Most advice about changing hosts is about the new host: the split, the tools, the community. The expensive mistakes happen on the way out. Your bookings, and the commission attached to them, usually don’t come with you. Before you give notice, you need to know how much money is still on its way to you through your current host, and what your contract says happens to it.
Your bookings belong to your host, not to you
When you book under a host, you book on its accreditation: its IATA, CLIA or TRUE number. To the supplier, the host is the agency of record. MainStreet Travel, a host, puts it plainly: bookings made under a previous host’s credentials stay with that host, and moving them to another agency is not a typical procedure for many suppliers (MainStreet Travel).
Some suppliers do allow a booking to move between agencies, but it generally takes a written release from the agency of record. That’s your old host, not you. Check each supplier’s current transfer policy on its agent portal; the rules vary and change. In practice, you can’t take your forward bookings with you unless your old host agrees to let them go.
Measure your commission tail
Your commission tail is the commission you’ve earned on bookings that haven’t paid yet. Because many suppliers pay after travel, and cruises are often booked a year or more ahead, the tail can be large.
Here’s a hypothetical advisor’s tail on the day she decides to switch:
| Booking type | Expected commission (her share) | When it should pay |
|---|---|---|
| Cruises sailing in the next 12 months | $9,400 | At or after final payment, over the next 9 months |
| Packages departing in the next 4 months | $3,100 | Before departure or monthly after return |
| Hotels, stays in the next 3 months | $1,200 | Roughly 6 to 10 weeks after each stay |
| Total tail | $13,700 | Arriving over about 12 months |
If her contract stops paying her when she leaves, she isn’t switching hosts. She’s writing a $13,700 cheque for the privilege. These figures are illustrative.
You can’t make this decision without the number. Pull every booking that hasn’t paid, with its expected amount and expected pay date. If you track commission booking by booking, that’s a filtered list. If you don’t, this is the week to build it.
Read the three clauses that decide what you keep
Your host contract decides how much of the tail you keep. Look for:
- Post-termination payout. Does the host keep paying commission on bookings made while you were with them, and for how long? One industry writer warned that some contracts only pay out for a fixed period after you give notice, so commission on travel after that window is lost (Travel Research Online).
- Client ownership and non-solicitation. Does the contract say the clients are yours? Does it restrict you from working with them after you leave?
- Tier re-rating at year-end. If your host re-rates the whole year when you hit a higher tier, is the top-up paid if you’ve left before the re-rate date? A December departure can forfeit a top-up you spent eleven months earning. Confirm your host’s rule in writing.
If a clause is vague, ask the host to confirm in writing how it applies to your bookings before you give notice. Afterwards, you have less leverage.
The usual answer: dual-host until the tail pays out
The common way through is a period of dual hosting. New bookings go through the new host, and the old host keeps the bookings already made until they’ve paid. Host Agency Reviews notes that advisors who sever the relationship completely, rather than dual-host, most likely forfeit their right to commission still owed (Host Agency Reviews). The same piece suggests moving to the old host’s cheapest plan, since you won’t be putting new bookings through it.
Dual hosting has costs: two sets of fees, two statements to reconcile, and a period when your income is split across two payers. Plan for it to last as long as your longest booking.
Time the move
Three timing decisions can be worth more than the split difference that made you want to move:
- Tier year. Splits at many hosts are tiered on calendar-year sales and reset each January. Moving in January means you start fresh at the new host without abandoning progress at the old one. Moving in October can mean losing a tier you were about to reach and starting at the bottom elsewhere.
- Re-rate date. If your current host pays a year-end top-up, find out exactly when and whether you must be active to receive it.
- Your largest booking. If one group or cruise makes up a big share of the tail, it may be worth waiting until its commission has paid, or getting its handling agreed in writing first.
Watch your host’s payment behaviour
There’s a second reason to know your tail: it’s money your host is holding for you. If a host gets into financial trouble, advisors with large tails have the most to lose. Travel Research Online described advisors owed sometimes tens of thousands of dollars by hosts that stopped paying.
The early warning sign is in your own records. If the gap between when suppliers say they paid and when your host pays you starts stretching, ask why, in writing. A host that’s slow to pass money through is telling you something long before it tells you anything.
Before you give notice
- List every unpaid booking with its expected amount and pay date
- Read the post-termination, client-ownership and re-rating clauses
- Get the host’s answers in writing
- Decide whether to dual-host, and move to the old host’s cheapest plan
- Pick a move date around your tier year and largest bookings
- Keep reconciling the old host’s statements until the last booking pays