Does anyone here run or know about running an online travel agency?
 

I have a great vacation-related domain name that I would like to develop but I don't know much about the operation of an online travel agency. Ultimately, I would like to be able to allow users to do searches and pull information from airline/hotel/travel agency databases the way other travel sites do but that may be beyond my reach. My second choice would be to form some sort of affiliate relationship with an online travel agency where I could display special travel packages, link to specific deals or tavel information at the travel agency site, help guide surfers to what they were searching for and so on.

Anyone here already working in this area?

SpaceAce

The affiliates get dick on travel sales. The margins going up stream widen out but just a bit.

better make your own site.

Travelocity has to pay American Airlines to be able to get that data... So unless you have some deep pockets, you won't be doing that.

Travelocity doesn't pay American Airlines to get their data. They and virtually every other travel agency online and off uses a program called Sabre. That searches through all of the various airlines, hotels and car rentals and pulls up results based on their input. http://www.sabretravelnetwork.com/

You don't have to be licensed per say but in order to get the software you have to have a membership number for the organization that coordinates the travel professionals. I can't remember off hand what the name of that association is but it's like the National Association of Travel Professionals or some other crap like that.

If you become an affiliate of airlines, hotels, car rental places, etc. you make a very small commission. Airlines only give like $2 or $3 per ticket sold. Not real great.

Yup travel agents online or offline are struggling with shitty commissions, but being an affiliate would still be a much wiser idea than trying to start your own travel site. You would have to create your own booking engine etc etc and have no hope of competing with Orbitz, Travelocity, Hotwire etc.

Just put some interesting and fairly unique travel related information on your site, optimize it and use your travel sponsor's lookie lou's, text links etc :)