Helping small tour operators and niche agents with travel ecommerce
Tom Cree's Discussions
Affiliate Programs???
3 Replies
Started this discussion. Last reply by Gareth Thomas Dec. 8, 2008.
Dropping the expense of UK compliance
5 Replies
Started this discussion. Last reply by Tom Cree Sep. 30, 2008.
US White label sites
1 Reply
Started this discussion. Last reply by Alex Bainbridge Jul. 11, 2008.
Tom Cree's Page
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Jambo Rita
First decide if you are going to offer flights. If so you need an ATOL Licence. However by joining TTA you can then get a mini Atol for about £700
Next the rules on "tour Ops" are if you supply any two things as a package. i.e. safari plu…
Hi Rita
Got to rush but in the meantime check out Travel Trust Association. I found they were the best and I will explain it later. There are all sorts of traps such as ATOL saying you only need to ay £400 then another 400 when approved but the negl…
Hi Rita
I will send you some info later tonight as I am a bit busy now.
There are various rules and regs that you need to know (or get around!)
It is all to do with bonding etc.
Cheers
Tom
Hi At the risk of stating the obvious I would say the first thing is a website (even if the company has its own site make another) From this I suggest going through the excercise of Google Adwords. Set a budget and research your key words and phrase…
The Solution is white label from www.g9bookings.com
Hi Andy
I brought this subject up about a year ago and the general reaction varied from general negativity to suicidal and it seemed that one had to have a good solid market of ones own whereupon an affiliate deal might add beer money!l
However I do…
Hi Angela
Sadly it is not cheap. You can get insurance paid monthly although you are still liable for the whole amount over the year. This gives you the basic liability cover to satisfy TTA and from there you have to take a deep breath and jump in.…
OK THen here is the good and bad news
1) You have to get insurance bonding (employer liability) based on an approx turn over in first year. (Make this low as you can increase it later)
Insurance company that does a month by month payment is Arnold F…
Profile Information
- Do you have a website?
- http://costaricadirect.co.uk
- Tell us more about yourself:
- New tour operator
- Describe your travel products:
- Incluive tours ex UK to Costa Rica
Comment Wall (6 comments)
- At 11:55am on October 1, 2008,
Paul Jellis said… - Hi Tom
Thanks for your reply.
You said that if we buy from a US consolidator then that is legal - how does this fit in with the DTI's regulations? Does this just make me a ticket provider?
i.e. (e) before accepting any payment he supplies a valid ticket in accordance with regulation 4 in respect of any flight accommodation which he makes available (in these Regulations called "a ticket provider").
What happens if the flight fail - is there anything like the CAA that would protect it?
Also, I'm having problems with providing insurance. The group wants me to have some sort of in-house insurance for them. However, UK insurance companies will only insure UK citizens and US companies won't deal with me because i'm UK based. Do you know anything about this?
Thanks again for your help.
Paul
- At 3:03am on August 16, 2008,
Ghale Treks and Tours said… - Hi Nice to meet you and Greetings from Himalaya Nepal !
- At 4:11pm on April 13, 2008,
Nicola Grimshaw said… - Hi Tom,
Yes, sadly its all gone very quiet!
Anyway in answer to your question, I have looked at Keyword Elite ages ago and decided not to buy, I can't remember exactly why but I guess I thought it was a reasonable investment for something you can do for yourself. I think it is probably more suitable for people who run lots of affiliate site. I think most of the info on the internet about it is from affiliates of Keyword Elite. Also I'm not keen on programmes that don't have free trials. MIght be worth asking within the wider forum if anyone has actually used it, then they can give you an honest view.
A piece of software you might be interested in is web ceo (www.webceo.com) - I just use the free version which is quite useful.
Kind regards
Nicola
- At 4:23pm on April 5, 2008,
Nicola Grimshaw said…
- Hi Tom,
You were up early on a Saturday morning!
Markup is a difficult one in order to be both competitive and it still be worth your while in terms of marketing spend etc. and, of course, it all depends how competitive the net rates are. I personally would start by comparing the prices to those available on an aggregate site like moneysupermarket or kayak and find out where their strengths and weaknesses are. You might find the prices are excellent for one airline and expensive for another; in general the markup for flights will be quite a bit lower than for accommodation. As a guide if it is a true (only available to travel trade) white label up to 10% for flights up to 15% for accommodation - although I would anticipate they might be nearer half that to be competitive in all areas. If it's more of an affiliate link (which I'm guessing it might be) up to 7% but realistically most likely 2-3% would be my guess.
Sorry it's not a very straightforward answer, but hope it helps.
Kind regards
Nicola
- At 2:01pm on April 2, 2008,
Charlotte said… - Hi Tom,
Thanks soooo much for that - I can't tell you how helpful it is to get such a jargon-free reply!
Thanks also for your kind words re our web site - it is still in its infancy, but we won't ever use an online booking system - our bookings are too complex and often quite complicated - it would be unfair on our customers!
It sounds like you have had a really exciting life - Botswana is one of my favourite countries in Africa; the variety and diversity never fails to amaze me!
If you have any more tips or any constructive criticisms of the site, do let me know - it all helps! I'll likewise do the same :-)
Thanks again - and best of luck!
Charlotte
- At 12:18pm on April 2, 2008,
Nicola Grimshaw said…
- Hi Tom,
If you have got this, you've found your comments wall! To find someone else's click on their picture.
Kind regards
Nicola
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