Signing with a host agency is a five-year decision dressed up as a five-minute form. The clauses that decide how the money reaches the bank account, who carries the legal risk on a client’s holiday, and what happens if the relationship ends… all of them are usually settled before the paperwork is signed. Once the ink is dry, the negotiating window closes.
So here are the questions worth asking a host agency before signing, and the honest answers JLT gives to each one. Think of it as the shape of a full conversation rather than a checklist. Any host agency worth joining should welcome every question on this list, and be able to answer with numbers, timelines, and named regulators rather than reassurance.
Within JLT, the team welcomes those questions. A well-prepared prospective agent is a good sign, not an awkward one.
The Licence and Legal Questions
The first cluster is dull on the page and enormous in practice. A host agency’s licences are what stand between an agent and a compliance nightmare.
Ask which licences the host holds, and ask for the numbers. Within JLT, that answer is ATOL 12564 and PTS6090. Ask what those numbers mean for client bookings and for the agent selling them. ATOL covers flight-inclusive package holidays. PTS covers non-flight arrangements and provides a trust account structure for client money.
Ask where client money sits between booking and departure. The honest answer within JLT is the PTS trust account… not a general operating account, and not comingled with agency working capital. That distinction matters when suppliers fail, when refunds are due, or when a client asks a pointed question about protection.
Ask what happens to a live booking if the agent leaves. This is the question new agents forget to ask, and it is one of the most important. Within JLT, active bookings complete under JLT’s licences, honouring the client contract regardless of the agent’s status.
The Commission Questions
Money questions are where the polite conversation should slow down.
Ask about the split, and ask what it includes. Within JLT, the model is 80/20 in the agent’s favour, applied to net commission after supplier costs are settled. A larger headline split on a different structure can be smaller in pounds once the terms are read. The number on its own means little without the terms sitting behind it.
Ask when commission is paid. This is where new agents often assume the industry works one way and the industry works another. Within JLT, commission is released under a three-part condition set out in §26.4.1 of the agent agreement… the client must have paid in full, the suppliers must have been paid, and departure must be within twelve weeks. That structure protects everyone in the chain. It also means the money reaches the agent on a predictable timeline rather than a hopeful one.
Ask what a large split on a delayed payment schedule looks like in cash terms against a slightly smaller split that arrives earlier. Numbers on a slide are not the same as pounds in an account. The honest host agency will walk through both.
Ask whether the host quotes supplier commission percentages. A responsible one will not. Supplier terms change, and quoting them creates a promise no host can control.
The Training and Support Questions
A host agency is only as useful as the support wrapped around the commercial model.
Ask what the first weeks look like. Within JLT, new agents work through roughly three weeks of self-paced training, then move into onboarding with a dedicated specialist and a weekly Zoom rhythm covering supplier product, co-working, niche development, and social media. The learning phase is understood as a full twelve-month journey, not a fortnight of orientation.
Ask what happens on a live booking when a question arises at three in the afternoon. Within JLT, daily Q&A clinics run for booking help, and named specialists sit behind cruise, Disney, packages, and Africa product. That structure means an agent is rarely more than a message away from someone who has done the itinerary before.
Ask what the technology looks like. Within JLT, the booking platform gives agents access to more than two hundred suppliers through unified search, branded quotes for clients, one-click booking, and automated ATOL certificates and confirmations. That layer replaces a shelf of supplier logins and a great deal of manual admin.
The right question is not “is there training” but “what does month three feel like”. A host agency that has thought carefully about that answer is one worth signing with.
The Exit Questions
The last cluster is the one prospective agents feel most awkward asking, which is exactly why it matters most.
Ask what leaving looks like. Within JLT, the notice period is thirty days. Active bookings complete under JLT licences after the agent has moved on, honouring the client relationship regardless of the paperwork behind it. There is also a thirty-day freeze option for agents who need to pause the business for personal reasons rather than exit it entirely.
A host agency that treats the exit conversation with the same clarity as the entry conversation is signalling something important. It is saying the relationship is built on the agent’s success, not on the difficulty of leaving.
One More Thing
The agent asking these questions is the agent a host agency, understandably, would love to say yes to. The care shown in the interview is the care that will show up in the client work.
If a host cannot answer the licence questions with numbers, cannot explain the commission timing in a sentence, cannot describe the training in specifics, or cannot walk through the exit terms without hesitating, the answer is already there. Sign nothing until the answers are.
Book a twenty-minute host-agency Q&A with JLT, bring this list, and get every answer with numbers, timelines, and named regulators attached.
