How to Become a Home Based Travel Agent in the UK

Originally published: 17 July 2025 | Last reviewed and updated: 9th August 2026

Working as a home based travel agent can give you the flexibility to build a travel business around your life rather than having to fit your life around a traditional workplace.

But it is important to understand what the opportunity actually involves.

A home-based travel agent is not simply someone who loves holidays and has access to cheaper travel. You are building relationships with clients, researching and recommending holidays, managing bookings, learning travel regulations, marketing your services and taking responsibility for giving customers professional service from their first enquiry until after they return home.

For the right person, that can become a rewarding part-time business or a full-time career.

This guide explains how becoming a home based travel agent works in the UK, the different ways you can get started, what you need to learn, how commission works, where clients come from and what you should check before choosing a company to work with.

If, after reading it, you decide this sounds like the right route for you, you can explore how we work on our Join Our Team page.

How Do You Become a Home Based Travel Agent in the UK?

The simplest route for many people is to join an established travel company or homeworking organisation that gives you access to the training, booking systems, suppliers, financial protection and support you need to sell travel professionally.

You then build your own client base and earn commission from the travel you sell.

There are other routes. You could become an employed remote travel agent, buy a travel franchise or establish a completely independent travel agency with your own commercial agreements and regulatory arrangements.

Those are very different propositions.

If what you want is the freedom to build your own client-facing travel business without having to establish all the infrastructure of a travel agency from scratch, a supported homeworking model can provide a much more accessible starting point.

What Is a Home Based Travel Agent?

A home based travel agent is a travel professional who sells and manages travel for customers while working remotely rather than from a traditional high-street travel agency.

In a self-employed homeworking model, you usually run your own business while operating within the commercial and regulatory framework of an established travel company.

That distinction matters.

You may be self-employed, build your own client relationships and potentially develop your own trading brand, while the company behind you provides things such as supplier agreements, booking technology, payment facilities, training, compliance processes and financial protection.

You therefore have independence, but you are not necessarily operating alone.

If you want to see what the job looks like beyond the headline description, read our guide to what a travel homeworker actually does each day.

Is Being a Home Based Travel Agent a Job or a Business?

This is one of the most important things to understand before you start.

Some home-based travel positions are employed jobs. You work for the agency, may receive a salary and follow the company's working arrangements.

Travel homeworking opportunities such as The Independent Travel Consultants are different.

You are building a self-employed travel business.

That means flexibility comes with responsibility.

You are not waiting for a manager to hand you a queue of customers every morning. You need to create relationships, generate enquiries, follow up opportunities, keep learning and build a reputation that makes people want to book with you again.

For some people, that independence is exactly what they are looking for.

For someone wanting a guaranteed salary and a steady stream of customers supplied by an employer, an employed travel role may be a better fit.

Neither model is inherently better. They simply suit different people.

What Does a Home Based Travel Agent Actually Do?

Selling holidays is only part of the role.

A typical week could include speaking to new clients, understanding what they want from a holiday, researching different options, comparing suppliers, preparing quotes, making bookings, checking documentation and keeping existing customers updated.

There is also a business-building side.

You may spend time creating social content, speaking to previous customers, asking for referrals, attending local networking events, learning about destinations, completing supplier training or developing a particular travel specialism.

Then there is the less glamorous but equally important work: keeping accurate records, checking deadlines, following compliance processes and dealing professionally with problems when they arise.

A good home-based travel agent doesn't simply find a holiday.

They make the process of researching, booking and managing travel easier for the customer.

Step One: Decide Which Homeworking Model Suits You

Before comparing individual companies, understand the different types of opportunity.

You may come across traditional host-agency arrangements, franchises, membership models, employed remote positions and businesses where selling travel is combined with recruiting other agents.

Look beyond the headline advertising.

Ask yourself where the actual business income comes from.

If your goal is to become a professional travel agent, you should understand how you earn from selling travel to customers, what commission you retain, what the company retains and exactly what you receive in return.

Also understand whether you can build your own brand, whether you own your customer relationships, whether there are sales targets and what happens to existing bookings and future commission if you eventually leave.

Our guide to choosing the right travel homeworking company goes into these comparisons in more detail.

Step Two: Look Beyond the Joining Fee

The cheapest opportunity is not automatically the best one — and the most expensive does not automatically provide the strongest support.

Compare the whole proposition.

Look at the initial cost, ongoing monthly fees, commission split, booking costs, training, supplier access, systems, financial protection, marketing support and contractual terms.

Ask what is included and what is optional.

Also ask when commission is actually paid. A percentage can sound impressive until you understand what the percentage is calculated from, what costs are deducted and when that money reaches you.

We have a separate guide explaining the real costs of starting as a travel homeworker.

At The Independent Travel Consultants, there is currently no joining fee, with standard membership costing £50 per month. Our approach is to keep the entry cost low while providing the professional infrastructure needed to build a genuine travel business.

Step Three: Get Proper Travel Agent Training

You do not have to know everything about travel before you begin.

What matters is being prepared to learn.

Travel agent training should cover much more than how to search for a hotel.

You need to understand how to identify what a customer actually needs, choose appropriate suppliers, prepare accurate quotes, process bookings, take payments correctly, issue documentation, understand booking conditions and recognise when you need additional help.

You also need to develop commercial skills.

That includes understanding margins and commission, following up enquiries, handling objections, marketing your business and building repeat customers.

Product knowledge comes with time. Nobody starts knowing every hotel, cruise ship, airline, destination and tour operator.

Professionalism comes from knowing how to research properly, where to find reliable information and when to ask for support.

If lack of industry experience is worrying you, our guide Do You Need Travel Experience to Become a Homeworker?explains this in more detail.

Step Four: Understand ATOL, Financial Protection and Client Money

This is where becoming a professional travel agent is very different from simply finding holidays online for friends.

How a booking is sold, who the contractual parties are and what financial protection applies all matter.

A self-employed homeworking travel agent who does not hold their own ATOL needs to operate within an appropriate legal structure, such as acting as an agent for an ATOL holder where required.

That is one reason the company behind a home-based travel agent matters so much.

With The Independent Travel Consultants, consultants operate through Jamie Wake Travel and within the systems and protection arrangements available through our business and Protected Trust Services.

You therefore do not need to establish an entire travel agency infrastructure or obtain your own ATOL simply to start selling through our model.

However, good training should teach you what the different protections mean rather than simply telling you to put a logo on your marketing.

You can read more in our guide to Protected Trust Services and what PTS means for travel homeworkers.

Step Five: Set Up the Business Basics

You do not need a glamorous home office.

You do need a reliable way to work professionally.

A suitable computer, dependable internet connection, phone access and somewhere you can speak confidentially with customers are far more important than an Instagram-perfect desk.

You also need to think about your business identity.

Who do you want to help?

What will make somebody choose you rather than an online booking website or another travel agent?

You do not have to decide on a highly specific travel niche on day one, but having some idea of your ideal customer makes marketing much easier.

You might gradually become known for cruises, family travel, luxury holidays, touring, groups, honeymoons, accessible travel, adventure trips or a particular destination.

Your specialism should develop from a combination of what you enjoy, what you understand and what customers will actually pay you to arrange.

Step Six: Work Out Where Your First Clients Will Come From

This is the part many “become a travel agent” adverts gloss over.

Joining a homeworking company does not automatically create a client base.

Your first bookings often come from people who already know or have some connection with you: friends, family, colleagues, local contacts, community groups or people who discover your business through social media.

But sustainable growth means going beyond repeatedly asking friends to book holidays.

You need to build visibility and trust.

That can involve local marketing, useful social media content, networking, email marketing, referrals, specialist knowledge, community involvement and following up previous customers at the right time.

You do not need thousands of followers.

A small audience that knows who you help and trusts your advice can be more valuable than a large audience that simply likes holiday photographs.

Our guide to building a travel client base from scratch gives you a practical starting point.

Step Seven: Learn How Travel Agent Commission Really Works

Home-based travel agents in self-employed models generally earn through commission or margin generated by bookings rather than receiving a conventional salary.

Suppose a holiday sells for £5,000.

You do not earn a percentage of that £5,000 simply because you made the booking. The relevant figure is the commission or margin generated within the booking.

Your homeworking agreement then determines how that amount is divided and which legitimate booking costs are accounted for.

At The Independent Travel Consultants, our standard consultant share starts at 80% after applicable booking costs and card fees.

But the percentage alone does not tell you what you can earn.

Income is affected by booking value, margin, product type, how many customers you have, repeat business, cancellations and how consistently you market and follow up.

And importantly, commission is not necessarily instant income. Under our model, consultant commission is paid after the customer has travelled.

That is why we prefer talking about building a sustainable travel business rather than promising quick money.

For a fuller explanation, read Independent Travel Agent Commission: The Real Earnings Breakdown for UK Homeworkers.

How Much Can a Home Based Travel Agent Earn?

There is no honest single figure.

Two home-based travel agents using exactly the same systems could earn very different amounts.

One may work a few hours around another job and make occasional bookings for an existing network. Another may treat the business as a full-time occupation, actively market every week, develop a profitable specialism and build a large repeat client base.

New consultants also need to recognise the delay between starting a business, making bookings and receiving commission.

Your early months are therefore about much more than immediate income.

You are learning the systems, generating enquiries, making your first bookings and creating a future pipeline.

Eventually, the aim is for one booking to lead to another: the client returns, recommends you to somebody else and becomes part of a growing book of business.

That compounding client base is much more important than chasing an impressive theoretical earnings figure.

Can You Start Part-Time?

Yes. A home-based travel business can be built alongside another job, caring responsibilities or other commitments.

But flexible does not mean effortless.

Clients may need you at times that are not always convenient, particularly when they are making a decision, a payment deadline is approaching or something has gone wrong.

If you only have a limited number of hours available, set expectations clearly and organise your time properly.

Starting part-time can actually be a sensible way to learn the industry and build a client base before deciding whether you eventually want travel to become your main income.

What Makes a Good Home Based Travel Agent?

The people who do well are not necessarily those who have visited the most countries.

Travel experience helps, but customer skills matter enormously.

Good consultants listen.

They ask questions before recommending anything. They communicate when they say they will. They check details rather than guessing. They remain calm when plans change. They keep learning. And they understand that their reputation is built one customer at a time.

You also need resilience.

Not every quote becomes a booking. Customers change their minds. Prices move. Suppliers sell out. Some people will take hours of your research and then disappear.

Running your own business means learning not to treat every lost enquiry as a failure.

What Is Different About Becoming a Home Based Travel Agent with ITC?

The Independent Travel Consultants was created to give people the opportunity to build their own travel business while still having a professional travel company behind them.

We are not trying to turn every consultant into an identical version of the same travel agent.

You can develop your own identity, choose the types of customers you want to work with and build a business that reflects your own strengths and interests.

Behind that independence sit the systems, suppliers, training, support and compliance processes needed to actually operate professionally.

There is currently no joining fee and the standard membership fee is £50 per month.

You receive access to the tools and travel supplier relationships needed to quote and book, together with ongoing training and support as you develop.

Most importantly, we do not want people joining because somebody has convinced them this is easy money.

We want people who are interested in building a real customer-focused travel business.

You can see the full current proposition, commission information and joining process on our Join Our Team page.

What Happens After You Join?

Joining is the beginning, not the achievement.

Your first stage is learning.

You need to become comfortable with the systems, understand the booking process and start developing your own business plan and client proposition.

Then you begin putting that learning into practice.

Your first quote teaches you something. Your first booking teaches you more. Your first complicated enquiry teaches you even more.

The goal is not to know everything before you speak to a customer. It is to know how to find the right information, follow the correct process and ask for support when you need it.



If you want a better idea of those early stages, read Your First 30 Days as a New Travel Homeworker.

Looking for a Home Based Travel Agent Rather Than Becoming One?

Some people arrive on this page because they are trying to find a travel agent who works independently from home rather than researching a new career.

You are welcome too.

Our consultants have different destinations, holiday types and areas of expertise, so you can find an Independent Travel Consultant who suits the type of trip you are planning.

That way, this page can point both audiences in the right direction without confusing the two.

Frequently Asked Questions About Becoming a Home Based Travel Agent

Ready to Explore Becoming a Home Based Travel Agent?

A home-based travel career can offer genuine flexibility, independence and the opportunity to build something of your own.

It also requires work.

You need to learn the industry, build a client base, market consistently, look after customers properly and accept that sustainable income develops as your business develops.

If that sounds more appealing than promises of overnight success, you may be exactly the kind of person we want to talk to.

Visit our Join Our Team page to see how The Independent Travel Consultants works, what is included and what your next steps would be.

Build it properly. Look after people. Give them a reason to come back.

That is how a home based travel agent becomes a successful travel business.