Helloworld travel tie up

One thing I noticed was signage for Helloworld at the BYOjet premises.Appears  a smart tie in.Attached article on their franchise roll out.
Re - imagining travel Byojet
Online discount travel company BYOjet has expanded beyond the virtual realm, opening up four bricks-and-mortar kiosks in recent months.
The company has two additional fully-fledged walk-in stores; however the focus is firmly on expanding the kiosk model, as well as recruiting franchisees to head them up.
“We’ve found there is still room in the market for that face-to-face contact – people really want the discount offering but they don’t want to sacrifice on service.
“It meant we had to find a way to keep the overheads and staffing costs down in order to keep revenue up,” the company’s chief marketing officer, Maria Kirkpatrick explains.
BYOjet opened its first kiosk in Chadstone in May, and it’s since rolled out another three in Queensland.
“Essentially they operate around a book-your-own model with a manned kiosk, so there is an agent on site that can assist with the booking process and also with any travel enquiries – customers can grab a brochure and have that sit down experience if they choose to,” she says.
The existing stores are company-owned, and the plan is to franchise now that the model is proven.
“We wanted to make sure that the kiosks were a viable option and that they could be profitable. Now that we know they are, we are franchising all of the existing kiosks.
“We can open in essentially any shopping centre around Australia, and we’d like to have at least 20 kiosks in 12 months, then sky is the limit really,” says Kirkpatrick.
THE HELLOWORLD PARTNERSHIP
Before it decided to franchise, BYOjet opted to join forces with Helloworld, which includes franchised travel brands such as Harvey World Travel and Jetset Travel.
“We are experts in travel technology; we don’t pretend to be experts in something we are not so when we looked at franchising we went straight to who we thought were the big guys – Helloworld has over 1200 franchisees,” says Kirkpatrick.
She explains BYOjet is an associated member of Helloworld, however it is also independent in its own right.
“We license the software and essentially it is us that manages the technology – we hold onto the Helloworld brand for customer security because obviously we are very new to the market and Helloworld holds a lot of weight with customers.
“It’s also about having access to their suppliers, agreements and networking capabilities. They’ve really come on board and supported us,” she adds.
THE IDEAL FRANCHISEE
According to Kirkpatrick, as of July 1 it is no longer a requirement that people possess a travel agency licence in order to own a travel agency, which means franchisees don’t necessarily need a background in travel.
“I have hired staff for all of our stores with a wide range of skill sets, and we’ve found that the most successful managers are people who are passionate about travel and have that drive to succeed – they are excited about something new, and that’s contagious,” she says.
“Essentially it is about having a very basic business understanding, because we provide a great deal of training and ongoing support.”
BUDGET PRICES, EXTENSIVE RANGE
Kirkpatrick says BYOjet is very price competitive, and it strives to provide customers with the largest selection of travel options available.
“We are very much discount, we actually bring our online prices into the retail market which is essentially why we want to stick with the kiosk model – there are lower rental costs and only one staff member is needed for up to six customers.”
She explains customers can book flights, hotels, car hire, cruises (an arm of the business the company has recently launched), travel insurance and ‘tours and attractions,’ which includes everything from a transfer to the purchase of a Disneyworld ticket.
“We can supply just about every airline on the planet through our website, so customers are getting choice – it’s not about what the agency is making the most commission on as far as the supplier goes, its full choice and control back to the customer,” Kirkpatrick adds.
THE TECHNOLOGY
She says the company’s technology is purpose built for the travel agency, and that franchisees have access to a wealth of front and back-end resources.
“They not only receive the front-end search engines and all of the marketing and training support, they also get the back-end admin.
“This means franchisees have full control to margin up or margin down their flights, booking fees and ticketing fees so we can be quite specific to each individual area that the kiosks are located.”

From franchise business 25/8/14