Travel Agent MLM

[FanofLeaves]

I’ve had a couple of old uni mates recently post all over social media that they are now ‘independent travel agents’. Loads of posts talking about their travelling days and saying things like ‘I’d love to help you plan a trip..’ etc etc. Lots of ‘busy mum’ chat like ‘wow can’t believe I can fit this exciting new venture round being there for my kids whenever they need me’ ‘cooked a roast, took my littlest to karate, cleaned out the guinea pigs, everyone’s in bed and now to work on my new business!’ like it’s relentless, easily 4+ posts daily.

from what I can deduce, it’s £200 start up costs and then you’re supposed to convince people to book a trip that you’ve researched etc? But it’s got to be an MLM right? They’re not now actual independent travel agents that make real money? They’re supposed to recruit into the scheme right and get people to pay the £200 start up? From what I can gather they just bungled a few bits together using various travel sites but claim they have ‘exclusive insights’.

I’ve no idea why it’s bothering me so much but I feel like I need to know 🤣 anyone done it? Or been involved? I could never as I’m far too lazy with my social media.

It's not working for her.

Unless she is in the 0.3% of people who make money. She's lying to you and to herself, just as she did with the travel MLM.

A mate of mine who had a corporate job at a global company suddenly started selling a well known MLM brand, I was totally shocked! All the usual posts of ‘now I’ve had kids I don’t want to use toxic chemicals’ (insert eye roll). Then she was promoting all her other MLM contacts as small business owners and why we should be buying from them and not big business. Funnily enough it all seemed to go away rather quietly as I’m sure she eventually realised that like all MLMs it was total bullshit.

MLM, pyramid scheme, call it whatever you want, but they tend to prey on people who need a bit more cash and cannot do it because of other responsibilities, timing, difficulty getting a job etc. They are dreadful in my view, not only do they prey on those that need to do it, but also their wider circle (family and friends will tolerate it for so long, then avoid the person, leaving them in a worse position), and I cannot believe some intelligent people I know have been sucked into the whole thing. They should have no place at any sort of "recruitment fair" and should be more regulated.

🤣As a fellow comms professional, it was the random caps that I noticed first, and the exclamation mark in the middle of a sentence.

It’s complete nonsense. A friend of a friend‘s daughter who is 18 (!) seems to have joined one of these schemes and now describes herself as having done all the training and being a fully qualified travel agent – whatever the heck that means. Like seriously, who is going to have an 18-year-old working as a sole trader book their summer holiday for them?!

It’s not just the start up it’s the monthly membership fee they’re paying (and want you to pay) too. This is only a good deal if you literally do loads of lux travel for yourself left right and centre and you’ll save on your own stuff.

Probably her mates if you can get them a discount and atol protection, and her granny’s friends who can’t use the internet

Is this Designer Travel by any chance? I’ve a friend who’s into that - most boring social media guff I’ve ever read. 🥱

No I think they’re allowed to just make their own name- one is called something like ‘Travel by Sally’ and the other ‘Star Char Travel’ (this is a close approximation to what they’re actually called so I’m not outing them)

I’ve wondered the same. Do they actually believe it themselves, or are they lying to sell and to “recruit” people? Probably a bit of both

They won't be ABTA members either, so any holidays booked through them will have risks you don't get with real travel agents

They claim to be!

Yeah it’s a totally bollocks side hustle

One of my colleagues does this. I don’t take any notice and have never spoken to her about it at work. I’ve also never heard her talk to other colleagues about it, thankfully. Her day to day job is very skilled and demanding and she is very professional and sensible. I know she does extra shifts at the weekend too quite often. I have no idea how she fits in her “travel agent duties” but I have no desire to open up a conversation about it at work and let her try to suck me in!

My niece does this and makes hundreds each month . She has managed to find family members and friends good deals and receives commission .
She runs this alongside her day job and is doing very nicely!

That’s what she tells you.

Not going to get into an argument but there is evidence .

No one uses travel agents any more do they?? Such a weird thing to form an MLM around.

When that aloe Vera juice thing was popular I know there was a huge ‘fake it till you make it’ narrative- you know, buy a fancy handbag with your credit card make sure you post a load of social media posts about how it’s nice to be able to treat yourself with your side hustle. Then you can recruit people who think ‘I want a bit of that!’

I did look into this as a friend started doing it during covid. I lost my job and was out of work at the time.

It is MLM and you are encouraged to recruit other people and "fake it until you make it". You're encouraged to post FOMO stuff about how much training you're getting and how much money you are making to reel others in to become travel agents too.

When you post the adverts trying to sell holidays, you compare prices to booking.com etc. However, you pick something like a sea view room with a balcony and breakfast on booking.com and compare it to your booking of the crappy room that overlooks the car park with no breakfast and say "oooh look, I can get this hotel £x cheaper than booking.com". That didn't sit right with me at all and I'd feel too uncomfortable selling poor deals like that to people.

Yes! God they must all have to follow the same playbook.

I generally get very good deals on booking.com just through genius discount or ringing the hotel direct and asking them to match, so I’m still not sure how she claims she can do one better, unless it’s aimed at people unfamiliar with booking.com and similar sites.

DH was a travel agent before he retired due to ill health and even then people would go into the store, get all the details and then go home and book online.

Anyone prefixing their job title on social media with the word 'independent' has usually been sucked into an mlm...I have seen several on Facebook and just cringe for them.

Totally like a snakeskin sales person. Some z list celebs promote these MLM schemes on their social media, I believe the cash 💰 is made in recruiting rather than booking bona fide holidays.

Think the commission on booked holidays is only paid after the holiday has been taken as well. If it seems too good to be true, it probably is!

It’s so half-arsed, isn’t it? The low-effort AI text. ‘But here’s the thing …’ (eta: I mean in the screenshot, but it didn’t quote)