It’s what seems to be the age-old story, especially in the days of Internet access for nearly everyone. “Why should I use a travel agent or travel agency?”
VALUE
I can pretty much sum up the why in one word…value. Let’s start with time?
How valuable is your time? Do you work a full-time job? Do you have kids or family you’re responsible for? Do you really have time to surf the net looking for the suppliers that will give you the best bang for your buck? If you’re retired, work from home…where the boss isn’t looking over your shoulder, then yes, you may have time to spend looking for the suppliers you’ll need. That’s all well and good until you’ve paid your fees and you need to cancel for some reason. Or you show up at your discount website BnB and find out the owners have double-booked or decided at the last minute not to rent the place. Good luck getting through to someone who can sort that out.
Or…what if all of your plans are dashed by a pandemic that comes from nowhere and shuts everything down. You can Google the nightmares travelers encountered when COVID closed the world in 2020. Stranded flyers, hotels canceled, the list goes on. One thing that you’ll see on those Google searches is those travelers with travel agents or advisors were, for the most part, taken care of. This leads to another value…peace of mind.
Peace of Mind
How much to value your peace of mind when you’re in a foreign country or on a cruise? Is there someone you can reach out to when things don’t quite go right? Travel advisors can’t necessarily fix everything, but they CAN help you plan, give advice and be a lifeline in the event of…God forbid!
Value Versus Expense
Many people don’t realize that the prices your travel advisor will quote are either the same as the suppliers OR if they’re more, the advisor can price match. Why is that? It’s possible because unless the travel advisor is charging a plan-to-go fee or planning fee, suppliers already have travel agency fees included in the prices you are quoted. Yes even discount websites for hotels, cruises, flights, etc include those fees and you either pay them to the discount website company or you pay them to a travel advisor. Remember what we discussed above about time and peace of mind?
In other words, you pay one way or the other. Yep, even those discounted cruise line fares of $10 will pay a travel agent…not much, but they get paid or the cruise line gets paid. BTW, when I lived in Las Vegas we used to have $.49 breakfast specials designed to get people into the casinos. It’s called a loss leader. Same thoughts with the nearly free cruises. You do it once, you’ll you’re hooked.
What’s the value of a dream vacation where you get exactly what you want, where you want it, and how you want it? Is it worth it to go for the cheaper flight to Israel and get off the plain feeling like you’ve been through a ringer?
