Travel Counsellors has released figures claiming its homeworkers earn more but work fewer hours than at its rival Future Travel.
Responding to a study released by Future Travel yesterday (see separate story), Travel Counsellors says 41% of its agents are earning more than £300 per week (£15,600 per annum), compared with 24% of Future Travel’s agents.
In addition, it found only 2% of its ‘Counsellors’ work more than 60 hours a week, compared to 22% at Future Travel.
Travel Counsellors’ survey found that 71% of its homeworkers work between 31 and 50 hours a week.
For the financial year ended October 31 2006, average earnings for Travel Counsellors agents increased by an average 7% from £15,728 to £16,819.
The company’s top 100 Counsellors increased their earnings by 16% from £30,987 to £35,835.
Travel Counsellors claims its success is down to a number of factors:
– It has completely moved away from telesales, which is based on selling on price and can lead to unnecessary discounting by the agent. For the financial year, the average selling price at Travel Counsellors increased by 6% from £1,449 to £1,542.
– Travel Counsellors has a sophisticated dynamic packaging system, which now accounts for a third of all bookings made. The average commission of a Phenix accommodation booking last month was 18.2%. While Travel Counsellors’ sales overall increased by 17% for the financial year, commissions increased by almost a quarter (23%).
– Each Travel Counsellor has an average 18 years experience, with 82% of agents have more than 10 years experience in travel. In addition more Travel Counsellors agents previously worked at independents (43% compared to 31% at Future Travel).
Travel Counsellors managing director Steve Byrne said: “Our Counsellors are earning far more than those working not only for other homeworking companies, but for travel agencies generally.”
By Bev Fearis
