An advisor I coach once watched her trip fill so fast it scared her, more travelers meant more work than she could imagine surviving. I told her to raise her price instead of capping the trip. If you're scared, raise it by hundreds. Make it worth your while. Being scared of demand tells you something useful.
“If you're scared, raise your price. Make it worth your while.”
The rule
If you raise prices and still sell out, your prices were too low, so raise them again. Price is the only lever I know that cuts your workload and raises your income at the same time. Every other fix, like more staff or more hours, costs you something. Price costs your buyers, and the ones who stay are the ones who value you most. Luxury clients will pay fair prices for exceptional work. Chaos is what scares them off.
How it works
The pricing rule
- 1
Trip fills too fast
- 2
Raise your price
- 3
Still sells out?
Sold out again? Raise it again (back to step 2)
- 4
Price that protects your life
Claire's own numbers
One advisor's price raise, same destination
sold out at seven travelers
An advisor Claire coaches nearly doubled her per-person price and still filled the departure with seven travelers.
Source: Claire B. Soares, from her own travel business and live trainings.
Pricing is also how you protect your life
- I don't run trips over New Year's, from Thanksgiving on is my personal time. The business is built to afford that.
- One weekday is blocked entirely as CEO day: working on the business instead of in it.
- Client calls happen two days a week. When access is limited and priced right, it reads as luxury, because it is.
Underpricing feels humble, but really it's a plan to burn out. Set the price that makes the work worth doing and guard the calendar it pays for. Then let the trips that fill anyway tell you what you're really worth.
A note before you try this
Raise your price on the next trip you launch, not on clients who already booked. Decide ahead of time what you'll do if it sells out anyway, so fear doesn't talk you back down. And pair the new price with the boundaries it pays for, like your CEO day or your call days, or you'll just fill the extra time with more work.
Price it with me
Setting the price is the scary part, and you don't have to do it alone. Inside Travel AI University we work on pricing that pays for the life you actually want.
Common Questions
How do I know if my travel prices are too low?
If a launch fills fast enough to frighten you, or if the work no longer feels worth the revenue, the price is too low. Claire's rule is that if you raise prices and still sell out, raise them again.
Will raising prices lose me clients?
It will lose the clients who were shopping on price, and those are typically the most demanding ones. Luxury clients rarely flinch at fair pricing for exceptional work.
How often should travel advisors raise prices?
Whenever a launch fills faster than the workload can comfortably absorb. Claire's test is simple: raise the price, and if it still sells out, raise it again.
Written By
Claire B. Soares
Claire B. Soares is the founder of Travel AI University, a 6x Condé Nast Traveler Top Travel Specialist, and a Certified AI Consultant with a B.S. in Computer Science. A top 10% enterprise sales executive, she sold $3.4B+ in enterprise software to Google, Microsoft, IBM, Boeing, the federal government, and the DoD, then built $16M+ in leisure travel sales.
About Claire
