Hire a VA · Travel VA
Travel virtual assistant: cost per trip, per traveller and per month
$6.50–$10.00 an hour · $1,040–$1,600 a month full-time
That's the agency example below for a dedicated travel VA working only for you: no recruitment or setup fee, billed monthly for hours worked. Part-time (80 hours) comes to $520–$800 a month.
On this page
- Two in-house seats and one remote: three receipts
- Who pays, who approves, who confirms
- Price per trip planned
- Calculator: your monthly travel, in hours and dollars
- Calculator: what an executive's hour is worth
- Calculator: per-booking fees against an hourly seat
- A full-time month, priced by block
- Five travel setups, worked through
- A conference trip for six, priced
- Disruptions: cover hours and what they cost
- Travel policy and payment controls
- Passports, visas and entry rules
- Three kinds of travel VA, three bands
- How many hours to buy
- Software and fees: whose bill it is
- Six ways a travel budget leaks
- The extras on both sides
- How the agency example bills
- The monthly travel report you pay for
- A 30-minute test before you hire
- The first 30 days
- How to hire one here
- Questions about the cost
Two in-house seats and one remote: three receipts
In most small companies nobody's job title says "travel". Trips get booked by whoever is nearest: the founder at night, an executive assistant between meetings, or an office manager who knows which hotel the CEO likes. So the in-house comparison needs two slips. The first is the executive assistant, the seat that books travel for founders and executives in many firms. The second is a travel coordinator; BLS has no corporate travel coordinator figure in our data, so that slip uses the closest sourced occupation, travel agents, across all industries.
Published by Outsourcing Insider, a VA MASTERS company. The agency slip uses VA MASTERS' published travel VA rates, shown because they're public; other agencies' prices vary. About us
Executive assistant, US
Full-time, per month, USD
- Median pay ($76,590 a year)a$6,383
- Paid leave1$534
- Supplemental pay (overtime, bonuses)1$284
- Health and other insurance1$543
- Retirement plans1$198
- Payroll taxes and required insurance1$680
Monthly total$8,622
Per year$103,464
- Benefit costs are the average for private employers with 1–49 workers; your own package may differ.
Travel coordinator, US (travel agent median)
Full-time, per month, USD
- Median pay ($50,160 a year)b$4,180
- Paid leave1$350
- Supplemental pay (overtime, bonuses)1$186
- Health and other insurance1$355
- Retirement plans1$130
- Payroll taxes and required insurance1$446
Monthly total$5,647
Per year$67,760
- All industries. A coordinator inside a company, booking only for its own people, may be paid more or less than an agency's travel agent.
Travel VA, agency example Parent company
VA MASTERS, travel research and booking roles
- 160 hours at $6.50–$10.00$1,040–$1,600
- Recruitment or setup fee$0
- Per-booking charge from the VA$0
Monthly total$1,040–$1,600
Per year$12,480–$19,200
- Card or PayPal payments add 4%; USD bank transfer has no fee.
- Fares, hotels and any booking-tool fees are paid by you, on your own cards and accounts.
- US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025: national median annual wage for executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants (SOC 43-6011), via O*NET OnLine. Checked Nov 2026.
- US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook, Travel Agents: median pay $50,160 a year ($24.11 an hour) in May 2025. Checked Nov 2026.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employer Costs for Employee Compensation, June 2026, Table 6. Checked Oct 2026.
- SHRM, 'SHRM Releases 2025 Benchmarking Reports' press release (Oct 15, 2025). Checked Oct 2026.
- SHRM, '2026 Recruiting Executives Benchmarking' page. Checked Oct 2026.
- Agency example: VA MASTERS pricing page and its travel research and booking virtual assistant page ($6.50–$10.00 an hour), checked Oct 2026 and Nov 2026.
The gap per month, full-time: $7,022–$7,582 against the executive assistant slip, and $4,047–$4,607 against the travel coordinator slip. Both US slips stop at the median and leave out the desk, the computer, the phone and the weeks a new hire spends learning your travel policy and your travellers' habits. The agency slip prices one dedicated remote worker who works only for your company, in your own booking tools and accounts.
Hiring in-house adds two costs no monthly slip shows. SHRM's 2025 benchmarking put the average cost per hire for nonexecutive roles at $5,4752, and its 2026 data puts the median time to fill at 39 calendar days3. Until the seat is filled, the trips still happen, booked by the people the company can least spare.
A fair reading of these slips: few small companies need a full-time person for travel alone. The executive assistant slip is the realistic comparison when travel is one part of a broader support job. The coordinator slip fits a company with enough travellers to keep one person busy. The sections below price the work by the trip, so you can see which case you are in.
Who pays, who approves, who confirms
The hourly rate buys research, booking work, coordination and paperwork. It does not buy anyone else's money or anyone else's judgment on documents. Three lines keep the role cheap and safe:
- Payment stays with you. The VA books through your corporate booking tool, your airline and hotel accounts, or a virtual card issued for the trip. It never pays with its own card and never holds your card numbers in email or chat.
- Approval stays with you or a named approver. The VA presents options inside your policy; the traveller or the approver says yes before anything non-refundable is booked, unless your written rules say otherwise.
- Entry rules are confirmed by the traveller. The VA checks official government sources and lists what they say; it gives no visa or immigration advice.
| Work area | The VA | You or the traveller |
|---|---|---|
| Trip options | Researches flights, hotels and ground transport, presents two or three options inside policy with the trade-offs written out | Picks one, or tells the VA to book the cheapest that fits |
| Booking | Books in your tool or accounts after approval, checks names against passports, saves confirmations | Owns the cards, the accounts and the spending limits |
| Exceptions | Flags anything over a cap, in a higher cabin or booked late, with the reason and the price difference | Approves or declines |
| Documents | Checks entry rules on official sources, lists documents and deadlines, tracks expiry dates in the profile | Confirms the requirements, applies for visas, takes advice where needed |
| Changes on the road | Rebooks within the rules you agreed, moves the car and the first meeting, messages the traveller | Decides anything outside the rules |
| Expenses | Collects receipts, matches card lines, codes and submits reports | Approves and reimburses |
One more line matters for the price: a travel VA books for your own business, your executives and, if you want, their families. It is not a travel agency reselling trips to the public, so there is no commission in the price and no reason for it to steer you to one supplier.
Price per trip planned
Travel work comes in countable pieces: trips planned, legs changed, reports filed. Each one costs the minutes it takes times the hourly rate. The minutes below are example assumptions for a VA who already knows your policy and your travellers, not industry statistics. The first few trips take longer while the VA learns preferences. Time your own trips for a month and replace the numbers.
| Trip or task | What it includes | Minutes (assumed) | VA cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Domestic trip, one city, one or two nights | Three flight and hotel options inside policy, booking after approval, car or rail, itinerary, calendar holds, check-in reminder | 60 | $6.50–$10.00 |
| Domestic trip, two or three cities | Routing options, connections that work, hotels in each city, ground transport between meetings, one itinerary | 120 | $13.00–$20.00 |
| International trip, one country | Options and booking, entry-rules check on official sources, document list for the traveller, local transport notes, time-zone calendar | 180 | $19.50–$30.00 |
| International trip, several countries | Open-jaw or multi-city routing, entry rules per country, rail or short-haul legs, hotel per stop, full itinerary | 300 | $32.50–$50.00 |
| Team trip or conference, six travellers | Collecting preferences, arrival windows, hotel block or group booking, rooming list, transfers, one shared itinerary | 480 | $52.00–$80.00 |
| Change or cancellation, one leg | Check fare rules, price the change, get approval, rebook, update the itinerary and calendar | 20 | $2.17–$3.33 |
| Disruption on the day | Read the alert, find the next workable flight, book within your rules, move the car and the first meeting, message the traveller | 40 | $4.33–$6.67 |
| Expense report for one trip | Collect receipts, match card lines, code to the right policy category, attach, submit for approval | 25 | $2.71–$4.17 |
| Meals and meeting venues for one trip | Restaurant or meeting-room bookings near the hotel, confirmations, calendar entries | 20 | $2.17–$3.33 |
| Pre-trip briefing note | Addresses, contacts, travel times between meetings, local transport, office hours back home | 30 | $3.25–$5.00 |
The same arithmetic on the US slips: the executive assistant costs about $49.75 an hour loaded (monthly total ÷ 173 hours), so a 180-minute international trip costs $149.26 of assistant time in-house against $19.50–$30.00 from the VA. The travel coordinator slip comes to about $32.58 an hour loaded, or $97.75 for the same trip. When a founder or an executive books the trip, use that person's hourly value instead, which the second calculator below works out.
Trips rarely stay as booked, and every trip ends in an expense report. Add one change and the report, and a typical domestic trip costs closer to $11.38–$17.50 than $6.50–$10.00.
Calculator: your monthly travel, in hours and dollars
Enter a normal month. The starting values are examples for a small company with a handful of regular travellers, not averages. The minutes come from the table above and can all be changed.
- Hours of work a month–
- Setup that fits–
- VA cost a month for those hours–
- Cost per trip planned, all-in–
- Hours left in the seat for other admin–
With the starting values the month comes to about 38 hours: twelve trips, their changes and expense reports, plus a few hours of profile and venue work. That fits a 40-hour setup with almost nothing to spare, which is the usual result for a small company. It is also why many businesses buy 80 hours and give the second half to the calendar, the inbox and general admin, with travel always first in the queue.
Calculator: what an executive's hour is worth
For a founder or an executive, the VA's cost is rarely the number that decides. The larger number is whose hours the booking comes from today. This calculator values those hours at the person's pay divided by working hours. That is a simple stand-in, not a measure of what the hour earns: enter your own figure, and treat the result as a labelled example, not a promise.
- Executive's hour, by pay ÷ hours–
- Executive hours freed a year–
- Those hours at the executive's rate–
- The same hours from a VA–
- Difference a year–
With the starting values (an example executive paid $180,000 a year, two trips a month, three hours of booking and paperwork per trip), the executive gets back about 58 hours a year. That is close to a working week and a half, bought for a few hundred dollars of VA time. Change the pay to your own and the hours to what your calendar shows; the second number usually decides the case before the slips do.
Calculator: per-booking fees against an hourly seat
Travel agencies and travel management companies often charge a fee per booking or per transaction, and some charge a subscription instead. Fees vary by provider and plan, so we don't quote any. Enter the fee you've been quoted. The starting values are examples, not market prices.
- Booking fees a month–
- VA time a month for the same trips–
- VA cost per trip–
- Fee cost per trip–
A full-time month, priced by block
One example of how 160 hours might split in a company with about fifteen regular travellers, priced at the agency example's rates. The split is an assumption: a company with one executive moves most of these hours into the calendar and the inbox, and a company that runs events moves them into group travel.
| Block | Hours a month | Cost at $6.50 | Cost at $10.00 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Trip research, options and bookings | 52 | $338 | $520 |
| Changes, cancellations and disruptions | 22 | $143 | $220 |
| Itineraries, briefings and calendar work | 20 | $130 | $200 |
| Expense reports and receipt matching | 18 | $117 | $180 |
| Team and event travel (rooming lists, transfers) | 16 | $104 | $160 |
| Traveller profiles, loyalty accounts and documents list | 10 | $65.00 | $100 |
| Meals, venues and activity bookings | 10 | $65.00 | $100 |
| Monthly travel report and review | 6 | $39.00 | $60.00 |
| Other admin (inbox, calendar) in quiet weeks | 6 | $39.00 | $60.00 |
| Total | 160 | $1,040 | $1,600 |
Changes take the second-largest block on purpose. Booking a trip is one task; keeping it booked is several, and each change touches the fare rules, the hotel, the car and the calendar. It is the work a booking tool alone does least.
Five travel setups, worked through
The unit that matters is the trip. The sizes, trip counts and hours below are examples to show the math, not benchmarks. In the smaller setups the hours also cover other admin, which is how most small companies use a travel VA.
Founder who travels twice a month
1 traveller, ~24 trips a year, mostly domestic
- VA, 40 hours a month$260–$400
Per trip planned$130–$200
- Travel is one part of a 40-hour admin seat that also covers the calendar, the inbox and expenses.
Executive team
4 executives, ~8 trips a month between them
- Part-time VA, 80 hours$520–$800
Per trip planned$65.00–$100
- Mixed domestic and international, one travel policy, one booking tool, approvals by the CFO.
Sales team on the road
12 reps, ~25 trips a month
- Full-time VA, 160 hours$1,040–$1,600
Per trip planned$41.60–$64.00
- Short domestic trips, frequent changes, client dinners, expense reports every week.
Consulting or project firm
~15 travellers, ~20 trips a month, many international
- Full-time VA, 160 hours$1,040–$1,600
Per trip planned$52.00–$80.00
- Client-site travel billed back to projects: trips coded to the right client and receipts ready for invoicing.
Executive and family travel
1 household, ~10 trips a year
- VA, 40 hours a month$260–$400
Per trip planned (with other admin)$260–$400
- Family trips around an executive's schedule, documents tracked, activities booked; the 40 hours also cover household admin.
The per-trip figure looks high in the founder and family setups because those 40 hours also buy the calendar, the inbox and household admin; divide by trips alone and you overstate the travel cost. In the sales and consulting setups the seat is close to pure travel, and the cost per trip falls as trips rise until one person can't keep up. The part-time vs full-time cost guide covers where 40 and 80 hours stop being enough.
A conference trip for six, priced
Group travel is where coordination hours pile up, because every traveller has a different home airport, arrival time and set of preferences. One example of the hours for six people attending a three-day conference in another city, at the agency example's rates. The hours are assumptions.
| Work | Hours (example) | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Registration deadlines, conference hotel block, booking before the block closes | 1.5 | $9.75–$15.00 |
| Preferences and home airports collected, arrival window agreed | 1 | $6.50–$10.00 |
| Six sets of flights researched, approved and booked | 3 | $19.50–$30.00 |
| Rooming list, transfers or car hire, team dinner booked | 1.5 | $9.75–$15.00 |
| Shared itinerary, session times and travel times on everyone's calendar | 1 | $6.50–$10.00 |
| Changes before and during the trip | 2 | $13.00–$20.00 |
| Six expense reports | 2.5 | $16.25–$25.00 |
| Total | 12.5 | $81.25–$125 |
That is $13.54–$20.83 of VA time per attendee. The alternative is usually each of the six booking their own trip, which spreads the same hours across six calendars and makes the hotel block, the shared dinner and the expense coding nobody's job. If you attend several events a year, the VA's notes from the first one (which hotel was walkable, which transfer was late) cut the hours for the next.
Disruptions: cover hours and what they cost
A cancelled flight is a few minutes of rebooking if someone is awake and has the rules; it is an evening lost if the traveller has to sort it out alone in a queue. Whether a VA can help depends on its shift, so price the cover you need, not cover in general. The hours below are planning examples.
| Cover | What it means | Extra hours a month (example) | Extra cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Your business hours | The VA works your office day; problems after hours wait until morning or go to the airline | 0 | $0 |
| Extended on travel days | The shift is moved or stretched on days when someone flies, for example to cover an evening arrival | 8 | $52.00–$80.00 |
| Split shift for another time zone | Part of the day matches the traveller's location during a long international trip | 12 | $78.00–$120 |
| Two VAs on staggered shifts | Most of the day and evening covered for a team that is always on the road | 160 | $1,040–$1,600 |
Whatever the cover, write the rebooking rules before the first trip: the VA may move a traveller to the next flight on the same airline without asking; may spend up to an amount you set on a fare difference; must call the traveller before anything that changes the arrival day; and must tell the approver about any extra spend the same day. Outside the VA's hours, the airline app and the traveller remain the first line.
Travel policy and payment controls
A VA applies your travel policy; it doesn't write it. If you don't have one, a one-page version is enough to start, and the VA can draft it from your decisions. The numbers in it are yours to set. The table shows the decisions the VA will ask you for in the first week.
| Decision | Example of a written rule | What the VA does with it |
|---|---|---|
| Cabin | Economy under a set flight time, a higher cabin above it, approver signs off on anything else | Filters options, flags exceptions with the price difference |
| Hotel cap | A nightly cap per city tier, refundable rates by default | Shows the best options under the cap and the nearest one above it |
| Booking window | Domestic trips booked a set number of days ahead where possible | Asks travellers for dates early, reports late bookings monthly |
| Approvals | Named approver per team, approval by reply or in the booking tool | Sends options with a deadline, books only after a yes |
| Payment | Booking tool's stored payment or a virtual card per trip, with a spending limit | Uses only those; never a personal card, never card numbers in chat |
| Loyalty | Points go to the traveller's own accounts unless the company says otherwise | Adds loyalty numbers to every booking, tracks expiry dates in the profile |
On access: give the VA a named login in each system, with only the permissions the role needs and two-factor authentication on. The card industry's security standard, PCI DSS, requires a unique ID for each user with access to systems that hold cardholder data (Requirement 8.2.1 in version 4.0), which is one more reason never to share a login. Keep passport details in your travel tool's traveller profiles, not in email threads. The step-by-step version, including how to share access without sending passwords, is in how to give a VA access to accounts.
Passports, visas and entry rules
Entry rules depend on the traveller's passport, the destination, the purpose of the trip and the date, and they change. A travel VA saves time here by doing the checking, not by giving answers. What that looks like in practice:
- The VA checks official sources only: the destination government's own immigration or embassy pages and your own government's travel advice pages, with the date checked written next to each note.
- The VA lists, the traveller confirms. The briefing note says what the official page states (visa or electronic authorisation, passport validity, documents for business visitors) and links nothing it can't trace to an official source. The traveller reads it and confirms.
- No advice. Whether a trip counts as business or work, whether a visa is needed in an unusual case, or what to do after a refusal is a question for the embassy, the consulate or an immigration lawyer. The VA books the appointment; it doesn't answer the question.
- Dates tracked: passport expiry dates and any visa validity go into the traveller's profile, with a reminder months before they matter, so a renewal never decides whether a trip happens.
Three kinds of travel VA, three rate bands
| Profile | Typical work | Indicative rate | Full-time a month |
|---|---|---|---|
| Travel and admin assistant | Domestic bookings from clear instructions, itineraries, calendar entries, receipts and expense reports | $6.50–$7.50 | $1,040–$1,200 |
| Executive travel coordinator | Options against the calendar, international trips, entry-rules checks, changes and disruptions, loyalty accounts, briefing notes | $7.50–$8.75 | $1,200–$1,400 |
| Team travel and booking-tool specialist | Runs your corporate booking and expense tools for many travellers, policy reporting, group and event travel | $8.75–$10 | $1,400–$1,600 |
A founder who travels twice a month needs the middle profile at 40 or 80 hours, with general admin filling the rest. Pay for the third only if you already run a booking tool and an expense system for a team, and want one person to own both.
How many hours to buy
| Setup | Hours a month | Monthly cost | Usually covers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Two hours a day | 40 | $260–$400 | One or two regular travellers, plus their calendar and expenses |
| Part-time | 80 | $520–$800 | An executive team's travel with general admin, or about ten to fifteen trips a month |
| Three-quarter time | 120 | $780–$1,200 | A busy team with international trips and several events a year |
| Full-time | 160 | $1,040–$1,600 | A sales or consulting team on the road every week, with booking tool and expense reports |
| Two VAs | 320 | $2,080–$3,200 | Staggered shifts for longer daily cover, or one on travel and one on expenses and admin |
Shift timing matters more for travel than for most admin. Research, bookings and expense reports can run on any shift and be ready when you start your day. Changes and disruptions need someone working when your travellers are moving. Pick the shift around your travel days first and the volume second.
Software and fees: whose bill it is
A travel VA works in your tools and accounts, so every subscription and every fare stays on your side of the budget, whoever books. Prices change by plan and company size, so we don't quote them. Ask each vendor what one more user or booker costs.
| System | Examples | What the VA does in it | Cost to check |
|---|---|---|---|
| Flight and hotel search | Google Flights, Skyscanner, Kayak, airline and hotel brand sites | Compares options, sets price alerts, books direct where it suits your loyalty accounts | Free to search; fares are yours |
| Corporate booking tool | SAP Concur, Navan, Perk, Egencia | Books for travellers, applies the policy, pulls reports | Per-trip fees or a subscription, depending on plan |
| Itinerary and calendar | TripIt, Google Calendar, Outlook | One itinerary per trip, travel times and time zones on the calendar | Free tiers; paid plans for alerts |
| Expenses and cards | Expensify, Concur Expense, Ramp, Brex | Matches receipts to card lines, codes and submits reports | Per-user plans; virtual cards on some platforms |
| Ground transport and rail | Uber for Business, Lyft, Amtrak, Eurostar, rental car sites | Books transfers, trains and cars, adds them to the itinerary | Rides and fares are yours |
| Restaurants and venues | OpenTable, Resy, direct booking | Client dinners, meeting rooms near the hotel | Usually free to book |
Six ways a travel budget leaks
- Every booking waits for the traveller. The VA finds options, then waits a day for a reply while fares move. Agree an approval deadline and a default ("book option one if I haven't answered by 3 p.m.").
- No written preferences. Seat, airline, hotel brand, how early to arrive: without a profile the VA asks every time or guesses wrong. Fill the traveller profile in week one.
- Non-refundable by habit. The cheapest fare is not the cheapest trip if the meeting moves. Decide when flexibility is worth paying for and write it in the policy.
- Changes outside the rules. If the VA can't rebook without a call, every disruption waits for the traveller. Set the rebooking limits before the first trip.
- Receipts at the end of the month. Thirty receipts at once take longer than thirty one at a time. Ask travellers to forward or snap receipts the day they get them.
- Quiet weeks with no queue. Travel comes in waves. Keep a list of other admin (calendar clean-up, vendor records, event research) for the weeks when nobody flies.
The extras on both sides
| Cost | US in-house hire | Travel VA |
|---|---|---|
| Hiring | Average $5,475 per hire (SHRM 2025), plus your interview time | No recruitment fee; you interview a shortlist |
| Desk, computer, phone | You provide | The VA's own setup; you provide system access |
| Booking tool and expense seats | Your subscriptions | Your subscriptions |
| Fares, hotels and travel fees | Yours | Yours, on your cards and accounts |
| After-hours cover | Overtime or goodwill | Agree shifts or extra hours for travel days |
| If it doesn't work out | A new hiring round | 30-day trial, then 30 days' notice; replacement at no extra cost (agency example) |
For the wider comparison across roles, see outsourcing vs hiring in-house and how much a virtual assistant costs.
How the agency example bills
- Billed monthly after the work, for hours worked only
- Nothing to pay before you choose your hire
- 30-day trial with each new hire: end it right away, no notice
- After the trial, 30 days' written notice
- Replacement at no extra cost
- A one-time advance payment once you choose your hire, credited against your first invoices and refundable
- Recruitment, placement or setup fee: None
- Bank transfer in USD: No processing fee
- Credit card or PayPal: 4% processing fee
The monthly travel report you pay for
Travel is easy to count once it runs through one person. Ask for these numbers every month, and look at them next to the VA's invoice:
| Number | How it's counted | What it tells you |
|---|---|---|
| Trips planned | Trips booked, domestic and international, by traveller | Your real cost per trip: the invoice ÷ trips |
| Request to options | Median hours from a trip request to options sent | Whether bookings happen while fares are still good |
| Days booked ahead | Average days between booking and departure | Whether late bookings are a traveller habit or a process gap |
| Policy exceptions | Bookings above a cap or outside policy, with the reason and who approved | Whether the policy fits how people actually travel |
| Changes and disruptions | Changes handled, change fees paid, disruptions solved | What flexibility costs you, and where refundable fares would pay |
| Expense reports | Reports submitted, days from trip end to submission, missing receipts | How fast travel spend reaches your books |
| Documents due | Passports and visas expiring in the next six months | Which trips could be at risk before they're booked |
The VA KPI scorecard template has a ready layout for a monthly review like this.
A 30-minute test before you hire
- Options (10 minutes): a two-night trip to another city for a Tuesday 10 a.m. meeting, a hotel cap and an airline preference. Send three options in one short message, with the trade-offs.
- The disruption (8 minutes): the traveller's evening flight is cancelled and the meeting is at 9 a.m. tomorrow. What do you check first, what do you book within a set fare limit, and what message goes to the traveller and the meeting host?
- The documents question (4 minutes): the traveller asks whether they need a visa for a short business trip to a country you name. The right answer is where the VA would check and how it would report back, with the traveller confirming, not a yes or no from memory.
- The receipts (8 minutes): five receipts and a card statement with six lines. Match them, code them to the categories you give, and say what's missing.
More questions for admin roles are in the interview questions template.
The first 30 days: what you're paying for each week
| Week | Travel VA | You |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Builds a profile per traveller, reads the policy, learns the booking and expense tools, lists upcoming trips and documents due | Named logins, payment method and limits, approvers, rebooking rules, preferences for each traveller |
| 2 | Sends options for every new trip, books after approval, writes itineraries and calendar entries | Approve quickly; correct anything that misses a preference |
| 3 | Handles changes within the rules, takes over expense reports, starts briefing notes for international trips | Read a sample of itineraries; replace the calculator's starting values with real ones |
| 4 | First monthly report: trips, cost per trip, exceptions, changes, expenses, documents due | Set the hours and the shift for the next months |
The onboarding checklist covers the access and first-week steps in more detail, and the tasks to delegate list helps fill the hours that travel leaves free.
How to hire a travel VA here
Requests from this site go to our recruiting partner, the agency in the example above:
- Tell us the job: who travels and how often, domestic or international, your booking and expense tools, your policy and the shift you need.
- Meet a shortlist: candidates with travel booking, hospitality or executive support experience, usually in about 2 business days. Run the test above in the interview.
- Choose and start: nothing is paid before you choose; billing is monthly, after the work, for hours worked.
The trade-offs: an agency costs more per hour than hiring a freelancer yourself, in exchange for screening, payroll handling and free replacement; and the first weeks need your time to write the preferences, the rebooking rules and the approvals before the VA can book on its own. If you're still choosing between models, see VA vs freelancer vs agency and virtual assistant salaries by country.
Questions people ask about the cost
How much does a travel virtual assistant cost?
In the agency example on this page (our parent company's published rates), a dedicated travel VA costs $6.50–$10 an hour: $260–$400 a month for 40 hours, $520–$800 for 80 hours and $1,040–$1,600 for 160 hours, with no recruitment or setup fee and no per-booking charge. Booking for one founder sits lower in the range; a team with a corporate booking tool, a travel policy and international trips sits higher.
What does one business trip cost to plan with a VA?
It is the rate times the minutes. Using this page's example assumptions, a one-city domestic trip (options, booking after approval, itinerary, calendar) takes about 60 minutes, or $6.50–$10 of VA time; an international trip with an entry-rules check takes about 180 minutes, or $19.50–$30. Time your own trips and put the real minutes into the calculator.
How does a travel VA compare with an in-house travel coordinator or executive assistant?
BLS puts the median wage for US travel agents at $50,160 a year in May 2025 (Occupational Outlook Handbook), and for executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants at $76,590 (OEWS, May 2025). Payroll taxes and benefits come on top; the slips on this page add them line by line. A full-time VA in the agency example costs $12,480–$19,200 a year for 1,920 hours.
Is a travel VA worth it if I only travel a few times a year?
Usually not as a travel-only seat. A few trips a year fill a handful of hours. Most founders who travel monthly or less add travel to a broader admin role (calendar, inbox, expenses) at 40 or 80 hours a month. A dedicated travel seat makes sense when several people travel often, or when trips are international and multi-city.
Whose credit card does the VA use to book?
Yours, never the VA's. Bookings go through your corporate booking tool, your airline and hotel accounts or a virtual card issued for the trip, with spending limits and approval rules you set. The VA presents options, you or a named approver says yes, and the receipt lands in your expense system.
Can a travel VA give visa or immigration advice?
No. The VA checks entry requirements on official government sources for the traveller's passport and destination, lists the documents and deadlines, and flags anything that needs a decision. The traveller confirms the requirements and, where needed, takes advice from the embassy, the consulate or an immigration lawyer.
Is a travel VA the same as a travel agency?
No. A travel agency sells travel and often earns commissions or charges service fees. A travel VA works only for your business, books through your accounts and tools at an hourly rate, and doesn't resell travel to anyone. Some companies use both: a travel management company for the booking tool and negotiated rates, and a VA to run the requests, changes and expense reports.
Can a travel VA handle flight cancellations and rebooking?
Yes, within rules you agree in advance: which changes the VA may book straight away, up to what fare difference, and when it must call the traveller first. Cover depends on the VA's shift. If your people travel at night or across time zones, agree extended or on-call hours for travel days.
Does the hourly rate include booking tools and fares?
No. Fares, hotel rates, change fees and any booking or service fees from your travel tool or travel management company are yours whoever books. Your corporate booking tool, expense software and itinerary app bill you per plan or per user.
Are there extra fees on top of the hourly rate?
In the agency example there is no recruitment, placement or setup fee and no fee for USD bank transfers; card or PayPal payments carry a 4% processing fee. A one-time advance payment is due once you choose your hire, credited against your first invoices and refundable.
When do I pay, and can I cancel?
In the agency example, nothing is paid before you choose your hire, and billing is monthly after the work, for hours worked only. Each new hire has a 30-day trial you can end right away; after that, 30 days' written notice applies. A replacement is provided at no extra cost. First candidates usually arrive in about 2 business days.
How do I keep travel documents and payment details safe?
Give the VA a named login in each system, with only the permissions the role needs and two-factor authentication on. Store passport details in your travel tool's traveller profile, not in email. Keep card numbers out of chats entirely: use virtual cards or your booking tool's stored payment. Remove every login the day the role ends.