,” said Diane Minnich, CruiseOne franchisee who recently attended the New York regional training.  “We had agents that have been with us for only a couple weeks and many who have been around for quite some time.  It was wonderful to see the new agents ask questions, but also provide information from a different perspective.  It was worth the eight-hour drive.”

The next training event already has more than 100 agents registered and will take place in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. in mid-May.  The annual regional training series will conclude with events in Chicago and Los Angeles.

“Regional training provides an opportunity to meet and interact with other agents, collaborate on best practices and hear from industry experts on current trends in their own backyard,” said Dustin Jones, training manager.

To become part of the Cruises Inc. family, visit www.SellCruises.com.

Written by: Terri Maldonado, CTC, MCC

For the last few blogs, we have imagined all kinds of things while we talked about what you can expect
from Cruises Inc.  This time we are going to imagine what it can be like to work with a dedicated support team who believes your success is their success.  Imagine that … a real partner as you begin your journey to become a work from home travel agent.

A staff of about 100 employees, in our Ft. Lauderdale facility, supports you in the following areas:

Agent Support

• Customer Care
• Full Back-Office Assistance
• 24-Hour Technical System Support
• Specialty Group Support

Think of “agent support” as the people who take care of you while you work from home.  Do you have a question about how to make a booking or how to use the reservation system?  Maybe you are wondering why your confirmation doesn’t match your reservation notes.  Perhaps you’d like help with entering a hotel or shore excursion into a cruise booking you’ve already made.  Our agent support staff is there to assist you six days a week.  During their off hours, you can also reach out to the network of Cruises Inc. agents
through the 24/7 Business Center Communication Center.

Customer Care is where you can receive assistance with things your customer is concerned about.  Maybe they need to cancel a trip or change a component of their booking.  Customer Care will also assist you with filing insurance claims for your clients and making sure all of your customers’ needs are met.  Think of them as who you call for issues after the sale is made.

Our back office assistance comes in the form of folks who validate the information in your recorded
bookings and notify you of any discrepancies.  They also send emails for additional and final payments, collect insurance payments, send shore excursion and welcome home emails.  They cover all the details so you can focus on your clients and making more sales as a work from home travel agent.

Our Technical System Support folks are watching your technical systems 24/7.  They will alert you by email if there are any down times … even those scheduled by our major suppliers.  They will assist you with installing the technology you need to communicate with us and help you make sure it stays up and running.  Our technology is supported by dedicated staff located in our Ft. Lauderdale HQ office.  They maintain and update your Cruises Inc. websites, the Business Center and your reservation system called Cruise Control.

Finally, we offer specialty group support for all of our home-based travel agents.  The specialty group folks assist you with planning and implementing your group sales.  Whether you’re looking at affinity or speculative groups, their assistance make creating and booking into groups, with both cruise and land
vacation suppliers, a snap.

Here are a few of the other things our support folks will help you with:

• Planning and implementing a cruise night
• Sales and marketing resources
• Finding groups
• Ongoing training
• Client check payments
• Customer assistance when you’re on vacation
• Post-travel issues and complaints

We really never leave you feeling isolated or alone.  Just because you choose to work from home doesn’t mean you won’t have plenty of help when you need or want it.  Cruises Inc. is there for you … online and on the phone!   We simply love what we do and want you to love what you do.  We want to enable our partners … you … to be successful from the comfort and convenience of your home!

Visit us today at www.sellcruises.com and complete the “contact us” form.  One of our recruitment specialists will reach out to you and help you begin your own personal journey to a happy and exciting career!

Written by: Terri Maldonado, Recruitment Specialist

For the last few blogs, we have imagined destinations and dreamed of sunsets, beaches and other settings
while we talked about what you can expect from Cruises Inc.  This time we are going to consider
“imagineering.”   Imagineering is a term Disney coined some years ago to describe what happens when you blend imagination with technology.  We’re big on that combination at Cruises Inc. too.   So, as you begin your journey toward a travel business opportunity, let’s do some Imagineering!

Imagine your own suite of customizable websites.  Each of them branded with your name and phone number.  Each of them has a booking engine that links to both your reservation system and your marketing application.  Each with CRM (Customer Relationship Management) data capture capability allowing you to produce targeted marketing campaigns.  Prominently displayed on every site is a search widget, called Cruise Finder, that allows your travel business clients to search for the cruise that matches their imagination.  They can search by Cruise Line, by destination, by date, by length of cruise and by departure port.

Imagine a reservation system for your travel business that allows you to shop and compare up to three
different supplier itineraries side-by-side.  Imagine a reservation system that interfaces in real time to all the major Cruise Lines and allows you to see pricing and inventory exactly as the reservation clerk at the Cruise Line is seeing it.  Imagine being able to price, compare, quote, create a one-click eInvoice and eBrochure about the client’s trip from one transaction.

Imagine a reservation, CRM and website system that is interconnected and allows you instant access to
financial reports for your travel business opportunity.  You can instantly see the success of your
marketing efforts, where you are in relation to your accounting goals and whose birthdays you need to acknowledge in the coming days.  You can set up reminders to support the way you like to do business and set notifications for follow-up with your clients.  All within the reservation/CRM system called Cruise Control which Cruises Inc. provides to Independent Contractors who choose us as their travel business opportunity.

Our technology Imagineering also includes:

• Booking widgets that allow you to sell from social media sites
• An interface between your reservation/CRM system and your marketing hub that allows you to build customer mailing and marketing lists automatically without re-entering date
• An Intranet that connects you 24/7 with support, training,  marketing and technology services
• A personal email client embedded in your reservation/CRM and  intranet which allows you to send and receive email from within any of  those systems

Just as you imagine the wonders of your own travel business opportunity, you should also consider the
depth and breadth of technology your partner in the opportunity will bring.  Cruises Inc. has a full technology staff.  We design, test, service and continuously imagineer all our technology.  If you need help with any of it, our own staff takes care of you.  Not someone in another company or another country.  Imagine that!

Come back to this blog next month for the last in our series about imagining.  We will explore how Cruises Inc. supports you when we are your Host Agency.  Visit us today at www.sellcruises.com and complete the “contact us” form.  One of our recruitment specialists will reach out to you and help you begin your own
personal journey to a happy and exciting career!

Written By: Terri Maldonado, Recruitment Specialist

When you imagine the beach does it have white, pink or black sand?  When you think about shopping do you see yourself strolling along narrow streets, shoulder to shoulder with others in a streaming metropolis or holding hands with your partner in an exotic open air market?  When you dream about exploring do you picture jungles, shark-filled waters or glaciers?  In your mind’s eye is your perfect vacation filled with the laughter of your children, wine-tasting with other couples on a moonlit deck or schussing down a newly groomed mountain slope?  Can you see yourself in these pictures?  What if your travel agent business opportunity came complete with all of these images and more?

Cruises Inc. is a travel agent business opportunity.  You’ve heard about the training we provide new agents so let’s talk about the marketing support your new travel agent business will receive from Cruises Inc.  From your very first day, you will have a marketing toolbox full of ideas to help you paint pictures that create excitement and anticipation for your potential travel clients.

Our award-winning marketing includes a weekly, complimentary, personalized automatic email newsletter that is tailored to the preferences and geographic location of your clients.  It contains your contact information and all the links within the newsletter are connected to your websites.  That’s websites … plural!

Your marketing toolbox from Cruises Inc. contains multiple targeted websites and each includes a LIVE BOOKING ENGINE that allows your travel clients to book their vacations through any of your websites.  Your travel agent business opportunity will be instantly available to internet shoppers on your contemporary, luxury, member or company oriented websites.  Each of these websites contains thousands of pages of up-to-the-minute and customizable content.  You will also be able to attach a blog to your sites and promote your new business opportunity on all your other social media sites like Facebook and Twitter.

You will have your own marketing hub in an application called CruiseCreate Plus.  Think of it as your one-stop-shop for template-based, print-on-demand brochures, posters and direct mail marketing pieces.  In addition to all the free materials you’ll find here, there are also mailing lists, personalized mail pieces like postcards and brochures, a company store and customizable travel magazines and catalogs … all designed to polish your professional image as you grow your travel agent business opportunity into a thriving success!  And most are priced at 25 – 50% of the actual production and postage costs.

Shouldn’t your new business venture begin with maximum marketing exposure?  In our fast-paced information age, shouldn’t your business opportunity include pictures that paint the world you want to sell?  That’s what partnering with Cruises Inc., an established, award-winning travel retailer, will provide.

Come back to this blog next month to imagine some more when we talk about the innovative technology Cruises Inc. will make available to your new travel agent business opportunity.  Visit us today at www.sellcruises.com and complete the “contact us” form.  One of our recruitment specialists will reach out to you and help you begin your own personal journey to a happy and exciting career!

Can You Imagine?

Written By: Terri Maldonado, Recruitment Specialist

Imagine making vacation dreams come true for people who are excited and eager to experience an
adventure.  Imagine working flexible hours from the comfort of your own home.  Imagine expanding your own world knowledge through researching the travel desires of your friends, family members and new-found clients.  Imagine yourself traveling … at reduced rates.  Imagine learning about marketing and using the latest technology to reach beyond your own neighborhood to find prospective clients.  Doesn’t that sound like a great career?  Becoming an Independent Travel Agent can be all that you imagine.  Partnering with Cruises Inc., a leader in the home-based travel industry, will assure the training you need on your journey toward career success.

Cruises Inc. is a travel business opportunity.  Cruises Inc. provides a full training package designed with flexibility at the core.  After more than 30 years in the business of hosting Independent Travel Agents, Cruises Inc. knows what the home-based, independent travel agent needs to make each day and each travel booking fun for both you and your potential clients.

You’ll find your training actually begins during the recruitment and enrollment process which is fact-filled.  Your agreement with Cruises Inc . and all the legalities of engaging in a Business Opportunity will be personally explained by one of our recruitment specialists.  They will assist you with creating your website profile, establishing your commission payment route and enrolling in the training agenda that matches
your specific scheduling needs.  Your recruitment specialist will also start you on your way to finding clients with two Fast Track Marketing plans.  These plans are filled with ideas to jump start your new endeavor.

Your training will include all the basics of researching and booking travel with the tools provided by
Cruises Inc.  You’ll also learn basic marketing skills, customer relationship management and travel product
descriptions.  Our training doesn’t stop with the startup package.  As one of our affiliates, you will have ongoing access to a multitude of sales, travel, technology and business related topics.  Your access may be through live webinars or on-demand, recorded sessions.  Again, the flexibility lets you determine when ongoing education fits your needs and schedule.

Every email, every phone call, every contact you make as an Independent Travel Agent is filled with the
fun and excitement of making vacation dreams come true for your clients.  Cruises Inc. provides you with some important tools to make this exciting career easier for you to achieve.  Beginning with flexible start-up training and including weekly emailed promotions, a suite of booking-engine enabled
websites, multiple award-winning direct mail marketing pieces and extraordinary back-office support … your relationship as an Independent Travel Agent affiliated with Cruises Inc. may be the best career move you ever make.  Come back to this blog next month to learn more about the marketing portion of the Independent Contractor package we offer.

Visit us today at www.sellcruises.com and complete the “contact us” form.  One of our recruitment specialists will reach out to you and help you begin your own personal journey to a happy and exciting career!

Written by: Terri Maldonado, Cruises Inc. Recruitment Specialist

The act of selling travel isn’t hard.  If you have a passion for travel, a sense of fun and adventure, and love to talk to people, closing the deal will be relatively easy.  However, developing ideas for exciting promotions and targeted marketing; establishing connections with travel suppliers to achieve best pricing and commissions; and, pulling together the tools for today’s electronic media, relationship management and reservation tracking will take a strong partnership with the right people.  You cannot sell travel alone!  Cruises, Inc. puts all of those components in one relationship.  Together with your passion, we form a partnership that will provide you with the ideas, connections and tools you need to sell travel.

When you begin to sell travel, you may be filled with ideas about who your customer will be and how you will reach out to them.  But, you will be competing with very slick marketing campaigns that are driven by companies spending lots of money to get their messages heard.  Branding, logos and slogans may be a foreign language to you but they are a vital part of gaining the attention of new customers and reminding old friends to reach out to you for their vacation plans.  Cruises, Inc. has a marketing staff devoted to promoting the travel products that match your target market.  They are skilled at creating award winning, attention grabbing, electronic and direct mail marketing campaigns that take your message to your customer in an exhilarating way that makes it even easier for you to sell travel.  As a Cruises, Inc. independent contractor, your marketing and promotion campaigns will have the full impact of our skilled marketing staff.  What a great partnership!

Connections will also be vital to your ability to sell travel successfully.  Your personal connection to your own customer will be job one!  While you’re focused on that link, a relationship with Cruises, Inc. is a partnership to build all the other connections you need to provide excellent vacation experiences with best pricing to your clients and best commissions to you.  Cruises, Inc. is a major brand in the World Travel Holdings’ family and shares the reputation and clout of the world’s largest seller of cruise travel.  That clout carries with it top tier commissions, fantastic customer service and best pricing for your clients.   As one of our independent contractors, you will be able to offer all your customers both a best price and a satisfaction guarantee.   What a great partnership!

Tools that enable you to sell travel aren’t limited to a telephone and a computer.  You’ll also need all kinds of applications, ranging from tracking to sorting, from booking to following up and from communicating to reporting.  You’ll need websites, newsletters, booking engines, revenue tracking, price comparisons and the ability to communicate with suppliers, consumers and others in the industry.  Even as I write this, there may be something new you’ll need that I haven’t listed.  Accessing all this by yourself just isn’t possible anymore.  You need the reinforcement of a partner like Cruises, Inc..  We spend all our time and our resources to make sure our independent contractors have the most current and most state-of-the-art tools they need to just sell travel.

We make sure our partnership with you provides you with anything, and everything, you need to sell travel.  You are not alone.  We do not sell travel.  You do.  We support you.  We just make sure you have the ideas, connections and tools you need to excel at providing the best travel experience possible to the people who trust you with their vacation dreams.  We believe you shouldn’t sell travel without us!

Written By: Terri Maldonado, Cruises Inc. Recruitment Specialist 

You don’t have to be following a yellow brick road or falling down a rabbit hole to wish you were home.  Being at home can easily include your work life.  In 2011, more than 34 million people worked at least part of the time from home.  Becoming a home-based travel agent is a great way to join that growing number!  And, there’s no better company than Cruises, Inc. to do it with.  Cruises, Inc. began hosting home based travel agents 30 years ago.  We have solid, proven experience in providing the right training, marketing, technology and support for people who want to begin, continue or enhance their home based travel agent career.

For the beginner, our start-up training features hands-on opportunities to learn the basics of making bookings, researching travel options and creating vacation packages that entice prospective vacation shoppers to become loyal clients.  Beginning home based travel agents also learn effective marketing skills and are provided with technology that allows them to market through email and social media.  They are supplied with real-time pricing and inventory access to the major cruise lines and favored partner access to land, hotel, shore excursion and Select Air packaging.  New home based travel agents are guided in adding to their revenue with private-label travel insurance designed to protect their clients’ vacation investments.  The goal for newcomers is a solid foundation for becoming a successful home based travel professional.  The just starting Cruises, Inc. home based travel agent is never alone … even though they work from the seclusion of their own home.  Our staff of almost 100 support professionals is available by phone, chat and email to answer questions about customer care, marketing, technology and individual agent needs.

As the home based travel agent becomes more proficient at selling travel and providing customer service, an affiliation with Cruises, Inc. offers continuing opportunities for growth.   Training is ongoing at no additional cost.  Our suppliers and training staff provide our home based travel agents with ongoing webinars and informational meetings to increase their product knowledge and industry expertise.  As our home based travel agents grow they often begin to focus on specific market segments and our award-winning marketing department creates year-around targeted marketing to match those needs.  Often, social media marketing is a part of the agent’s outreach.  The Cruises, Inc. technology staff provides hands-on assistance and written instructions for agents to publish blogs and add our Cruise Finder widget to e-marketing sites like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.  Ongoing access to support expands to include weekly meetings for those who wish to network and assistance with creating and marketing group travel.

An experienced home based travel agent will often enhance their growing client services with a focus on a niche’ market.  Cruises, Inc. has marketing, training and support for a continuously growing list of niche’ markets such as:

• River cruising
• LGBT market
• Family travel
• Luxury travel
• Destination specific travel

Some of these niche’ markets are supported with separate personalized websites which allow the home based travel agent to reach out beyond their physical location to a nationwide audience of potential clients.   Cruises, Inc. also offers the home based agent incentives for growth through a graduated commission structure and a Circle of Excellence program that recognizes and awards top producing agents. 

So, click your heels together, or make your appointment for tea with the rabbit, and join us at Cruises, Inc. as a home based travel agent.  After all, there’s no place like home!

Written by: Terri Maldonado, Cruises Inc. Recruitment Specialist

            We’ve all heard about the onion and how when you peel off a layer it reveals a new layer and how, as you peel, it gets stinky and makes you cry.   Choosing between host agencies is similar to that onion.  You really need to peel the layers and get to the stinky core … you may even shed a few tears … on your way to choosing your host partner.  You won’t find anything here about:  how much commission you’ll get, whether a host agency gives away leads or has 100 reasons for you to join.  Those are the simplistic components of your host agency decision.  They can all be evaluated in a side-by-side chart and whoever has the most “yeses” is readily apparent.  These factors are simply the first layer of the onion.  To make a sound business decision about a host agency, you must peel further.          

            Training.  The first layer that bears deeper peeling is the one devoted to training.  Many host agencies offer training in a box.  As long as what you need matches what they have already packaged, you will have training.    A excellent host agency will offer classroom training or live virtual training, regional conferences, one-on-one teachable moments and continuing opportunities to learn about the travel industry and how to grow your business.  Cruises, Inc. provides all these training opportunities. 

            Rules and regulations.  Being a home-based agent has so many rules – it can be intimidating!  Interpretation of rules is one of the weights an agent will be held accountable for by their clients.  If you want to spend your days selling and earning, do you really want to worry about whether your host agency knows and is following the rules?  How can you peel the “rules” layer?  Look for evidence that the host agency is complying with Seller of Travel laws, not just in the state where they are located, but also in the state where you are located.  Inquire about whether the host agency is in compliance with Federal Trade Commission laws regarding Business Opportunities.  Ask how they stay current on rules in their state, your state and the industry.  Look for the leadership’s names in trade publications and at conferences.  Are they known and respected in the industry?  Ask how a host will keep you informed of rule changes.  Cruises, Inc. will provide you with documentation of all these things.

            Networking.  Peeling back another layer, will you make new friends?  Isolation is tough on the home-based agent.  Will the host agency you’re investigating allow you to communicate with other hosted agents?  Will you be encouraged to share ideas with other agents, network at conferences and help each other with day-to-day questions?  If a host agency is treating all agents in an ethical, fair and consistent manner, they will have no reason to discourage these interactions.  Cruises, Inc. encourages networking through an online chat tool, regional and national conferences and weekly voluntary phone meetings.

            Core values.  Finally, peel to the core of the host agency onion.  There you will find values.  Values are defined as “a principle, standard or quality considered inherently worthwhile or desirable.”  The root for value is valor, which means strength.  Values are sources of strength, because they give people the power to take action.  Some organizations mistakenly think of values as a series of “shoulds”, telling you what we can and cannot do.  Rather, values are energizing, motivating and inspiring.  What do the host agencies you’re looking at value?  Do those things match the concepts you value? 

            When you work with a host agency like Cruises, Inc., where your work activities are aligned with what you consider important, your desire to achieve will emerge.   When you care passionately about something, you can spur yourself on to great achievements.  So, look below the thin outer skin of the host agency onion.  Get down to the core and make sure you have a match beyond the surface.   The bottom line is:  you cannot cut a bad deal with a good host or a good deal with a bad host.  Do your homework and make sure you know which is which … and, you won’t find the answer in how much they pay!