Selling Travel and Vacation Planning

Booking travel

Once a client has decided their dates, resort, etc., you are ready to book their reservation.
Sometimes guests are hesitant for various reasons. Remind them that the deposit is fully
refundable up until the final payment is made. That can put people’s mind at ease.

You can also remind them that prices and availably are subject to change. Holding the reservation with a small deposit protects from that.

When ready, there are very important procedures that MUST be followed when you are booking travel for a client.

Please note:

You are responsible for making the deposit and all payments on your client’s behalf. They need to give you their credit card number. (Debit card or gift cards also accepted). It is your responsibility to treat this personal and sensitive information with the utmost care and security.
Be sure you are clear on the package details and prices the client has agreed upon. Confirm that you have the correct dates, number of guests, etc.
Make sure client has completed the appropriate Authorization Form prior to making any payments (see below).
If you put a reservation on hold first, be sure that you make the deposit before the hold expires. If you have to go back and requote, the price may have changed, or the resort or dates may no longer be available.
You must promptly enter each booking into the Agent Booking Form.

Booking Procedure

1. Get Client Information

Each client should complete Client Profile form prior to booking. This is done through the CRM system. Once the client completes the form, all their important information will be populated for you in the CRM program.

If your client does not complete the Client Profile form, you can manually enter the information into the CRM on their behalf. However, your client will have to enter their own credit card information via CRM’s secure credit card link. (See the CRM training for more information).

2. Book Client’s reservation

Bookings are done through various supplier portals to booking engines. See the supplier section for more details and logins for our various suppliers.

Depending on the supplier and what it is you are booking, sometimes payments are due in full at that time while others allow you to put a reservation on complimentary hold. For example, Disney packages allow a complimentary 3-day hold while things like transportation do not.

For Disney reservations, be sure to make note of the confirmation number. Typically you are not able to access that reservation online for 24 to 48 hours after first booking it, so don’t be alarmed if you go back onto DisneyTravelAgents.com and it says that the reservation cannot be found. Be sure to keep that in mind when planning when you need to go back and actually make the deposits on the reservations

3. Enter Reservation Information into CRM

After you have made the deposit, you MUST enter all your client’s reservation details into the CRM program. At a bare minimum, you need to add their:

confirmation number
dates of travel
deposit and final payment dates
trip total

Also add in as many of the trip details as possible such as resort name and room type, tickets details, and whether or not they included travel insurance or other add-ons. The more information you include, the better. If you have the expected commission amount, be sure to include that oo.

Every single confirmation number needs to be entered as a separate entry. This is the only way we can track your commissions. If you do not enter your sales, we will not know to pay you.

4. Link Client’s Reservation to MDX

Once you have made the deposit, you should go into the client’s My Disney Experience account and link their reservation for them. If they did not provide their login information, you obviously will not be able to do that, so be sure they do. Remind them to make their park reservations as soon as possible.

5. Provide Client with Confirmation Number and Other Important Dates

Whether you link their reservation (or when they do it themselves), be sure to provide the reservation number. We have created a Vacation Organizer PDF that you can personalize with your contact info and client details that you can use. (See the download center for more). Be sure to give your client:

Confirmation number
Advanced dining reservations date
Final payment date

This is all very important information that you need to convey to your clients. You should also make notes for yourself so that you can stay on top of these important dates for your client.

Missing the final payment date can have disastrous effects, especially on cruise bookings.

(See appendix for sample letters to clients)

6. Confirmations from Disney: Agent and Guest Copies

You will receive 2 copies of the reservation confirmation, an agent copy and a guest copy.

The guest copy is the same however it does not show the commission amount. Be sure to forward the correct copy to the guest and keep the agent copy for your records.

You should come up with a file system to organize confirmations, notes and other client files that works for you. Here is a suggestion for digital files. Each bullet represents a folder:

BOOKED TRAVEL
- Client Last Name
  - Authorization Form
  - Confirmations
  - Correspondence
COMPLETED TRAVEL
CANCELED TRAVEL
QUOTES

Remember we are here to help you.
If you have any questions about any procedures, quoting, booking, or
anything at all, don’t hesitate to reach out. We want you to be
successful and are here to support you.

Commission payments

Commission payments are not received by the agency until after your clients have completed their vacation. While some suppliers such as Disney pay within a few days of completed travel, others such as Expedia can take a few months to pay the agency. You will be paid after we receive the funds from the vendor. Payments are made monthly.

All bookings MUST be entered into the CRM. That is the only way we will know what payments you are owed.

Remember that if a client makes a change to their package after you have entered it, be sure you update the reservation information in the CRM. That is very important. There are some automated emails that go out to the client and if your information is not up to date, the emails will be wrong and it will confuse the client.

You need to pay special attention to the pricing. Be sure that you enter every payment the client makes. Otherwise, the math will be wrong and the emails to your clients will be wrong.

Although you need to be sure to keep accurate records in the CRM, your commission will be based on the actual amount received from the supplier, not necessarily what you entered in the CRM.

For promotions such as the Onboard Cruise Credit or Gift Card promo, the agency will deduct the promotion amount from the total commission prior to the split.

Taxes are not deducted from commission payments. You are responsible for your own taxes. If you have earned over $600 in a calendar year, you will receive a 1099 form at the end of that year.

Addon Features

Some add-ons such as the Dining Plan, Memory Maker, and travel insurance are things clients can add on later. These are commissionable sales that you may want to encourage, even if your client did not include them upfront. (Note: there is a time limit when these some of these things can be added).

Commissionable add-ons include:

Dining Plan
Memory Maker
Travel insurance
Special ticket events
Water park tickets
Airport transfers
Car rentals
Other park tickets (i.e., Universal)
Stroller rental (through Scooterbug)
EVC rental (through Scooterbug)
Car service (through Disney or other providers)
Private VIP Tours

Non-commissionable add-ons include:

Any tour other than Private VIP tours
Dessert Parties or other dining beyond the dining plan
Fireworks cruises
Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique
Other recreational activities
Golf cart rentals (Fort Wilderness)
Stoller or EVC rental outside of Scooterbug
Car service other than those we are registered with
Tickets less than 3 days for WDW, and less than 2 days for DNL (other than special events)
Annual Passes

The list above are examples of thing a client may want to add to their vacation, but we do not earn commissions on. As their travel planner, you can do this for them, but you may want to encourage them to add those things on their own. It is up to you how much you do for them, but remember that they have the power to spread the word on how well they were treated (or not).

For clients wanting full itinerary planning, we have a separate fee structure for that. Contact the agency if you have that situation.

Selling Travel and Vacation Planning​