Representation · 7 min read

How to choose a travel representation company

Appointing a representative is one of the larger commitments a property makes outside of its own payroll, and it is usually decided on a good meeting. The pitch is the part a rep company has practised most, which makes it the least informative hour you will spend with them.

What follows is the set of questions that tends to separate the appointments that work from the ones quietly ended after a year.

What a rep does, and what stays yours

A representation company sells your property to the travel trade in a market you are not in. They build awareness with tour operators, travel agents and travel designers, get you in front of the people who put itineraries together, train agents on your product, and carry your brand at trade shows.

What they generally do not do is take over your commercial decisions. Rates, availability, contracting terms and the reservations relationship usually stay with you. A rep who offers to run those too is describing something closer to a general sales agent, which is a different appointment with different authority — see the difference below.

This matters at the point of measuring them. A rep can put your product in front of the right buyer and still not produce a booking, because the rate was wrong or availability was gone. Agreeing early on what is theirs to influence avoids a review meeting where both sides feel misjudged.

Rep company, GSA, or a freelance rep

Three arrangements get called the same thing in conversation, and the differences show up in the contract rather than the pitch.

None is better than the others. The mistake is assuming you have appointed one and finding you have appointed another, which is settled by reading what authority the agreement actually grants.

The portfolio test

Ask for the current client list, in writing, before anything is signed. Then ask the question that follows from it: which of these would an agent consider instead of us?

A rep carrying three lodges in the same park at similar rates is selling against you as often as for them. That is not necessarily disqualifying — a rep with depth in one region may be exactly who you want, and knows those buyers better than a generalist would — but it should be discussed rather than discovered. Ask how they handle it: a company that carries neighbours will usually have a considered answer, and that answer is the thing to judge.

• Ask what happens if they take on a direct competitor after you sign. Some agreements carry an exclusivity clause by segment or geography; many carry none at all.
• Ask how many clients each person on the team handles. A portfolio of thirty across four people is a different service from twelve across four.
• Ask which clients they have lost in the past two years, and why. The answer, and the willingness to give one, both tell you something.

Markets they work, against markets they list

Most rep companies list more source markets than they actively sell in. A website naming eight countries usually means an office in one or two and occasional travel to the rest.

The question that gets past this is not "do you cover Germany?" but "how many agent meetings did you hold in Germany last quarter, and with whom?" A company genuinely working a market can answer immediately, because it is what they spend their week doing. If the answer needs following up, that is the answer.

Match this to where your bookings actually come from rather than where you would like them to. A property whose business is 70% one market has a different requirement from one trying to open a second.

Trade shows: attending is not exhibiting

Trade show presence is where proposals are vaguest. Establish which shows they attend, which they exhibit at, and what your property gets in each case.

• Attending means they walk the show and take meetings. Your property may be mentioned in some of them.
• Exhibiting means a stand, where your brand can appear and meetings can be booked against your product specifically.
• A shared stand is common and reasonable — ask how many other properties share it and how meeting time is divided.

Then ask what you receive afterwards. A show is worth what comes out of the fortnight following it, and a rep who cannot describe their post-show process is telling you something about the fortnight.

Reporting: agree the shape before you sign

This is the clause that decides whether the relationship is renewed, and it is usually the vaguest one in the agreement. "Monthly reporting" can mean a booking figure in an email or a documented account of the work.

What is worth asking for:

1. Who was seen, at which companies, and what was discussed. Activity is what a retainer buys; bookings lag it by months and sometimes years.
2. Which operators now feature your product, and where — a rate sheet, a brochure, a website, an itinerary.
3. What was promised on your behalf. FAM places, rate holds, training sessions, allocations.
4. What is not working, and what they intend to do differently. A report with no bad news in it is a document nobody is reading properly.

Agree the frequency and the format in the agreement itself. Asking for it a year in, when the renewal is under discussion, reads as a challenge rather than a routine.

What it costs

Representation is generally a monthly retainer, sometimes with a performance element on top, and the range is wide enough that a published benchmark would mislead more than it helped. What moves the number is scope: how many markets, whether trade shows and their costs are included, whether marketing spend sits inside the fee or outside it, and how many people touch the account.

So compare proposals on what is included rather than on the headline figure — the structure of a retainer, and how to put two of them on the same basis, is worth its own read. Two quotes that look far apart often converge once trade show costs, travel and marketing contribution are put on the same basis — and occasionally the cheaper one turns out to be the more expensive.

The reference call

This is the step most properties skip, and it is the one that would have prevented most of the appointments that disappoint.

Ask for two current clients and one former one, and call them. The former client is the useful call: what did the relationship do well, and what would they want written differently if they signed again? People are candid about a relationship that has ended, and the answer is rarely dramatic — it is usually reporting, or a market that was listed rather than worked.

Ask current clients one specific question rather than a general one. Not "are you happy?" but "what did they send you last month?" The answer tells you what your own reports will look like.

Before you sign

• Notice period and term. A twelve-month initial term is normal; anything longer should buy you something.
• What happens to the relationships if the agreement ends — introductions made in your name are yours, and it is worth saying so in writing.
• Who your day-to-day contact is, and what happens when that person leaves. Representation is a personal business and people move.
• Whether costs beyond the retainer — shows, travel, print, hosting — need your approval, and above what figure.

A rep company that welcomes these questions is showing you how they will handle the relationship. One that treats them as distrust is showing you the same thing.

Properties looking for a representative can list free on RepBud Ready. Reps search the listings by destination and category, and an introduction happens only when both sides agree to it.

RepBud is designed to assist, not replace, your professional judgement.