Seasoned travel advisors understand that a strong host relationship doesn’t happen by accident. Behind the scenes, host agencies invest significant time, leverage, and resources to cultivate partnerships with Preferred Suppliers and that investment directly impacts your success.

For those newer to the industry, ‘Preferred Supplier’ may sound like insider terminology. In practical terms, these are tour operators, cruise lines, airlines, hotels, and DMCs that have committed to a deeper level of collaboration with your host agency and, by extension, with you. Those partnerships and collaboration often translate into higher commission opportunities, override potential, enhanced training, and stronger relationships with business development managers and service teams.

So why does supporting Preferred Suppliers matter, especially for advisors who already have long-standing relationships elsewhere?

It’s Better for Your Clients

Preferred Supplier relationships unlock tangible benefits for your clients. Beyond higher earning potential for advisors, these partnerships often deliver upgrades, added amenities, exclusive offers, and enhanced on-the-ground support. The result? A more elevated client experience that feels personal, seamless, and impressive without adding cost or complexity to your workflow.

It’s Better for You

Focusing your business on a curated group of suppliers allows you to develop deeper product expertise, streamline the sales process, and close with greater confidence. Advisors who concentrate their bookings build credibility, responsiveness, and trust with supplier partners, especially their BDMs, relationships that matter most when you need flexibility or extra consideration.

Take escorted touring as an example. With countless operators in the space, spreading 10 bookings across four suppliers requires far more product knowledge, relationship management, and negotiation effort than concentrating those bookings with one or two strategic partners. Depth, not breadth, is what builds leverage.

It’s Better for Your Host Agency

Preferred Supplier programs don’t happen overnight. Host agencies stake their reputation, and their negotiated agreements, on meeting sales volume and passenger commitments. When advisors actively support those partners, hosts can deliver on those commitments, strengthen supplier relationships, and reinvest in programs, technology, and support that ultimately benefit their advisors.

Changing host agencies can mean adapting to a new Preferred Supplier roster, and that adjustment can feel uncomfortable at first. However, those advisors who invest the time to learn the product, build the relationships, and align their sales strategy are often rewarded with stronger support and long-term growth.

Supporting Preferred Suppliers isn’t about limitation – it’s about alignment. And when advisors, hosts and suppliers move in the same direction, everyone wins.