The Travel Advisor Website Show

Most travel advisors build their websites on a desktop and check them on a desktop. But the majority of visitors are arriving on a phone — often in a moment of inspiration, not intent. In this episode, Justin Hinkle introduces what he calls the Spark Moment: the specific point when someone first seriously considers a trip, which increasingly happens on mobile, in a distracted environment, with a short window before the thought passes.

He covers what it actually means for a site to be "mobile-friendly" beyond just technically fitting on a small screen, why the Spark Moment visitor is different from the ready-to-book visitor and needs a different experience, how load speed and thumb navigation affect whether someone stays or leaves, and why most advisor sites lose mobile visitors not because of bad design but because of design that was never really tested where it matters. If you've never walked through your own site the way a phone visitor would, this one will change that.

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Advisors who want to attract premium clients often try to fix their website by making it look more high-end — more animations, more visual complexity, more production value. In this episode, Justin Hinkle explains why that instinct usually backfires, and introduces what he calls the Effort Trap: in luxury contexts, visible effort signals insecurity rather than confidence, and the harder a site tries to look expensive, the less premium it tends to feel.

He covers the difference between looking expensive and feeling premium, why photography specificity matters more than photography quantity, how breathing room communicates confidence, what copy hesitancy is doing to your positioning before a client ever gets on a call with you, and why the path to a more elevated site is almost always about removing things rather than adding them. He also makes the case for why fixing this has a direct effect on fee conversations — before you've said a word.

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Your website can look great, cover all the right information, and still have almost nobody reaching out. In this episode, Justin Hinkle gets into why — and introduces what he calls the Three Yeses: the three things a visitor has to silently agree to before booking a call ever feels like the obvious next move.

He covers why credibility works differently for travel advisors than most other industries, what makes a site feel safe to reach out from versus one that feels subtly pushy, why a long contact form is quietly costing advisors more inquiries than they realize, and how the order information appears on a page either builds toward action or stalls it.

If your site feels solid but isn't generating the calls you'd expect, this one's worth a listen.

Most travel advisors think their website is for clients. In this episode, Jonathan Morris — owner and president of Legato, a host agency for independent travel advisors — explains why suppliers and host agencies are evaluating your website too, and what they're actually looking at when they do.

Jonathan covers what he looks up before a recruiting call with a prospective advisor, how marketing funds from suppliers get distributed and why a professional online presence factors into that, what a scattered or outdated website signals about an advisor's business (beyond just aesthetics), and how FAM trip opportunities and exclusive industry access are influenced by how seriously you appear to take your brand. He also talks about what makes Legato different as a host agency — including why they don't do preferred suppliers, how they built their own platform from scratch, and why they believe advisors should control their own destiny.

If you've ever assumed your website only matters to the clients looking at it, this episode will change that assumption.

Check out Legato at legatohost.com

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Most travel advisor websites have a contact page. What they don't have is a way to take action anywhere else. In this episode, Justin Hinkle introduces what he calls the Lobby Problem: most advisor sites are built like a hotel with only one front desk — across the room — which means visitors who get ready to act in the middle of reading your about page, your specialty page, or a blog post have nowhere to go and often don't make the walk.

He walks through where the missed opportunities actually are on a typical advisor site — the hero section, the services overview, the testimonials, the about page, specialty pages, and blog posts — and explains why the fix is simpler than most people expect. He also makes the case for linking to a scheduler instead of a contact form, and why every field you add to that scheduler is friction you probably don't need.

If your site has a contact page but nothing else is converting, this is the episode.

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Most advisors land on one of two answers to this question: never list prices, or just be transparent and put the number out there. In this episode, Justin Hinkle makes the case that both of those are wrong — and walks through exactly what should and shouldn't be on your site when it comes to pricing.

He covers why listing trip prices creates more problems than it solves, the one exception where showing a number actually makes sense, why advisors should talk about their fees on their website without posting the specific dollar amount, and why that distinction isn't about being cagey — it's about making sure the number lands with the context it needs to actually mean something.

If you've ever stared at your website wondering whether to put your prices on it, this one will help you figure it out.

When your website lists ten different types of travel you book, you probably think it's helping people understand everything you can do. It's not. It's making you look like you're not exceptional at any of it.

In this episode, I get into what I call the Buffet Problem — what happens when a site tries to show everything instead of leading with what the advisor is actually best at. I cover what specialty really means (and why it doesn't mean turning away clients), how to show more than one specialty without letting the site turn into a list, why cruise advisors in particular are leaving a real opportunity on the table, and why getting specific about a destination is one of the highest-leverage things you can do on your site.

If someone could land on your homepage and not know what you're actually known for, this one's for you.

Your about page isn't there to prove you're qualified. It's there to answer one question — can I trust this person with something this important to me? And most advisor sites never actually answer it.

In this episode, I get into what I call the Trust Page — a different way of thinking about what this page is actually for. I cover why credentials matter in this industry but need real context to land, why your personal travel experience is one of the most underused things on most advisor sites, the right order to lay everything out in, why the photo matters more than people think, and why almost nobody puts a call to action where it actually belongs.

If your about page reads more like a bio than a reason to trust you, this one's worth a listen.

If your website copy is trying to speak to every possible traveler, here's what's actually happening: it's not connecting with any of them.

In this episode, I get into something I call the Everybody = Nobody Rule — when copy tries to appeal to everyone, it ends up landing for no one in particular. I cover why advisors write broad copy in the first place (and why that instinct actually makes sense, even though it backfires), what specific copy looks like instead, why the exact language you need is probably already sitting in your inbox, and a practical process for rewriting your own site so the right clients feel like they've found their person the second they land.

If you've ever wondered why people read your whole site and still don't reach out, this one's for you.

Travel advisors, your website navigation might be the reason people leave without contacting you. Not because your site is missing something — because it has too much.

In this episode, I talk about what I call the Option Trap: the mistake of loading up your navigation with too many choices, thinking it helps visitors find what they need. It doesn't. It makes the decision feel hard, and when decisions feel hard, people leave.

I cover why the Option Trap is so easy to build (and so hard to spot on your own site), what clean navigation actually looks like for a travel advisor website, the mobile problem most advisors have never noticed, and a six-step audit you can do in about an hour to clean it all up without a full redesign.

If you've got more than six items in your navigation — or you've never checked what your menu looks like on a phone — this one's worth your time.