Waterford couple opens online travel business at home
The idea for the agency began with a bad cruise experience.
By Jim Smedley
Staff Writer

WATERFORD – Joe Hall knew there was a better way to conduct online travel.

So he and his wife, Bonnie, started Dream Travel on Jan. 20 from a nook off the family room in their home. If everything goes right, Joe said he will have his first booking closed this week.

Joe had plenty of computer skills as a former computer design engineer for Lucent Technologies in Massachusetts. He worked several days a week at home, hooking up with the office via computer and using computer applications.

“As the networking industry matured the outsourcing of jobs went overseas to India and France,” he said. “So, as the industry slowed down jobs in America were the first to be eliminated.”

Hall traveled a lot for his work, to Japan, Switzerland, India and around much of the United States. He figured his computer savvy and knowledge of travel were good prerequisites for the travel agency business. He took an online course from a college in Pennsylvania and is scheduled for the travel agent proficiency test. His wife, Bonnie, is working on the same course.

He said the idea to begin an agency really struck him from an experience he and Bonnie had on a cruise.

“One of the ports of call on the cruise was supposed to be Venezuela, but it was canceled,” Hall said. “We were never notified. The cruise line said they notified the travel agency, but they never notified us.”

He said he learned that others shared the same experience on different cruises.

The Halls’ vision is to provide more input to customers than they receive at other places coupled with the convenience of using an online service.

“Sometimes people will take a cruise and what they get is not what they envisioned,” he said. “We want to let people know what they can expect from different cruises, vacations and tour packages.”

Hall said their ultimate goal is to open an office, but for now the home base will do.