What Makes The Independent Travel Consultants Different?

Originally published: 14th August 2025 | Last reviewed and updated: 14th August 2026

If you're comparing travel homeworking companies, eventually the websites can begin to sound remarkably similar.

Flexible working. Great support. Training. Suppliers. Community. The chance to build a travel business.

Those things matter - but they don't tell you enough to decide where you should build your business.

The differences are usually in the detail.

How much will you actually pay? How is commission calculated? Who finds the clients? Can you build your own brand? What happens after your initial training? Who handles customer money? What support is available when a real booking problem lands on your desk?

The Independent Travel Consultants is the homeworking division of Jamie Wake Travel. We support self-employed consultants who want to develop their own travel businesses while using the training, systems, supplier relationships, customer-payment processes and wider operational infrastructure of an established travel agency. 

We don't claim that makes us the right homeworking company for everybody.

But there are some things we've deliberately chosen to do differently.

1. You Are Building Your Own Travel Business

The word independent matters to us.

An Independent Travel Consultant is self-employed. You develop your own customer relationships, market your business and take responsibility for building your client base.

At the same time, you don't have to establish every piece of travel infrastructure yourself.

Jamie Wake Travel provides the wider commercial and operational structure behind you, including supplier access, booking systems, customer-payment processes, compliance support and training. 

That distinction is important.

We provide the travel infrastructure. You build the business.

You're not becoming an employee of Jamie Wake Travel, and you're not buying a traditional travel franchise. 

2. You Can Develop Your Own Customer-Facing Brand

We don't believe every consultant should look and sound identical.

Subject to the branding and compliance requirements that make your relationship with Jamie Wake Travel clear to customers, consultants can develop their own customer-facing business identity. 

You might eventually become known for:

• family holidays;
• cruise;
• luxury travel;
• skiing;
• accessible travel;
• Disney;
• honeymoons;
• adventure;
• LGBT+ travel;
• long-haul;
• or simply excellent general holiday planning.

The objective isn't to produce a hundred copies of the same travel agent.

It's to give individual consultants room to develop a business that customers remember.

3. We Publish the Numbers

There is no joining fee.

Standard membership is currently £50 per month.

Consultants start with an 80% share of the commission generated after applicable booking costs and payment-processing charges. 

But we think transparency has to go further than advertising “80% commission”.

You should also understand:

• 80% of what;
• what costs can be deducted;
• when commission becomes payable;
• what happens if a booking cancels;
• and how long it may be between making a booking and receiving your money.

With ITC, consultant commission is paid after the customer has paid in full and the suppliers have been paid. 

A booking made today for next summer might create future commission, but it does not create immediate income.

That's something a prospective consultant deserves to understand before joining.

4. We Don't Promise You Customers

This is another area where we'd rather be clear.

ITC does not promise or guarantee a stream of leads.

Consultants should join on the basis that they are responsible for developing their own client base. 

That means learning how to:

• tell people you're in business;
• generate enquiries;
• follow up properly;
• develop referrals;
• build repeat business;
• market locally;
• use social media effectively;
• develop specialist audiences;
• and give customers a reason to return.

Live consultants can also have consumer-facing visibility through our Find a Consultant directory.

That can provide another way for customers to discover consultants, but it should be seen as additional visibility, not a replacement for building your own business.

This matters because one of the biggest challenges identified by existing UK homeworkers is working out where clients will actually come from. 

5. Training Doesn't Stop When You Go Live

Initial training matters, particularly for somebody entering travel for the first time.

But a training course cannot possibly teach somebody everything they'll encounter during a travel career.

That's why we increasingly think of consultant development as continuous professional learning rather than a one-off induction.

Before going live, new consultants learn the foundations required to operate professionally, including systems, enquiries, quoting, booking processes, customer service, compliance and business development. Ongoing learning continues after launch. 

Daily CPD and Learning

One of the ways we're building that culture is through the ITC learning and blog library.

We add new practical learning content for consultants every day.

Topics aren't restricted to destinations and suppliers.

We cover the realities of running a travel business, including:

• sales;
• client consultations;
• follow-up;
• marketing;
• social media;
• compliance;
• customer service;
• supplier relationships;
• pricing;
• commission;
• business planning;
• email;
• accessible travel;
• handling problems;
• booking processes;
• and professional development.

The aim is simple:

A consultant shouldn't finish their initial training and then stop learning.

Travel changes. Customers change. Technology changes. Marketing changes. Regulations and supplier processes change.

A professional travel consultant needs to keep developing too.

6. We Teach Business Skills, Not Just Booking Skills

Being able to find a holiday on a supplier website is only part of the job.

A successful self-employed consultant also needs to understand:

• where customers come from;
• how to qualify an enquiry;
• how to follow up;
• how to price and protect margin;
• how to communicate value;
• how to build a brand;
• how to retain customers;
• and how to manage their own workload.

That's why so much of our ongoing learning focuses on the business around the booking.

Someone can know every hotel in Majorca and still struggle to build a client base.

Conversely, somebody coming into travel from another career may already have excellent customer-service, sales, marketing or organisational skills and need to develop the specific travel knowledge around them.

We support both.

7. Important Questions Have Dedicated Support Channels

Community is useful.

But business support cannot rely entirely on messages disappearing into a busy social group.

We use dedicated channels for operational and booking support so that important consultant questions can be dealt with in the appropriate place. Our wider consultant community also gives homeworkers somewhere to share experience, learn from each other and ask questions as they develop. 

That separation matters.

There is a difference between:

“What does everyone think of this new hotel?”

and:

“I have an issue affecting a live customer booking.”

Both conversations have a place.

They shouldn't necessarily happen in the same place.

8. You Gain Access to Jamie Wake Travel's Travel Infrastructure

The Independent Travel Consultants is not a standalone collection of people selling holidays independently of one another.

It sits within the wider travel business of Jamie Wake Travel.

Consultants can access supplier relationships and professional booking arrangements through that infrastructure. Available suppliers and commercial arrangements can change over time, so we don't promise that every conceivable supplier will always be available. 

What matters is having a useful professional range that allows consultants to identify suitable options for their clients.

That infrastructure also means new entrants do not have to negotiate every commercial agreement, establish their own customer-payment system and build every operational process from scratch.

9. Customer Money Doesn't Go Into Your Personal Bank Account

This is one of the less glamorous differences - but one of the most important.

Customer money is handled through the professional payment arrangements behind Jamie Wake Travel.

Jamie Wake Travel is a member of Protected Trust Services, which operates a trust-account structure for customer money. ATOL protection applies to qualifying flight-inclusive arrangements where appropriate. 

Consultants are trained to understand the protection relevant to the booking they're selling rather than simply telling every customer that “everything is ATOL protected”.

That's part of operating professionally.

10. We Accept Beginners - Without Pretending Travel Is Easy

Some ITC consultants enter with travel-industry experience.

Others don't.

We accept applications from both groups. 

But “no experience required” should never be confused with:

“Anyone can start selling holidays tomorrow.”

A new consultant still has to learn.

They need to understand the systems, booking processes, suppliers, customer responsibilities, protection arrangements and commercial realities of travel.

They also need to know when they don't know something - and ask.

If previous travel experience is your biggest concern, read Do You Need Travel Experience to Become a Travel Homeworker?

11. We Don't Sell the Dream by Hiding the Difficult Bits

Our Join page deliberately states what we don't promise.

We don't promise:

• guaranteed earnings;
• an automatic client base;
• instant bookings;
• free holidays;
• passive income;
• or success without consistent work. 

That might not be the most glamorous recruitment message.

We think it's the right one.

Someone considering self-employment deserves to understand what they're taking on before they sign an agreement.

A person who joins with realistic expectations is far more likely to build something sustainable than somebody who joins because they were promised effortless income and cheap holidays.

12. We're Still Willing to Change Things

ITC is not designed around the idea that every process we create today must remain the same forever.

Consultants use the systems.

They work with the suppliers.

They speak to the customers.

They encounter the practical problems.

So their feedback matters.

If something can be improved, we want to know about it.

That doesn't mean every suggestion can be implemented, or that compliance and commercial requirements disappear because something would be easier another way.

It means consultants should be able to contribute to the development of the business rather than simply receive instructions from it.

13. We Want to Grow Carefully, Not Just Become the Biggest

There is nothing inherently wrong with a huge homeworking company.

Some people actively prefer a large organisation.

Our ambition is different.

We want ITC to remain close enough to the people within it that support does not become completely anonymous.

That philosophy isn't just something we've put into a recruitment article. Travel Weekly covered ITC's growth in May 2026 and reported our emphasis on remaining hands-on as the network expanded. 

The question for a prospective consultant isn't:

“Is bigger better?”

or:

“Is smaller better?”

It's:

“Which environment will help me build the kind of business I want?”

Current industry homeworkers make exactly that point: some thrive in larger organisations while others prefer smaller teams, and culture and values can be as important as commission. 

How Should You Research Reviews of Travel Homeworking Companies?

Reviews can be extremely useful when comparing homeworking companies.

But look beyond the star rating.

Ask what reviewers actually say about:

• training;
• support when something goes wrong;
• systems;
• communication;
• payment;
• supplier access;
• culture;
• leaving;
• and what happens once the excitement of joining has worn off.

Also look at when the review was written.

Homeworking businesses change. Teams change. Systems change. Fees change. Training changes.

A detailed recent account from somebody actually operating as a consultant may tell you more than an enthusiastic one-line review written immediately after joining.

And don't rely only on reviews.

Read the agreement.

Ask questions.

Look at what the company teaches its existing consultants.

Look at the information it publishes when it isn't actively trying to recruit you.

That's one reason our wider learning library matters.

You can see what we actually spend our time teaching consultants.

Is ITC the Right Homeworking Company for You?

We may be a good fit if you:

• want to build your own client relationships;
• like the idea of developing your own travel identity;
• value ongoing learning;
• want access to professional travel infrastructure;
• understand that self-employment involves personal responsibility;
• are prepared to market yourself;
• want support without expecting somebody else to build the business for you;
• and prefer realistic information over lifestyle promises.

We may not be the right fit if you want:

• a guaranteed salary;
• an employer rather than a self-employed business opportunity;
• every customer supplied to you;
• passive income;
• instant commission;
• or a business requiring very little input.

Neither is a criticism.

The important thing is choosing the model that actually matches what you're looking for.

Frequently Asked Questions

Want to Build Your Travel Business With Us?

If you've reached this point, you should have a fairly clear idea of what we're offering - and what we're not.

The Independent Travel Consultants gives you access to the travel infrastructure, training, supplier relationships, systems and support behind Jamie Wake Travel.

You bring the commitment to build the business.

If that sounds like the balance you're looking for, visit Join Our Team to see the complete current proposition and application process.

And if you've arrived here because you're looking for somebody to help book your next holiday rather than information about becoming a consultant, visit Find a Consultant to meet our independent travel consultants.