Travel Agent Interview Questions

A Travel Agent helps customers plan and book their travels, whether for business or pleasure. They are highly structured and organised, helping people plan the perfect itinerary for their upcoming trip.

When interviewing a candidate for the Travel Agent role, you should look out for the following skills:

Exceptional planning and organisational skills
Customer-centric mindset and attitude at all times
Sales-focussed approach to ensure they meet the travel agency’s sales targets
Ability to find creative solutions and build interesting itineraries with practically any type of budget
Extensive knowledge of the travel industry

Interviewing a Travel Agent

Are you ready to interview a candidate for this role? Congratulations! But before you go into the interview without being fully prepared, you should ensure you have some great, role-specific interview questions backed up. That’s where our list below comes in.

On this page, you will find a list of Travel Agent interview questions that help you determine whether a candidate is the right fit for the job. These questions help you assess their work experience and skill set to see how they might operate within your business when hired.

Do note, however, that the questions below are designed to be asked early on during the interview process. They are therefore a little more general.

How to open the job interview

Job interviews can be nerve-wracking experiences. In many cases, the candidate is filled with nerves and anxiety. Although this is natural, it can hinder the interview process. If their nerves get the better of them, it could impact the answers they give to your questions and the first impression you get from them.

That’s why you should start the Travel Agent job interview with a few opening questions that help your candidate get comfortable.

Job Description available

See our Travel Agent job description here

For the interview

A positive opener to start

What has been your career path been so far?

What do you enjoy most about being a Travel Agent?

What is your favourite holiday destination?

What type of vacationer are you (e.g. wellness, adventure, sportive)?

Behavioral Questions

Tell me about a time you had to deal with an angry/difficult customer. How did you handle the situation?
Customer service is an essential part of working as a Travel Agent. The candidate should be able to stay calm and patient, as well as demonstrate that they’re capable of de-escalating a situation.
Tell me about a time you went above and beyond for a customer. What did you do?
This is your candidate’s time to shine. Find out how customer-centric they really are and get an idea of what you can expect from them if you would hire them.
Tell me about a time a customer had unrealistic holiday expectations for their budget. How did you handle the situation?
This is a common problem a Travel Agent will face. It means the Travel Agent has to be able to explain the situation to the customer, explain why their expectations have to be lowered, and subsequently find them a solution that they are still satisfied with. This requires great problem-solving, communication, and persuasion skills.
Tell me about a time you accidentally went above the budget of a customer. What was the outcome?
This will tell you something about the candidate’s budgeting skills, but also how good they are at upselling!

Soft Skills

Walk me through your process of finding the lowest fees and best deals for your customers.
This question gives you insight into their way of working and how they approach a new request from a customer.
How do you ensure you stay organised when planning a large-scale, complex itinerary?
Many customer requests will be relatively straightforward. But if a party of six wants to travel through three different countries in Asia for two months, with all accommodation and transportation included, it can be difficult to keep track of everything and keep things organised and accurate. Find out how your candidate approaches such a situation.
How do you keep yourself motivated and equally enthusiastic when dealing with customers?
When booking the sixth all-inclusive trip to Crete of the week, it can be difficult to keep the same level of enthusiasm when a new customer comes in with the same request. Find out how the candidate stays motivated.

Hard Skills

Which types of holidays have you organised the most in your career so far?
Find out if they have a specific area of expertise. For example, an all-inclusive package holiday for two weeks in a resort on Mallorca requires different planning and criteria than travelling the Trans Siberian Express for a month with several stops along the way.
Which GDS systems have you used in the past?
A practical question to find out what systems they have experience working with.
Do you have experience negotiating deals with travel partners?
Although not always the task of a Travel Agent, this could be part of the job. Experience in this area could be an added advantage.

Operational / Situational Questions

Imagine a client gives you an unlimited budget for a two-week beach holiday for two people. They really don’t mind the destination, as long as it’s sunny. What do you do?
This is a great opportunity for a candidate to be creative as they get a lot of freedom. But it’s also important to see what they do with such freedom. Ideally, your candidate will propose three or four options in different price classes and destinations, to give the customer a variety of options that fit the brief.
A customer calls the agency in a panic. They just arrived at their destination and the hotel they were supposed to stay at says they don’t have their booking in the system. What do you do?
Regardless of how the booking mistake occurred, it is the candidate’s job to find a solution for the problem. They need to ensure that the customer either gets a place in the hotel or they need to find them alternative accommodation.
You created a complex itinerary for a client and sent it over to them for approval. They are super excited and give you the go ahead, but by now the total price has increased by almost 10%. What do you do?
Pricing in the travel industry can be incredibly volatile and change every minute. A successful Travel Agent candidate will be able to quickly find alternatives or persuade the customer to, based on the candidate’s experience and research, accept the price hike before it rises even further. It also shows how the candidate learns from their mistakes and how they might try to prevent this from happening in the future.