Prepare for Wave Season at Prep for Wave Week- Episode 33
Estimated Reading Time: 8 minutes
If you’re new to the travel industry or haven’t experienced it yet, let me tell you about wave season.
It’s the time of year when your phone starts ringing off the hook, your inbox fills up, and clients are ready to book.
Wave season typically runs from January through March, and it’s when travel advisors and travel suppliers see this massive influx of business.
Why?
Because everyone’s just spent the holidays with family, they’ve been talking about their travel plans, and they’re ready to make those trips happen.
After over ten years as a travel advisor and navigating this whole entrepreneurship journey, I’ve learned that the difference between thriving during wave season and barely surviving it comes down to one thing: preparation.
That’s exactly why I created Prep for Wave Week in 2021, a free event for travel agents designed to help you get everything in place before the rush hits.
Because trust me, December is way too late to start thinking about this. You need to be ready well in advance, and not scrambling at the end.
And can I just say?
I’m already seeing signs that wave season might be starting early.
The past couple weeks, I’ve gotten more calls on both the corporate side and personal sides.
It’s exciting, and it tells me we might be looking at a mini wave season happening right now.
So let’s talk about how you can prepare.
**Also, caveat, not everyone experiences a wave season at this time. Some advisors experience it later in the year, so donât get discouraged if you donât have a wave of business coming in when everyone else does.**
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Understanding Wave Season and Why It Matters for Your Travel Agency
Wave season is basically the Super Bowl of the travel industry, especially for cruise travel.
Now let me also dispel a myth for you, that wave season is only for cruise advisors, because itâs definitely not.
While cruising does pick up on revenue, all types of travel are being booked during this time.
It’s when cruise lines roll out their best deals, when clients are motivated to book, and when you as a travel agent need to be firing on all cylinders.
We’re talking cruise deals, onboard credit offers, beverage package upgrades, shore excursions included, the works.
Think about it. Your clients spent December with their families.
Maybe they’re planning a Caribbean cruise together, or someone mentioned wanting to finally take that cruise they’ve been dreaming about.
By January, they’re not just thinking about it anymore, they’re ready to book.
That’s wave season.
Now, cruise wave season specifically is huge because cruise lines know this is their prime booking window.
They’re competing for your clients’ business, which means better offers for your travelers and more opportunities for you to close deals.
So if you’re not prepared, wave season can burn you out fast.
Listen to the episode on YouTube
The Foundation: Avoiding Burnout This Wave Season
You can have the best marketing strategy in the world, but if you’re burnt out by February, what’s the point?
The very first session of our inaugural Prep for Wave Week is about avoiding burnout, and I was super intentional about this.
I had Steph Lee, founder of Host Agency Reviews, join me for this conversation, and coincidentally we both have autoimmune diseases.
For us, setting up boundaries isn’t just about mental health, but our physical health, too. Extra stress can literally exacerbate our conditions.
If you’ve been following the podcast, you know I did episodes this summer about setting up a model calendar and creating boundaries.
But I wanted this to be the foundation of the event because wave season can make or break your year.
You need to have systems in place that protect your energy and your health while you’re serving all these clients.
Getting Your Legal House in Order: Contracts and Agreements
On the same day I had friend and colleague, Tom Carpenter, Founder Carpenter Law Group PC, join us.
Tom’s a lawyer who came from the entertainment industry but also runs his own travel business, Huckleberry Travel.
He’s the one who put my contracts and agreements together last year (2020), which is still crazy to think that my first decade of business wasnât protected by legal agreements at all.
You really should not move forward with anything else in your business, if you don’t have contracts or agreements protecting you. Especially with different laws being enacted and the constantly changing world we’re in, you need to make sure you’re covered. This is one of those areas where you’re either in alignment with your travel business or you’re not. And if you’re not? You’re leaving yourself incredibly vulnerable.
Think about it- when you’re in the middle of cruise season and dealing with booking after booking, the last thing you want is a client dispute with no contract to back you up. Get this handled before wave season hits.
Determining Your Goals and Numbers
On Day 2, Stephanie Cannon, Founder of With Stephanie Cannon, joined us to talk about something not enough people discuss- your numbers.
Stephanie is a CPA and did a lot with corporate finances.
She has this dual role as a travel advisor who actually understands the financial side.
You need to know what success looks like for you this wave season. How many bookings do you need? What’s your revenue goal? What’s your average booking value? If you don’t know your numbers, you’re just hoping things work out. And hope isn’t a business strategy.
Aligning with Your Trade Association
Later that same day, I had Jackie Friedman, the president of Nexion Travel Group, talk about getting involved with ASTA (the American Society of Travel Advisors), along with Guida Botelho from The Travel Institute to discuss certifications like VTA and CTA, which are gold standard in the industry, along with the ACC from CLIA, Cruise Line International Association.
Belonging to these organizations, give you credibility with clients, provide resources during wave season, and connect you with other professionals who get what you’re doing.
When someone asks if you’re certified or what associations you belong to, you want to have solid answers like these ones.
Systems and SOPs: The Game Changer
On Day 3, we dove into systems and SOPs.
This is something I’m so passionate about because when I first started my travel business, I was using Word docs and Excel spreadsheets to do everything.
It was chaos.
I had Dave Natale (who uses TravelJoy [affiliate link] and Travefy in his travel business) and I know Angela Hughes from Luxury Travel University uses Monday as a project management tool.
These are travel advisors who are also in dual roles, understand that amazing technology is out there to help us.
Why does this matter so much?
What if something happens to you, and I’m not just talking about if you pass away.
What if you want to go on vacation?
Or retire?
Or hire someone?
How are they going to know the systems and things going on in your business if you don’t have these documented?
I’m actually heading in the direction to start using ClickUp myself.
I’ve talked about it for a while, but having your systems in place is baseline stuff. It streamlines everything.
It keeps you organized.
And during wave season when you’re juggling multiple bookings, it keeps you sane.
Building Strategic Supplier Relationships
Supplier relationships are about so much more than calling someone when you have an issue.
Your preferred suppliers can help you with marketing campaigns for wave season.
They can support you with promotions.
They know what’s happening with their cruise line, resort, or destination.
My advice? Don’t try to promote ten different suppliers. Pick your top two cruise lines that you love to sell, whose product you believe in, and where you have really great connections. When you need help prepping for wave season, whether it’s strategy or promotional support, they’ll be right there for you.
Updating Your Bios, Profiles, and Web Copy
Day 4 started out with the amazing Emily Matras from Bon Vivant Copy.
Emily just redid my brand new copy for my updated website.
I’d worked with her before on my first brand refresh where I did her course, but this time I was like, I don’t want to do it myself.
I need somebody else to take that from me and it was the best decision ever.
Before wave season hits, you need your messaging dialed in.
Your website, your social media profiles, your email signatureâŠeverything needs to clearly communicate who you serve and how you help them.
Because when potential clients land on your site during wave season, you’ve got seconds to convince them you’re the right travel agent for their needs.
The Power of Building Relationships
On the same day, we had a session on building travel client relationships.
Not enough people talk about this transparently in our industry, but relationships are so important.
If I knew then what I know now, I would have been networking and connecting with other people from the very beginning.
I wish I had the confidence to do so, but I also wish I’d known what the benefits were and the fruit that comes from building these relationships.
I had two powerhouse women joining us, A. Lynn Blanco of The Travel Agent Podcast and Margie Jordan of Jordan Executive Travel.
We talked about joint ventures and connecting within your local community.
These connections can send you referrals, collaborate on marketing events, and support you when wave season gets overwhelming.
Attracting Clients Without Social Media
Last day, best day!
We talked about attracting clients without social media.
Now, social media is super important; I’m not negating that fact and I love using it.
But social media is not the be-all-end-all, and not enough people are talking about the other ways you can attract clients.
Courtnie Nichols of The Biz Huddle joined me to discuss how you can put your business and personal values forward to attract the right clients.
Michelle Woodson Howell, a fellow travel advisor, talked about cultivating joint venture partnerships for a new client base.
These strategies work whether you’re promoting last minute cruise deals or planning trips a year out.
Creating Memorable Client Experiences
And then to round out the day, marketing strategist Nicolette Reynolds joined me.
She’s not in the travel industry, but she has so many great ideas for marketing without social media.
We talked about crafting a memorable client experience using one of my then favorite tools, Mailbox Power.
We’d discussed this on the podcast before, but we brought fresh ideas, especially going into holiday season.
You can start planning your client journey and the different touch points throughout their experience, from when they first inquire about booking a cruise through when they return home.
These touchpoints matter especially during wave season when you’re competing with other advisors.
Why I Created Prep for Wave Week
I put this event together because I wanted to make sure it was meaningful and bite-sized for my fellow travel entrepreneurs.
Even though there are ten webinars, they’re only thirty minutes long.
And if you wanted to join private Zoom sessions afterwards to discuss or actually implement the ideas for the day, you could always upgrade to the Study Hall Pass.
I was super intentional with the speakers I selected because I not only wanted incredible practical guidance that would be easy to put into action afterwards, but Iâm also committed to DEI within the travel industry.
I wanted men, women, members of the LGBTQ+ community, people of color, suppliers, and people with dual roles.
It was so important to me to get that variety because we are a vibrant industry.
There are so many different perspectives to consider that you can’t have the same copy-paste type person speaking at every event.
So what exactly is wave season?
It’s pretty much Q1 and sometimes Q2, when travel advisors see the biggest boom in business, especially for cruise bookings (but not only them).
Your clients are ready to book those Caribbean cruises, look at cruise ship itineraries, and ask about dining packages, shore excursions, beverage packages, and onboard credit offers.
Unless something really dramatic happens (knock on wood), wave season is going to bring an influx of business.
I cannot see it being a bust, especially after the roughness we’ve experienced in recent years.
You need to be prepared so that when it happens, you’ve got everything in place to go boom, pow, we got this!
Remember, you can lead your travel business to success because you have all the tools you need already inside you.
Events like Prep for Wave Week just give you additional resources to make sure everything is locked into place and you’re sailing smoothly into wave season.
The best time to book cruises for your clients is during wave season when cruise lines are offering their most competitive rates.
But the best time to prepare your travel agency?
That’s right now.
Not December when you’re scrambling.
Not January when the phone’s already ringing.
Right now.
Whether you’re booking clients on their first cruise or helping seasoned travelers find the perfect ship, wave season is your opportunity to shine.
Get your systems in place, set those boundaries, update your copy, build those relationships, and get ready for your biggest year yet.
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