Forbes Travel Guide has flagged the introduction of an Advanced Commission Payment program as part its Meridian AI-powered platform for endorsed travel advisors.
Meridian already offers automated itineraries, CRM integration, white-label apps and Forbes Travel Guide insights to its member agencies, advisors and travellers. This new technology will add to the suite of benefits.
Speaking with LATTEin Monaco overnight at the Forbes Travel Guide Summit, Richared Lebowitz, SVP Travel Industry Outreach said the new tech aims to resolve a bugbear of travel advisors around the world.
“There is no question that processing commissions is a huge issue in the industry. Our major role is to facilitate, for the travel industry and our member hotels, an easier process.”
“We know how painful it is for the travel advisor. The idea is to bring the two sides together.”
“If we provide a way for travel agencies to not worry and not need to chase commission, then I believe they’ll be more supportive of our hotels.”
Lebowitz told LATTE the Advanced Commission Payment program will be a selective process that will start small with trusted partners.
“We have a good sense of many of the complexities but we’ll take the feedback from our agency partners to work through those to look at the opportunities, discuss the challenges and what are the needs as a business owner or team member that makes their living on commissions.”
“Simply said, we, Forbes Travel Guide, will pay the commission. We, Forbes Travel Guide, will collect it from the hotels. So we’re eliminating a process that exists today, where hotels, after the guest checks-out, then begins the process,” Lebowitz explained, adding that commission processing times may vary greatly due to factors such as the hotel and the destination.
“It’s not a quick process at best,” he said, noting that there are also third parties that can be involved further adding to complexities and charging their own fee.
“We want to provide a white glove service.”
“We want this to be a valuable benefit within our community.”
He said development of the advanced commission payment program was advanced, and may require input from a council of agency partners, however he is “very confident of attempting to tackle the issue.”
Currently, Forbes Travel Guide has 4,500 travel professionals within 54 endorsed travel agencies around the world. In Australia and New Zealand, FBI Travel in Melbourne is the sole Forbes Travel Guide endorsed agency, and has taken advantage of the first-mover benefits that comes with that. (Read more about that here).
Lebowitz indicated that the number of endorsed agencies will potentially rise, but “certainly not exponentially”.
“We will keep the number low to make it aspirational to be endorsed,” he said, noting that existing members will need to remain engaged and pro-active to “earn and maintain” their presence.
“My mission at the highest level is to help the travel industry understand the independence and integrity of the Star Rating and the hotels (and other verticals that have earned the rating), and the more that they understand that, they decide how and when to work that in with their communication with clients.
“It can only help, because the brand is so strong. The rating process has integrity, unlike anything else.”
Luxury travel agencies in Australia and New Zealand can reach out to Lebowitz to discuss the endorsement process by email.LATTE is reporting from Monaco as a guest of Forbes Travel Guide.
