Travel agents booking directly with sister properties BodyHoliday and Rendezvous will receive 13% commission as of next year.

The all-inclusive health and wellbeing resorts in Saint Lucia have revised their commission structure as part of a wider initiative to streamline and enhance the travel agent booking process. 

The new rate, up from 10% previously, will come into effect on January 1, 2022. 

Rebecca Platt, corporate director of sales and marketing at parent company SunSwept Resorts, said: “The experience of customisation comes from travel advisors. From a guest perspective, we're finding that there's a lot more demand for that travel advisor experience, so we want to support [agents] in doing that.”

Speaking to Aspire at World Travel Market 2021 in London, she added: “We've relied on other distribution channels a lot more [in the past] and I think now is the time that personalisation is key and that's why we need to support the travel advisor community so much more.”

BodyHoliday relaunched its pre-arrival personalisation tool in October 2020, allowing travel agents to log in on behalf of their clients before their stay to plan their personalised experience, as well as check in online. 

SunSwept Resorts has also invested in and enhanced its connectivity, meaning agents can now book both properties via a global distribution system (GDS).

“Those sorts of things are really going to help [agents] give a better experience to their clients, which in turn gives our guests a better booking journey,” said Platt.

“Before, we maybe weren't the easiest for travel advisors to book but now the whole process is so much easier for everybody so ultimately the guests' journey is as seamless as possible.”