I joined FORA in late 2023 as a side hustle. Given that this is my first time working within the travel industry, I have been thoroughly impressed by the training they provide their advisors. Everything proceeds at your own pace and there are multiple avenues to engage in training (live workshops, online modules, virtual topic-specific office hours, etc.).
The FORA team also values community amongst advisors, which is demonstrated through online forums, organized site inspections and other networking opportunities. They want their advisors to have what they need to be successful and even go so far as to provide marketing support/assets for a variety of platforms.
I would recommend FORA to anyone who has a passion for the travel industry, especially if you're a first timer looking to get your foot in the door. The resources available have made it possible for me to build my own business while still having a full time job.
Booking with Fora Travel was an absolute breeze! My travel advisor was super attentive and crafted a personalized itinerary that included all the unique experiences I was looking for. They took care of every detail, from boutique hotel stays to exclusive local tours. I felt like I had insider access everywhere I went! Communication was excellent throughout, and I really appreciated the little touches like local tips and restaurant recommendations. I can't wait to plan my next adventure with them!
Booking with Fora Travel was an absolute breeze! My travel advisor was super attentive and crafted a personalized itinerary that included all the unique experiences I was looking for. They took care of every detail, from boutique hotel stays to exclusive local tours. I felt like I had insider access everywhere I went! Communication was excellent throughout, and I really appreciated the little touches like local tips and restaurant recommendations. I can't wait to plan my next adventure with them!
Booking with Fora Travel was an absolute breeze! My travel advisor was super attentive and crafted a personalized itinerary that included all the unique experiences I was looking for. They took care of every detail, from boutique hotel stays to exclusive local tours. I felt like I had insider access everywhere I went! Communication was excellent throughout, and I really appreciated the little touches like local tips and restaurant recommendations. I can't wait to plan my next adventure with them!
Booking with Fora Travel was an absolute breeze! My travel advisor was super attentive and crafted a personalized itinerary that included all the unique experiences I was looking for. They took care of every detail, from boutique hotel stays to exclusive local tours. I felt like I had insider access everywhere I went! Communication was excellent throughout, and I really appreciated the little touches like local tips and restaurant recommendations. I can't wait to plan my next adventure with them!
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I joined Fora Travel five months ago, and I am absolutely loving it, even though I'm not working full-time. Here are a few things that stand out to me:
Luxurious Feel: From the moment you log into Fora, you can sense the luxury. The platform is user-friendly and clearly a result of significant investment in cutting-edge technology.
Wide Range of Options: One of the best aspects of Fora is the variety of options available. Whether you're looking for budget-friendly hotel or high-end luxury accommodations, Fora has it all. The numerous partnerships with different hotels make finding the perfect place for clients incredibly easy.
Efficient Commission Payments: Fora is very straightforward and organized when it comes to paying commissions. This reliability and transparency make the business side of things smooth and stress-free.
Knowledgeable Community: The Fora community offers a wealth of knowledge. Being part of a network of experienced and passionate travel advisors has been incredibly beneficial. The shared insights and support have been invaluable in enhancing my skills and knowledge.
Endless Resources: Fora provides endless resources that help me excel in my role. From comprehensive training materials to marketing tools and industry insights, everything I need to succeed is at my fingertips.
Overall, my experience with Fora Travel has been fantastic. The combination of luxury, technology, variety, efficient operations, knowledgeable community, and endless resources makes it a standout platform for any travel advisor. Highly recommend!
Thank you for the kind review Roula!
As a brand new travel advisor, I have SO appreciated the infrastructure, training, community, and support that Fora has provided. They have really made it a breeze to get started in this industry. They're always super open to feedback about how they can provide a better experience for their advisors, and are constantly making good improvements to their platform. High recommend for anyone looking to work with higher-end/luxury clientele, as they are a Virtuoso agency so have great relationships.
I’ve tried other host agencies and tried going at it on my own. The benefit outweighs the cost so far. I’ve received more training opportunities, better benefits to entice clients and plenty of customizable resources to help market my business. I usually want to be in complete control, but I found a host agency that I’m calling home. I plan to stay with FORA for a long time and grow my business. I recommend anyone looking to start their travel advisor business apply and start with FORA.
In the short time I've been with Fora, I'm very pleased with the training and marketing materials provided. I still have a lot to learn as I build my business and Fora HQ has been so supportive along the way. Training can be done on your own time with the recordings or live virtual opportunities. My only problem with the live sessions is the timing since I'm on the west coast and have a day job. With Fora HQ based out of NY, I find a lot of trainings are early in the morning or right in the middle of the day. I'm pleased with Fora's guidance and flexibility on how to build your brand/business while staying within the brand guidelines,. Templates and content to share across your chosen marketing method(s) have been super useful! I'm eager to get to Pro status so setting early goals and getting comfortable with the uncomfortable feeling of "selling myself" is the key to growth.
Thank you Ali! It's great having you as part of the community. Also just ensuring you are linked up with our LA Chapter - it's a big one and a great group!
Joining FORA was a breeze, and their initial training covered the basics thoroughly, which was helpful. It was refreshing to have the fundamentals spelled out, especially since not many agencies offer that level of detail. Their marketing is basic but beautiful, easy to implement, and helpful for new or part-time agents. They also provide ongoing opportunities for supplier training, which I find very valuable.
However, there's a significant gap in support when it comes to learning about the business aspect of advising. Many new agents are left to navigate on their own, resulting in mistakes that don't align with the promises made to clients or to agents during recruitment.
Initially, I appreciated the convenience of not having to manually submit for commission. But due to accounting and payment errors, I've had to resort to using Sion to track my own commissions.
It's disheartening to witness FORA's focus on recruiting rather than supporting their current agents or emphasizing the value of working with a travel agent. By portraying this profession as easy without offering sufficient support, it undermines the credibility of our industry and makes it challenging to attract luxury clients—especially when FORA is actively recruiting them to join as agents themselves.
Dear anonymous,
We appreciate your feedback. I wanted to clarify a few points within it.
I would like to emphasize that it is not accurate that we are focused on recruiting new agents instead of supporting our existing agents. All of the investments we are making in training, community support, technology, and partner relationships are focused on supporting our community. This is well over 80% of our headcount and expense base.
We run over 80 live trainings and office hours every month, and have 350 lessons pre-loaded in our advisor portal.
While our some of our marketing focuses on the luxury consumer, we are in no way actively recruiting clients as agents as we've mentioned previously.
Wishing you success as you continue your career as a travel advisor.
Fora has started taking our clients and making them agents, and don't give us any notice or profit share. This makes it incredibly hard to build a business. Once a client adds me on instagram, they start getting direct marketing from Fora (due to the algorithm). My best client texted me and said she's now joined Fora, but just to book travel for herself and family. Has no interest in making it a business. She just wants the discounts and the commission for her own travel. I'm happy for her - but just lost 30k in revenue overnight for next year and I'm worried my other clients will do the same. I know Fora wants to build its deck of advisors, however they have to find a way to do it without destroying the businesses their agents are building. It's not fair to take all of our best clients and turn them into agents with no warning, no apology and no notice even. It's very disheartening.
Dear anonymous,
I'm sorry to hear that you've had a negative experience with a client joining Fora.
We have strict community guidelines in place so that no new advisor is allowed to join and claim credit for a prior booking made by a Fora Advisor. If this what has happened to you please reach out to support and we will honor the original commission.
We also have explicit guardrails that prevents new advisors from taking advantages of agent rates or typical agent benefits prior to Pro status.
The insinuation that Fora is taking clients and making them agents is not true. We are also working to try and restrict where and how ads are served, however there is certainly no intent behind Fora ads getting served to clients to the extent this is happening.
We acknowledge that the democratized and inclusive nature of our model has pros and cons.
On the pro side, our model allows us to invest heavily in training, community support, industry relationships, and technology to create an advisor experience with a very high success rate.
As a result, despite the cons, our community reaches key milestones significantly ahead of industry benchmarks. We have nearly 500 Pro-level and X-level advisors. 345 advisors (as of April 2024) have achieved these benchmarks within one year of joining.
Wishing you success in continuing to build your business - we are here to support you and appreciate your feedback.