Portugal 2025
Lisbon, the coast, and a week with the people who make the work worth it.
How You Get Paid
How you get paid (and what we won't sugarcoat)
If you're weighing a base plus bonus against your own business, you deserve straight answers. Here's how the model works, what it takes to get going, and what we'll walk you through on a call.
The model
100% commission. That's the point.
Every HPN associate is 100% commission. That's not the fine print. It's the point. You're running your own business, so you get paid like an owner, not like a line on someone's payroll. Hotels pay HPN a commission on the business you book, and you structure your split with HPN based on your experience and the size of your business. Your split reflects what you bring. We'll walk you through exactly how it works on your first call.
Planners pay nothing. Hotels pay the commission.
- Client
Your client books a meeting at a hotel you sourced and negotiated.
- Hotel
The hotel pays HPN a commission on that business. The planner never sees a line item for our service.
- HPN
You earn your split of that commission, structured with HPN based on your experience and the size of your business.
- You
You're paid as your business actualizes. Group business has long lead times, so commissions come after the event happens. To shorten the wait, HPN has advance payment agreements with the major hotel brands: you receive 50% of your commission when the contract is signed, and the balance once the event actualizes.
Independent
You're an owner, not on a payroll.
HPN associates are independent contractors. You set your hours, pick your clients, and decide where you work, so the calendar can bend around family first. There's no cap on what you build, and your income follows the effort and relationships you put in.
“You're in control of your own show.”
Adam Crow
“I'm responsible for making sure there's money to put diesel in that tank.”
Jeremy Shaw Wright, HPN associate, who spends part of the year on the road in a motor coach
Bill Kilburg on the entrepreneurial chip.
The ramp
Most people don't earn on day one.
Group business has long lead times. Contracts you sign this quarter may not actualize — and pay — until the event happens. Ramp isn't one number: the longer you've been in hotel sales, the shorter your ramp tends to be, because you bring more experience and more contacts. Newer in hotel sales? The ramp is slower — less experience, fewer contacts, more ground to cover before the first real income shows up.
That's why many associates time the move carefully, for example after a hotel bonus pays out.
“You have no income.”
Jenny Jenkins, on the scariest part of joining
“I've got the background to do it. I've got the foundation laid to do it. And once I do it, the reward is going to be so much greater... you slowly but surely take off.”
Adam Crow
What it costs to join
Nothing. There is no cost to join HPN: no buy-in, no franchise fee, no startup fee. You bring your experience and your relationships, and we bring the platform.
Health care and benefits
Patrick listed “worrying about healthcare for my family” among his worries before he joined. It's a fair question.
As independent contractors, HPN associates arrange their own health coverage. You won't be figuring it out alone, though. We walk every associate through how others in our family have set up coverage for themselves and their families, so this very real concern doesn't keep you from the opportunity.
Support
What you won't be doing alone
- Sourcing: HPN's own platform plus a sourcing operations team that chases hotel responses
- Accounting: centralized commission accounting
- Some centralized lead generation
- Training, Master Classes, and a network of associates who share what works
“We've got centralized sourcing, centralized accounting, some centralized lead generation...”
Bill Kilburg, CEO, HPN Global
Desi Whitney, who leads HPN's sourcing operations, on what sets HPN apart.
Recognition
And when you have a big year
Top producers earn a spot in President's Club, HPN's annual recognition trip: earned adventure with friends who take care of each other.
Italy 2024
Rome to the Amalfi Coast. Relationships, adventure, and a family that shows up.
Earnings disclaimer: HPN associates are independent contractors. Earnings depend on individual effort, experience, market conditions, and client base. Nothing on this page is a promise or guarantee of income.
Want the real numbers? Ask us on a call.
We'll walk through how your split works, a realistic first year, and the questions your spouse is going to ask you tonight.