We are in the last quarter of 2025 and we find ourselves looking to the new year and looking back on the past year. The new year is when we all make resolutions and look to change.

This is a time when travel agents often decide to make a change – a change to another agency? Getting out of the call centre? A change to home based? Looking to switch host agencies? Many agents will be thinking about this in the coming weeks.

All of these possibilities can be exciting opportunities and are certainly worth investigating – however, you should always look before you leap and do your homework! You owe it to yourself to research the options thoroughly.

There are many ways you can investigate becoming a home-based agent or comparing host agencies and these include talking to other agents who have made the move to home based, or who have changed host agencies.

Before making a decision, questions you should ask yourself include …

1. Have you explored all host options?

2. Did you compare every level of support?

3. Are you weighing all the right factors important to your business?

4. Are you checking beyond just commission splits?

5. Have you compared service, tech and marketing support?

6. Have you checked what is included in the monthly fee and what is extra?

To help you do all of the above and compare different companies, the Travel Agent Next Door provides excellent resources to help travel agents make this important decision – whether you are a new agent looking to get into the industry or an experienced agent looking to move.

One of them is the Host Agency Checklist. The checklist has all sorts of questions and allows you to compare TTAND along with other host agencies that you choose. This checklist is very thorough and helps you to compare at a glance.

This tool is invaluable in helping you see an apples-to-apples comparison of the host companies and what services they offer, what services are free, what costs are, systems, marketing support, etc. etc.

You can find the host agency checklist here on the TTAND website …

https://www.thetravelagentnextdoor.ca/resources/host-agency-checklist