Why Storefronts Remain Backbone of the Industry

What Travel Market Report was hearing while attending recent industry conferences, primarily populated by home-based agents, were the advantages of home-based agents over storefront operations (for example in the cost of operations) and that the storefront model is outdated. But after TMR visited storefront agent locations recently, a different view emerged: These agents contend that even with growth in home-based operations and high-tech national call centers, storefronts and office locations accessible to the public remain the silent majority of leisure travel sellers. Indeed, many have home-based agents reporting to their storefront location. Why?

To get a perspective, TMR checked in with two of the most visible retail travel storefront operations on the West Coast — Doug Fox Travel & Cruise in Seattle and The TravelStore, headquartered on Wilshire Blvd. in the Brentwood section of Los Angeles, with branches throughout the state of California.

Julie Crotts, senior vice president-Pacific Northwest of Doug Fox Travel & Cruise, reported a storefront presence is necessary for the business, although she did reduce the total number of locations. “We used to have 24 storefront locations [15 years ago] throughout the Puget Sound, she said. “We now have eight. As the business has changed from primarily walk-ins to primarily e-mail/phone reservations, we have consolidated and merged our office locations. Our strategic plan is to reduce our office locations to four: one north, one south, one central and one west,” she noted.

Crotts explained that brick-and-mortar locations are maintained so that both employees and clients don’t have to deal with massive traffic. “We want to be convenient for both groups,” she said. “Many of our employees do not want to work from home. Also, there is a large contingent of our clients that still want the face-to-face. This way, our clients can contact us via phone, e-mail, or come in to see us. We are available to our clients regardless of how they want to contact us.”

Dan Ilves

Dan Ilves of the TravelStore in Los Angeles noted: “As is always the case, there are pros and cons to operating storefront locations. The retail location offers us and, more importantly, our agents, some advantages — we generally feel we work and operate as a team, even though each agent is his or her own entrepreneurial center to some degree. Working in an office enables agents to vent issues and frustrations, deal with stress differently, and share the trials and tribulations of our industry.”

To Ilves, working as a group also provides networking advantages between agents. “While people are linked online or via chat or phone quite readily, it’s quite a different situation when you see people every day, work with them every day, and can talk face-to-face every day,” he said. “It’s much easier to deal with some issues, get input and advice, get support, etc.”

And, he points out, it’s easier to meet vendors. So in the office you get more insight into products and destinations. “Perhaps because there are fewer solid brick-and-mortar locations, vendors are clamoring to visit,” observed Ilves. “Our business and our success is built on personal relationships, be it with a destination, a wholesaler, or a hotelier, and we have firsthand rapport with many GMs and have had guest speakers visit from overseas, etc., that add much value to our agents’ knowledge, personal connections, and expertise.”

And he maintains that having on-site visits and presentations, one on one, is quite a different quality of connection than one generally can have at a large trade show. Vendors, he says, “visiting a location gives the vendor a much stronger picture of who we are.”

At TravelStore, the office location enables staff to get together and touch base every morning. “Each day we review one of our core values and then discuss that or whatever else comes up,” said Ilves. “While each agent has to act as their own brand to their clients, our company is clearly the larger brand they are part of, and it’s meaningful to understand what that brand stands for and what we’re all part of. All employees are owners of the company, which lends even more value to our brick-and-mortar setup and working together as a group.”

Comparison with Independent Contractors

But doesn’t this impact independent contractors working with the company?  “We do have ICs that work from home, and, frankly, they are the most removed from the action that occurs in the office,” conceded Ilves. “While they are great agents, it’s difficult for them to feel part of the culture, at least to the same degree.”

Asked which are more productive, he said that many home-based agents are very focused and hardworking but it’s a “rare breed” that can turn off “life” and turn on “work.”

Ilves said that he has both employees and independent agents in the office. “Some ICs act and behave just like employees in their work habits and interaction, and we have ICs that don’t participate in the office in hardly any communication, and come and go as they wish. It’s not a function of the workplace environment at all,” he said, adding some ICs working at home are more profitable per hour than those that work in an office, and vice versa.

Ilves’ perspective is that those ICs that work from home have no interest in what’s going on in the office and are generally motivated more by perceived financial advantages rather than being part of the culture and what the brand stands for. “Some of our respected competitors have been far more aggressive in soliciting and acquiring agents, and I understand the advantages and the strategy,” he noted.

However, he added that an office structure helps to maintain a company culture and values. “We hope it also makes for a more compelling place to work,” summed up Ilves. “Last year we received ‘The Best Place To Work In LA’ award from the Los Angeles Business Journal, a competition that was rather intense, with a very detailed process behind it judged by a third-party firm.’ The award was meaningful to Ilves.

“Don’t get me wrong. We don’t feel we work in nirvana here,” Ilves said, noting the many issues and challenges.  Yet, similar to Doug Fox Travel & Cruise, the solid foundation of a storefront location at The TravelStore is seen as helping with employee morale.