Joined in August 2024
Based in Chapel Hill, North CarolinaSeasen Acevedo-Zullo spent years as a sales and service coach in finance, overseeing teams across dozens of offices in Manhattan. She knows how to read people, how to close, and how to manage complexity. When she found her way to travel advising, the fit was immediate.
“I quite quickly figured out that I could talk about this all day, every day, and how effortless it was for me to do so,” she said.
She joined her first host agency, a small operation focused primarily on Disney, and outgrew it quickly. Her second host introduced her to the luxury market, which was a better fit, but the infrastructure wasn’t there. They didn’t provide formal training or centralized resources, invoicing was eating into her time, and she wasn’t allowed to build her own brand—leads she’d generated sometimes went to the team rather than back to her. She started evaluating other host agencies methodically. After two and a half years in the industry, she knew what she was looking for, and her search brought her to Fora.
The technology that made the difference
Seasen had three requirements when she went looking for a new host: better technology, better support, and a better commission structure. Fora delivered on all three, but the technology stood out immediately.
At her previous host, every booking required multiple browser tabs. Every supplier had its own portal, its own login, its own promotions delivered by email. There was no single place to compare rates and perks, and no reliable way to see which booking path paid the best commission. Promotions landed in her inbox and got buried.
Then there was invoicing. Her previous host charged fees for missed deadlines, but those deadlines were a moving target. Conflicting guidance and no reliable documentation meant she was constantly correcting—and paying penalties for—mistakes that weren’t entirely her fault.
“I actually got to a point where I was considering three things,” she said. “One, ‘I'm going to hire an assistant and they’re going to handle all my invoicing.’ Two, ‘I’m going to quit the industry, I hate invoicing so much.’ Number three was, ‘Is there a better way?’”
Fora’s Portal showed it was possible to have everything in one place: supplier listings, commission rates, partner perks, and promotions, visible side by side. And no more invoicing. “The idea of never having to invoice again? I was sold,” she said.
Now, when a rate is comparable across platforms, Seasen can see at a glance which booking path is best for her client and her commission. Resources she didn’t know existed before, like certain preferred partner rates, are now part of her standard toolkit. The administrative headaches that nearly pushed her out of the industry are gone.
Fora's technology took invoicing and rate comparisons off of Seasen's plate
With automatic commission handling and side-by-side rate and commission comparison for 180k+ bookable hotels, advisors can focusing on making the best choices for their business and clients.
Agency resources invested in advisor growth
Beyond the technology, what Seasen needed was a host that treated her like a valued part of its business. At her previous agency, asking questions had started to feel uncomfortable. She’d stopped raising her hand even when she didn’t know something and pieced together answers on her own. “I shouldn’t have to spend 10 hours figuring something out if there is someone who understands what you’re trying to do and can assist you getting to the finish line faster,” she said.
At Fora, she found that her questions quickly got answered and there was a library of resources to search through. Even with an $800,000 book of business and more than two years of experience, she went back and completed Fora’s full training curriculum anyway.
There were basics in the [Fora] trainings that I was like, ‘Nobody explained it to me like that. Nobody walked me through it like that.'
Seasen Acevedo-Zullo
joined August 2024“There were basics in the trainings that I was like, ‘Nobody explained it to me like that,’” she said. “Nobody walked me through it like that.”
In her first six months at Fora, Seasen matched the booking volume she’d done in her final six months at her previous host—and earned more thanks to its clear commission comparisons—all while building her brand, launching a website, and learning an entirely new set of systems. The time she’d once spent on administrative work, invoicing, and piecing together answers on her own is now going back into her business.
She’s also seen her feedback absorbed into the product. An issue with how quotes exported from Portal was resolved within months of her raising it. A missing data point she’d flagged appeared in the platform not long after. For Seasen, that responsiveness matters as much as any single feature, because it signals that the Fora team is actually listening to its advisors.
A community built around sharing
The Fora community matters more than Seasen expected. Her first experience meeting other advisors in person had been on a study tour, where everyone came from different agencies and the connections were warm but scattered. At Fora, the community is built into an online forum, WhatsApp groups, and in-person meetups through local Chapters, conferences, and Fams.
“There’s a sense of, ‘We’re going to help each other’ here,” she said. Advisors who specialize in different destinations actively share expertise with one another. The collaboration is natural, and helps every advisor grow together.
Explore what Fora offers for established advisors
How Fora made success possible
Established advisors switching host agencies face a different set of questions than newcomers. The stakes are higher with an existing book of business, client relationships, and income at risk. Seasen’s experience points to what actually matters in that transition:
Booking platform: Portal consolidates hotel listings, commission rates, partner perks, and promotions in one place, replacing hours of cross-site research to make strategic booking choices.
Automated invoicing: Fora handles supplier invoicing, eliminating a major source of administrative friction for advisors with active books of business.
Substantive training: Even advisors with years of experience find foundational knowledge in Fora’s curriculum that previous hosts may not have provided.
Active community: The Fora advisor network offers real-time destination expertise and collaborative support as an ongoing resource.
