Being a Homeworker as A Member of PTS

As a homeworker in the travel industry, you know that it can be very different to running a travel agency or tour operator. Recently, we’ve discussed how this difference affects the type of support your work may need. But now you may be asking, what does that actually mean when it comes to potentially becoming a member of PTS?

Is PTS Membership Right For Your Homeworker Business?

First, let’s clarify how a PTS membership may be a good fit for you. Afterall, as a homeworker, you’re probably not looking into just one type of support, so it’s important to lay out exactly what the pros and cons of each option are before you take that next step.

If you’re looking to work under a larger brand, what you probably want is a consortium. In most cases this is a brand that will take you on as a homeworker, allow you to work mostly on your own, but take care of branding, marketing, potentially some admin, and maybe even the client base. In return for them taking care of these areas, they will take a commission.

Essentially, if you want to work like a travel agent, but you don’t want to be in charge of the more stressful areas of running your own business, being within a homeworking group is probably what you’re looking for. You can also find out a lot more about how this actually works in practice in Travel Weekly’s Homeworkers Guide that was just released for 2026.

This is not how PTS works. PTS is not a consortium, it is a support system. This means that we will provide the tools you may need (such as ATOL, currency hedging, card payment services, software, etc.), but we will not take over any parts of your business. You will not have to give up any of your commission, and you will be unrestricted by us in how your business is run.

These aren’t your only options, though. If you’re looking for more of a balance and you want to work under a consortium, but with the software and financial protection that PTS membership provides, you can look into joining a consortium that is a member of PTS.

What Does PTS Membership Look Like For A Homeworker?

The things that we are always aiming to provide for our members are flexibility and freedom. Regardless of how our software is updated, or our support changed to fit what our members really need at any point in time, PTS is built around providing everything a member needs to do what they want.

That goes the same for our homeworker members. Whichever areas of support you need the most, they are available for you to utilise. And if there’s something that we provide that you don’t want to use, you don’t have to. What you get when you become a member is the same for most (unless you need to also get an ATOL), but what you do with those tools is entirely in your hands.

For homeworkers, the areas that might make the most difference are aspects like suppliers and software.

You are welcome to log all your own suppliers in the PTS system for easy use on bookings, but equally, if that’s an area you don’t want to worry about, we have over 250 contracted suppliers built into the system for you to make use of.

In the same fashion, whether you are working solo or as part of a large homeworking group, you can have as many users in the system under one brand as you need at no extra cost. Plus, what each user has access to or control over can be changed by the managing user, so if you want to grow a homeworker group, your membership can simply adapt rather than become more costly or complicated.

Of course, while our team are travel experts, we aren’t in your position, so we don’t know exactly what you might need the most. And we don’t have experience of exactly what it is like to be a homeworker in the current travel climate. Which is exactly why we love to get our members’ voices out there.

If you would like to know more about what it’s like to be a PTS member homeworker in 2026, check out the Guide to Homeworking launch interview below featuring 4 of our lovely homeworker members.

And if you’d like to discuss this further, please get in contact with one of Protected Trust Services’ (PTS) lovely staff members by calling 0207 190 9988. Or, you can visit our member support and travel trust account pages to learn more about how we protect you.