Why should someone use a travel agent in 2021? When asking that question I still imagined travel agents as a thing of the past, another career made obsolete by the abundance of resources available to us online. Pamphlets filled with images of tropical sandy beaches and shiny white cruise ships put out by AAA came to mind.
Even with all the information at our fingertips, the reasons to use a travel agent are as relevant now as they ever were! Simply navigating through all that info can be completely overwhelming. What sites are trustworthy? Is that flight deal really a good deal? Which countries are safe to visit? A travel agent can easily answer those questions, and many more.
What I really wanted to know, and I think a lot of you do too, is how to go about working with a travel agent. Where do I even find one? How much do they charge? What can I ask for?
To get REAL answers to these questions, I went straight to the source..my friend Sara from The Average Tourist who is a real-life travel agent and here to dish out all the details.
Sarah answered 8 questions about her life as a travel agent, everything from why we need one to how much we should expect to pay. As a travel blogger, I love planning trips almost as much as actually taking them. Still, after chatting with Sara and getting the inside scoop into what a travel agent can do, I can’t wait to work with her to plan a future trip.
You can find a lot of travel deals and book things online today. But as a regular traveler, that means you also have to do all of your own research, planning, and know what countries require to get in (visas, health tests etc.).
Travel agents are more important now than ever before. There are many restrictions, changing policies, insurance considerations, and travel advisories, and these are changing at a rapid rate across the world. Travel agents continue to stay up to date on all of these elements so that they can ensure their clients are prepared and that there are no surprises when it comes to their trip.
Using a travel agent can save clients time, stress, and even money. Sometimes travel agents actually have better access to deals that aren’t available to the general public. Or, they may know about an upcoming sale that can help clients save money.
They also provide immense value when it comes to coordinating a group booking or a family getaway where you need to block multiple rooms or want to make special requests for your group. Additionally, more difficult trips like safaris, cruises, and remote destinations can be much better when planned by a travel professional who has access to industry experts and destination specialists to plan the best trip for the client.
Overall, travel agents take care of the details so clients can just worry about enjoying their vacation.
Travel agents research, plan, and book travel for clients ranging from flights, all inclusive resorts, tours, cruises, road trips, and more complex bookings. They provide options and recommendations within a client’s budget, time frame and also offer expert advice and resources to help clients have a better time in their destination.
On top of that, travel agents are often in training to stay up to date on destinations, travel news and updates, and the latest and greatest travel trends. Many also do familiarization trips and take time on their personal vacations to do hotel checks, tours, and other site visits to be able to offer clients their own experience and recommendations.
Many agents have been starting to charge an up-front, non-refundable booking fee for their services, especially for trips that require a lot of planning and research. For certain bookings, there may be other booking fees such as air only bookings or complex reservations.
And some agents even charge an up-front booking fee that only gets applied to the booking, as long as the client goes through with the reservation with the agent. If you’re planning to work with a travel agent, you can ask about their fees up front.
If you’re planning to work with a travel agent in the future, have a general idea of what you’re looking for, when you want to go, your budget, and the type of travel you like most. The more specific you can be about what you like and don’t like when it comes to travel will make it easier for the travel agent to find the best options for you.
Most travel agents will walk you through a new client questionnaire to help understand your travel style, expectations, past trips that you’ve enjoyed or hated and why, and just general information that can help them provide clients a more personalized recommendation.
There are plenty of ways to find an agent. You can search for local agents on Google, Instagram and even Facebook. Word of mouth is also a great way to find a travel agent from people you trust in your life (either on social media or in person).
You should ask about their fees up front and what their areas of specialty are. You can also discuss the trip you’re looking to book, and get a general sense on how long it would take them to get some options together for you. If you want reviews or references, you can ask if they have any they can share.
No matter the budget, you can still use a travel agent! It might actually help you get a better trip within your budget and open your options up by leveraging the experience and resources that aren’t open to the general public.
Personally, I won’t take clients looking to book airline-only reservations from any country if I’ve never met them and they weren’t referred by someone I know. It would also be necessary to turn down a client if they didn’t want to pay the service fees or were obviously just shopping around on a really complex trip.
I’m happy to do all of the research and planning for my fee – and if the client wants to book themselves they are more than welcome to. I also wouldn’t feel comfortable booking clients to an area where their safety could be compromised, or somewhere I had very little knowledge or expertise in. That’s to ensure that the client gets the best experience using a travel agent, and recommends the experience to their network.
No matter the size of your budget, using a travel agent in 2021 is the trick to booking the best vacation with the most bang for your buck. For more travel tips from Sara, check her out on Instagram!
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It's cool that you point out that you can take a lot of stress out of the process of planning a vacation by hiring a travel agent. I want to take a vacation to someplace warm this summer, so I should probably hire a travel agency to help me plan it. I'm going to look for a good travel agency that I can use.