What a homeworking travel agent is

A homeworking travel agent is a self-employed travel professional who runs their business from home and sells holidays and travel to the public. There is no legal definition of a homeworking travel agent. This is how the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) uses the term, and it describes homeworking as a significant part of how the travel trade now works.

Homeworking companies, sometimes called hosts or homeworking groups, run schemes that homeworkers can join. Depending on the company, a host may provide supplier agreements, ATOL and ABTA arrangements you can sell under, booking systems, training and marketing support. Some hosts supply sales leads, others expect you to find your own customers and some combine the two.

Being self-employed matters. An ATOL holder’s employees who work from home sell under its ATOL as its workers, but a self-employed homeworker does not count as a worker for an ATOL holder. Your rights also come mainly from your contract with the host rather than from employment law, so read it closely.

How homeworkers are paid

How you are paid depends on your contract with the homeworking company. Before you sign, check:

• what share of the commission on your bookings you receive, and whether it is different for leads you find and leads the company supplies

• when commission is paid, including whether any of it is held back until the customer has travelled

• whether there are joining or other fees

We are not aware of any reliable published figure for typical commission shares or fees, so ask for every charge and every commission rate in writing.

Selling flights: choose your ATOL route

In the UK, only an airline, an ATOL holder or a business that is exempt can sell flights. Because a self-employed homeworker is not a worker for an ATOL holder, you will normally sell flights and flight-inclusive holidays in one of these ways unless you hold your own ATOL:

• As an agent for an ATOL holder. You sell on behalf of a named ATOL holder under a written agency agreement that includes the CAA’s Schedule of Agency Terms. The agreement must name you and the ATOL holder and be dated. As soon as you take any payment, you must be able to issue an ATOL Certificate on the ATOL holder’s behalf without referring back to it, and to bind it to the contract.

• As a sub-agent. If another agent appoints you, rather than the ATOL holder itself, you are a sub-agent. That is only allowed where the agent’s own agreement permits sub-agents and you also have a written agency agreement with the ATOL holder itself, containing the CAA’s terms, which the appointing agent enters into on the ATOL holder’s behalf. Without it, you and the agent who appointed you are both in breach of the ATOL Regulations.

• As a member of an Accredited Body. Accredited Bodies are ATOL holders that let member businesses trade under their licence. Members can issue ATOL Certificates, customer payments go into accounts under the Accredited Body’s trust deed and members must use its booking systems. The Accredited Body is liable to customers as if it were the member. You cannot hold your own ATOL or belong to a second Accredited Body at the same time, and the Accredited Body can end your membership with immediate effect.

Selling flight-only tickets as an airline’s appointed ticket agent is a separate exemption, and it never covers packages. You can also apply for your own ATOL, but it is a substantial step. A Small Business ATOL costs £1,538 to apply for, and the CAA applies fitness, competence and financial tests. Sole traders and partners must provide a certified statement of their personal assets and liabilities, and a decision takes around 12 weeks on average. Every ATOL holder also pays a £2.50 ATOL Protection Contribution for each passenger on an ATOL-protected booking. Our ATOL guide explains each route in more detail.

Your ATOL paperwork

Whichever route you use, the rules on paperwork are strict:

• ATOL Certificates. The customer must get an ATOL Certificate as soon as you accept a first payment, whether a deposit or the full price. Taking card details counts as taking payment even if the card is not charged straight away, so do not take any payment until you can issue the certificate. It is your responsibility to make sure the certificate reaches the customer, whoever produces it.

• Your publicity. Publicity that features flights or flight-inclusive holidays, including your website, must name the ATOL holder that protects them, show its ATOL number and include the CAA’s standard ATOL protection statement. Agents cannot use the ATOL logo without the CAA’s permission. Members of an Accredited Body instead state that they are an Accredited Body Member of it and show its ATOL number and the ATOL logo.

• Adverts and social media. Since 1 April 2026, adverts that refer to ATOL-protected holidays, for example by showing the price of a flight-inclusive package, have had to mention ATOL protection. That includes social media posts, where a tag such as #ATOLProtected can be used. Ask your host how it wants you to do this.

• Receipts. Receipts must show which money is ATOL protected and which is not, so any booking fee you charge must be shown separately.

• Customer money. Money a customer pays you for an ATOL holder’s services is held for the Trustees of the Air Travel Trust. While the ATOL holder is trading you pass it on, but if it fails you must keep holding the money for the Trustees and must not pay it to the failed company.

Getting this wrong has real consequences. The CAA warns that documents that do not comply can be treated as a breach of the ATOL Regulations, which can lead to a customer’s claim being refused and referred back to the agent for a refund.

Packages: retailer or organiser?

The Package Travel and Linked Travel Arrangements Regulations 2018, known as the Package Travel Regulations, set out two roles. The organiser combines and sells packages, and a retailer sells packages that an organiser has put together. Government guidance describes the retailer as, in effect, the organiser’s agent.

• Selling a tour operator’s package. If you sell a ready-made package from a tour operator, you are on the retailer side. The retailer and the organiser must both make sure the customer gets the information the regulations require before booking, including the standard information form. They can agree which of them provides it, but if it is not provided both commit an offence. Customers can also send messages and complaints to the retailer, which must pass them on to the organiser without undue delay.

• Tailor-making a holiday. Whoever puts a package together is its organiser, even if they present themselves as acting for the traveller, and government guidance says bespoke packages put together by travel agents are packages. The organiser is responsible for every part of the package, whoever provides it, and must protect the customer’s money: through ATOL for packages with flights, and through a bond, insurance or a trust for the rest.

Flights need particular care. The exemption for agents of an ATOL holder only covers a flight in a package if your role is limited to helping the customer choose from a closed range of the ATOL holder’s own travel services and the ATOL holder acts as the organiser. If you put a package together in any other way, you need an ATOL arrangement that lets you act as the organiser, such as your own ATOL or membership of an Accredited Body, and an agent that organises a package must issue the package ATOL Certificate in its own name. Ask your host exactly how it handles tailor-made trips.

The rules change on 6 April 2027. From that date, two or more different types of travel service for the same trip, such as a flight and a hotel, will form a package if a customer chooses and pays for them separately in a single visit to or contact with one business. That includes a single phone call. Linked travel arrangements will no longer exist. Ask your host how it will handle bookings like these. Our Package Travel Regulations guide explains the rules in full.

ABTA

ABTA membership is not a legal requirement. ABTA’s documented route for trading under another member’s membership is the managed branch: a branch run on an ABTA member’s behalf under a managed branch agreement, which receives a branch ABTA number through that member. The member is responsible for the branch’s customers and its liabilities to them. Not every homeworking arrangement works this way, so ask your host how you will trade under its membership.

If you sell under an ABTA member’s membership, expect to follow its Code of Conduct, which binds all members. Day to day, that includes:

• showing the ABTA logo and ABTA number in all your advertising

• giving passport, visa and health information before a customer books

• pointing out to customers the need for suitable travel insurance

• acknowledging customers’ letters and emails within 14 days and replying in full within 28 days

Some breaches of the Code, including the rules on the logo and on replying to customers, carry fixed penalties of £400. And never present a business that is not an ABTA member as one.

Setting up your business

As a homeworker you are self-employed, and the simplest way to trade is as a sole trader. You keep all your profits after tax, but you are personally responsible for any debts of the business. You can trade under your own name or a trading name, as long as it follows the naming rules: for example, it must not include Ltd, LLP or plc, be offensive or be too similar to an existing trade mark. A limited company is also an option, but it must be registered before it starts trading, and whether a host accepts a company is up to the host.

• Registering with HMRC. You can start trading straight away. If you earn more than £1,000 in a tax year, you must register for Self Assessment by 5 October after the end of that tax year. Up to £1,000 of trading income a year is covered by the tax-free trading allowance. The government has announced that the reporting threshold will rise to £3,000, but that is not yet in force.

• National Insurance. For 2026 to 2027, the self-employed pay Class 4 National Insurance at 6% on profits between £12,570 and £50,270 and at 2% above that, usually through Self Assessment. With profits of £7,105 or more, Class 2 is treated as paid, so there is nothing extra to pay. Below that, you can choose to pay voluntary Class 2 at £3.65 a week.

• Making Tax Digital. Since 6 April 2026, sole traders whose qualifying income was over £50,000 in the 2024 to 2025 tax year have had to use Making Tax Digital for Income Tax, keeping digital records and sending HMRC quarterly updates. The threshold falls to £30,000 from April 2027 and £20,000 from April 2028, in each case based on your income in an earlier tax year. Qualifying income is your gross income from self-employment and property. HMRC writes to people who need to join, but it is up to you to check.

• VAT. You must register for VAT if your taxable turnover goes over £90,000 in any 12-month period. If you sell as a disclosed agent, any VAT is due on your commission or fee, not on the price of the holiday. Whether that commission is standard-rated, zero-rated or exempt depends on what you arrange and for whom: for example, a sub-agent’s services supplied in the UK are standard-rated. Take advice on your own position. Our VAT and TOMS guide explains how VAT works for travel businesses.

• Data protection. Whether you pay the data protection fee depends on your role. If you decide how client information is used, for example by keeping your own client records, you are a controller and will usually need to pay £52 a year, or £47 by direct debit. If you only handle client information on your host’s instructions, you are likely to be a processor and will not usually need to pay the fee, although using CCTV for work, such as a dashcam, can change that. Use the ICO’s online self-assessment and agree your role with your host in writing. Since 30 September 2026 the regulator has been the Information Commission, still known as the ICO.

• Insurance. Employers’ liability insurance is only a legal requirement once you employ someone. Your home insurance may not cover business use, so check it, and ask your host what cover it requires you to hold.

• Working from home. You do not usually pay business rates for using a small part of your home, such as a spare bedroom, as an office. You may need permission from your mortgage lender or landlord. If you work from home for 25 hours or more a month, you can claim a flat rate of £10, £18 or £26 a month, depending on your hours, instead of working out your actual household costs.

• Prices. Since 6 April 2025, the headline price in an advert has had to include any compulsory fees, such as a booking fee you charge. Adding them at the end of the booking is not allowed.

Questions to ask a homeworking company

Homeworking companies differ, so ask these questions before you join:

1. Which ATOL route will I use: agent under your ATOL, sub-agent or member of an Accredited Body? Can I see the agency agreement or membership terms?

2. Who issues ATOL Certificates, and how do they reach customers the moment they pay?

3. When I put a package together, who is the organiser, and how are packages without flights protected? How will you handle bookings that become packages from 6 April 2027?

4. How will I trade under your ABTA membership, and how should I show the ABTA logo and number?

5. What are all the charges, including joining, monthly, technology, marketing, training and per-booking fees? What does each cover, and is any of it refundable?

6. What share of the commission do I get, what is it calculated on, is it different for leads you supply and when is it paid?

7. How long is the contract, how much notice does each side have to give and are there any restrictions after I leave?

8. Who owns the client database, am I a data controller or a processor and what can I take with me if I leave?

9. Will I trade under my own brand or yours, and how must the ATOL holder, the ABTA details and your name appear in my marketing?

10. Which booking and client systems must I use, what do they cost and do they produce ATOL Certificates automatically?

11. What training, compliance support and out-of-hours help for travelling customers do you provide, and how are complaints handled?

12. Where does customer money go, and how are refunds handled?

13. What happens to my future bookings, and the commission on them, if I leave or you end the agreement?

14. What insurance must I hold, and how is any travel insurance I sell authorised?

15. Can I speak to current homeworkers of my choosing, and are any earnings figures you show me based on the network’s actual results?

16. Is the arrangement exclusive?