The Race to the Bottom - Why independent travel agents should focus on more than just price

Most independent travel agents at some point will have experienced this at some point. That client reaches out on social media with a screen shot asking you to beat a quote they have seen randomly online somewhere.

You’ve put in months or years of training, your adverts may even contain lines like “send me your online prices and I’ll see if I can match or beat them” and yet your doing what feels like more and more work, cut your commission, only to hear the disappointing reply of “Oh thanks but we decided to book online, it was £50 cheaper” 😩

Here's where it becomes a race to the bottom. Time and time again I see agent complaining that OTA's are out there offering direct booking discounts, while independent agents watching their expertise get reduced to price matching impossible prices with virtually no commission left to be competitive with. It's frustrating but this is what happens when you work on selling on price alone in a market that is this competitive.

Here is how the marketing narrative had changed in the travel industry as the reach of digital technology has increased.

• Price comparison sites trained customers to see travel as a commodity not as an experience.

• Agents are trained to compete on price instead of value and service.

• OTAs can undercut because they don’t provide service - just a transaction. The customer loyalty element wains as one customer is easily replaced with another.

You can’t win a race to the bottom, so stop running it!

”‘Thanks for all the research! We’ve decided to book direct to save £50.’

If you’ve never received that message after spending hours creating the perfect itinerary, you’re either lying or you started last week.What the customer doesn't see is what happened in the background. More importantly what the customer doesn't feel is value in their experience until sometimes sadly its too late.

Here’s what’s happened: Skyscanner, Booking.com, Trivago - they’ve spent BILLIONS training customers to see travel as nothing but price. Cheapest flight wins. Lowest hotel rate wins.

And now you’re competing against that. Against companies that can afford to make as little as £5 per booking because they do VOLUME. And they do lots of it too. They are set up for it, with automations, email campaigns, TV ads, even billboards in airports constantly selling without them having to even try. While you are out here spending hours on a Canva poster that will get 2 likes because you can't afford to run paid ads.

You can’t win that race. You’ll go broke trying.

I recently broke my own rule for a repeat client, I'd spent days back n forth with DMC's and tour ops trying to get that "Unicorn" price down at peak season on a last minute tour of Sri Lanka. Both myself and the DMC checked over 50 hotels for availability to suit the itinerary I planned. Long story short guess what happened.... yep you guessed it booking.com happened. Lesson learned once again, just because someone booked with you once doesn't yet mean they value your services.

When someone is valueing you on price alone you will struggle at times to convert that booking over. This is why your messaging is cruitial in the clients you want to attract long term.

The agents who are THRIVING right now? They stopped competing on price years ago. They compete on expertise, access, service, and results their clients can’t get anywhere else.

They’ve positioned themselves as specialists, not booking clerks. So on my repeat client could I of cut my commission to nothing to secure the booking? Yes of course I could. Did I? No!! Because I don't want clients who only come to me to save money, I want clients who come to me to save time. That is my USP. Yes sometimes I will be able to save you both, but ultimately am I going to try and continue to compete against faceless companies who employ staff oversee's to avoid paying minimum wage, lack of personal touches, Ai intergrations and chat bots? Absolutly not!!! We are not the same and I want customers who know the difference.

This is what I teach in my Business Strategy & Mentoring sessions - how to shift from ‘Can I book your holiday?’ to ‘I’m the only person who can get you THIS experience.’

Because when you’re the only one who can deliver what they want, price becomes irrelevant. Or at the very least only a small part of the decision making process. Imagine if Chanel marketed like Primark, they would have a very different looking business model and profit structure. Yet people, the right people will still queue up for that latest Chanel bag and Primark has to do a lot more for a lot less.

So to those agents out there that feel like they are doing all the things, and still arn't seeing the results or clients they want. I feel you. Your business model isn't broken, your messaging and positioning is. Guess what... that's a really easy fix. And it all starts with how YOU view YOUR business.

To book in for a 1-2-1 session before the end of the year to kick off your new positioning and messaging strategy, and start attracting the right clients in 2026 spaces are limited but some slots are still available and on BLACK FRIDAY offers until the 30th November 2025. Book any session using code SAVEME for 50% off from now until 31st December 2025.

Business Strategy & Mentoring

£145.00

1h

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