Become Someone People Know

Have you ever attended a conference with thousands of other agents and felt alone? When you call your consortia, does the person who answers knows who you are and are they willing and empowered to assist? When you have a problem with a supplier is it impossible to get help?

Become someone that suppliers know. You’ll also actually get to know your local supplier reps, not your consortia’s rep. There are local educational events held annually specifically for our front line agents and suppliers to network. Along with other events, like our annual conference, this will give you and your staff the opportunity to form real relationships.

Need to know what the best resort for couples with no kids is in Cabo? You’ll gain access to a community where agencies cooperate and share information. Everyone has their specialities and if you ask a question in Westa’s online member forum someone will have an answer.

And you'll also get the same excellent level of customer service you provide customers. When you encounter a problem or issue you can simply call Westa and speak directly to any one of the staff. No operators offering to dump you into voicemail— you’ll have direct dial access to every one of the staff from top to botom.

Deliver a Better Travel Experience for West Coast Clients

National consortia often have supplier lists that are focused on vendors that provide the maximum coverage area, the largest marketing budget and or the most lucrative back end deals. But none of those attributes contribute to providing the best products and value for your clients.

At Westa, you’ll get access to a thoughtfully curated list of suppliers with products your clients actually want— with the local support and product value you deserve.

Additionally, your clients shouldn't lose amenities or travel credits because you don’t have a massive marketing budget. Unfortunately that's what happens at many national consortia where your clients are penalized by the consortium's rules because you're not spending more on their programs.

At Westa, there are no spending requirements for any of our client promotional opportunities, and we have several of them. Every incentive is available to every client of every member agency… simple as that.

Turnkey Marketing That Gets Clients to Call *You*

If you’re like most travel agencies, you’ve probably had to build your business on your own. Because the fees that national consortia charge for their marketing programs make it hard to justify the expense.

Westa can help.

• Does your agency send travel brochures to clients? This technique is the easiest way to improve your responses— by more than 16%. According to a joint HP & NAPCO Research study, marketers reported personalized mailings to improve reponses by more than 16% on average. Westa provides members a turnkey marketing program that sends beautiful travel brochures and postcards on your behalf. Better yet, they're personalized to your clients by name, e.g. "Lee Johnson", and with your agency's branding. So it looks exactly like you sent it from your office to them... but you didn't have to lift a finger.
• More affordable than your national consortium or doing it on your own. The whole point of belonging to a consortia is to pool your buying power. So why is it so expensive to market through your national consortium? Westa uses its size to negotiate rates that even a one person agency can afford. This helps with both on-line and print advertising for your agency.

Like all of Westa’s services, you can use as little or much of the marketing program as you want, it's up to you.

Get the Profit You Deserve, Not the Crumbs Leftover

You put in your fair share of sales revenue each year, but do you get back all of your share of the consortium’s profit?

National consortia keep you from getting your fair share in two different ways:

1. The Rich Get Richer. With profit sharing based on spend, they redirect a percentage of the money that you earned the consortium to the largest agencies instead of to you.

   Westa bases profit sharing on a simple points system and not spend. Points are easy to achieve and awarded based on participation. So it’s easy to maximize your share of the profit. And you don’t have to be a big shot to get it.

2. A little know fact that siphons away your full share of profit. It’s a little known fact that no national consortium returns 100% of the profit its members earn. One of the revenue sources to consortia is a bonus from suppliers called an “override.” This is for members meeting supplier sales goals. But no national consortium returns all of these overrides to its members. Most pocket the cash and a few give a small percentage back.

3. Want to test this theory out? Simply call your consortia and ask them if you can see their national accounts contracts. Chances are few if any consortia would allow this, because there are revenue streams in the contract they don’t want their members knowing about. But at Westa, these are your contracts and you can review them as you need. There’s nothing to hide here.

In Westa, you're a true owner in the consortium. And that means you get 100% of your share of profit, bonuses and overrides, on top of your commission.