January 5, 2023
I joined Dugan's Travel in July of 2021 with no travel agent experience under my belt. I had discovered the joy of traveling only a few years before, and I was looking for a way to travel more and supplement my upcoming retirement income. I decided to give it a year's trial to see if I liked it and could make any money doing it.
Dugan's agency was more than willing to take on a newbie and provided a multitude of training opportunities. If I've had questions on procedures or suppliers or just needed suggestions for great travel ideas for clients, I've always gotten feedback from the leadership team or from other agents in the Dugan's family via the Facebook page. I've never been left hanging on my own.
I live in a small Midwestern town so I don't have a vast population to pull from for travel 
clients, but with the variety of training I've taken advantage of, I have been in the top 25 selling agents in 2022. I so enjoy the work I'm doing, now as a full-time agent since my recent retirement. I'm so thankful I took a chance to reach out to Dugan's Travel to ask how I could become a travel agent with their organization. I would encourage anyone looking for a host agency that truly cares you as an individual to contact them, as well.

Nancy Richardson

Crystal Sutherland

Experience: 1-5 years
Sales:
Status: Currently with company

I have been with Dugan's Travels for a few years and have nothing bad to say about them.

As has been mentioned, there have been many changes recently for the better. Dugan's has grown and now their "system" matches the growth.

The agent website has many training opportunities, access to forums where the agents can all discuss things and ask questions. It is a very friendly and helpful bunch, my questions have always been answered.

I find Jennifer (the owner) to be friendly and helpful in resolving any issues that may arise.

The commission level is one of the better ones I have seen when I was researching host agencies, and their start up cost and monthly fees are very modest. The monthly fees can even be waived if you have enough sales in the previous month.

I would recommend Dugan's Travels as a house agency in a heartbeat!

Carol Walsh

Experience: 6-10 years
Sales:
Status: Currently with company

I have to say that my experience with Dugan's has been nothing but positive. They really have it together as far as documentation, training, etc. Clientease has been wonderful and there were no additional charges for this great database. Every single time I have put out a question to the managers and/or Jennifer, I always got an answer quickly. Barb has been absolutely wonderful to work with. Angela has given great webinars. I have been really impressed with this agency. In defense of Jennifer.......she is very busy and she just had twins this past year. It is not realistic that she can communicate with all agents, but her managers handle everything very well. I have recommended people to Dugans and I will continue to do so. Thank you

Carol

Anonymous Agent2

Experience: > 11 years
Sales:
Status: Previously with company

This agency has a lot of issues. I would not recommend this agency to anyone. The training was ok, but the support is not there at all. Never do you personally hear from the owner. But she will come into the message board and complain that people are not paying their fees and if this continues she will start cleaning house. This agency is all about how much the owner can make. There is no support, extra training, or help in building your end up. After she makes enough from you she will terminate you unless you are her few choice few. Would I go back to this host? NO! Would I recommend this Host? NO!

Jennifer Dugan

I am not sure what this person is referring to in not having any interaction with me personally because I am hands on. It sounds to me like a very personal attack on me personally rather than giving a real review of the agency as a host agency. We don't terminate anyone who shouldn't be terminated and the reasons for termination are: Not paying what is owed to the agency and no sales at all in a 6 month window.

As far as support goes, we have a great dedicated team of people who provide support and I am very proud of these people. It is not only me running the agency but several qualified people who help day in and day out with the agency. Anyone who has attended our seminar in Anaheim the past few years knows this.

I think people are coming to this website to get honest reviews not a personal attack on host agency owners. Giving facts not stating things like you will be terminated whenever I feel like it, that is just untrue.

Jennifer Dugan

Anonymous Agent

Experience: 1-5 years
Sales:
Status: Previously with company

This was my first host agency. The intro training was Ok, I was a complete newbie at the time. So I needed a ton more training.First the bad. They give you the access you need for just about everything but they had nothing to offer in terms of back office or technology. They use yahoo groups and commision claims was an excel spreadsheet. The owner often barked about the monthy fees and would state agents would be terminated if it wasn't paid on time. This was said so much it became unpleasant. The yahoo agent group was patroled so much that if you forgot to sign your name to the post you got a nasty email and your posting was rejected. I always paid when I had to (they waive the fee if you sell $3000.00 in a month) and felt that was fair. I left for those reasons. The good. They are a very honest host agency, they are not going to take your money and leave you. I found the owner to be very helpful when needed and her support system always handled problems fast. She listens and responds to her agents. They have top level commissions and and will get you access to any supplier you may need. I really feel if they added some tech and offer some tech, dropped the yahoo thing and conversed with difficult agents more privately they would be a top notch outfit. I haven't been with them for some time, 4 years or so, so much of this may have changed. This was just my experince. Would I join them again? I would if those issues where resolved.

Jennifer Dugan

There have been many changes to Dugan's Travels host agency program.

Some top things are:

Private agency website with message forums. We no longer use Yahoo Groups.

Clientease is our commission program. No longer using Excel.

Clamshell Studios offers special websites for our agents. https://www.clamshellstudiosllc.com/affiliates/dugans/

We have a full management team in place.

Our sales have been up over 35% the last 2 years in a row. We have close relationships with suppliers and are a member of Vacation.com Inner Circle.

Many things changed once we began to grow so much and changes needed to be made. Keep in mind when I started the host agency set up, I was just trying to help other moms work at home as travel agents. We grew so much that there were some growing pains.. but it is great now!

Give us another look if you haven't recently.