Super interesting read on Fora. My impression of Fora agents is much like what you and this comments section reflect: a lot of hobbyists but not best for agents who want to build a serious travel advisory business. I'd be interested to know how you select the right host agency, and on the flip side, how do hotel sales teams view these various host agencies (beyond what business they bring)?
I went to a happy hour tonight hosted by Auberge and asked a handful of sales directors about their experience with Fora from that side of the business. The three that weighed in were largely positive about the volume driven by them - for one Auberge property, it’s their top advisor sales channel. They weren’t willing to comment on how the experience level has been amongst those agents, but they did say they expect to see some regulation at the consortium level eventually.
Two agents at the event had recently left their host agencies for Fora because the tech is better.
One agency owner was very fired up because Fora has been actively trying to recruit people on her team over to them, which is a huge no no in Virtuoso and what got TravelEdge kicked out a few years ago.
I think finding the right host agency is like dating. What’s best for one person might not be the right fit for another. I wanted a very hands-off experience, but the chance to opt in to weekly calls and escalate easily. One thing Coastline has is a very reachable leadership team. I have called Jay before and he’s answered in the middle of the night.
I also like that Coastline is tech forward - they hosted 10 of us for a shark tank style AI vibe coding session where we pitched concepts that would make our jobs easier.
Lastly, they are well-respected by suppliers, and I’ve found other agents to be so kind of supportive of each other rather than competitive.
But some people thrive off of the competitive nature of other host agencies and want a more hands-on approach, so it’s about the right fit.
It is! The CRO of Fora just reached out to me asking to meet for coffee at travel week, so we will see what he says. I want to do a follow up article with their perspective
This was a thoughtful and fair dissection, Anne Marie, and I agree with many of your concerns about what scale has done to the brand. I joined Fora early, when there were only a few hundred advisors globally, because it positioned itself as a modern agency and genuinely delivered on that promise. The technology was and remains excellent, the training was included rather than sold as another layer, and the accessible entry point allowed me to begin while I was still working full-time and hustling in hotels. For someone with decades of hospitality experience but a new travel-advisor business, that mattered.
The issue is what happened next. At 15,000++ advisors now, many with limited personal travel or industry experience, the Fora name no longer signals the same level of expertise it once did. In my view, that growth has diluted the brand and made the individual advisor’s niche, experience and judgment far more important than the host affiliation. Included training is valuable, but doesn't replace being an experienced traveler or hospitality professional.
From the hotel side, however, I still understand the commercial logic. Paying a 10% commission to an advisor who knows the client and can generate well-matched, repeat business is generally more attractive than paying 20% to 25% to an OTA with little relationship or context. The industry created those distribution economics; Fora simply made the game more accessible. Standards and education matter enormously, but perhaps this is still a case of don’t hate the player, hate the game 😉
100% Emily. I have only been with Fora for two years but I don’t rely so much on Fora as a brand but as a tool. It’s the experience and expertise of the advisor that attracts the client.
Exactly this - Fora is the infrastructure, not the value. Nobody books with a logo; they book with the person who's actually slept in the room they're recommending 😄
Some basic gate keeping. A quiz - a higher tiered price that forces education for anyone truly new. Support and mentorship for those new folks who are truly invested.
This is a great read! Your point about Fora being a tech company that operates as a travel agency is my view as someone who uses the software and connections to enhance some of my pet travel and relocation consultancy's client experiences. Also, another reason I signed up for Fora to earn a little extra income for bookings I was already helping my friends and family with.
Hot take but based on my conversations & seeing discussions in Fora advisor groups, some people don't fully understand that Fora is more like a SaaS company than a host agency...
I think that’s very true - it operates more like a SaaS company than a host agency. I think they have an identity crises in that way. I’d love to see them partner with an established host agency like Coastline - give coastline their tech and give fora agents support from experienced advisors
Really interesting to read your take on Fora. I kept seeing these advisors pop up on social media (and one that couldn't even properly pronounce the name of the destination they were trying to convince people to visit) and it gave me MLM vibes.
Great read! As a Fora agent, I found it really interesting to see this viewpoint on the agency from the outside. I'm about a year into my travel advising career and hit "Pro" status with Fora after about 10 months. Currently working on my continued education to maintain Pro status and "unlock" additional resources for my clients.
I'd describe Fora as a "choose your own adventure" platform as you noted: if you want to push toward becoming a top-level advisor, the resources and community are there to support that. If you'd rather keep it as a side hustle and just break even on the subscription, that's an option too.
I've found great mentorship during my time here, though it looks different from a traditional host agency. I meet with my local city chapter a few times a month for co-working sessions, happy hours, and site visits, and I've connected with local mentors that way. I've also applied for and been accepted into a few in-agency cohorts, where you're paired with a top-producing advisor for several weeks for lessons and 1:1 mentorship time.
Thank you for providing resources on additional trainings! I will definitely look into all of those as I continue to build my travel career :)
That’s great to know they have those city chapter meet ups! What does the application process look like for those cohorts? I’m so curious. Reach out any time if you ever need another resource. I’m an open book!
For the cohorts, you will get an email when you are selected to apply! I am unsure how they select, but my first cohort was when I was an "advanced" advisor (the second level you can achieve after getting accepted into Fora) and was invited to join a cohort that would focus on growing advanced advisor's business to the next level. The application questions asked me about my current clientele, who my ideal client would be, the type of trips I want to book, my goals for my business in the next year, how I like to learn and what I want to learn from my mentor! From there you find out if you got accepted and get matched with your mentor and group :)
Great read! Your insight on Fora being great for hobbyists (but maybe less so for those looking for solid mentorship + full travel agent career expectation) seems spot on. This seems like Fora's strategy all along—a freemium-ish model with a mass of casual users and now select tiers for the active power users.
I see AI as a potential disruptor for the low-hanging fruit bookings for the travelers that care about the lowest price, since any data point that can be scraped, AI will find. Your point on finding the travel agent that meets higher spending travelers' level of comfort and attention is probably the missing piece for Fora though — if they can figure out a way to build in mentorship / partner with more established agencies like yours, they can access the higher value (higher $$ commission paying) travelers. Just as curious as you if Fora can live up to their massive valuation since this implies rapidly scaling growth and volume! 15K agents x $299 is only about $4.5m ARR just from subscriptions, and doing some rough napkin math, if the vast majority of the 15K agents are hobbyists, we'd really need some serious booking volume to make the valuation make sense.
Exactly. I want to see them license their tech, pivot away from being a host agency and just embrace being a marketplace platform for people who want to be users and book casually or for personal travel. They should spin off their X tier and maybe Pro to an established host agency with a referral agreement or split for leads, making sure their advisors have mentors and actual connections to support them at those higher booking amounts.
ok also need to add though, from what I understand it is no longer a 'free-mium' either. The newbies do (now?!) pay a fee to onboard which does stop some hobbyists in their tracks.
Great discussion here and a number of illuminating comments. Will be reaching out to a few of you next month for a potential story on where this is leading.
I really enjoyed this read and loved all the stats and quotes you provided to back up your POV on Fora. I feel very similarly to you, I've always called Fora the "Keller Williams of travel" because they take everyone and anyone (up to the reader to decide if that's good, bad or neutral) so that made me chuckle when you mentioned the founder equated Fora to the "new" real estate career for women.
I’m so glad you enjoyed my article! It was fun to write. I’m going to do a follow up piece after I meet with them over VTW to get their perspective, as well as incorporate some of the comments here. There’s so much to unpack
Really interesting read! I’ve been a travel agent since 2018 and moved from a previous host agency to Fora in 2023. I’ve seen immense growth in my bookings, but Fora IRKS me. They have incredible technology, but they have poor comms and handle changes poorly.
They recently made a big change to their Client Lead Program that was awful in my opinion. As someone whose full time job is in marketing and focuses on building a community within a brand—they really fall short here.
As my annual booking are creeping closer to $200k, I’m starting to explore different host agencies.
I’m so glad you found it interesting and fair! I tried to be balanced - it’s such a unique entrant into our world at the moment, I wanted to really try to understand all the angles. Smartflyer is great - tons of very smart agents over there!
Intanto complimenti per il tuo punto di vista su Fora. Io sono entrato recentemente come membro pro e posso confermare quello che hai detto. Da fondatore di una struttura di lusso innovativa a Venezia in Italia ho voluto disegnare viaggi per i miei stessi ospiti e anche altri. In merito al Delano ho intenzione di testare la struttura a Febbraio, e mi fa piacere quello che hai anticipato.
Grazie per aver letto il mio articolo! Credo che Fora sia decisamente la soluzione ideale per chi opera in settori collaterali, come nel tuo caso.Cosa ti è piaciuto della tua esperienza con loro finora?
Anne Marie - thank you for a thoughtful and well researched piece on Fora.
When I first was accepted to the Fora community, I let it sit dormant for a year. I had established my travel consultancy with an almost anti-agency mindset... I felt I could make more thoughtful recommendations with a focus on the traveler and promoting meaningful, purpose driven travel, rather than commissions driving my advice (I focus primarily on Italian travel). I spent years building my own relationships (with guides, hotels, experience providers, drivers.. etc) with self-funded research trips.
I ended up joining for the credentials, training and research capabilities. I've always been curious about the brand perception. I hit "Pro" status within 2 months of putting effort into the Fora-backed side of my business and, for me, I noticed an immediate difference in the caliber of advisor talent and elevated resources at the Pro-network level. As I move towards taking my business full-full time, I really appreciate that I have my affiliation to Fora for the technology and better monetizing my work, but/and I am interested to see how the brand continues to evolve post series D.
By the way, I DID get rejected on my first application, and I honestly think this is a good practice to ensure those who are re-applying are serious. 😄
Super interesting read on Fora. My impression of Fora agents is much like what you and this comments section reflect: a lot of hobbyists but not best for agents who want to build a serious travel advisory business. I'd be interested to know how you select the right host agency, and on the flip side, how do hotel sales teams view these various host agencies (beyond what business they bring)?
I went to a happy hour tonight hosted by Auberge and asked a handful of sales directors about their experience with Fora from that side of the business. The three that weighed in were largely positive about the volume driven by them - for one Auberge property, it’s their top advisor sales channel. They weren’t willing to comment on how the experience level has been amongst those agents, but they did say they expect to see some regulation at the consortium level eventually.
Two agents at the event had recently left their host agencies for Fora because the tech is better.
One agency owner was very fired up because Fora has been actively trying to recruit people on her team over to them, which is a huge no no in Virtuoso and what got TravelEdge kicked out a few years ago.
I think finding the right host agency is like dating. What’s best for one person might not be the right fit for another. I wanted a very hands-off experience, but the chance to opt in to weekly calls and escalate easily. One thing Coastline has is a very reachable leadership team. I have called Jay before and he’s answered in the middle of the night.
I also like that Coastline is tech forward - they hosted 10 of us for a shark tank style AI vibe coding session where we pitched concepts that would make our jobs easier.
Lastly, they are well-respected by suppliers, and I’ve found other agents to be so kind of supportive of each other rather than competitive.
But some people thrive off of the competitive nature of other host agencies and want a more hands-on approach, so it’s about the right fit.
thank you for sharing. the advisory business is super interesting
It is! The CRO of Fora just reached out to me asking to meet for coffee at travel week, so we will see what he says. I want to do a follow up article with their perspective
yes please!
An interview with Matthew Upchurch and Jay Johnson would make for a great Stanza edition
This was a thoughtful and fair dissection, Anne Marie, and I agree with many of your concerns about what scale has done to the brand. I joined Fora early, when there were only a few hundred advisors globally, because it positioned itself as a modern agency and genuinely delivered on that promise. The technology was and remains excellent, the training was included rather than sold as another layer, and the accessible entry point allowed me to begin while I was still working full-time and hustling in hotels. For someone with decades of hospitality experience but a new travel-advisor business, that mattered.
The issue is what happened next. At 15,000++ advisors now, many with limited personal travel or industry experience, the Fora name no longer signals the same level of expertise it once did. In my view, that growth has diluted the brand and made the individual advisor’s niche, experience and judgment far more important than the host affiliation. Included training is valuable, but doesn't replace being an experienced traveler or hospitality professional.
From the hotel side, however, I still understand the commercial logic. Paying a 10% commission to an advisor who knows the client and can generate well-matched, repeat business is generally more attractive than paying 20% to 25% to an OTA with little relationship or context. The industry created those distribution economics; Fora simply made the game more accessible. Standards and education matter enormously, but perhaps this is still a case of don’t hate the player, hate the game 😉
100% Emily. I have only been with Fora for two years but I don’t rely so much on Fora as a brand but as a tool. It’s the experience and expertise of the advisor that attracts the client.
Exactly this - Fora is the infrastructure, not the value. Nobody books with a logo; they book with the person who's actually slept in the room they're recommending 😄
Thanks for your thoughtful input Emily! What do you think Fora should do differently to tackle the brand erosion?
Some basic gate keeping. A quiz - a higher tiered price that forces education for anyone truly new. Support and mentorship for those new folks who are truly invested.
This is a great read! Your point about Fora being a tech company that operates as a travel agency is my view as someone who uses the software and connections to enhance some of my pet travel and relocation consultancy's client experiences. Also, another reason I signed up for Fora to earn a little extra income for bookings I was already helping my friends and family with.
Hot take but based on my conversations & seeing discussions in Fora advisor groups, some people don't fully understand that Fora is more like a SaaS company than a host agency...
I think that’s very true - it operates more like a SaaS company than a host agency. I think they have an identity crises in that way. I’d love to see them partner with an established host agency like Coastline - give coastline their tech and give fora agents support from experienced advisors
Really interesting to read your take on Fora. I kept seeing these advisors pop up on social media (and one that couldn't even properly pronounce the name of the destination they were trying to convince people to visit) and it gave me MLM vibes.
Oof yeah I’ve seen a lot of those armchair experts (Colin Nagy calls them “Aman-splainers”) who mispronounce places and it drives me crazy
Great read! As a Fora agent, I found it really interesting to see this viewpoint on the agency from the outside. I'm about a year into my travel advising career and hit "Pro" status with Fora after about 10 months. Currently working on my continued education to maintain Pro status and "unlock" additional resources for my clients.
I'd describe Fora as a "choose your own adventure" platform as you noted: if you want to push toward becoming a top-level advisor, the resources and community are there to support that. If you'd rather keep it as a side hustle and just break even on the subscription, that's an option too.
I've found great mentorship during my time here, though it looks different from a traditional host agency. I meet with my local city chapter a few times a month for co-working sessions, happy hours, and site visits, and I've connected with local mentors that way. I've also applied for and been accepted into a few in-agency cohorts, where you're paired with a top-producing advisor for several weeks for lessons and 1:1 mentorship time.
Thank you for providing resources on additional trainings! I will definitely look into all of those as I continue to build my travel career :)
That’s great to know they have those city chapter meet ups! What does the application process look like for those cohorts? I’m so curious. Reach out any time if you ever need another resource. I’m an open book!
Thank you so much! <3
For the cohorts, you will get an email when you are selected to apply! I am unsure how they select, but my first cohort was when I was an "advanced" advisor (the second level you can achieve after getting accepted into Fora) and was invited to join a cohort that would focus on growing advanced advisor's business to the next level. The application questions asked me about my current clientele, who my ideal client would be, the type of trips I want to book, my goals for my business in the next year, how I like to learn and what I want to learn from my mentor! From there you find out if you got accepted and get matched with your mentor and group :)
Great read! Your insight on Fora being great for hobbyists (but maybe less so for those looking for solid mentorship + full travel agent career expectation) seems spot on. This seems like Fora's strategy all along—a freemium-ish model with a mass of casual users and now select tiers for the active power users.
I see AI as a potential disruptor for the low-hanging fruit bookings for the travelers that care about the lowest price, since any data point that can be scraped, AI will find. Your point on finding the travel agent that meets higher spending travelers' level of comfort and attention is probably the missing piece for Fora though — if they can figure out a way to build in mentorship / partner with more established agencies like yours, they can access the higher value (higher $$ commission paying) travelers. Just as curious as you if Fora can live up to their massive valuation since this implies rapidly scaling growth and volume! 15K agents x $299 is only about $4.5m ARR just from subscriptions, and doing some rough napkin math, if the vast majority of the 15K agents are hobbyists, we'd really need some serious booking volume to make the valuation make sense.
Exactly. I want to see them license their tech, pivot away from being a host agency and just embrace being a marketplace platform for people who want to be users and book casually or for personal travel. They should spin off their X tier and maybe Pro to an established host agency with a referral agreement or split for leads, making sure their advisors have mentors and actual connections to support them at those higher booking amounts.
ok also need to add though, from what I understand it is no longer a 'free-mium' either. The newbies do (now?!) pay a fee to onboard which does stop some hobbyists in their tracks.
Great discussion here and a number of illuminating comments. Will be reaching out to a few of you next month for a potential story on where this is leading.
This was an excellent read!
Thank you!
100%%%%% agree with your FORA breakdown...
Thanks! It’s the Wild West out here!
I really enjoyed this read and loved all the stats and quotes you provided to back up your POV on Fora. I feel very similarly to you, I've always called Fora the "Keller Williams of travel" because they take everyone and anyone (up to the reader to decide if that's good, bad or neutral) so that made me chuckle when you mentioned the founder equated Fora to the "new" real estate career for women.
I’m so glad you enjoyed my article! It was fun to write. I’m going to do a follow up piece after I meet with them over VTW to get their perspective, as well as incorporate some of the comments here. There’s so much to unpack
Thank you for the thoughtful mentions and for sharing your perspective, Anne Marie!
You guys do a great job training your agents! And I love your substack content
Really interesting read! I’ve been a travel agent since 2018 and moved from a previous host agency to Fora in 2023. I’ve seen immense growth in my bookings, but Fora IRKS me. They have incredible technology, but they have poor comms and handle changes poorly.
They recently made a big change to their Client Lead Program that was awful in my opinion. As someone whose full time job is in marketing and focuses on building a community within a brand—they really fall short here.
As my annual booking are creeping closer to $200k, I’m starting to explore different host agencies.
Thanks for sharing this! I’m going to message you for more detail
Thank you for this super fascinating (and fair!) take. Appreciate the positive mentions on SmartFlyer and our approach to the agency model.
I’m so glad you found it interesting and fair! I tried to be balanced - it’s such a unique entrant into our world at the moment, I wanted to really try to understand all the angles. Smartflyer is great - tons of very smart agents over there!
Thank you so much, that’s so kind, Anne Marie 🤍
Intanto complimenti per il tuo punto di vista su Fora. Io sono entrato recentemente come membro pro e posso confermare quello che hai detto. Da fondatore di una struttura di lusso innovativa a Venezia in Italia ho voluto disegnare viaggi per i miei stessi ospiti e anche altri. In merito al Delano ho intenzione di testare la struttura a Febbraio, e mi fa piacere quello che hai anticipato.
Grazie per aver letto il mio articolo! Credo che Fora sia decisamente la soluzione ideale per chi opera in settori collaterali, come nel tuo caso.Cosa ti è piaciuto della tua esperienza con loro finora?
Sicuramente la possibilità di fare training e il supporto del servizio clienti. Per ora…
Anne Marie - thank you for a thoughtful and well researched piece on Fora.
When I first was accepted to the Fora community, I let it sit dormant for a year. I had established my travel consultancy with an almost anti-agency mindset... I felt I could make more thoughtful recommendations with a focus on the traveler and promoting meaningful, purpose driven travel, rather than commissions driving my advice (I focus primarily on Italian travel). I spent years building my own relationships (with guides, hotels, experience providers, drivers.. etc) with self-funded research trips.
I ended up joining for the credentials, training and research capabilities. I've always been curious about the brand perception. I hit "Pro" status within 2 months of putting effort into the Fora-backed side of my business and, for me, I noticed an immediate difference in the caliber of advisor talent and elevated resources at the Pro-network level. As I move towards taking my business full-full time, I really appreciate that I have my affiliation to Fora for the technology and better monetizing my work, but/and I am interested to see how the brand continues to evolve post series D.
By the way, I DID get rejected on my first application, and I honestly think this is a good practice to ensure those who are re-applying are serious. 😄
Thank you for sharing your experience! I love hearing all these perspectives, and will incorporate them into my follow up article!
YW! Happy to chat if you'd like!
Great article!
Thanks!