Becoming a Disney Travel Planner/Agent - Tell Me about it

[Grendalynn]

Good Morning Mouseketeers!

I have been thinking a lot about becoming a certified Disney Travel Planner... Not as a full time job, but something on the side. DS17 is headed in to college in the fall and I figured I should do something to generate a little extra income and do it by doing something I LOVE. I love traveling, I love planning our Disney Vacations and most of all - I LOVE all things Disney. I thought this would be a perfect fit! I have been at my current job for almost 20 years and if this travel agent thing really takes off, I could be in the market for a career change. But if not, if its just a little something extra on the side - so be it.... I need to take baby steps to start...

Anyone out there going through the same thing, looking to become a official Disney Travel Agent or already a DTA?

 

[powellrj]

Do a search on the budget board, there are lots of threads about this.

 

[wilkeliza]

From my understanding to make money off of it there is no way to do it as a part time thing or when you have time type thing. You'll have to deal with clients who want you available at all hours of the day. That includes while you are on vacation or dealing with family matters etc.

I have been considering it as an actual career shift because I miss working in a customer facing position (odd for an introvert haha). You have to be very detailed oriented and be willing to sit on the phone all day when new deals come out and really advise your client on the best vacation possible. Remember if their FP aren't right or a ride is down they are going to blame you unfortunately. There are even some times (like the most recent hurricane scare) where you will have to be an advocate of sorts for your clients getting them bookings and extensions while they are in the world. The worst is the fact you can plan an entire trip and spend hours upon hours working for someone and you won't see a cut until they actually go on their trip.

If you going at it alone and not through an agency then there are a bunch of overhead costs including insurance to protect you in case someone decides to sue for a bad vacation. If you get into an agency they are going to take a cut to cover those over head costs so research how much that is and how long they take to pay you.

 

[Allison]

I'm going to put this question out there because I have always wondered about people who want to be a Disney agent part-time and hold down another job.

How do you do right by your clients when a discount comes out or their dining window opens and you need to be on the phone for hours trying to get them a discount or a coveted ADR? I have several friends who are agents and on the day that a discount is announced they are on the phone for several hours at a time. How could someone who has to be at work in the morning do that?

It's something I have been curious about.

 

[StitchesGr8Fan]

I'm going to put this question out there because I have always wondered about people who want to be a Disney agent part-time and hold down another job.

How do you do right by your clients when a discount comes out or their dining window opens and you need to be on the phone for hours trying to get them a discount or a coveted ADR? I have several friends who are agents and on the day that a discount announced they are on the phone for several hours at a time. How could someone who has to be at work in the morning do that?

It's something I have been curious about.

Short answer is: you can't. Either you better work for an agency that has people who can sit on the phone for you, call in to your real job, or risk missing out on the deal for you clients.

I tried the whole "agent as a second job thing" and it sucked. You have to generate your own leads. And then a lot of times people suck your brain for info and then book it all themselves. If you look at the hours you put in to it versus your commission, it isn't even minimum wage. And Disney has quotas for what you must sell in a year.

OP, find out how many Disney TA's are in your are and in your social network. If there are several you will need to figure out how you will differentiate yourself. This is truly a sales job, and if you can't be pushy and aggressive you won't be successful.

 

[wilkeliza]

OP, find out how many Disney TA's are in your are and in your social network. If there are several you will need to figure out how you will differentiate yourself. This is truly a sales job, and if you can't be pushy and aggressive you won't be successful.

This is very important.

 

[Allison]

Short answer is: you can't. Either you better work for an agency that has people who can sit on the phone for you, call in to your real job, or risk missing out on the deal for you clients.

I tried the whole "agent as a second job thing" and it sucked. You have to generate your own leads. And then a lot of times people suck your brain for info and then book it all themselves. If you look at the hours you put in to it versus your commission, it isn't even minimum wage. And Disney has quotas for what you must sell in a year.

OP, find out how many Disney TA's are in your are and in your social network. If there are several you will need to figure out how you will differentiate yourself. This is truly a sales job, and if you can't be pushy and aggressive you won't be successful.

Thank you for sharing your experience.

 

[DisneyWishes14]

Being an at-home TA is very, very difficult. Yes, people want you to be available 24 hours a day. You will be on hold for hours on the days that promos are released and, while rumors float, you never know definitively when they will be released. Clients want ADR's and FP+ booked, so that means starting to work at 7 am on those days and HOPING you can get what your clients want. And, after doing all of that work, you hope no one cancels because you only get paid by WDW if the client actually travels. And, when a hurricane strikes (as it did last week), you will be on the phone with clients and WDW for hours and hours trying to sort out cancelled and delayed travel plans. Those were a few very, very difficult days. While planning your own trips may be something you love, planning for others is a whole other ball game.