Benefits of using a Travel Agent Versus booking travel online
By: Eileen Tener, ACC
April 1, 2011
“There are too many options”; “I don’t have the time”; “How do I know if I will like this hotel or that cruise line?” These are just some of the questions you may be asking yourself if you try to book your travel online. How exactly can the internet answer these questions for you? It can’t…so consider the internet as ‘one size fits all’ when it comes to booking your travels. However, the internet might be handy when you want to book a quick flight to go visit your mother in Nebraska.
Travel Agents, on the other hand, are good at what they do. They research available vacation options, they sift through thousands of “Specials”, they ask you questions, and they fit you with the vacation that is right for you. Don’t be surprised if you are considering a cruise but you hear your Travel Agent ask you a question such as “What types of hotels do you normally stay at when on vacation?”. Questions such as these are a way for the Travel Agent to get to know you and to begin to put the picture together of which cruise would be the best fit for you. NOW you know you have reached someone who is working for you and not merely tossing prices out at you.
All Travel Agents, however, are not the same. So I suggest you shop around for the best fit in that regard as well. Call a couple of Agents and ask them questions. Here are some tips on what to consider:
Fees: not all Travel Agents charge a fee for their services. You might find that those that do charge a fee may also provide airline services for that trip to see your mother in Nebraska; since airlines do not pay commission, the Agents that provide this service to you need to be paid for their time and so they charge the fee to you, the client. However, this fee is their standard fee whether you are booking just air or an entire vacation, so consider your options carefully.
More about fees: Hotels, Tour Operators and Cruise Lines are among those that pay commission. If you find a Travel Agent who does not charge a fee for their services, it is highly likely that they specialize in travel that allows them to waive fees to their clients. If your choice is to book online or to book through a Travel Agent not charging fees (say cruises for example) consider using the Travel Agent. The price for your cruise will be the same whether you book online, direct with the cruise line or with the Travel Agent. The difference is in the Service you will receive (can the internet help you if your flight is delayed causing you to miss your cruise departure time? Can the internet give you a gift in your stateroom upon boarding the ship?) Commission is being paid one way or the other; it either goes to your Travel Agent or goes back to the big corporate cruise line.
Talk to your Travel Agent and get to know them. You may find that you have a lot in common. They may offer special vacations where they ask you to join them – a “Come Vacation With Me” sort of a deal offered to their clients. And you may find a friend for life.
I would like to finish with a personal story of my own – this is MY own best lesson for using a Travel Agent:
Prior to becoming a Travel Agent, I used to book my travel online. My husband and I decided we wanted to go to Ft. Lauderdale for the weekend so we let our fingers do the walking through the internet.
We spent endless hours searching hotels and looking for a ‘quaint’ little spot on the beach where we could do some shore diving.
What we found on the internet was a lovely little hotel which stated they gave (1) white-glove’ service. They said that (2) beverages would be provided upon check-in, (3) all rooms were air conditioned, (4) breakfast would be provided daily, (5) parking lot was easy to access, and they said that the hotel was (6) right on the beach. And the pictures? Oh how lovely! We literally fell in love with this quaint little hotel and thought we would surely be frequenting this lovely little place for weekend getaways. It was exactly what we were looking for!
So we packed our bags and our diving gear and headed down to Ft. Lauderdale. We were so very excited!
Upon arrival we found that the hotel was right on the beach! Wonderful! We were on the right track.
The parking lot left a bit to be desired; it was very tiny and although it was easily accessible, actually getting our little car into a parking space was quite the challenge.
We finally parked our car and went in to the front office to register. There was nobody there! We must have waited at LEAST a half an hour for someone to finally appear in their tiny hole of an office with a window air conditioner.
While we were registering with the office manager, we asked about the “Beverages provided upon check-in” to which the manager stated “there is a water cooler behind you with plastic cups there to use”.
We were given the key to our room and we schlepped our luggage and diving gear to the room – in the heat and humidity without any help from the hotel staff (which apparently was only the office manager).
The room was all white. White tile floors, white walls, white curtains, white linens, white bathroom, and white ceiling fan. (Was this our ‘white glove’ service?)
We soon came to realize that the WINDOW AIR CONDITIONER was not working and to top that off, the windows were bolted shut! We called the office and the guy came out and was at least able to un-bolt the window for us but we had to keep the ceiling fan on high for our stay because the air conditioner was not going to be working.
Oh, and the breakfast daily? Well, we were given a coupon to the beach bar on the corner that is open in the mornings for breakfast.
Well, the hotel WAS at least on the beach and we DID get some shore diving in while we were there. Thank goodness their definition of ‘on the beach’ was indeed just that and not actually ‘across the busy four lane highway’!
To plan your vacation, contact Eileen at Cruise And Vacation Paradise (a Cruise Planners/American Express franchise) www.CruiseandVacationParadise.com
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