I began my journey with Avoya about 6 months ago. The training was excellent. It is online so you can move at your own pace. There is live support every step of the way. The trainers have a great deal of expertise and are very patient. About five months ago I began with my first client. The excellent support continued with Avoya's Early Success program. They offer outstanding workshops conducted by experts in the field. Upon completion of their Early Success program, the support continues. With every question I've had or challenge I've encountered, the Avoya team has been there with timely responses. Their platform for booking and managing travel is excellent. It's user friendly! Lastly, I credit my success, over $900,000 is sales in less than 5 months time, with the training and support I've received from the Avoya team.
Hi, I just wanted to tell you all a little bit about my experience with this company. I also want to point out that most of these good reviews were just days in between and most clustered all on the same day, as seems to be a pattern if you go through them all, that should be a red flag for anyone reading them.
My husband and I both signed up with them a couple years back. Some background, we have both been business owners of several very successful brick and mortar businesses, not travel but in another industry. And sold all at top capacity and top dollar. Those businesses are still in business and doing well with the foundation and training we left them with. We currently own a business that is doing very well to the point where we won several awards from our franchise. Both of us are educated people and know business.
From the very beginning it was a nightmare. When we filled out our business forms which were simple and ones we have filled out many many times for our other businesses we were told they were filled out incorrectly. One was a direct deposit form, W9 Reference Form and the last was a credit card authorization form. My husband got asked to redo his approximately 15 times and I was asked to redo mine close to 30 times, all in Docusign, until I started taking screen shots and sending them to the person handling this piece of the business, knowing the forms were filled out correctly. Then suddenly they were fine. This was done by a woman named Melissa who I think was just abusing what little power she had. We have filled these forms out in our careers more times than I can count and can do them in our sleep. Apparently this is a problem because the president of the travel school we went to told us to watch for those forms, that apparently they were very "hard to fill out".
You can't schedule your training until the forms are filled out so my husband got his date first and mine was several days later. I was sitting in on his training on our computer in our living room and when the trainer realized I was watching with him and it wasn't my training date they said I would have to leave the room. In my own home. On my own computer. Completely ridiculous. I thought I would go through training twice and they should have been glad I was willing to do that. Of course I didn't leave.
The tech, when it worked was awesome. Like I said, when it worked. The so-called live leads shouldn't be confused with viable leads. They were just people that had to sign up to look at the deals on the website. Almost none were ready to make a decision. Despite that, I sold my first cruise my first week. My commission on that was $25 by the time they got their cut and I spent a lot of time on it. My brother in law had signed up to look at deals some time before I was with Avoya and wanted to use me to book any future cruises and they wouldn't allow me to have his business as business I brought with me and wanted to pay me as if he was a live lead provided by them which is a drastic difference. He doesn't even remember signing up with them. My advice to him was go directly to the cruise company. They cruise 5-8 times a year, it would have been smart for them to do the right thing.
I then sold another cruise, a rather expensive European cruise and again, I didn't make nearly what I should have given the time I spent on it. Then I booked a third cruise, again European, and I never received ANY of my commission on any cruise I booked. Did I call and try to get my money? No. We only got into this because we thought it would be fun and we would get discounts on travel. My experience during the forms incident, and the poor treatment by Jennifer Anderson who I begged to help with that situation told me it was going to be a fruitless effort. So I walked away. I think the problem was that there was a another company with the same name as mine under their umbrella which they failed to mention or I would have picked another name. In fact, they didn't even know, I had to call their attention to it.My husband got such a bad taste in his mouth because of the first few encounters he never even tried to sell anything. We were both charged separation fee's even though he never went beyond the training.
In closing, I think the training was ok, the tools were ok, the tech was good when it worked but the management is absolutely terrible. You absolutely have no recourse if something goes wrong and had I gotten paid, the compensation was terrible. Which also factored into my decision to not take them to task for not paying me. It simply wasn't worth it. I would definitely go somewhere else.
Hi Jamie,
Thank you for your feedback. We take all reviews and feedback very seriously in our ongoing efforts to improve the Avoya Travel Network™.
We would be happy to address the issues you referenced, however, we have never had an Independent Affiliate with the name Jamie Smith, so it's a bit hard to reply to the specifics above.
From some of the comments above this seems to go back quite a few years. Filling out business forms correctly is certainly something we would expect from any business owner. If it took thirty times to fill out a few basic forms, perhaps that should have been a red flag to all of us from the start that this relationship was not going to end well.
I think it is fair to say that Avoya is not for everyone. I am glad that you found a partnership that is working out for you now.
Why are host agency reviews clustered on or around the same day? Well it's not really a sinister reason as suggested above. Every week we survey our agencies who have just hit their first sixty days with Avoya or are about to renew with Avoya. For any of you who are familiar with NPS Surveys you know how important the ongoing measurement of your service levels are and how valuable the feedback is. As part of this survey process we also ask our agency owners to post reviews on this site as well. No different than you probably do on your own website with your customer reviews.
I appreciate your fairness in pointing out what you thought was good about Avoya Travel. The staff at Avoya works hard to help the Independent Agencies in the Avoya Network and is very proud to be voted by travel professionals as the ‘Best Host Agency’ for the last four consecutive years. Avoya is a family owned and operated company that traces its roots back more than 50 years ago. From humble beginnings, the company has evolved into what today is known as the #1 Host with an elite and very successful network of independent travel professionals. We are known for having a reputation built on Integrity and Professionalism™ and will never quit striving to better serve Independent Agencies like yours.
I wish you all the best of luck in the future.
Steve Hirshan
Senior Vice President of Sales Support
Avoya Travel
[email protected]
I have been with Avoya for about a year and a half. Everyone there is incredibly supportive, they have tons of educational opportunities and information, and the prices are the best for clients.
Avoya is terrific!
Avoya is a great travel company! They have a great booking system called Agent Power, which makes it easy for me to access numerous travel options for my customers. In addition, the commission payments are much quicker than my former Travel Company, World Ventures. Avoya doesn’t require you to recruit other people into the business in order to be successful. You can be successful and profitable with Avoya without that massive and annoying multi-level marketing pressure that came with my other company.
Viable Leads, the latest technology, support for everything we need, and the experts who are not only involved in management, but also that support us every day - especially those wonderful people in the call center
I joined Avoya Travel in 2005. I can say with absolute certainty; it is the best decision I have ever made, except for marrying my husband. Avoya Travel provides the tools and support for success. By taking advantage of all Avoya delivers, there is no excuse for failure.
I am just starting out in the travel industry and Avoya has provided me with lots of support and guidance while I am learning.
March of 2018 will be my 20th year with Avoya, 8 in an office (when they had them in So.Cal) and 12 now from home as an AI. I will be with them until I retire! This agency has the technology and support that can make any Affiliate a success.
The lead program is second to none, as is the efficiency of the website. Technology is state of the art, and Avoya leads the industry in innovation. Great respect, wonderful promotions and commissions are advantages of affiliating with this esteemed company. Owners and staff truly care about their affiliates.
Largest Amex affiliate - with great buying power
Oriented to hundreds of home based agents - with great tools
Avoya has an amazing support system, including the incredible Mastermind program. And without the live leads I wouldn't be in business!