The Holiday Franchise Company Franchise | Build Your Own Travel Agency from Home

Build Your Own Travel Agency from Home

The Holiday Franchise Company Franchise is a home-based online travel business opportunity created by the team behind Holidaysplease, one of the most decorated travel agencies in the country. Founded to give passionate travel enthusiasts the tools, backing and commercial infrastructure to run their own successful travel business, this franchise is built on more than two decades of proven success in the online travel sector.

The Holidaysplease Pedigree

The Holiday Franchise Company is backed by Holidaysplease, which began in 2003 on an investment of just £6,000 and has grown to turn over more than £30 million per year. Ranked as excellent on Trustpilot and a consistent winner of industry recognition, Holidaysplease demonstrates exactly what is possible with the right systems, suppliers and support in place. The Holiday Franchise Company exists to help its franchisees replicate that success in their own areas.

The Holiday Franchise Company team - born out of Holidaysplease, an established travel agency since 2003, with industry awards backing the franchise offer

As part of the Hays Travel Independence Group, franchisees have access to more than 500 travel suppliers, covering every kind of holiday from luxury cruises to adventure breaks, family packages, city breaks and destination weddings. This breadth of product means franchisees can serve a genuinely wide client base and develop areas of personal specialism that reflect their own travel experience and passions.

Accredited Training That Sets You Up for Success

The Holiday Franchise Company's onboarding programme is called "Journey to Success" and is one of the most distinctive in the travel franchise sector. It is delivered one-to-one, at dates and times to suit your schedule, over a period of months. The training is accredited by the Institute of Travel and Tourism.

The full franchisee package - seven one-to-one training sessions, a lead-generation website built for you, and a cloud-based CMS that lets you operate from anywhere

• ✓ Creating and launching your branded travel website
• ✓ Google Ads and digital marketing for local lead generation
• ✓ Customer management systems and booking platforms
• ✓ Supplier relationships and product knowledge across all holiday types
• ✓ Business planning, financial management and growth strategy

A Truly Flexible Home-Based Business

This franchise operates entirely online and from home. There are no fixed territories, so your potential client base is unrestricted. Many franchisees work around their existing commitments, building their client base steadily before transitioning to running the business full-time. The model is particularly well suited to those with a genuine passion for travel and a talent for building personal relationships with clients.

The Holiday Franchise Company currently has 23 franchisees across the country, with plans to grow the network in the coming years.

Brand Heritage and Timeline

Although the franchise opportunity itself launched in 2018, the operating platform behind it has more than two decades of trading history. Holidaysplease was started in late 2002 by ex-corporate lawyer Charles Duncombe and travel agency owner Richard Dixon, with an initial £6,000 of working capital. Online sales overtook the founders' traditional retail revenue by 2005, and former ABTA chairman John McEwan joined the board in 2013, lending the business significant industry credibility. The first franchise model, The Family Holidays Franchise, was tested in 2016, before being broadened into the all-inclusive Holiday Franchise Company two years later. In March 2023, Travel Counsellors acquired Holidaysplease as a strategic addition to its homeworking platform, with the Holidaysplease brand and its franchise arm retained as separate businesses. The franchise continues to bond through Hays Travel ATOL 5534, preserving the supplier access that has underpinned its growth.

Investment and Revenue Share Model

The current franchise package is priced at £15,795 plus VAT, paid as a single fee with flexible payment options available. A pre-launch business planning meeting costs £500, and that figure is credited back against the franchise fee if you decide to proceed. From go-live onwards, franchisees pay a flat monthly management fee of £155 and the head office takes a 2 per cent share of revenue. That revenue share sits well below the 30 per cent to 50 per cent commission splits found at many homeworking competitors, which is one of the headline reasons franchisees cite for choosing this model.

The Network in 2026

The franchise has grown well beyond the 23-franchisee figure quoted in earlier marketing. Travel Weekly reported in early 2025 that the group now had more than 60 businesses under its umbrella, employing 114 people in total and supporting three franchisee-owned retail shops in Coalville, Doncaster and Cardigan. Around 57 per cent of franchisees now operate as full-time travel professionals. The leadership team is targeting a further three new partners every month, prioritising fit over volume, and is aiming for at least 15 per cent sales growth in 2025 after recording a 39 per cent rise in booking revenue the year before.

What Franchisees Say

MBK Travels, run by Paul and Kelly McLeod in Coalville, became the first franchisee in the network to open a physical shop in October 2023. The same business went on to bank more than £700,000 in sales in 2024 and was named Franchisee of the Year. Speaking to Travel Weekly at the shop launch, Paul McLeod credited the head office team for the milestone.

UK Travel Agent Market Context

The home-based travel agent model is well aligned with where the UK leisure market is heading. The travel agency sector is currently worth around £29 billion a year, and although chain agencies have been squeezed by online consolidation, demand for personal, expert booking advice is strengthening. Travel Weekly reports that UK agents are becoming more valuable as the empty-nester and retiree market grows, with these customers favouring cruise, touring and higher-spend trips that benefit from human curation. ABTA's own consumer surveys consistently show that more than four in ten UK travellers prefer booking through an agent for tailored advice. A flexible home-based franchise sits in the sweet spot of that trend, with low overhead, no high-street rent, and the freedom to specialise in cruise, weddings, luxury or family travel.

Who Suits This Franchise

This is not a passive franchise. It rewards people who genuinely love travel, who are comfortable building relationships by phone, video and email, and who can sell a personal service rather than the cheapest fare. Prior travel industry experience is not required because the Journey to Success programme is delivered one to one over 8 to 10 weeks, but candidates do need the discipline to run a regulated business from home. Many partners start part-time while keeping another income, then transition to full-time once a repeat-client base is established. Service ethos, attention to detail and a willingness to follow a tested system matter more than a travel CV.

Interested in exploring more opportunities in this sector? Take a look at other travel and leisure franchise opportunities available on Franchise Hunt.