Not what I expected it to be. - Travel Counselor Vacations To Go Employee Review

1.0
Dec 2, 2016
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Some decent managers, paid training, insurance and 401K available.... good hours during training. Get to talk to people from all around the world, booking their cruises.

Cons

The worst training I have ever gone through in my career. Too much to learn and they expect you to be perfect and know the one and outs of all the cruise line booking engines. Too many sales promotions, leads to confusion and room for error; therefore promising your clients something, them not getting it, and then having to pay a portion of the error out of pocket. Getting paid once a month is HORRIBLE. Working on straight commission is HORRIBLE. They micromanage your time off, hours worked, and vacation time. They don't pay you a salary, so some flexibility would have been great. UN-MOTIVATING!!! No one motivates you to work there. Managers don't come checking on the sales teams... no weekly emails with sales accomplishments. Directors or above don't come around checking on the hard working sales team. Never saw the President/CEO/Owner making rounds on busy sales days (like Cyber Monday, etc). Metrics: the management needs to understand that NO ONE IS PERFECT (or excellent in that matter). Surveys are SUBJECTIVE. Not everyone thinks every little detail is "excellent". One walks on egg shells not knowing if they will still have a job because of a "poor" or mediocre survey. Guess what? Things happen, guests go through things and take it out on the agent. Take those surveys and learn from them, but don't judge an agent because of mediocre surveys. Commission: 25%. Sure. It sounds great. But you have to work A LOT to make money. I don't understand how someone can survive and live happily working there. You get paid on final payment, so if the cruise is more than three months out - you don't see a dollar. Plus, you lose all that future earnings potential if you leave or get fired, therefore the company now doesn't have to pay you on your hard work. The office itself is dirty, toilet seats disgusting in the restrooms, break rooms dirty, carpets dirty, desks broken, cubicle walls dirty and/or broken... constant smell of sewage or other on the different floors... Overall - HR isn't there for you. Managers aren't there for you. No one is. It's an unfriendly environment, no team work, too many chiefs doing absolutely nothing. I feel that I wasted my talent working there. With the knowledge and background I have in the cruise industry, no one cared and didn't value me. Never a thank you or a "great" job. The stress level was extremely high, very hard work with long hours, and the return was minimal.

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Vacations To Go Response
9y
We are sorry to hear that your time here wasn’t what you expected. Selling vacations is a new industry for many people and there is a learning curve. It’s a challenging position with lots of important details, but the training is very thorough and managers are always available for questions and coaching. This is also one of the reasons why we offer a base salary plus commission for the first couple of months while agents are learning the ropes and building a customer base. We firmly believe that happy employees = happy customers, so we are continuously meeting with both new hires and veteran travel counselors to improve our training process and the company as a whole. We value our employees and their hard work and do everything possible to provide a fun and safe work environment for all. I’m sorry the job didn’t work out for you and we had to part ways, but we wish you all the best.

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CEO approval
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Pros

Great money, work environment, and management

Cons

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1.0
Jun 27, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
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Pros

Ability to work from home, and uncapped commission

Cons

Out of touch responses to any negative review. Rigid adherence to how things have been operating, and unable or unwilling to consider suggestions that would actually improve the relationship between company and agents. Surveys use a non-standard metric, just because it's what Alan wants, despite standard surveys (CSAT/NPS) being available.

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