I could write all day about Host Agencies, probably because my travel agency is one. I have spent the last five years studying all sorts of Host Agency business models, written a "How To Become a Successful Host Agency" manual, founded an organization called PATH and have made fun of a few of them in previous articles. All this just to know who my competitors were while growing my Host Agency. Now that Coral Sands Travel, America's Host Agency, has just about reached its desired final growth stage, I will give you some practical insight into when is a Host Agency not a Host Agency.

First a short history lesson. Host Agencies up until a few years ago were better known as (air) ticket fulfillment agencies. They had the ARC accreditation, the GDS contract, the ticket stock and the ticket printers in the back room. When the airline commissions fell apart, "brick and mortars" began to pay more attention to leisure travel with cruises and land tours. Agents closed up their store fronts and went home. They gave up their ARC/IATAN credentials and began to work as outside agents for the remaining store fronts. A few of the store fronts, with vision, began to focus on these agents. The advent of the so-called "home-based travel agent came shortly thereafter and today's Host Agency model(s) was born.

However, as the Host Agencies grew so did the number of business models for Host Agencies. The basic definition of a Host Agency is a retail travel agency with ARC, IATAN or CLIA accreditations who loans out their credentials to others for a piece of the commission or a transaction fee. Unfortunately this definition covers just about every Host Agency model from the MLM freaks to upstanding, legitimate Host Agencies such as America's Vacation Center.

No one, other than PATH has attempted to further define a Host Agency in today's setting. In fact you can view PATH's definition of a Host Agency on their website at www.path.travel. Although I am just a member of PATH these days, I definitely recommend this site for viewing the best of the Host Agencies.

Today's Host Agency, despite the many models, have a more defined description than the original definition. A true Host Agency offers lots of support, and up to date training and marketing access whether it be direct or through a third party. There are agencies who claim to give you support but really only provide support for the product they are attempting to sell you. Examples of single product companies are Agenta, YTB and Vacation Central. None of these companies should be called Host Agencies because they sell either a single product or in the case of YTB other, mostly unrelated travel products such as websites or used cars. Agenta is a fine company of Amadeus but is still a single product. Agents want well rounded support and not a single product focused support.

There are lots of fine Host Agencies out there but you need to be aware of many of them attempting to hype or fool you into joining them. Obviously the MLMs and card mills you need to stay away from, however, there are others that require a little more research. Any so called Host Agency who touts the benefits of being a home based agent and how easy it is to be a travel agent should be really scrutinized and is probably not a legitimate Host Agency. Some of these so called Hosts will list memberships in organizations in which they claim to be members but are not. I see this quite often. A1 Travel-Vacation.com is one of those that do this.

I'm really tempted to make and publish a list of these phony or pseudo Host Agencies. They are making it difficult for the legitimate Host Agencies who seem to just stand around and let it happen. It really a shame that most of these good Host Agencies just don't have the appetite to put a simple awareness statement on their website. The more educated the travel agent is with these bad guys, the better we all will be.