Travel agents are, too often, order takers: quote the trip, cross your fingers, never hear back. A travel advisor is an expert, and experts charge for their time. That's the entire philosophy behind the planning fee, and it's the first boundary that separates a business from a hobby.
“Travel agents are typically order takers. A travel advisor is an expert. They charge for their time.”
What the fee actually does
- It ends the free-quote economy. I learned this the expensive way: prospects took my beautiful quotes and booked every piece themselves. A fee means both sides have skin in the game before the work starts.
- It filters for seriousness better than any intake question. The client who won't invest in the planning was never going to invest in the trip.
- It pays for what clients can't see: the vendor negotiations, the revisions, the fifty line items between deposit and departure. If you're an advisor, you take care of everything from their front door and back to it, that coverage is the product.
Claire's own numbers
The framework, step by step
- 1
It ends the free-quote economy
I learned this the expensive way: prospects took my beautiful quotes and booked every piece themselves. A fee means both sides have skin in the game b
- 2
It filters for seriousness better than any intake question
The client who won't invest in the planning was never going to invest in the trip.
- 3
It pays for what clients can't see
the vendor negotiations, the revisions, the fifty line items between deposit and departure. If you're an advisor, you take care of everything from the
Claire's own framework from this essay, in the order she teaches it.
Source: Claire B. Soares, from her own travel business and live trainings.
Wrap the fee in an experience
A fee feels like a toll when the process is generic, so don't let it be. Mine runs through named stages: the discovery call where I ask how you want to FEEL on this trip, the reveal call where the brochure gets celebrated like the milestone it is. I even sort travelers into avatars, are you the 10 a.m.-and-mimosas traveler, the dawn-to-dusk one, or the half-days-and-great-dinners one? Clients self-identify instantly, and the itinerary practically writes itself. If you're building your own version, this is exactly what my Planning Fee Framework for Travel Advisors teaches, charge for the expertise, and make paying it feel like the first day of the trip.
Common Questions
Why do travel advisors charge a planning fee?
Because expertise has a cost. Without a fee, prospects take detailed quotes and book the pieces themselves, and the advisor has funded someone else's holiday research.
What is the difference between a travel agent and a travel advisor?
An agent takes the order. An advisor takes responsibility for everything from the client's front door and back again, and charges for the expertise that makes that possible.
Does a planning fee scare clients away?
It filters for seriousness better than any intake question. A client who will not invest in the planning was rarely going to invest in the trip.
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 luxury travel sales.
About Claire
