Thomas Carpenter (Source: Meredith Zinner Photography)

Success Stories focus on veteran travel advisors and how they achieved success. Here’s a look Thomas Carpenter, co-owner of Huckleberry Travel.

How did you get your start as a travel advisor?

Prior to the pandemic, my husband and I decided that we wanted to do something entrepreneurial, and that connected with things we were passionate about. We knew that it would be a part-time business to start, but we wanted it to be a serious business. We never intended to be hobbyists. Travel had always been at the center of our relationship, so we looked into it and discovered the host agency model, which seemed like a great way for us to start a travel business with good back-office support, in an industry where we really didn’t know how it worked.

We interviewed a few host agencies, not realizing that they were also interviewing us. Eventually, we signed on with Uniglobe Travel Center because of their mentoring program for new-to-the-industry advisors, and because they were members of the Professional Association of Travel Hosts (PATH) and were well-reviewed on Host Agency Reviews and Find a Host Agency.

We set up our LLC and started working on a marketing plan for our launch. We built a website that was more about our passion for travel than it was about sales and deals, and we set a target for our soft launch on social media.

After we launched on Facebook, we had our first clients in about two and a half hours, and it was a family of four going to the Galápagos. They had a healthy budget for their trip, we booked it for them, and we’ve been busy ever since. In fact, our very first clients are still booking travel with us, many years later.

How did you build your business?

I think a lot of new advisors struggle to find clients, but we’ve always kept one foot on the marketing gas pedal. Since booking travel is so personal, we try to market in ways that strengthen our connection to our clients with in-person events like happy hours or fun travel meet-ups, and through partnerships with other small businesses, such as sponsoring trivia or karaoke at a bar or a hosting a themed dinner at a local restaurant. Since we get to meet people and talk to them, it builds the relationships, and they trust us to take care of them if something goes sideways with one of their trips. Those relationships have also built a strong referral network for us.

We’ve also relied on our supplier relationships. During the pandemic, we pivoted to booking a lot of direct hotel bookings and having access to some of the luxury elite hotel programs like the Virtuoso hotel program, Hyatt Privé, Langham Couture, etc., which has really helped us grow our hotel sales. We’ve kept that book of luxury domestic hotel business, and as travel opened up after the pandemic, we parlayed that business into more international travel.

So, our business actually grew during the pandemic – we did better in 2021 than we did in 2019, and year over year, our sales have continued to grow. Thus far in 2024, we’ve sent our clients to 86 countries on all seven continents. And the year’s just about half over at this point!

What characteristics make you a successful advisor?

We’ve always treated our agency like a serious business. We pay attention to the numbers and we know what we’re booking, so if I’m meeting with a hotelier, I can tell them what percentage of my agencies’ bookings are hotel bookings and what percentage of that is direct compared to booking through a wholesaler. And I know what percentage of our overall revenue is derived from cruises versus land versus air-only bookings, etc.

Since I’m an attorney, I’m also really mindful about compliance issues. In my law practice, I represent many small travel agencies and tour operators, and I see other agencies who’ve encountered problems when they cut corners. It’s critically important to have sound documents and policies in place, to have a consistent workflow and to stay out of the ‘tour operator’ lane. I see clients of my law practice who cut corners by not getting a valid credit card authorization for each transaction, or who try to ‘white-label’ their hosted groups – and I’ve seen how expensive it can be when you cut corners on compliance. It’s just not worth it.

What have been your greatest challenges been?

I think we’ve been lucky that most of our challenges have not been self-inflicted. We really try to be thoughtful and strategic about how we approach our business. We’re not ‘Ready. Fire. Aim.’ where our agency is concerned.

The external challenges we’ve encountered are always new and different. The pandemic, the wars in Eastern Europe and Israel, the alarming frequency of extreme weather events and even the global ground stop of flights this month – none of those were foreseen or predictable. We’ve had to be flexible and adaptable in responding to each of those challenges in very different ways, depending on the circumstances. I think it helps that we’ve always known that there’s a lot of risk when you sell travel, and we don’t take that lightly. It’s alarming to me when I see host agencies advertising to people that they can get into the industry, see the world for free, and do it all as a hobby.

What have your greatest accomplishments been?

I think that simply surviving the pandemic was a huge achievement for us. The fact that our business grew during that time and that we were named Uniglobe’s Agency of the Year in 2021 seems unfathomable when we think of what our industry went through.

But the things of which I’m most proud aren’t really the awards we’ve received or our strong sales numbers. I’m most proud of the relationships we’ve cultivated with our host agency and consortium, the other advisors in our network, with ASTA and especially with our supplier partners. There are some really incredible people in this industry, and we’re grateful that we’ve been able to rely on them for support when we’ve needed it – and we’re happy to be able to pay that forward to others in our network.

What tips can you provide advisors new to the industry?

Treat your business like a real business. Take it seriously. Don’t cut corners. Work with a host agency that can truly support you – ideally one that’s committed to the ethical standards of PATH and also one that is engaged with ASTA. Join ASTA. Build relationships with your supplier partners and lean into those relationships in a big way. If you invest in your key suppliers, they’ll come through for you. Slow and steady wins the race where marketing is concerned. Don’t fall in love with an idea that doesn’t work, is too complicated or unnecessarily risky. And most importantly, deep cleansing breaths will help you stay calm when you’re stressed.

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