Go Astro Travel and Avoya Travel - what's in a name?

Sometimes our clients ask about the difference between Avoya Travel and Go Astro Travel.  Here's the inside scoop on Avoya Travel and Go Astro Travel.  In this post, we explore the basic business model

We are Go Astro Travel, LLC

We are Go Astro Travel, LLC.  Susan and David Wolfson completely own the business. Susan is the travel expert, having been in the travel business since 2001. Susan's experience and expertise include honeymoons and destination weddings, family trips primarily to the Caribbean and Europe, river cruise trips, ocean cruises trips.  She has also put together custom trips anywhere in the world.  We have done several beer themed trips as well.  Here's a list of all our travel experiences.

The travel business is all about leverage and efficiency. Therefore it's incumbent on a small family owned business to join forces with larger entities.  And that's where a host agency comes in. By agreeing to work with Avoya Travel, Go Astro Travel gets lots of benefits.

They are Avoya Travel

Avoya is what's known as a host agency.  That means they provide all the back office support for over 1000 independent travel agents, like Go Astro Travel.  Avoya negotiates great deals with travel suppliers (Royal Caribbean, Viking, Tauck, etc) and provides technology to enable booking and invoicing.  By leveraging all those sales (over $400 million annually), Avoya can get some pretty great deals with their preferred suppliers.

Avoya also provides leads.  A potential customer shows interest either through the web or a phone call. Next, Avoya finds the best appropriate independent travel agent (travel planner in Avoya lingo) to work with that potential customer.  Since we specialize in river cruises for example, we tend to get a lot of river cruise leads.  So in this sense Avoya is a kind of match maker - matching leads to the best agent.  One of the best practices for  Avoya agents is to specialize in specific suppliers or types of travel.

Avoya is also part of the American Express network of agencies.  Amex has their own travel agents but they also have several host agencies like Avoya which further allows leverage with travel suppliers.  You can imagine the heft that Avoya has when negotiating with suppliers.  Plus Amex offers their own special promotions as well.

Here's the Avoya page that explains how they work.

The result

As a customer, you get individualized attention by a family run business who is a specialist in what you need.  But you also get the best deals possible because we are part of a very large negotiating pool.  And you get to explore new destinations because you have a travel agent that's very familiar with alternatives.

As a business, we get to determine our own schedule and means and method of working.  Since we work 100% on commission, we have incentive to work hard to get the best deal for our customer.  And since repeat customers and recommendations are the fastest way to a sale, we have every incentive to make each customer happy so they return again and again (as most do).

Want proof?  Check out our post on NPS (a way to measure customer satisfaction)

And also check out our posts on the Avoya Conference to see how many top industry suppliers spoke there.  That means they took the time to promote directly to the independent agents that choose to affiliate with Avoya.  There's a strong relationship between Avoya and some of the best travel suppliers out there. And that benefits us all.

Want to know more?   I'm happy to explain this in as much detail as you'd like. Give me a call or send an email.