Don’t DIY Your Vacation

Part of a conversation I read on Facebook:  Client: “I have friends that booked their own vacation to Mexico between Christmas and New Years Eve. They tested positive for COVID while in Mexico and have tested positive for the second time today. They cannot fly out for another 5 days – with negative tests and the town they are in is completely sold out. #nightmare”  Travel Advisor: “It is a risk we take to travel nowadays. All of the resorts that we book and sell have COVID wings set up for people that test positive during their stay. Specifically put aside by the hotel to allow their guests to stay for free up to 14 days so they can get heatlthy and test negative to go home. These resorts offer onsite testing as well. Were your friends not staying in a resort?” Client: “They were at a resort, but in a very remote town and area. They had to check out of the first hotel they were in and found another hotel with no AC. The town was sold out and now they are driving to Mexico City to find a place to stay until they can test negative and come home. Their quick ‘inexpensive’ trip is now costing them over $4,000. During COVID probably very smart to stay at a big resort booked by a Travel Advisor. You are the professionals.”

This really struck home because many people we come in contact with ask “Why do I need to book with a Travel Agent, when I can book it myself online?” In a pre-covid world maybe booking on your own was successful and you had no issues. But in the world we are living in right now, with everything that is going on globally, it makes sense to book with a Travel Advisor. When we are contacted for a Mexico vacation, we use vetted suppliers/wholesalers that do many things we can count on and trust. 1 – Packages are bundled together to include flights, ground transportation and accommodations. It makes no sense to have to fight off the ‘time-share vultures’ when you can have guaranteed transfers to your resort. You aren’t saving anything by doing this on your own. 2 – The choice of accommodations lists whether or not they participate in onsite testing and whether or not is is complimentary to our guests. This is a great convenience knowing in advance that you don’t have to leave the property to get your COVID test to return home. Even if you have to pay for the test, it is worth knowing you are getting a reliable company to administer that test. 3 – The number of optional excursion choices has dropped almost in half because they will only recommend tour operators that follow and practice strict covid protocols to protect our guests. Can you find the same companies when you are in Mexico? Maybe. But you also risk things being sold out and missing out on an adventure you really wanted to take.

Protocols and guidelines change rapidly. Sometimes every day. These can be hard to keep up with. Travel Advisors have access to websites that update their databases as frequently as possible with the most up-to-date information. Sometimes this is more than once a day. Their sole purpose is to inform the Travel Advisor community so we can in turn, inform our clients. We want you to have the every detail you need to make the correct decision about your valuable time away. This is our job and we take it very seriously. We care deeply about whether or not you have an amazing vacation. Online booking sites don’t.

When you are working with a Travel Advisor, you get a few options you would not always get when doing it on your own. One of the major perks is you will be offered more than one option to book from. We give you choices. If you went to one supplier’s website, you may not be getting the best option that fits your needs. Said supplier might cater to only family properties and you really want adults only. Or said supplier might only have mega-sized cruise ships, when you really want a ship that is smaller and less intimate. Or said supplier might tell you the best priced option is out of town, when your Travel Advisor will explain the benefits of spending a bit more to stay in the heart of the city, thereby saving money on ground transportation as well as giving you the added option of walking to do exploring.

Okay, you say, I did research on several websites and I have the best locations in mind. That’s great! But did you spend hours looking at all of them? Did you know that the average vacation hunter spends up to 40+ hours researching websites – before booking anything – and visits an average of 125+ websites? Seriously, this is an average estimate of time spent – usually while people are at work. Doing it on company time…. In my corporate travel days the push to use online booking sites for corporate travelers was huge. For those just booking their weekly ‘Phoenix to Denver’ meeting trip, no big deal. But for those looking to book the best way to get from Phoenix to Denver, then Denver to New York, then New York to Los Angeles and finally Los Angeles back to Phoenix, it was taking people hours to do something we – as their Corporate Travel Advisors – could put together in less than 30 minutes. AND while they were busy looking for every option possible, they were NOT doing their job and in the end, costing their company money in lost revenue. These were work related trips, imagine looking for a 7 – 10 day vacation and the time that took. Don’t even get me started on Circle Pacific trips or 5 European countries in 3 days trips. I used to have a corporate client that would look for his trips on an OTA and then send me what he found. His goal was to try to find business class cheaper than economy class. Which rarely worked out for him, however. 99.9% of the time, I always found better routing options and overall pricing for his trips because that was MY job. And I am good at what I do, and had done for almost 10 years before he came along to challenge me.

So how can a Travel Advisor save the leisure traveler money? And time? Experience, knowledge, resources, word-of-mouth referrals and did I say experience? Based on the amount of time an Advisor has been in the Travel Industry, the levels of experience and knowledge are very impactful. Personally, I have been in the industry 30 years. OMG…30 years! WOW – can you imagine the amount of times I have booked Hawaii or a cruise or helped someone figure out what is needed to travel where? Compile that with the amount of fellow Travel Advisors AND Suppliers that I know and have developed strong relationships with over the years that might be able to shed light on a destination I am less familar with. Those are powerful resources to have in our back pocket. For every ‘ME’ out there, there are 50+ other ‘ME’s’ ready and able to give me advice so I can offer the perfect options to my clients. We are a circle of information and that is key to pleasing and WOWing our customers. Exceeding their expectations is what we care about. Giving them the best vacation possible is our only goal. You cannot get this type of investment and commitment from a faceless website.

I’ll sum up the ‘practical side’ of using a Travel Advisor. If you have the luxury of planning ahead for your bucket list vacation, you are in the right position. 1 – Booking as far out as possible gives you better choices because there is better availability. 2 – Better availability generally comes with better pricing and/or booking incentives, like bonus spending credits, includes meals and possibly drinks and location of your accommodations. (location, location, location!) 3 – Payment planning or budgeting. Most suppliers require a deposit within 24 – 72 hours of booking. And a final payment date is set a specific amount of time prior to departure to or arrival at the destination. Using a Travel Advisor affords you the extra option of building in a payment plan. Make the payments when it is optimal for you or keep your money in the bank until the final payment is due. It is up to you. As long as your vacation is paid in full by the specified date, you are in control of how the payments best fit your budgetary needs.

But….what else does a Travel Advisor do for you, that you cannot get from on OTA? We are live people, reachable by a phone call, text or an email. We are here to answer your questions, ease your concerns and make sure everything goes smoothly. Add in the way things change due to the pandemic the last few years and how critical it is to stay ontop of the changes. As previously mentioned, we have tools at our fingertips to help us keep you informed. Once it is time to travel, you’ll receive a complete day-to-day itinerary – printed and digital, so you can decide what works best for you. Our job is to provide you with everything you need to have a carefree vacation. All you need to do is pack and go!

A big thank you to Classic Vacations for the use of thier ‘Why Use a Travel Advisor’ graphics.