No business is too small or too large to be a member of The Advantage Travel Partnership, and we offer scalable membership models to suit all shapes and sizes of travel businesses, from homeworkers through to businesses turning over £100s million pounds.
Yes, absolutely!
We have a great track record of helping new start-ups flourish. We have everything you need to setup a successful travel business and we would be delighted to talk you through everything you would need to get started.
Our Advantage Managed Services (AMS) schemes (for business travel and leisure) provides a trust account, and you have view-only access to the trust account, which is particularly useful so you can track bank transfers into your trust account. We set up individual trust accounts for our AMS members businesses, so your customer’s monies are completely ring-fenced from other members customer’s monies.
Yes, 100% secure. All our trust accounts are overseen by independent trustees, who monitor the accounts to ensure monies are collected and paid to suppliers at the correct time. 100% of the funds paid into the trust accounts, always stay in trust.
Our membership models are scalable, and can accommodate small, medium, and large businesses. We understand that as your business grows and evolves, you may decide to change membership model, and we would be very happy to work with you to make the transition to a different model as smooth as possible.
We are the number one consortia partner for over 80% of our travel suppliers and have agreements in place with over 250 travel businesses across the UK, creating a one-stop shop for all your product and service needs.
The range of travel suppliers we work with is vast and are handpicked by our commercial team based on the range of products, and the ability the supplier has to deliver a great service and support for our members.
We use our collective buying power as leverage to negotiate the best commercial deals for our members. However, we understand that in some instances members need to use a specific supplier which isn’t part of our supplier portfolio, and that is fine with us.
We provide the most comprehensive marketing support across the consortia world, and we are told continually by members that the marketing support we offer is second to none. Our direct and digital marketing tools and regular campaigns work to help you attract new customers, and engage with existing customers, and much of what we provide is completely free of charge. Check out our membership prospectus for more details.
Yes, we offer modern, low-cost bookable and non-bookable websites depending on what is most relevant and affordable for your business. We also offer websites which are specifically focussed on cruise and touring. If you would prefer, you can access our omni-channel content platform to plug into your own website that also drives offers to your social media and email channels.
Our standard membership model provides members with their own licensing, systems, and merchant facilities. Standard members have access to all our great commercial supplier agreements, marketing, and our wide range of business support, including a dedicated Business Development Manager.
With our Advantage Managed Services scheme, in additional to the above, we also provide you with your licensing (ABTA, ATOL, IATA/GDS), merchant facilities, back-office system and a trust account. We will also manage all your supplier payments so you can concentrate on the sales and marketing of your business.
Your membership costs depend on which operating model best suits your business. Our fee structure is fully transparent and simple to follow, and best of all, the structure we operate means you do not need to split the commission you earn on bookings with us. Whichever model you chose, we are confident our fees offer the best value for money consortia membership in the UK. Please contact us for more details.
For Advantage Managed Services members, the typical merchant fees are 0.3% for debit cards and 0.4% for credit cards. For homeworking agents on our Travel Specialists scheme, the rate is 0.5% for both debit and credit cards.
For members joining on our standard membership model, we do not offer merchant facilities as part of our membership package, however, we work with several partners who can offer competitive rates for you.
All members benefit from a dedicated Business Development Manager whose job is to ensure you maximise the benefits of membership and regularly keep you up to date on all things Advantage, through face-to-face meetings, calls and at our member events.
We have the largest on the road Business Development team across all consortia, so there will be no end of support you can tap into. We also understand that running a business can be lonely at times and having someone available to bounce ideas off, or to go to for some advice can really make a difference to a business.
Last year we held over 46 events around the UK and overseas. Our annual Advantage conference is our flagship event and in 2024 was held in Mexico. We also offer a dedicated cruise conference, a dedicated Advantage Managed Services conference, business travel symposium, skills training, and networking events, plus a range of virtual events too! All events focus on delivering quality content and all-important networking time with industry peers.
In short – there are lots of events and opportunities for you to enhance your learning and network with like-minded travel entrepreneurs.
Our members are all independently owned travel business who operate across 750 locations throughout the UK, representing a large proportion of the UK’s travel agency landscape. In addition, our global network footprint continues to expand with representations in 83 countries across 96 network partners who work together in servicing corporate accounts.
Collectively, as a global network our members generate over £15.6 billion in global sales annually – with £7.6 billion from travel sales from our UK membership. That all adds up to a huge amount of buying power for our members!
Yes, you can. However, you’ll need to ensure you have the right licenses available for you to be able to create and sell those packages to consumers. Our Advantage Managed Service scheme can provide ATOL licensing and our other membership models provide various tools to enable you to create dynamic packages. Our Business Development Team can guide you through how selling under ATOL can work for your business.
Our agency agreements with our supplier partners specifically state that their product can only be sold within the UK.
Our preferred insurance partner is Holiday Extra’s whose insurance cover is very comprehensive, and they have a range of schemes available to help you sell their insurance product.
For Advantage Managed Services and Travel Specialists by Advantage, we use the Vertical Systems VTARSC and VCRM. These systems enable you to create professional looking quotes and track conversion. They also produce the practical paperwork which you will need to provide to your customers.
If you are a Travel Management Company looking to operate under our Advantage Managed Services Business Travel membership model, we use the Dolphin back-office system and can also provide you with a GDS (supported by Travelport). Dolphin produces the relevant paperwork for your corporate customers including itineraries and statements.
Members on our Standard membership model use their own system. We do also have a range of agreements with technology companies for you to choose from (extra costs apply).
Jake HollinsThe Good Travel Agent
Louisa MorreyReed & MacKay