TravelTube.com Interview: Tammy Levent, CEO of Elite Travel Group

Host: Mark Murphy, TravelTube.com Guest: Tammy Levent, CEO, EliteTravelGroup.net Topic: Bed banks, host agency alternatives, and Task Lab travel agent training program

Intro & Housekeeping

Mark opens with the usual TravelTube call-to-action: sign up for the e-newsletter, follow across social/podcast platforms
Introduces Tammy Levant, who recently relocated to Crete, Greece

Tammy's Background

35 years running Elite Travel Group
Started as a full-service agency; became a pioneer in destination weddings (~1998), doing 300+ weddings/year with partners like IsleDash and Brides.com
Rebranded post-COVID to luxury-only service ("I will not sell a Carnival Cruise")
Business has weathered 9/11, the 2008 crash, and COVID by repeatedly shifting models

The Move to Greece

Ran a donut factory during COVID; lost 81 employees overnight when ICE intervened
Ran the numbers and determined U.S. retirement wasn't financially viable
Took a 3-week vacation to Crete after ITB Berlin — never went back
Sold/gave away her belongings; told her kids to treat it like she'd died (jokingly) when dividing the business
Cost of living: ~$2,000–4,000/month comfortably in Crete vs. $10,000+ in the U.S.

Task Lab Training Program

TASK = Travel Agent Success Kit, started ~12 years ago after noticing agents disengaged at industry conferences
Evolved from recorded online sessions → live in-person events/FAMs → now Task Lab, a weekly virtual live program
Pricing: $498 one-time (lifetime access to year-one content); $298/year to renew for new content
Positioned as a steep discount from her prior $5,000 in-person classes

Core Teaching: Bed Banks vs. Host Agencies

The Problem with Host Agencies

Advisors using hosts typically net ~8% commission after fees
Commissions can take a year or more to pay out, and are lost entirely on cancellations
Tammy calls dependency on commission-only models "drinking the commission Kool-Aid"

The Bed Bank Alternative

True bed banks (she works with ones based in India/Dubai/Middle East, not the U.S.) operate on razor-thin margins (2-3%) because they're self-funded and volume-driven
Advisors buy at deep net rates and mark up to match market rate (e.g., what's shown on Expedia/Booking.com)
No commission wait — advisor collects full payment upfront, keeps the spread immediately
No cancellation risk to commission (she builds in her own cancellation fees instead)
Rates can even drop after booking, and the bed bank passes the lower cost to the agent

Examples Deals Cited

Jamaica hotel: ~38% profit margin ($22,000 room, ~$6,000+ profit)
Santorini hotel (Rocabella): sold at $3,850 (matching Expedia/Booking.com/direct pricing), cost $2,750 — ~25% margin ($1,100 profit) on a 3-night stay
General claim: agents doing ~$100K in volume net ~$30K in profit under this model vs. single-digit percentages through hosts

Group Travel

Most bed banks won't offer true group rates; the one she uses will
Task Lab also teaches "FAM"-style group trips (e.g., recent Greece FAM with 10 agents, upcoming Turkey trip)

Business Operations Philosophy

Uses QuickBooks instead of a CRM — tracks 198,000 clients and full purchase history directly
Teaches advisors to "become a business" with proper structure, not just a booking hobbyist
Covers back-office topics: merchant accounts, getting paid upfront, using bed bank "wallets" (funds held off her books, reducing personal taxable income exposure)

Finding New Luxury Clients

Key strategy: partnering with charity events as a live/silent auction item
Example: offering a $3,000 trip as a "buy-it-now" price to every bidder on a bid sheet (not just the winner) — netted a $90,000 night and 30 new luxury clients in one event
Rationale: charity event attendees are inherently high-net-worth prospects

Common Objections From Advisors

"It seems like too much work" (checking multiple bed bank sources per booking)
Tammy's response: reframes it as choosing 8% commission over spending extra time for 30%+ profit
Cites a former prospective buyer of her agency who joined Task Lab late and said she'd lost "5 years of additional profit" by not joining sooner