More than ever, all kind of professionals are home-based workers.

That includes yours truly, who spends much time in her attic nook writing articles!

And the trend of home-based travel agents is a big one; after all, much of an agent’s work is either online or on the phone, so it makes sense that agents can work out of their homes.

Are there advantages and disadvantages of being a home-based agent, or even working with a home based agent? I asked one of my go-to travel agents, Amarjit of Give Me A Break! Travel to tell me about her experiences as a home-based agent.

AMARJIT:   I started working for a brick and mortar travel agency back about 9 years ago; what I found was that most of the staff were not motivated and lacked customer service skills.

The trend was a client walks into the store; you book their trip, invoice it and send them on their way. Follow up was non-existent. The client remained only a client that helped boost the bottom line.

I decided to start in the home based travel industry so that I could provide the best possible customer care and provide a service for which my friends would return time and time again.

My agency is based solely from word of mouth i.e. referrals and my clients are now friends that recommend me to their families and friends. I begin my service by phone or email followed by a meeting with the guest. I find out what they enjoy doing, what wine they drink, the ages of the children etc; you form a partnership and so when you organize a trip for them I know what kind of amenity to have in their room.

For Disney we usually provide photo albums or pins for the children so they can have some fun, for cruises it can be fruit or wine waiting in the cabin. We arrange for the clients to have something in their room upon arrival just to let them know we are thinking of them. This is all part of our customer service. We go the extra mile.

For destination weddings, we arrange everything from travel, to the minister to receptions and follow up with help in bouquets, cake decoration and how to pack for the honeymoon.

We have a passion for what we do and most of us have traveled extensively.

The difference I found is that we qualify our clients and match them to a perfect vacation. We have more time to devote to these things, whereas in a brick and mortar agency it was more to do with volume of sales because of overheads.

Being home based has been the best thing that I ever did, I can provide the best possible care for my clients and for my family.

Most people work so they need an agent they can rely on, who they can call and set up a weekend or evening appointment. For businesses looking to do incentive travel we arrange for brochures to be delivered where executives never have to leave their office. We can come to them upon request.

These are the differences I find, you will get more one-on-one service from a home based agent.

Amarjit Keshav  is an agent with Give me a Break Travel, a small company of home-based agents who specialize in destination weddings, romantic travel and family vacations, as well as Disney vacations and travel to Africa, Europe and the Far East. Contact Amarjit at (901) 383-6798. www.givemeabreaktravel.com