Avoya Announces Higher Commission and New Booking Engine For 2025

Avoya Travel is gearing up for a big year in 2025, one that will include rolling out new, higher commissions and offering a new consumer booking engine for travel agents' clients.

These announcements were made during an hour-long call with journalists today, during which Avoya leaders discussed how the company is positioning itself for the remainder of this year, as well as for the years to come.

As part of that future, Avoya said it plans build "the best booking engine in the world," along with many other developments aimed at addressing areas where Avoya feels the industry is "ready for the next step of improvement with the way host agencies, independent contractors, suppliers and travelers all work together."

The call also covered how Avoya is currently structured and why it considers itself to be distinct from the competition.

Avoya's Current 'Exceptional' Offerings


When it comes to how Avoya is structured, Co-CEO Jeff Anderson explained (to those who may not be familiar) that Avoya is a “platform company” that serves multiple types of users simultaneously: travelers, suppliers, and advisors.

“All three of those user types are of equal importance - because you can’t do anything without being able to satisfy each of those groups," Anderson explained.

“We really have to deliver exceptional offerings and experiences to each of these three user groups of the platform. And all three of them are critically important," he added.

The exceptional offerings that Avoya delivers, Anderson explained, include being a company that has five patents on its technology, as well as a stellar network of vacation planning experts.

To this, Phil Cappelli, chief sales officer for Avoya, added that the company is truly an “all-inclusive host."

“That’s support. That’s making sure we’re giving leads, customer interaction, feedback, website. When you come to Avoya, it truly is an all-inclusive host,” Cappelli explained.

Recent Accomplishments and How 2024 Will Wrap-Up for Avoya

In addition to underscoring why Avoya is a platform worth joining and why it's distinct from the competition, the company's leaders shared some key statistics.

First up, Avoya is reporting $650 million in total transaction value for 2024.

“That is high-value,” explained Anderson of the transaction value. “When we look out in the marketplace, when we do comparisons, our travelers are spending a lot more money than average - which is why we can do that off of 150,000 travelers.”

Additional data points shared today included:

• Avoya now has more than 2,100-plus elite travel advisors in its network and 750 travel suppliers.
• Avoya’s "net promoter" score from independent agencies is 84 and from travelers it is 92. 
  
  

“Those are just exceptional numbers,” said Anderson of Avoya’s net promoter score. “I think this is a great indication of ratings by independent agencies and by booked travelers.”

The net promoter score is a standardized way of measuring a company’s performance, and also departmental performance.

“Some of the companies we were able to find that publish net promoter scores include Mercedes, which is a 43, Apple which is a 61, and Starbucks, which is a 77,” said Anderson. Furthermore, when it comes to travel industry products and their net promoter scores, often the scores in the 50s and 60s. Rarely are they in the 70s or 80s, said Anderson. 

Avoya Travel Co-CEO Jeff Anderson speaking at the Avoya 2022 Conference onboard Celebrity Beyond. (photo by Laurie Baratti)

Paydays and Commissions 

Perhaps most notably to many on the call, Avoya’s all-inclusive host approach to doing business is driving “huge paydays," according to Cappelli.

Independent Agency (IA) commissions are up 32% year-to-date, Cappelli said
, adding "that’s an impressive number...Coming off some tough years in the past, look at where we are now - up 32%.”

Commissions for Avoya's new Elite 100 agencies, meanwhile, are up 44% year-to-date, he added. 

And in one of the biggest headlines from the call today, Avoya revealed that it will pay higher commissions in 2025 as part of its new Premier Commission program.

“For many, many years...we paid a certain commission…Now we’ve upped that. For the first time in a long time, we’ve upped it. We’ve got a new program called the Premier Commission program,” said Cappelli.

The Premier Commission program will offer up to 65% more commissions on Avoya live leads in 2025.

“That’s a big deal in the space. And the first time we’ve raised the commission levels on Avoya customers. So, we’re really proud of what we’ve launched there,” said Cappelli.

The company is also rolling out yet another effort - this one aimed at helping agencies build their own book of business. The program is known as Elite 100 and will offer 100 percent commission on an advisor's own business, meaning the business advisors bring to Avoya on their own.

Layered on top of that, Avoya is offering 60 advisors who join the Avoya network a lucrative incentive.

“To new folks coming in, as part of our 60 years, we’re offering a $5,000 quick start incentive,” said Cappelli.”We’re trying to attract the best of the best.”

The offer is only open to new independent advisors joining the Avoya network, who are not currently part of Avoya. The program involves paying $399 per month to join Avoya and earning 100 percent commission. The quick start offer is limited to 60 top producers.

'Best Booking Engine Ever'

Finally, Avoya executives also revealed the details today, of a new consumer booking engine that's in beta testing.

Anderson and Cappelli explained that Avoya has been well known for two decades for its Live Lead program, through which Avoya bears the cost of generating demand, both online and offline. That demand, in turn, feeds the independent agencies in the Avoya travel network.

More recently, in 2021, Avoya launched its Smart Leads program, which the duo described as "the next generation of Live Leads."

Now, Avoya is embarking on yet another effort that may be even better than leads: Live bookings.

For this next-level offering, Avoya is introducing "Avoya Live Bookings," a booking engine for consumers.

"It’s not any more complicated than what it sounds like," said Anderson. "We created a consumer booking engine. That consumer booking engine works for both IA travelers and for Avoya travelers."

"The simple value proposition for independent agencies and their customers is - make bookings while you sleep. Customers can interact with you and kind of produce their own quotes, plan their own trips. And really streamline and create a very modern interface within the online booking environment," Anderson explained. "So that’s a really important step forward."

Not only is it an important step forward, it also appears to be a very valuable development.

"This booking engine has already produced bookings in excess of $10,000 each,” Anderson said. “The biggest booking that we’ve had thus far, is $13,000 and this was during a beta experiment we’re doing right now.”

Those who may be curious about this new development can visit AvoyaTravel.com to explore and test out the new booking engine. 

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