travel consultant

inside sales representative

travel agent

travel counselor

counselor

Vacations To Go

I spend a long time working as a travel counselor at Vactions To Go.  Below is my impression after I took time to reflect on my over 10 years is as follows:

Management from Owner  to CEO to various and multiple middle managemt is either out of touch, does not care or is very busy attempting to justify their usefulness.  A few examples never once met the owner or him introducing himself, Director of Sales never once discussed sales, I had multiple “team managers” with little actual management or industry experience, 

All jobs have turn over so I am going to explain some of the metrics this company likes to implement.

Assist to sales ratio, this is a metric that penalized agents who are not available to service a customer.  Meaning it is 8 pm on a Saturday and a customer calls in to example change a dining time and goes to a customer care specialist and that person assists the customer you the agent is penalized.  Meaning a person who chose to service customers because they prefer not to sell, when they do their job you get penalized for not being available.

You are expected to provide air fare quotes and booking without any compensation.  They will tell you to use an independent booking engine and tack on fees as you deem needed but if the air quote gets to high you you are expected to close the sale even if it requires you losing time and no money on airfare.

The company has taken it upon themselves to take commissions away from agents on the advertised lead in rates.  Meaning you as an agent are required to give part of your commission away to close a sale.  This is a company policy they mandate that keeps the agency competitive but in a full commission job losing your commission is losing money.  There are also cruise lines that do not allow the above called rebating so in that situation you are required to provide onboard credit, just another form of rebating your commission.

Customer Service scores, surveys are emailed out to your customers following any cruise.  This is expected but it’s either all or nothing for you as an agent.  You either exceeded expectations or you are penalized.  Mean you have a customer saying you did a good job in the agency’s mind  that is not acceptable.  Get below 80% in your surveys you will be calling all booked customers until those scores become acceptable.

I think the final point I will make is compensation.  The % of commission has never one time increased but multiple payment options have decreased.  Never once did any salary employee ever was asked to give up salary but each agent has been and often are required to work in situations that provide no payment.
Keep in mind you can lose all commissions paid to you if a person cancels a reservation even up to a week prior to the departure of the cruise, you can often be required to service customers even after they have completed their vacation and you must always sell, be up beat and accurate with no excuses working in a huge loud call center with bells ringing all day.

There is much more from you are not paid for vacation time to you will work weekends or nights for years to working holidays as a new employee is mandatory for years.

Lastly I think it is very important that everyone understands that this is a management that for over 10 years allowed a director of cruises to bully, harass and intimidate with full knowledge, all new employees must be college educated but a director of sales with a GED, a person who quit the company but only to return and be immediately promoted into management, this is a company built on nepotism at all levels and protecting their own.

If you are willing to work over 70 hours a week for atleast your first 5 years you can obtain the 100k advertised, but after leaving its simply just a job and it’s a huge city and if you have intelligence and ambition my advise take control because if you don’t this company will. Bottom line the agency does not care about you just what you give them until your no longer useful.  I might be all sour grapes but everything I wrote is accurate regardless of any response from the agency’s rebuttal.

With Vacations To Go, my destiny is in my hands.  There is no upward limit to my success and my success is a reflection of the choices I make on a daily basis.  


My typical day usually begins with logging in to my sales management system and completing the tasks that I've been assigned by the system or clearing up any tasks highlighted for me by the system.  This usually takes just a couple of minutes.  After that, I read through and respond to any e-mails that have come in since my last shift and listen to any voicemails that have been left and return those calls.  Once I've responded to my e-mails and voicemails, I start to follow up on any open leads I have to make sure that my customers have all the information that they need and if they do, begin the booking process if they are ready.  Once I've completed my follow-ups, I take new leads both via the phone and or those that have been submitted online.  Throughout the course of the day, there are always e-mails and calls that come in so I try to respond to those as quickly as I can while still trying to service existing customers and secure new leads and business.  

Vacations To Go gives me the framework and support to be successful.  The management team is always available and ready to help when I need them but they are not intrusive or overbearing as long as I am doing what I need to do in a timely manner and maintaining a high level of customer service.  When I begin to slip, they will gently let me know and provide help and guidance to keep me on the path to be successful. Vacations To Go is very good about setting and communicating expectations, helping you monitor your progress to meet those expectations, and providing the support and structure to continually meet them.  There are no surprises.


Vacations To Go has always had a culture of constant refinement and improvement.  I love that they are constantly seeking ways to help us be more successful.  Even the smallest changes can have a big impact.  There is a suggestion box that all employees have access to and there are occasional company-wide surveys sent out asking for feedback.  Vacations To Go hosts several offsite events throughout the year for employees and their families.  Ending the year with the annual awards gala is always a good time and a celebration of your success throughout the year.   


The hardest part of my job is the discipline and self-motivation needed to stay successful.  While Vacations To Go provides the framework and more than enough support to be successful but you are the ultimate source of your success.  It can be easy to come in everyday and not know where to begin or to wait for someone to tell you what to do in every moment.  Successful agents do the things they are supposed to do when they need to be done repeatedly day after day.  Some days are easier than others.  Some days you feel like you're on top of the world and nothing can stop you.  Some days you know you have bills to pay and you need to make money.  Some days you may not feel like working very hard but you do it anway.  You have to find a strong "why" to keep you going.  


The most enjoyable part of my job are the people, both customers and co-workers.  It's enjoyable to sell something that people genuinely want and are excited for.  You're helping people have some of the best times of their lives.  That's not to say that that there are not difficulties.  Selling vacations also involves service and problem-solving at times.  I've always found that servicing customers makes me better at sales and being good at sales helps me be better at servicing customers.  They go hand in hand.  You can't be good at one without the other and they are both required for this job.


I view what I do as my own "business" and I try to do everything with my long-term goals in mind.   I look forward to coming to work every day, even when it is a "grind", and I cannot wait to see what the future holds for myself and Vacations To Go.

Vacations To Go is a call center.  They try to paint it as a great place to work where the sky is the limit on your income.  Nothing could be farther from the truth.  True, there are lots of people that have been there for 10 or more years which they LOVE to boast about.  What they don't tell you is you have to work way over 40 hours to make the kind of income they promise and most of these agents are like used car salesmen.  They are also the ones who are good at stealing other agents sales which mgmt cares nothing about. The classroom training is two weeks of information coming at you.  Then there is the training floor  -  nice, clean and fully stocked with supplies, albeit managed by an individual with NO personality.  Then you graduate the training floor and go upstairs to a filthy outpost of cubicles crammed together.  Management is made up of former agents who couldn't cut it and have formed a clique and HR is run by a young individual with limited experience and his yes man.  Policies are not uniformly applied - there is complete favoritism from mgmt depending on whether they like you.  Vacations To Go owns it's own building and it is filthy and failing apart.  The bathrooms are disgusting.  The plumbing fixtures and refrigerators are rusted.  The drains don't drain.  Water dispensers don't work.  The owner and CEO do not care what goes on below their executive floor as they are driving Porsches and Maseratis and a large part of their business is from publications and advertising, not sales. They absolutely do not care about the customers.  The whole system is about getting the sale as fast as you can and getting off of the phone to get to your next sale.  I was only there a couple of months but fielded many calls from clients who complained about how they were treated.  You are penalized if you give the customer too much time.  This is NOT the place to work if you prioritize customer service over income.  Lastly, management will respond to this with a canned response about how they are sorry for my experience. It will be as fake as everything else they claim.  There is a reason that they have a new class starting every month with 20 people.  Proceed with caution - you've been warned.

If you end up with a good manager, that makes the job infinitely more bearable. However, poor managers abound in both lower and upper management. The management culture is very secretive. Agents often have massive policy changes sprung on them with little warning and poor explanation/justification. Of course, a company can change their policies when they see fit, but they often forget that we have to explain these policy changes to clients. To discriminating consumers, feeble explanations for massive policy changes are a reason to shop elsewhere. Even though the staff of over 700 agents is incredibly diverse, upper management is very homogenous. 

Also, management frequently asks you to work through lunch or work extra hours with the only compensation being offered for the extra time being a cold lunch or an unpaid vacation day. An hour of my time is worth more to me than a sandwhich from Jimmy John's or a permission to be absent a day from work (cleverly worded as a vacation day, even though we don't get paid for it). 

Also, in the slower months, we frequently have to attend hour long training sessions with various vendors. These training sessions very rarely have any benefit for seasoned agents, but rather, they seem to be a pretext for upper management to hoard incentives for themselves (i.e. free cruises, resort stays, money, etc). 

On the positive side, if you are willing to put in 50-55 hours a week, it can be quite lucrative. Although there is fairly high turnover, a lot of the employees have been there for 5 years or more, so they must be doing something right. But make no mistake, it's difficult to earn $70k a year, which, depending on your obligations, may be what it takes to make it worth your while at a full time job with no paid vacation. 

Another positive aspect of the company was their response during Hurriane Harvey. They reached out to employees who were personally impacted by the storm. They brought in hot breakfast and lunch for the week or two immediately after the storm. They also arranged rebuilding efforts for the community, so that was very nice to see. 

Overall, Vacations To Go, like all companies, has some major flaws, but it can be a good place to work if you have a decent schedule and a good manager.

Each day is adventurous and fun in a variety of ways: counting your earned commissions, making dreams come true by setting up dream vacations and building relationships that extend beyond that single call all add to personal fulfillment and a rewarding career!

The travel industry has more to offer than I ever imagined. Not only can you career blossom here at Vacations To Go with management opportunities, unlimited income potential and literally 18+ days of vacation each year, but you can build relationships with organizations for future opportunities around the globe!

Vacations To Go management has a single purpose: Supporting their sales-staff - period! You are never micro-managed. Of course, the client is the primary focus as VTG has spent 25+ years building its reputation as the best vacation planning company on the planet. So, as long as you take care of the client effectively and provide excellent service, you are on your own to manage your business. 

Workplace culture is casual, relaxed and fun. Management encourages group events, holds annual outings for all employees and allows you to do as much or little as you choose. The hours are mandatory as we cover inbound calls. Yet, your work-schedule is as busy or calm as you want it to be. You and you alone determine your check and your level of activity. 

The most difficult part of this job is learning to manage all the business! That's the best "problem" any sale-person could possibly wish for is - overwhelming demand! VTG gives you a six-month salary to allow you to learn at your pace. The learning includes systems, product knowledge and customer care. An environment that strongly encourages a learn at-your-own-pace mentality truly gives every employee the opportunity to succeed. The 'only' reason you will not succeed is if you truly do not enjoy the business. Period.

The best part of the job is being excited about coming to work and the ability to determine your own worth. Whether you are content making $40,000 a year or $180,000 a year, it can be done! The fact that you wake up each day knowing you are making in difference in people's lives by giving them once-in-a-lifetime travel opportunities is the most rewarding aspect of working at Vacations To Go!

Ok so I’m going to do a lot of people a huge favor here and describe exactly what it’s like to work at Vacations to go. 

First of all, you can forget about making anywhere near $80,000 for at least your first two years. You can possibly do around $60,000 if a) you’re lucky b) you have 0 life outside of work and you’re willing to put in 70+ hours a week and c) if you don’t kill yourself from the soul sucking, repetitive work 

The hours and benefits are total trash. Do not even think of applying here if you have a family or value your personal relationships. 

This is the type of work that you will do: most of your day consists of being on hold with the cruise lines to answer idiotic questions from nit picky customers about their vacations. Once you play the whole “sales game” with the customers they may or may not book. Times this by all day long and you have your workday. 

DO NOT think that this is actually a sales job and you can use your amazing sales skills to get ahead. You will be fed leads (way nicer than cold calling) and you will deliver a script. If you go off that script, you will be fired. No question about it. 

I keep reading about how excited everyone gets about all the free lunch they provide. Imagine cold airline food and drop it down a level. Soggy sandwiches is usually what they will provide when they don’t want you to take a lunch break. 

One might read all this and think that I’m some disgruntled former employee, and I assure you I’m not. As a matter of fact, I actually have nothing against the company itself. If I were in the market for a vacation I would definitely give them a look because they do have some good deals. 

Lastly, even though this job is horrible, there may be one good reason to work here for the first 4 months (which is what I did). They offer a guaranteed monthly salary of $3500. You won’t make more than that during or after, but you don’t really need to worry because their accounting department is always on time with the checks. After that last check, leave. The people who stay are robots whose eyes are glazed over and who are in denial about how bad their jobs are.

Vacations To Go is a great company to work for. They genuinely care for their people and our success and they give us lots of tools to help us get there. We have lots of training with 6 months of guaranteed salary pay. This gives us plenty of time to learn the sales strategies, the booking engines and programs we use and to build a customer base before we are set free to commission only.

Management has an open-door policy and they are all here to help us with questions, difficult customers and area we may be struggling in. We have metrics in place to help us understand where we need to improve on service and sales- its like a roadmap to help me know what areas I need to tweak and where I'm really doing well. 

They only hire from within and there is lots of opportunity to move into a Team Manager role or a Customer Care Specialist role or even other departments like pricing and accounting, etc.

There are lots of fun events throughout the year. We have theme days like Hawaii Day or NFL Jersey Day, MLB Jersey Day, Breast Cancer Awareness Day, etc. Some days they just walk around and pass out fruit and Crystal Light drink mix with bottles of water. There are 3 family-friendly events each year (Spring and Fall Cookoff at Dave & Busters and a Holiday party). On top of that, your team manager holds fun little things on their own like booking contests and pot luck lunches. Speaking of booking contests, there are always some sort of give-aways within the office for gift cards, trips and other prizes (speakers, drones, tvs, ipads, etc.)

The schedule can be a little tough at first but that changes as your earn seniority and get a better schedule. They are currently working on a schedule where new agents never have to work both weekend days....they only have to work one. But the bright side is that I have a day off during the week to do doctor/dentist appointments or run errands, etc. 

I'm very happy here and have been for many years. I look forward to many more. Thank you for all you do, VTG!

It's hard to describe my experience here in just one paragraph so I'll list some pros and cons.

Pros 
- The money is here and ANYONE can make a great living, its not like other sales jobs where the top 5% are the only people making real money.
- There is a ton of benefits including rolling bonuses every month.
- They feed us! This seems silly but seriously, expect to gain a few pounds when you start working here.
- Great management staff all around. 
- The CEO is real, not just a boss that works on the top floor and doesn't communicate with the entry level staff. I've run into him a few times on the elevator and had pleasant conversations he's a really genuine guy.

Cons
- There is a bell that notifies us when a call is holding, it can be loud and annoying. However I like to think of the bell as a cash register sound because it means there's money on the line.
- The hours when you first start will not be great but they have worked to make this better. It will take some time before you get to your desired schedule but that's just the nature of the job.
- The training pay is generous but it runs out at 6 months. I wouldn't really call this a con but its something everyone should be aware of. If you work during that time, there is no reason you won't make more than the training pay in less than 6 months. 
- The customer survey scores that dictate some of our bonuses can seem unfair at times but when you learn how to manage your clients this will get better.
- As our industry evolves so does the company, there is a lot of changes constantly happening but this is part of keeping up with the market.

Before I started here I knew nothing about cruising but a lot about customer service. The company taught me everything I know now about the industry. The culture here in the office is amazing, they have really succeeded in creating a comfortable work environment. They don't want to see you fail and will work with you in everyway possible to help you be successful.

The great thing about Vacations To Go is the people. Namely, your coworkers (and some of the managers) are pretty awesome. That, and you’ll get a base salary for a certain amount of time. 

But that’s pretty much it. 

When you’re in training, you’ll get told that there are plenty of managers to assist you once you get to the training sales floor. Once you get there, however, you’ll either be waiting a long time for assistance or get help but with a passive aggressive or condescending tone. There’s only two managers in the training area that are great. The rest of them are terrible. 

Once you graduate, you’ll get to the sales floor. If you want to make over the minimum, then you HAVE to work over 80 hours a week. Period. Even the managers agree that if you want to make more than the minimum in a short amount of time, then you’re going to work more than 80-100 hours. In other words, your work-life balance won’t be great. 

In regards to the commissions, it can vary. You can spend 2 hours on the phone with someone and make $20 off a Carnival cruise or spend 30 minutes on the phone and make $300 off a luxury cruise (if you’re lucky to pick up a call like that from the phone queue). 

Lastly, it can feel like a glorified call center at times. You’re sitting at your desk, and your livelihood depends on picking up calls from the queue. Sometimes, you’ll have to take 20 calls a day just to make a sale and your commission might not even be worth that much. And that doesn’t include the amount of time you’ll spend calling the cruise lines if your clients have an issue. If that’s the case, then you can spend anywhere from 10 minutes to 3-4 hours trying to get an issue resolved. 

If you’re interested in working here, then try it out. There’s a lot of good reviews on here about Vacations To Go and a lot of bad ones too, but it’s up to you to make your own decision on how you feel about this place.  

After a training period, I've started as a Bilingual Travel Agent in the French Dpt. Travel agents answer the phone and sell vacations (mostly ocean cruises) to customers all over the world by providing a great customer service and the best prices on the market. They build their own clientele and they truly can earn a tremendous wage if they keep having their bucket full of prospects and a balanced way to manage their work. No cold calls! That means that every call is an opportunity to earn money and a loyal clientele who will come back again and again. I would not say the job is always easy and it is for everyone, but if you like being challenged and you love great compensations for your hard work, don't look further! 
The company's mission is clear and motivating.
Later on, Vacations To Go offered me a new career opportunity and I became Manager of the French Customer Service. The upper-management is truly one of the best I've ever worked for. They have always been very supportive and helpful regarding different types of situations. People in the HR Dpt are truly awesome too! Doors are always opened when you need to discuss or when you have a question. Very dedicated atmosphere, friendly colleagues and casual dress code. All employees do their best at every level!
Unfortunately, the pandemic has been a difficult time for the travel industry in general and for the cruises specialists in particular. I sadly had to leave this position. But I remain available for any new job offer from Vacations To Go whenever it will be possible again. Our collaboration has always been a perfect match and I highly recommend this company for its respectful work ethic.

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