| Q. |
How long has your company been in business? |
| A. |
Coral Sands Travel has been a retail travel agency since 1994 in the Fort Myers, Florida area.
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| Q. |
Are you an accredited travel agency? |
| A. |
Yes, we are accredited with IATAN and CLIA. We are also members of ASTA, NACTA, OSSN, TPOC, PATH and The TRAVEL INSTITUTE. Our consortium is THE NEST.
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| Q. |
Are you a photo ID card mill or Multi-Level Marketing Firm? |
| A. |
Absolutely not! We will help you apply for the coveted IATAN and/or CLIA photo ID card when qualified. We do not provide any other photo ID card. Think about it. If all anyone had to do was pay $495 and then fly first class, stay in suites for free, and take cruises for $10 per day, who would pay full fare? If you really believe you can do all of this for $495, then you probably deserve to lose the money anyway. The truth is that when these operations first started they were able to fool some of the suppliers with phony ID cards and travel discounts but the industry is wise to them now and it is going to be difficult (if not impossible) to fool anyone into accepting phony ID cards.
A MLM firm usually has many variations. Two of the most common are when they offer you rewards for bringing in additional agents or when you are forced to call in your reservations to a central call center and pay you a small commission.
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| Q. |
What do I get as a Coral Sands Travel Independent Travel Professional? |
| A. |
You will have access to all of our booking engines which include the cruise lines, tour operators, hotels, air, and car rental agencies either directly or through our consortium the NEST. We don't give you just one centralized and limited booking engine site like most other host agencies. We offer several choices to help you find the best deal for your client. We do offer support in terms of supplier education, obtaining brochures and other helpful material. We provide substantial benefits that are listed separately under “Your Benefits”. Coral Sands Travel works online and personal with each agent. We help you achieve overrides and larger discounts when possible for bookings.
After executing an independent travel agent agreement and remitting your $295.00 fee you will receive an email containing access to our Agent Only website where you will find our operating and training manuals, supplier logins including the access logins to our affiliations together with hundreds of pages containing the tools to help you succeed in business. Please refer to our separate page containing our Benefits and Costs.
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| Q. |
Do you accept all travel agents into your agency? |
| A. |
Yes and No. We accept new and experienced travel agents. We will recommend online training programs for the inexperienced agent which can be taken from home. We do not accept travel agents with unresolved complaints. We reserve the exclusive right to refuse anyone acceptance into our agency affiliate program.
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| Q. |
How can you afford to pay out large commissions when other host agencies usually provide 50 to 70% or less in commissions? |
| A. |
We provide high commissions because you handle all the sales and marketing to your clients. We are your “back office”. We do not employ a large staff and an inside sales team. We do not have the overhead of a “brick and mortar” or so-called "mega" agency. We are a “pure” host agency offering 100% support to our independent travel agents.
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| Q. |
How and at what rate do you pay commissions? |
| A. |
We pay 80% of the commissions and overrides realized by Coral Sands Travel. Coral Sands disburses all commissions twice monthly. We also have a 90% commission programs available.
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| Q. |
What is the best computerized reservation system (CRS) to use? |
| A. |
Many new agents think the sun rises and sets on access to the CRS in the travel industry. Their first concern is “What computer software do I need to book travel?” For the most part, CRS (Computerized Reservations System) access is not really necessary unless you are going to be booking a lot of domestic airline tickets. Tours, cruises, hotels, resorts and so on are best booked over the Internet or telephone. We have several booking engines that cover all of your travel needs with the same or lower pricing than the CRS. Our booking engines are very agent friendly and do not require any special training. We use our consolidators for international flights. Most tours and destination packages include domestic airlines, which pay you a commission when part of a package. The decision on which host to pick should not be based on the type of CRS access they offer, but on the level of support and commissions they offer as it pertains to your business plan.
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| Q. |
I am just starting out in the travel business and plan to operate from my home. How can Coral Sands help me to get started? |
| A. |
Coral Sands Travel understands the continuing need to bring more travel agents into this industry. It is a priority for us to help agents to get off on the right foot and help them to stay on track. Today's travel agent must find his/her “niche” by specializing in a particular segment such as cruises, honeymoons, sports programs or perhaps a geographical area such as the Caribbean, South Pacific, or Europe. You can't be all things to all people, so don't even try. We include an online Start-Up Manual loaded with information. Coral Sands canl develop a training program for you based on your interested specialty. The program will be a combination for reading materials, online courses and, if you wish, attending educational conference shows.
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| Q. |
How much income can I earn? |
| A. |
Just like any business, you can earn as much or as little as you want. Certain areas of the travel industry are more productive than others. Specializing in cruises, international travel, group travel or other niches will be far more rewarding than just trying to be everything to everyone. If your idea is to start an agency specializing in domestic airline tickets, forget it.
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| Q. |
I am interested in joining Coral Sands Travel. What do I do next? |
| A. |
The first step is filling in the independent Contractors Agreement (Contract). It can be printed from the website You then should mail or fax the signed contract back to us along with your $295.00 set-up fee plus $15.00 for shipping and handling. Then complete the questionnaire from our website and submit it online.
Finally, decide how you wish to pay your set-up fees. We accept credit cards (via our website) or mail a check payable to Coral Sands Travel to the address shown on our website.
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| Q. |
We would like to know how much is your business affected by the Internet buyers? |
| A. |
We derive approximately less than 5% of our business from Internet inquiries. We have lots of inquiries but our success rate seems much less than 1 in 10. That marketplace is dominated by the low price shopper/buyer. Our agent's main customer base is derived from their repeat customers that value their service, responsiveness, knowledge & prices as well as first time customers sent to the agent from their existing satisfied customers, family and friends (word of mouth). I would not lead anyone to believe that they could build a thriving Home Based Travel Agency business solely from Internet traffic alone unless you wish to spend lots of money optimizing your website for the search engines.
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| Q. |
Who is the actual check made out in order to pay for the reservation that is booked? |
| A. |
In most cases you will provide your Clients Credit Card information directly to the supplier of your travel arrangements (i.e. GoGo, Carnival, SuperClubs, etc.). When you need to receive a cash/check payment from your client - you receive it and you then send Coral Sands one of your travel agency checks (can be your personal check) and we submit payment on your behalf for your client to the supplier. Please allow sufficient time for checks to clear the bank. Reason for this is 1) Suppliers only accept checks from authorized IATAN Agencies (i.e. Coral Sands). Some suppliers may accept your or your client's check. |
| Q. |
Do people call me directly? |
| A. |
This is the same concept as owning your own storefront travel agency with the exception of no walk-in customer (they are very rare in the industry anyway). You build your client base in the manner that is most comfortable for you. I will state that we do not profess this to be an Internet business alone… you will need to start with your family and friends and then their friends as well and branch out into your community such as your church or other organization. It is truly amazing how it all grows after you build an initial client base.
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| Q. |
Do I sell them travel arrangements and take all of their information for the vacation travel over the phone/Internet? |
| A. |
Yes, that's pretty much the concept. The phone is used a great deal more than the Internet when communicating with your client.
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| Q. |
Do I need a business license? |
| A. |
You need to check with your City, County and State to determine their requirements. Each are different, some require licensing, some don't. If your State requires a Sellers of Travel license like Florida or California you may obtain an exemption application from Coral Sands Travel.
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| Q. |
Is there a minimum in commissions that must be generated? |
| A. |
No minimum commissions. No quotas. No minimum amount of time devoted to your business. The Key Words here are “It's Your Business”.
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| Q. |
Can tickets and documents be mailed to my office, or to the client? Is there a postage charge? |
| A. |
Yes, they can be mailed to your office or your clients. You are responsible for all postage expenses. We recommend you set up a Fed Ex account for savings and convenience to handle some of the last minute expediting events. Otherwise, we will determine the fastest and least expensive mailing and charge you the actual postage. More and more suppliers are now converting to e-documents.
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| Q. |
How do we get brochures to give to clients, are they free of charge or do we have to order from the cruise lines or land tour companies? |
| A. |
Brochures are provided FREE by most suppliers (i.e. Cruise Lines, Tour Operators, etc.). Most suppliers will allow you to order directly from them. Some suppliers won't mail brochures to your home. We will have to charge you the actual postage if we need to forward brochures to you. We don't charge postage to you for normal Ticket mailings and such that require a normal stamp. We do charge you (only the amount of postage) when we have to mail things to your agency that require an excess of normal letter cost.
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