Do Travelers Need A Reality Check
While I would love to think all readers will plan to book their next vacation with us, I know there are many options available and I expect you are receiving mailings, emails and seeing ads regularly that encourage you to make your travel plans with an online supplier or directly with a travel company.
I would like to share a few thoughts with you about making your reservations through a toll free number or with an online travel company. Foremost remember you are likely not to receive much personal service by booking directly. Your local travel professional’s goal is to keep you as a repeat client.
I suspect you may believe it is easy to book your cruise, tour or vacation package online. All you need to do is keep your credit card within easy reach of your phone or computer, for it “is easy to click and travel”. All you have to do is offer your credit card number and personal information to someone located in some office in a reservation center, or possibly to a work force located in a call center located overseas. Consider how likely fraud can occur under these circumstances.
So why use a travel agent? It is important to know that you are going to pay a travel agent the same as you will pay a cruise line, hotel/resort or tour operator. The commission earned by a travel agent is calculated into the brochure price or rack price. It is the way the industry operates. A portion of the travel agents commission is built into all pricing, so if you book directly with the cruise line, tour operator or hotel they pocket the extra money. Hoteliers, cruise lines and tour companies in fact invest heavily in the training of travel agents to know their product and sell it appropriately.
Most travel company’s reservationists are commissioned salespeople. They are simply encouraged to get a direct booking, earn their small commission, and let their company pocket the commission built into the price. Does this mean this booking agent has your best interest at heart, or that they will be there to help you in an emergency?
We know certain hotels and airlines will occasionally run a special “online” deal for last minute bookings, and sometimes they just make it sound like a great deal! If a tour operator or cruise line was not offering equal pricing to the travel agent community you can bet there would be a huge push for business to not go their direction. You can count on the fact that whatever “special” you may see offered by a cruise line or tour company can be secured through our travel staff.
The true facts are, WE ARE NOT JUST ABOUT PRICE. The reason for using a travel agent has little to do with price. As professionals we focus on tours, packages, cruises and luxury custom vacations voluntarily offering clients extra advice. We will make certain you are informed about the ports or cities you will be visiting and provide options for sightseeing or even restaurants in most places.
A good travel professional will be aware of the different products that will meet your travel needs both for price and for quality. We interview our clients to determine what is important to them. We evaluate the options to make certain you are purchasing the right product. It requires an expert to navigate the array of resorts, hotels, ships, prices, cabins, dining options, entertainment and itineraries. Whichever cruise line or tour company you contact by phone or online is unlikely to suggest you contact another company, they want you to buy their product.
There are so many important decisions which need to be made while planning your vacation. With 200 ships and more than two dozen cruise lines selling to U.S. travelers, the choices are numerous. Would you prefer Alaska or the Caribbean? Do you prefer a kid-friendly or an adult oriented trip? Do you prefer a ship the size of a small city, or do you prefer an intimate yacht? Are formal sit-down meals or a food court to your liking? Where do you want to be located on a ship, forward, mid-ship, inside cabin, outside cabin, balcony or suite?
Most importantly, we will give you an honest evaluation of the options available to you with an unbiased view, and we monitor the service being delivered to you the traveler. We care about our client’s trip. We want them to return to us for advice and recommendations in the future. We have an investment in our clients. I am certain that booking directly with a company will not provide you a person who cares if you are having a great time; you are merely a “booking statistic”. You can assume you will receive nothing but a glowing report about their product.
An extremely important part of your travel purchase is travel insurance. We evaluate what is the best policy for our clients needs. If you book direct, there aren’t any options offered, you can only purchase what they are selling.
Sometimes travelers are reluctant to purchase travel insurance and consider it to be an unnecessary expense. I can assure you nothing is more heartbreaking than a client who has to cancel their trip at the last minute due to a family emergency, a health diagnosis or injury. I cannot think of a client, who has ever planned to cancel their vacation at the last minute, but unfortunate incidents happen in life and your travel investment needs to be protected.
Occasionally travelers will have something go wrong when they are on vacation, someone gets sick, or you need assistance returning home quickly. Who helps when these unfortunate situations occur when booking online? What if your travel experience is unsatisfactory; who will assist you in dealing with the issue when you book online?
So why use your local travel agent? We are likely to run into our clients at the grocery store or walking downtown. We want to see you in our office again to share your stories and photos over a cup of coffee. We are a part of this community and we care if you have a fabulous vacation.
