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Protected Trust Services says rival consortia are preventing members from moving to its lower-cost model, either by locking them into long-term contracts or refusing to pay commission on forward bookings when they leave.
PTS provides independent agents with a trust account, ATOL protection and admin services. In return, members pay a monthly fee and booking transaction charges, but they retain 100% of the commission earned.
PTS has grown its agent membership to 483, which Managing Director Emma Collis described at the consortium’s conference this week as ‘absolutely phenomenal’.
She said it’s aiming to increase this further to 600 by December, but this would still be well short of CEO Dan Landen’s original target of 1,000 members by the end of this year.
As PTS only accepts experienced agents, Emma said its biggest hurdle to growing its membership was other consortia preventing their members from making the switch.
Speaking to Travel Gossip after delivering a business update to the 146 delegates at the conference, held at The Belfry Hotel & Resort in Sutton Coldfield, Emma said: “People want to join us all the time, we hear people want to leave [other consortia] but if they leave, they lose their commission,” she said.
Different homeworking groups have different contracts, with some locking members in for a fixed period, said Emma. “The difficulty is that even if agents leave at the end of their contract, they forfeit their commission on forward bookings, which some can’t afford to do,” she said.
While some consortia do pay agents commission on forward bookings after they’ve left, they might make them wait until their last client has travelled, she added.
“If you want to leave, you won’t get paid – or you have to wait a year or so to get your money – and that means people can’t leave because they’ve still got mortgages to pay and kids to feed,” Dan said. “This is why one of our campaigns was to tell agents to look at their contracts before signing.
“We do have people joining us from other groups when they are coming to the end of their contracts, but we have had some join us who have lost commission.”
PTS said its members only have to give three months’ notice if they want to leave, and they receive commission from forward bookings ‘once the suppliers have been paid’.
“If a member wants to leave PTS to go to another agency, we help them because if we aren’t the best fit for them, if they’re not happy or they need something we can’t give them, we don’t want to force them to stay,” said Dan.
“It doesn’t happen very often, it’s rare for someone to leave us for another consortium, but if they want a managed service or more hands-on support, then we might not be the best place for them.
“What we offer is a platform for people to run a truly independent business but if a member chooses to leave for whatever reason, we will work with their new agency for a smooth transition.”
Emma said agents have long been frustrated at their inability to move between consortia, but she said they had recently become more vocal about the issue.
“The increase in the cost of living is forcing them to re-evaluate their positions, to look more carefully at what they are paying for and what the other options are, and then they realise how difficult it is to move,” she added.
