How to hire a travel counselor

How to hire a travel counselor, step by step

Here's a step-by-step travel counselor hiring guide:

• Step 1: Identify your hiring needs
• Step 2: Create an ideal candidate profile
• Step 3: Make a budget
• Step 4: Write a travel counselor job description
• Step 5: Post your job
• Step 6: Interview candidates
• Step 7: Send a job offer and onboard your new travel counselor
• Step 8: Go through the hiring process checklist

Post a travel counselor job for free, promote it for a fee

Post free

1. Identify your hiring needs

   Before you start hiring a travel counselor, identify what type of worker you actually need. Certain positions might call for a full-time employee, while others can be done by a part-time worker or contractor.

   Determine employee vs contractor status

   Is the person you're thinking of hiring a US citizen or green card holder?

   Yes

   No

   Hiring the perfect travel counselor also involves considering the ideal background you'd like them to have. Depending on what industry or field they have experience in, they'll bring different skills to the job. It's also important to consider what levels of seniority and education the job requires and what kind of salary such a candidate would likely demand.

   Here's a comparison of travel counselor salaries for various roles:

   Type of Travel Counselor	Description	Hourly rate
   Travel Counselor	Travel agents sell transportation, lodging, and entertainment activities to individuals and groups planning trips. They offer advice on destinations, plan trip itineraries, and make travel arrangements for clients... Show more	$13-33
   Corporate Travel Agent	A corporate travel agent assists people in planning, choosing, and arranging holidays. Corporate travel agents will work to the budget set out by those planning the holiday... Show more	$12-21
   Corporate Travel Consultant	As corporate travel agents, they primarily work to coordinate all travel-related concerns such, reservation, flight cancellations, itinerary adjustments, and other unanticipated circumstances happen. They work in travel agencies or departments handling personnel travel details... Show more	$15-37

   Show more

2. Create an ideal candidate profile

   Common skills:

   • Reservations
   • Apollo
   • Ground Transportation
   • Booking
   • Corporate Travel
   • Customer Issues
   • Business Travel
   • Hotel Reservations
   • Domestic Travel Arrangements
   • International Travel Arrangements
   • Destination Knowledge
   • Travel Industry
   • Lead Management
   • Airline Tickets

   Check all skills

   Responsibilities:

   • Manage corporate travel arrangements for business accounts, including passport and visa documents.
   • Deliver comprehensive administrative support, with focus on coordinating travel arrangements, with this DoD contractor.
   • Create PDFs prior to being send to print vendors and edit sell sheets for product introduction mailings.

3. Make a budget

   Including a salary range in your travel counselor job description is a great way to entice the best and brightest candidates. A travel counselor salary can vary based on several factors:

   • Location. For example, travel counselors' average salary in alaska is 58% less than in california.
   • Seniority. Entry-level travel counselors earn 60% less than senior-level travel counselors.
   • Certifications. A travel counselor with a few certifications under their belt will likely demand a higher salary.
   • Company. Working for a prestigious company or an exciting start-up can make a huge difference in a travel counselor's salary.

   Average travel counselor salary

   $44,934yearly

   $21.60 hourly rate

   ---

   Entry-level travel counselor salary

   $28,000 yearly salary

   Updated December 16, 2025

4. Writing a travel counselor job description

   A travel counselor job description should include a summary of the role, required skills, and a list of responsibilities. It's also good to include a salary range and the first name of the hiring manager. Below, you can find an example of a travel counselor job description:

   Travel counselor job description example

   Travel Counselor - West Knoxville, TN - (220003GO) Description What you will do:
   The Auto Club Group (ACG) provides membership, travel, insurance, and financial service offerings to approximately 13+ million members and customers across 14 states and 2 U.S. territories through AAA, Meemic, and Fremont brands. ACG belongs to the national AAA federation and is the second largest AAA club in North America.
   In this position, you will have the opportunity to:
   
   Sales position engaged in selling travel to Members and nonmembers utilizing Professional Selling Skills.
   Actively pursuing opportunities to establish and strengthen customer relationships through selling and consulting.
   Supporting all ACG Branded Products and Services in a professional and service-oriented manner.
   Utilizes Professional Selling skills from beginning to end to determine client's travel needs, creates a memorable vacation, closes the sale and builds customer relationships.
   Provides outstanding customer service through product knowledge, industry news and destination expertise. Sells AAA Branded Products & Services and ACG preferred Suppliers.
   Proactively seeks sales opportunities through various avenues to include, walk-ins, outbound client calling, client retention, self- marketing and customer referrals.
   Meets and exceeds Minimum Adjusted Sales Goals.
   Supports and embraces AAA Auto Club Group Preferred Supplier program, AAA Branded Product & Services, preferred automation methods and all other Travel Agency strategy initiatives.
   Proactively works travel campaigns and leads provided through Lead Management system.
   Utilizes task management to support the sales process and complete system generated tasks in a timely manner.
   Participates in travel industry programs, product and supplier training, ACG specific training programs and Continuing Education opportunities to increase knowledge becoming “the source” to clients for all their travel needs.
   Ensures all Accounting documents, client files and POC profiles are completed accurately and timely.
   Participates in all trade show functions, and other promotional events as created by Auto Club Group to increase sales and promote travel products.
   
   How you will benefit:
   
   Our Auto Club Group Travel Counselor earn a competitive salary of [ENTER SALARY HERE} plus commission.
   
   Benefits include:
   
   401k Match
   Medical
   Dental
   Vision
   PTO
   Paid Holidays
   Tuition Reimbursement
   
   Qualifications Preferred Qualifications:
   
   Travel school graduate preferred
   Travel sales experience
   CRM systems experience preferred
   Galileo experience preferred
   
   Work Environment:
   
   Limited travel to industry seminars, training, shows, events and Continuous Education opportunities. Branch hours vary by location and may include evenings and weekends.
   
   Required Qualifications:
   Education:
   
   High school diploma or the equivalent
   Must qualify, obtain, and maintain all applicable state licenses required for selling and/or servicing Auto Club Group products.
   
   Experience:
   
   At least 2 years professional sales experience as a Travel Associate
   
   Knowledge and Skills:
   
   Ability to aggressively pursue sales through proactive marketing
   Effective skills to build long term customer relationships.
   Excellent customer service skills
   Computer and Internet Skills.
   Ability to manage time in a fast-paced environment while maintaining high quality results.
   
   What it's like to work for us:
   We serve our members by making their satisfaction our highest priority. We do what's right by sustaining an open, honest and ethical work environment. We lead in everything we do by offering best-in-class products, benefits and services. And we value our employees by seeking the best talent, rewarding high performance and holding ourselves accountable.
   All in all, we create an inclusive and welcoming environment of diverse backgrounds, experiences and viewpoints, realizing our differences make us stronger.
   Who we are:
   The Auto Club Group helps AAA Members enjoy life's journey with peace of mind by providing innovative solutions, advocacy and membership benefits wherever and whenever they need them. We currently conduct business in 14 states in the upper Midwest and the Southeast.
   
   The Auto Club Group has established four long-term enterprise goals:
   
   Long-term, sustainable, profitable growth
   AAA Membership growth and renewal
   Operational excellence
   Become the “flagship club” of the AAA Federation
   
   Important Note:
   ACG's Compensation philosophy is to provide a market-competitive structure of fair, equitable and performance-based pay to attract and retain excellent talent that will enable ACG to meet its short and long-term goals. ACG utilizes a geographic pay differential as part of the base salary compensation program. Pay ranges outlined in this posting are based on the various ranges within the geographic areas which ACG operates. Salary at time of offer is determined based on these and other factors as associated with the job and job level.
   The above statements describe the principal and essential functions, but not all functions that may be inherent in the job. This job requires the ability to perform duties contained in the job description for this position, including, but not limited to, the above requirements. Reasonable accommodations will be made for otherwise qualified applicants, as needed, to enable them to fulfill these requirements.
   The Auto Club Group, and all of its affiliated companies, is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, national origin, disability or protected veteran status.
   Primary Location: United States-Tennessee-KnoxvilleWork Locations: TN-West Knoxville Branch 110 Capital Drive Knoxville 37922Job: TravelOrganization: Field Operations Region 2Schedule: Full-time Employee Status: RegularJob Type: RegularJob Level: Individual ContributorTravel: NoJob Posting: Oct 14, 2022, 5:54:40 PM

   Copy this example

   

5. Post your job

   To find the right travel counselor for your business, consider trying out a few different recruiting strategies:

   • Consider internal talent. One of the most important sources of talent for any company is its existing workforce.
   • Ask for referrals. Reach out to friends, family members, and current employees and ask if they know or have worked with travel counselors they would recommend.
   • Recruit at local colleges. Attend job fairs at local colleges to recruit travel counselors who meet your education requirements.
   • Social media platforms. LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter now have more than 3.5 billion users, and you can use social media to reach potential job candidates.

   Post your job online:

   • Post your travel counselor job on Zippia to find and attract quality travel counselor candidates.
   • Use niche websites such as salesjobs, salesheads, allretailjobs.com, sales trax.
   • Post a job on free websites.

6. Interview candidates

   Recruiting travel counselors requires you to bring your A-game to the interview process. The first interview should introduce the company and the role to the candidate as much as they present their background experience and reasons for applying for the job. During later interviews, you can go into more detail about the technical details of the job and ask behavioral questions to gauge how they'd fit into your current company culture.

   You should also ask about candidates' unique skills and talents to see if they match the ideal candidate profile you developed earlier. Candidates good enough for the next step can complete the technical interview.

   The right interview questions can help you assess a candidate's hard skills, behavioral intelligence, and soft skills.

7. Send a job offer and onboard your new travel counselor

   Once you've found the travel counselor candidate you'd like to hire, it's time to write an offer letter. This should include an explicit job offer that includes the salary and the details of any other perks. Qualified candidates might be looking at multiple positions, so your offer must be competitive if you like the candidate. Also, be prepared for a negotiation stage, as candidates may way want to tweak the details of your initial offer. Once you've settled on these details, you can draft a contract to formalize your agreement.

   It's also important to follow up with applicants who do not get the job with an email letting them know that the position is filled.

   Once that's done, you can draft an onboarding schedule for the new travel counselor. Human Resources should complete Employee Action Forms and ensure that onboarding paperwork is completed, including I-9s, benefits enrollment, federal and state tax forms, etc. They should also ensure that new employee files are created for internal recordkeeping.

8. Go through the hiring process checklist

   • Determine employee type (full-time, part-time, contractor, etc.)
   • Submit a job requisition form to the HR department
   • Define job responsibilities and requirements
   • Establish budget and timeline
   • Determine hiring decision makers for the role
   • Write job description
   • Post job on job boards, company website, etc.
   • Promote the job internally
   • Process applications through applicant tracking system
   • Review resumes and cover letters
   • Shortlist candidates for screening
   • Hold phone/virtual interview screening with first round of candidates
   • Conduct in-person interviews with top candidates from first round
   • Score candidates based on weighted criteria (e.g., experience, education, background, cultural fit, skill set, etc.)
   • Conduct background checks on top candidates
   • Check references of top candidates
   • Consult with HR and hiring decision makers on job offer specifics
   • Extend offer to top candidate(s)
   • Receive formal job offer acceptance and signed employment contract
   • Inform other candidates that the position has been filled
   • Set and communicate onboarding schedule to new hire(s)
   • Complete new hire paperwork (i9, benefits enrollment, tax forms, etc.)

   Sign up to download full list

   Sign up

How much does it cost to hire a travel counselor?