9 Best Youth Sports Travel Companies & Agencies

From Little League to travel football, youth sports travel drives local economies, supports kids’ physical health and can revitalize the communities hosting events. To keep everything running smoothly, youth sports travel companies and agencies are here to help. 

Some negotiate sports travel packages with hotels for you, while others offer seamless, innovative technology to manage all your event housing needs. We’ll walk through some of these agencies and highlight our favorites on the market.

What do sports travel companies and agencies do?

Hockey, basketball, youth football, you name it — the sports tourism industry accounts for all types of tournaments. But with the hype comes serious planning that your average parent or coach might feel overwhelmed by. 

Sports travel companies and agencies handle the logistics. They help you find accommodations for large groups, negotiate contracts, plan flights, leverage industry relationships for better deals, organize attendance, recommend itineraries and much more. 

Think of them like your personal travel agency with serious expertise in the nuances of youth sports. These can come in the form of both consulting and software for sports event management.

Best Youth Sports Travel Companies & Agencies in the U.S.

The best youth sports travel companies and agencies make your life easier when booking or hosting an event. Here are some of the top technology or top travel agencies to consider:

1. EventPipe

Best for: Tournament housing management 

EventPipe is a tournament housing management platform that services sports travel agencies, event producers and even sports team execs and managers who need a reliable technology platform for their clients. 

EventPipe helps their customers create branded housing websites for their clients in minutes for easy booking. Plus, we offer a clean interface to manage requests for proposals (RFPs) that you can share with hotels. View event progress and ROI and reports with our detailed dashboards that track signups and bookings in real-time.

On top of all that, we value privacy and channel that value with robust cybersecurity measures like data encryption, PCI- and DSS-compliance, as well as HIPAA compliance. 

Whether you’re brand new to your sports tournament management role or a seasoned expert, EventPipe is here to streamline the entire housing process.

Services of the platform:

• Branded event website: Align the attendee-facing webpage to your branding with logos, branded elements and custom web copy. 
• Easy tracking and reporting: Monitor event reservations, cut-off dates and revenue with EventPipe’s Report Center. 
• Multiple revenue sources: Fund your operations with revenue from transaction fees and other fees.
• Simple RFP function: Organize and negotiate RFPs from hotels right on the platform’s detailed interface (including contracting). 
• Easy booking: Streamline guest booking with unique signup links for guests. Offer waitlist options if their hotel of choice is unavailable. 

Ready to streamline housing for your next sports tournament? 

Get started with EventPipe

2. Team Travel Source

Best for: Sports housing 

Team Travel Source has an employee base full of sports parents–so they get the struggle. They serve coaches, parents, event producers, facilitators and tournament-holders with youth sports travel. 

This includes planning transportation and accommodation for a school sports trip or assisting tournament holders in marketing their event to multiple sports teams and clubs. Additionally, they have significant experience as previous event producers, who operated 300+ events per year before launching this service. 

Did you know? They use EventPipe for their event housing management software!

Services:

• Customer service
• Hotel blocks
• Sponsorship placements and additional revenue opportunities
• Event reports and analytics
• Various partnerships with youth sports event holders and teams, as well as hotel brands like Hilton

3. Shorts Travel Management

Shorts Travel Management is an Iowa-based, family-owned sports travel agency that specializes in tournament management for collegiate-level sports. They also have their own internal transportation services, including a dedicated air charter company to support international tournament management, as well as a bus charter department as well. 

Their booking software also offers opportunities for cost savings analysis to compare hotel proposals and see if two people are on the same flight. 

Services:

• 24/7 customer service number
• Emergency contact
• Passport and visa services
• Hotel, car and rail bookings
• Dedicated flight charters division
• Hotel negotiating

4. Premier Hospitality Group

Premier Hospitality Group is a travel company partnered with many hotel groups, which gives them access to competitive accommodation rates. They support multiple aspects of event management, including reservation links for parents and athletes and live reporting and creating multiple revenue opportunities for their tournament holders. 

Premier Hospitality focuses on higher-end accommodations and research to ensure the hotel areas meet or exceed the team’s standards. 

Services: 

• Reservation management and unique links
• Nightly rebates
• Complimentary staff rooms
• Merchandise and presale
• Sponsorship placement

5. Stack Sports

Stack Sports centers services more around growing and managing organizational sports teams than solely tournaments and events. They service children-aged sports teams, high school and college, as well as professional athletes with programs to improve their skills, team recruitment initiatives, payment processing and marketing. 

As for events, they offer management services to take care of accommodations and hotels, transportation and media initiatives to grow interest. Additionally, Stack Sports offers professional website design for event web pages and online registration. 

Services: 

• Collaborative mobile messaging tools
• Secure payments and online registration
• Enrichment programs and skills-based camps
• Marketing and media
• Business insights and reporting

6. Sports Trip 

Sports Trip is a Nebraska-based company that offers booking management software for team travel, which covers hotel blocks, pricing proposals and comparisons, custom booking links, cancellations and more. The company has negotiated over 9,000 contracts for its clients, securing travel for small teams and even entire organizations. 

Additionally, the company tailors experience to the team’s unique needs right in the initial contact form, from preferences for included breakfast and catering to meeting and event space. 

Services: 

• Hotel booking
• Charter and hotel pricing negotiation
• Cost comparisons
• Group blocks for teams, organizations and tournament circuits

7. Anthony Travel 

Best for: University athletic travel

Anthony Travel partners with universities and school sports teams to plan accommodations, airfare and other transportation modes for staff and students for college-level tournaments and travel events. They offer a portfolio of services including marketing, travel arrangements and business-class services for university executives. 

Anthony Travel mentions strategies for unexpected setbacks like rainouts or budget concerns to keep things flowing. Additionally, they offer customization potential for teams that request specific tours, sightseeing and other unique needs. These services apply only to university-focused events in athletics and business, including domestic and international travel. 

Services:

• Customized travel programs for university events
• Marketing and communications
• Travel arrangements and flight booking
• Reporting & travel budgeting
• Dedicated account management
• Accommodation booking

8. OnLocation 

OnLocation is a hospitality provider and travel agency that arranges trips for music events, UFC, NFL, Olympics, Fashion Week and various college sports events. This company is partnered as the Official Travel Provider of over 90 athletic departments across many universities. Clients include athletes, coaches, parents, universities and entire teams. 

They’ll handle hotel accommodations, exclusive hospitality, tickets and comprehensive, customizable travel solutions. 

Keep in mind: OnLocation is the owner of Anthony Travel, offering similar services with just a slightly wider range of athletic events. 

Services: 

• Comprehensive travel solutions
• Travel arrangements and flight bookings
• Hotel accommodations

9. Group Housing

Group Housing is a hotel booking company that offers a dedicated account manager for each client or team. They take care of hotel bookings, including contract negotiation, custom booking and links for coaches and families. 

Based in Georgia, Group Housing also offers a guaranteed lowest rate for accommodations and includes cost reports and analysis to help maximize profits and reduce event costs. Tournament directors can also use Group Housing’s web services to create dedicated event pages with easy booking links for attendees.

Services: 

• Event web pages
• Hotel bookings and lowest-rate guarantees
• 24/7 hotel and attendee support
• Custom booking links
• Group bookings for reduced event costs

Work with the Best Youth Sports Travel Company

Youth travel comes with immense planning, details and potential for chaos. That’s why youth sports travel companies are so vital to your tournament plans. With a full staff of people ready to handle the details for you, your team will enjoy a seamless tournament. 

But if you crave a comprehensive, seamless solution to manage your sports tournament,  an event housing software platform like EventPipe is the way to go. Whether a local sports team hosting at home or traveling the country, you can leverage EventPipe to streamline your housing management. 

The platform’s innovative approach provides a seamless experience to save time and energy so teams, parents and coaches can focus on their exciting trips ahead.  

It’s time to plan your next tournament the right way.