The Travel Agent Next Door is celebrating its 7th year in business on 19MAR, 2021.
“We are extremely proud of how far we have come in seven years,” said Flemming Friisdahl, President & Founder, Travel Agent Next Door.
“We were a start-up and everyone on our team has worked incredibly hard to bring us to where we are today-- but of course we would not exist if it were not for the suppliers who believed in us-- and our partners-- independent travel agents— we work for them.”
Flemming Friisdahl, President & Founder, TTAND
For its 7th birthday, the company is reflecting on its number of “firsts” for its agents, including:
- The only online system enabling the agent to charge a cancellation fee or a “planning to go” fee or any fee to accommodate agents who want to charge fees.
- The only host agency to have 18 hours of ticketing support six days per week and no ticketing fees on any issuing of the ticket
- The only online system for agents to send a trip authorization online to verify birthday, passport expiration date, credit card charges, insurance waiver and include customized Terms and Conditions including suppliers T&Cs
- The only host agency to have developed its own proprietary websites where agents can easily customize 90% of the site themselves.
- The only host agency developing its own version of a group module which can collect the customer’s credit card and personal information and still be PCI compliant.
The company also launched The Agency Solution – a program for small and medium travel agencies who are looking to get out from under all the paper work and back-end tasks of running an agency-- and concentrate on selling travel.
“This past year has of course been a year like none of us has ever seen in our industry,” said Friisdahl.
“We have concentrated on supporting our agents through this period and have had a number of agents join TTAND this past year. We will be ready when the rebound comes—and there are already strong signals that it is coming.”
The Travel Agent Next Door has held many initiatives to keep its agents engaged and to give back, in particular over the past year. The company’s charity of choice is Pencils for Kids and over the seven years, TTAND and its partners have raised $79,571 for the charity.
This past holiday season, TTAND and its partners also sponsored 48 travel agent partners and their families who were struggling financially due to the pandemic.
