Partners in travel agency have each other’s backs: Travel Weekly

Jamie Biesiada

CHICAGO — When Taylor Ruby decided to transition from working in the hotel world to travel advising about eight years ago, she wanted to do it with a business partner.

A business partner would have her back, Ruby said. If one partner was traveling, sick or with family, the other could jump right in on any business that needed to be taken care of. Plus, her ideal business partner was her best friend, Brooklyn-based Rebecca Rosen, who said yes; Ruby Rosen Travel was born.

“I think it takes the right people,” Ruby told me during this year’s Brownell Academy, held at the Four Seasons here last month (Ruby Rosen Travel is a Brownell affiliate). “You have to know yourself. You have to know the other person really, really well. I think the level of trust and respect has to be there.”

A business partnership is almost like a marriage, she added.

Before Ruby, who is based in Peachtree City, Ga., decided to form a partnership-based travel agency, she worked in hotels. She got her start serving in the Belmond Charleston Place Hotel’s restaurant, when she fell in love with the hotel. She moved to working the front desk, then became a sales assistant, then moved into a sales manager role. When she got married and moved to Atlanta, she moved into a management role with the Ritz-Carlton.

When she was thinking about expanding her family, she wanted a more flexible career and looked to advising. Brownell was a client, so she already knew the agency, and she completed its mentoring program. While the yearlong program was a commitment, Ruby said, “I don’t know how people do it without that.”

Ruby Rosen Travel specializes in its clients, Ruby likes to say. She and Rosen have grown up with their clients. They both had children within their first year of owning the agency, and a lot of their clients had small children, too.

“We knew all the ins and outs of traveling with a stroller, checking this, what they needed, separate sleeping areas — we talked that lingo,” Ruby said. “That was seven, eight years ago, and so now they’re growing. And that’s really cool.”

Communication is key to working in a partnership, she said. Also key has been the senior travel coordinator Ruby and Rosen have since brought into the agency: Kimberly Waller. The three have weekly calls and are always in touch via a dedicated Slack channel and task management software Asana.

“We had to be hyper-organized right from the start,” Ruby said.

That has helped the agency operate efficiently.

And, when someone’s child is sick or they’re traveling, they have automatic backup, just as they planned from the start.

It comes down to “trust and respect, and then communication,” Ruby said. “Building a business, you have to have those three things. Otherwise, I just think it would be tough.”