A lot of agents will tell you that the part they like the least about their job is all of the admin work that comes with it. This admin work gets in the way of dealing with clients and actually selling travel.

The results of a recent nationwide survey of home-based agents reveals that they are enjoying a lot of relief from admin duties when they go home-based and join a host agency. They are spending far less time on admin duties because host agencies are taking away a lot of the regular admin duties that every agent has to deal with.

Admin work for an agent can include many things including accounting, ticketing, regulatory reporting, financial reporting, chasing commissions, internal reporting. It can also include marketing.

The survey asked, “How much administrative time have you saved by joining your host agency?” Almost 50% said they have saved time on administrative duties since joining their host agency, with 15% reporting they have saved over 50% of their time and 32% saying they have saved over 20% of the time that they used to spend on admin work.

The survey also asked: “Does your host agency provide you with any of the following: Accounting support? Back office support? Saving time and money? The agents responded:

74% receive accounting support

75% receive back office support

89% save time and money

Another benefit of being supported by a host agency is that your host agency takes care of registrations to ensure that you are meeting all of the regulatory requirements in your province (if it regulates the travel industry), and you are also usually affiliated with other associations such as ACTA, CLIA and others. This saves you a lot of time and money.

As to whether home-based agents get as many opportunities to go on fam trips or attend an annual conference, 70.75% said they had fam trip opportunities and 55% said their host agency holds an annual conference.

The nationwide survey of home based agents was conducted during the month of January 2018 and was funded by The Travel Agent Next Door and conducted by an independent research company.