Work At Home Travel Careers
One of the perks of working at home, is that often you can do it from anywhere. During the years I was doing the WAHS podcast, I interviewed people who’d created a career that let them move to their dream location. I’ve met people who work on the road as they travel in their RV. I have a friend that lives abroad 6 months out of the year, which she and her husband can do because they both have portable jobs.
Below is a list of ideas you can use to make money with your love of travel. In some cases, these income options don’t actually require travel, but instead allow you to share your enthusiasm for travel.
Some of these ideas are jobs, while others are home businesses.
Work-At-Home Ideas that Directly Involve Travel or Travel Information
1) Reservations Agent
Many hotels, such as Hilton, and airlines, such as American Airlines and Delta, hire home-based reservations agents. Similar to customer service, you usually have to have a quite location to work, and often work a set schedule. Here’s a few others you can check out:
Best Western
Hotel Tonight
Marriott
Omni Hotels
Starwood Hotels & Resorts
2) Travel Agent
With resources such as Trivago, Expedia and Priceline, many people are now booking their travel on their own. However, many people still like to use a service to help them organize all the arrangements.
I regularly see jobs for home based travel agents. Often, you need experience in travel and the systems that the travel industry uses, but not always. These can be generic travel agents or focused on a specific type of travel, such as cruises, such as Carnival Cruise Lines and Norwegian Cruise Lines.
Or, a more flexible option is to start your own travel business, where you can offer general travel help, or focus on a specific aspect of travel such as cruises, or Disney
3) Travel Customer Support and Help
American Express hires travel counselors, and other travel support representatives. It has work-at-home jobs in many countries around the world.
BootsnAll also often has jobs in travel support and planning, many are in other countries.
4) Travel Writer/Photographer
If you can write and enjoy sharing your experiences, tips, and warnings about travel, then a travel writing job might be perfect. The challenge of travel writing (as in all freelance writing) is finding sustainable work. However, the upside is often the company will pay for travel, but even if it doesn’t, the travel expenses you incur to research the article may be tax deductable.
Many magazines and websites pay for travel articles, and some companies hire people to write travel guides. Here is more information about becoming a travel writer:
How to Become a Travel Writer (Foders)
How to Become a Travel Writer (Travel & Leisure)
If you take great photos, you can sell them along with your writing, or sell them alone to travel media. Another option is to sell them through photo sites such as iStockPhoto.
5) Travel Blogger
The difference between a travel writer and travel blogger has to do with the source of your income. While a travel writer is paid by magazine, website or publisher, as a travel blogger, you have other sources of income that can include affiliate marketing, ads and sponsorships, and creating and selling your own travel guides and tips. If you have an active following, you can get free travel from hotels, airlines, and hot locations spots that want you to write about them.
6) Student Exchange Coordinator
I have been an exchange student and an exchange student coordinator, so I can speak with authority that this is a really interesting and rewarding type of work. It’s part-time and you’re paid based on the number of students you help place and supervise, often up to $1000 per student over the course of their stay (9-10 months). You may also receive pay for every family that you recruit.
As a coordinator, you usually are only involved in working with schools to accept students, recruiting families to apply, and supervising students that are placed in your area.
I did an exchange in Italy when I was in high school with AFS, and the experience was good. Other places you can check out include:
American Institute for Foreign Study
EF Education First
Educational Resource Development Trust
International Cultural Exchange Services
7) Tour Guide
As a tour guide, you’re not going to be at home all the time, but you can often work from home dealing with the other aspects of being a guide (i.e. setting up tours). Interestingly enough, there are now virtual tour guides, in which you give a tour using your smartphone, and others watch it virtually. It’s a great way to let people know about off-the-beaten path locations they should plan to visit when they actually travel to the location.
Here are a few places to check out be a virtual tour guide:
You can set up specialty tours or excursions as well. I once interviewed someone who moved to Puerto Rico and ran a scuba diving business from home.
8) B&B Owner (or AirBNB)
There’s a part of me that would love to own a bed and breakfast on a beach somewhere. Not only would I live in my favorite locale, but also, I’d be able to meet people from all over the world. The only part that puts me off is having to cook and wash sheets. However, today you don’t need to own a large old home to run a B&B. On my trip to the Outer Banks recently, I went to a coffee shop run from a home, that had two AirBNB rooms for rent as well. I know another family that has a single room they rent out as a B&B.
If you’re in a hurry to move to another location, a bed and breakfast is a great way to get a home and income all at the same time.
9) Teach English
If you’re interest is in meeting people from other countries, teaching English is a great option. There are teaching jobs you can take in which you’d relocate to the country, although in that case, the work wouldn’t be from home. The other option is virtual teaching. Companies like VIPKid, Cambly and Qkids hire people to teach children English online.
Work-At-Home Ideas that are Portable Allowing for Travel
These ideas aren’t related to travel specifically, but are flexible and portable, so you can travel and still earn a living.
Affiliate marketer
Blogger
Freelance writing
Information Entrepreneur
Online Freelancer
Remote Job (note, not all virtual jobs are portable, so you’ll want to research jobs you’re interested in to see if the job is location independent).
More help in creating a portable virtual career!
I recently picked up The Suitcase Entrepreneur by Natalie Sisson. This is an excellent book if you want to travel and still earn a living. It not only provides information on choosing a portable career, but also help on dealing with things like banking abroad.
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