Aquilium Travel has revealed plans to double its homeworking team after seeing a 50% growth across the business since the investment of Jennifer Atkinson’s Travel Seen Group last year.
The former ITC boss acquired a majority stake in the luxury travel company in November 2023, bringing with her a wealth of expertise on using social media to drive bookings.
Gary Pridmore, who co-founded Aquilium Travel alongside David Mayer in 2017, believes this recent increase in business can be attributed to Atkinson’s large database of high-net-worth clients, as well as her introduction of a lead generation scheme.
“Jen has created an AI lead system of potential clients for The Travel Directors, our brand of independent homeworkers, which allows them to go online to a forum with all the leads and select the ones they want,” Pridmore tells TTG Luxury. “We also give them the same commission, whether it’s their own leads or leads we gave them.”
Pridmore explains that all leads are “pre-qualified” by Aquilium’s head office, which involves contacting the client to determine if they are genuinely interested in an enquiry and, if so, what type of holiday they’re hoping to book. This process then enables the travel agency to connect the right homeworker with the right customer.
“You’ve got to help homeworkers. They’re great at selling, but sometimes it’s hard for them to find the database,” he explains.
Aquilium is now looking to expand its team, having recently hired recruitment manager Louise Baxendell to “double its number of homeworkers” from 30 to 60 in the next 12 months.
Pridmore explains that while a travel advisor background is not essential to apply, candidates must have prior sales experience to be considered.
If accepted, they will enrol in one of two different training programmes; a three-day induction for qualified travel advisors or an eight-week training for people who haven’t worked in a travel agency before.
As for what Aquilium is looking for in its homeworkers, Pridmore emphasises it’s all about personality. “We want somebody with oomph,” he says. “People with a business acumen, but also great phone manners. You can teach everything else.”
“You’ve got to help homeworkers. They’re great at selling, but sometimes, it’s hard for them to find the database”
As for the culture at its homeworking division, Pridmore says the advisors work as little or as much as they want to. “We don’t give targets, because they join us as business partners, not employees,” he explains. “Goals change over time too.”
He insists, however, that homeworkers are given consistent support to ensure they can reach these goals. “We regularly ask people their expectations,” he says. “We constantly are trying to find out what people want to earn and we help them with business plans. For example, if they want to arrange a wedding show for the first time, we can assist with that.”
The Travel Directors also provides a number of other resources to its advisors, including MacBooks, a choice of a UK or an overseas induction, uncapped earnings and a personalised 24/7 support system.
