Plan a journey
Pool and cabanas at Park Hyatt Bangkok

01Dip Needle Host

A travel business of your own.

Dip Needle’s platform for independent advisors: one workspace from hotel booking to a website in your name. No joining, membership or seat fees, agency commission splits from 80/20 and room for the whole team.

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02The proposition

Independent by design. Backed by the house.

Independent advisors have long been asked to work across borrowed systems: a booking engine here, a client list there, quotes in one document and a website in someone else’s name. Host gathers hotel booking at preferred rates, client and traveller profiles, trips, branded quotes, AI and a website of your own into a single workspace, so that everything known about a client sits beside the work being done for them.

The technology serves the advisor and never the reverse. AI drafts; you decide what reaches the client. Expected commission is in view while the options are weighed. The house holds the partnerships, the platform and the standard; the relationship, the recommendation and the business are yours.

Travelle main dining room at The Langham, Chicago
The Peninsula New York entrance on Fifth Avenue with ornate stonework and a hotel page

03Who Host is for

From a first client to a whole agency.

Host makes no distinction of seniority. The advisor with a single client and the agency with a dozen work in the same workspace, with the same partnerships behind them and nothing charged for the difference in size. What differs is what each has set out to build, and the platform is arranged to hold whichever it is.

  • 01

    A first travel business

    For those entering the trade with a client or two and a good instinct. A professional workspace from the first enquiry: hotel booking at preferred rates, a branded quote ready to send and a website that says who you are.

  • 02

    Alongside another career

    For the advisor who plans travel part of the week, in season or beside a first profession, and wants the client work kept to a professional standard without a membership fee for the months when it is quiet.

  • 03

    An established client book

    For the experienced advisor whose clients follow them. Bring preferences, loyalty memberships, trip history and the relationships of years into a workspace that keeps them beside every new booking, and present the work under your own name.

  • 04

    An agency or a team

    For the principal with advisors around them. Bring the whole team at once, with each advisor’s clients and permissions their own and a website in each name, and run the agency from a single view of everything it books.

04Inside Host

One workspace in six parts.

The platform is organised the way a travel business is: around the client, the stay, the trip and the people who serve them. Each part of the workspace knows what the others know, so a preference noted in January is beside the quote written in June, and the expected commission is beside the options it belongs to.

  • 01

    Clients

    Every client, known in full.

    Client and traveller profiles hold preferences, notes and hotel loyalty memberships beside the trips and bookings that came before, so a returning client is met with what is already known of them and a new one is recorded properly from the first conversation.

    • Client and traveller profiles
    • Preferences, notes and loyalty memberships
    • Trip history and booking records
  • 02

    Hotels & quotes

    The right stay at the preferred rate.

    Search and book hotels at preferred rates, with the privileges of a preferred guest attached to eligible bookings. Compare the options with expected commission in view, then send a branded quote that presents the choice as you would across a table.

    • Hotel search and booking
    • Preferred rates and privileges
    • Branded quotes with expected commission
  • 03

    Trips

    One record for the whole trip.

    Each trip keeps its itinerary, documents and booking records together, including reservations confirmed elsewhere, so a sailing or a private tour arranged with another supplier sits beside the hotel booked here. Clients follow their plans and quotes through your website.

    • Itineraries, documents and bookings
    • Records of bookings made elsewhere
    • Client access to trips and quotes
  • 04

    AI

    A first draft, never the final word.

    AI explores hotels for a brief, explains what a rate includes and drafts an itinerary, a client message or a post for your website. You refine, add what you know and decide what is sent; nothing is booked or sent without you.

    • Hotel exploration and rate explanations
    • Drafts of itineraries, messages and posts
    • Nothing sent without the advisor
  • 05

    Your brand

    A website that carries your name.

    A branded website presents your profile and your original posts, with a private view for clients of their trips and quotes. Optional email marketing reaches the clients who have asked to hear from you, written in your voice and sent when you choose.

    • Branded advisor website
    • Profile and original posts
    • Optional email marketing to opted-in clients
  • 06

    Teams

    The whole team under one agency.

    Invite advisors without a seat fee and give each their own clients, trips, permissions and website, with the agency’s oversight of the whole. Arrangements with each team member are set by the agency and kept separate from the agency split.

    • Team invitations and permissions
    • A website for every advisor
    • Agency oversight of the whole

05The economics

The greater share stays with the agency.

There is no joining fee, no membership fee and no charge for a seat. Agency commission splits begin at 80/20 in the agency’s favour on eligible commission, and the split is the same whether the agency is one advisor or a dozen. We would rather be paid from the business you build than from the fact that you joined.

Arrangements with advisors inside a team are set by the agency and kept separate from the agency split. Expected commission shown in the workspace is an estimate; confirmed commission and payment follow your agreement. Optional usage, meaning prepaid AI credits, additional hotel search and marketing tools, is charged separately and set out before activation.

From 80/20

Agency to Dip Needle, on eligible commission

  • No joining or membership fee

    Nothing is charged for joining and nothing for remaining; the house earns its share from commission on the bookings you make.

  • No charge per seat

    Add one advisor or a whole team without a seat fee; the size of the agency is a decision about the business, not about the subscription.

  • Optional usage, priced separately

    Prepaid AI credits, additional hotel search and marketing tools are taken up only when they are useful and charged separately, with the terms set out before activation.

0
Joining, membership or seat fees
80/20
Starting agency commission split
Unlimited
Advisor seats

06Side by side

The usual terms, and ours.

Host agencies vary, and many are run well. The comparison below is general rather than a claim about any one of them: it sets what Host asks of an advisor against what the trade has usually asked, so that the terms can be read at a glance and questioned in detail.

The usual terms, and ours.
FeatureDip Needle HostA typical host agency
Joining feeNoneOften charged
Membership feeNoneCommonly charged, monthly or annually
Advisor seatsUnlimited, without a seat feePer-advisor charges are common
Starting splitFrom 80/20 in the agency’s favourVaries with host and sales volume
The workspaceOne platform, from hotel booking to your websiteSeveral separate tools
Who it is forAdvisors at every stage, and whole agenciesExperience or sales minimums are common

07Why Host

What Host does differently.

The trade has grown used to segmented tools, tiered splits and a fee for every seat. Host was designed from the other direction: one platform, generous terms from the first booking and a house that puts the advisor’s judgement, not the software, at the centre of the service.

  • 01

    One platform, not six subscriptions

    Hotel booking, clients, trips, quotes, AI and your website share one workspace and one record of each client, in place of the separate tools, exports and retyping that most independents have learnt to live with.

  • 02

    AI, with the advisor in charge

    The assistant drafts, explains and explores; it does not book, send or speak to a client. Every itinerary, message and post leaves the workspace only once you have read it, changed what you would change and chosen to send it.

  • 03

    The house’s partnerships, yours to offer

    The house’s preferred hotel programmes, with the privileges of a preferred guest available to your clients on eligible bookings, give an independent advisor the standing of a house and doors that a single practice rarely opens alone.

  • 04

    Commission you can see

    Expected commission appears beside the hotel options before anything is booked, and the recorded status follows once it is, so the economics of a recommendation are in view at the time rather than worked out afterwards.

  • 05

    Open at every stage

    A first client, a part-time practice or an established book: the platform, the partnerships and the terms are the same at every stage of a career, and each application is read with care before anything is activated.

  • 06

    Room for the whole team

    Every advisor in an agency has their own clients, permissions and website, the agency keeps oversight of the whole and no seat is charged for, so the team grows with the business and not with a bill.

08Hotel programmes

Your clients, welcomed as guests of the house.

Hotels booked through Host are booked as the house books them, at preferred rates across nine programmes and with the privileges of a preferred guest on eligible bookings: daily breakfast for two, a hotel credit to spend on property, room upgrades, early check-in and late check-out, VIP recognition and preferred offers. It is the difference between a good rate and an introduction, and it is yours to offer from the first booking.

Privileges apply to eligible bookings and vary by hotel and rate; upgrades and check-in and check-out times are subject to availability.

The questions advisors ask first.

Host, for independent advisors.

Tell us about your business, your clients and the team you would bring. We will reply with an introduction to the platform, the agency split from 80/20 and the optional tools, and review your application before anything is activated.

Apply to Host
Aerial view of The Langham, London at the top of Regent Street

11Your application

The house is ready when you are.

Whether you are placing a first client or moving an agency of advisors, the workspace and the welcome are the same. Send a few lines about your practice and the business you intend to build, and a member of the house will reply to talk it through.

Apply to Host