The Travel Agent Course
For Group Travel Beginners, Career Switchers & Side Hustlers
Welcome & How to Use This Kit
For Group Travel Beginners, Career Switchers & Side Hustlers
Welcome! If you’re reading this, you’re probably thinking something like:
- “I love planning trips, but I have no idea how to turn it into a real business.”
- “I don’t have a travel background… can I really do this?”
- “I keep seeing people host group trips. How do I start?”
Good news: you’re in the right place. And yes — you absolutely can.
This kit is built specifically for first-time travel advisors who want to launch a business around group travel — even if you’re starting from scratch. It’s designed to support:
- Beginners exploring travel as a new income stream
- Career switchers looking to break into a flexible industry
- Side hustlers who want to test the waters before going all in
Whether your goal is to plan luxury birthday trips, wellness retreats, reunions, or girls’ getaways — this guide will help you get started the right way.
What This Kit Includes
Inside, you’ll find:
- A step-by-step guide to launching your travel business
- Real-world tools, checklists, and templates
- Marketing ideas, pricing strategies, and supplier guidance
- A focus on group travel (where the best margins and growth potential live)
- A simple system for organizing payments, forms, and bookings using SquadTrip
This isn’t fluff. It’s the exact roadmap many successful travel advisors wish they had when they started.
How to Use This Kit
You can treat this like a course, a playbook, or a checklist. Here’s what we recommend:
- Read the chapters in order. Each one builds on the last — from niche selection to pricing your first trip.
- Use the Toolkit. Throughout the guide, you’ll find links to templates and tools — Google Docs, spreadsheets, Canva templates, and SquadTrip walkthroughs.
- Bookmark your favorites. This kit is meant to be reused. As your business grows, you’ll come back to sections again and again.
- Launch with confidence. You don’t need to have everything perfect to take your first client. Follow the roadmap, and improve as you go.
Where SquadTrip Comes In
SquadTrip was built for people like you — travel advisors who want to run professional, scalable group trips without spreadsheets, payment chasing, or complicated software.
You’ll see SquadTrip mentioned throughout this kit whenever:
- It makes a process faster (like collecting payments)
- It replaces a tool you’d otherwise have to piece together manually
- It helps you level up your traveler experience and brand
You don’t need to use SquadTrip to follow this guide. But if you want to look like a pro from day one — it’s here when you’re ready.
Let’s get started.
Your future travelers (and future self) will thank you.
Chapters
Ch. 1: The Travel Industry 101
Ch. 2: Finding Your Niche in Group Travel
Ch. 3: Should You Join a Host Agency or Go Solo?
Ch. 4: How to Set Up Your Travel Business (Legally & Professionally)
Ch. 5: Travel Agent Tools & Tech You’ll Actually Use
Ch. 6: Your First Client: The Group Travel Booking Workflow
Ch. 7: How to Market Yourself (Without Feeling Salesy)
Ch. 8: How to Price, Package, and Profit from Group Trips
Ch. 9: Working with Suppliers & Building Partnerships
Ch. 10: Preparing for the Trip — and What Comes After
Ch. 11: Your 30-Day Launch Plan
Ch. 12: Your Next Step (Why SquadTrip Helps You Scale)
Bonus Templates & Tools Folder
- Editable Client Intake Form: Intake forms
- Editable Trip Proposal Template (Coming soon)
- Commission + Payment Split Tracker: Group_Trip_Commission_Calculator.xlsx
- Rooming List Template
- Group Trip Timeline Checklist: Group Trip Departure Checklist
- Trip Pricing Calculator
- Onboarding & Booking Workflow Checklist (Coming soon)
- Social Media Templates (e.g., Canva links) (Coming soon)
