Why it is important to offer you the full package?
A lot of times, travelers may just want us to book a hotel. Or flights. Maybe a rental car or other ground transportation. When these requests come across our desks, we wonder, what about the other components? What about the complete vacation? Why did they book their flights separate from everything else? Did they find great airfare and thought “surely I can find a place to stay after I purchase the flights”. Most likely, yes you can, BUT….in that rare instance where you chose to fly in and the city is sold out, what do you do? It will cost money to change your flights, and if the city is sold out of hotel rooms, chances are all ground transportation is fully booked as well.
Many times guests contact us to book an inexpensive hotel that is not centrally located because they would rather find a way into the city, than pay a little more for a hotel in a better location. If you get a rental car, that may be okay, but many times travelers don’t want to drive in foreign countries. So then what? Most of the out-of-town hotels will not have transportation services into the city center. That leaves finding a transfer service to take you into town and return you to your hotel later. Not all locations have Uber or Lyft either, just an fyi….
If you have never been to destination you are desiring to visit, let us use our experience and knowledge to put it all together the right way.
The reason we like to book everything in a complete, turn key package is that everything is seamless and runs smoothly. We typically recommend city center hotels as it makes a lot more sense to stay in or near the city center of places – like Rome for instance. When you are in the city, there will be places to see within walking distance of your hotel. Or you will have easy access to the Hop on/Hop off sightseeing bus service that has become very popular these days. Sure, if you stay outside of town you can find your way in and take advantage of walking or the Hop on/off service. But if you are there on a limited schedule, why not be in the thick of things? You also will have way more access to great restaurants and cafes, rather than being stuck dining at the hotel’s restaurant. It is the little things, like attention to detail and saving time – and money – that will make your vacation better.
Why do we offer Private Transfers over taking taxis or shared shuttle service?
Your experience in arriving and getting to your hotel or resort can make or break your initial reaction to arrival at your destination. Let’s say you are going to an all-inclusive resort in Mexico. Those of us that have been there, done that are very familiar with the Time Share agents that stand around looking for bewildered guests and glom onto them. They seem friendly enough, offering you a ride to your resort….but FIRST. The but first is that they will whisk you away to a time share property and put the pressure on for you to buy into it. 4 – 5 hours later, they drop you at your resort frazzled. NOT a great way to begin your vacation.
On the other hand, when we book your fully inclusive package, we receive explicit instructions from our Supplier Partner regarding where to find your transfer representative and what they will be wearing and/or what will be on the signs they hold up. Make no mistake, many of the Time Share agents will dress the same and try to trick you, so we share the supplier’s instructions and advise you not to engage with this folks. On another note, your private transfer will ensure a safe and expedited journey from the airport to your hotel or resort without stopping along the way to drop other travelers off at their hotels. You arrive refreshed and ready to begin your vacation. We have done this ourselves and know without a shadow of a doubt it is worth it.
Why doesn’t your Travel Advisor offer to book airline tickets only?
While it is true that we have access to every airline, so does the traveler these days. Almost every airline has their own website that offers an easy way to compare and book flights. Most will allow you to book using their online booking engine without paying a fee. If you call the airlines direct, more than likely they will charge a fee. Why you ask? Because the airlines have to pay the ‘real person’ that is booking your reservation. But using their online tool only involves you. Same with reaching out to a Travel Advisor to book only a flight. We charge a minimum of a $35 per person, per ticket fee for domestic travel and $50 per person, per ticket for international travel. And sad to say because of all the ‘bad apples’ in the world that have nothing better to do but try to scam and hurt innocent people, we have had to make a hard decision that we will do Airline ticket only reservations for our established clients. Every day in the Travel Industry, these ‘bad apples’ scam hundreds, sometimes thousands of dollars in airline tickets from unsuspecting Travel Advisors using fraudulent credit cards. Trust me, this happens more than anyone could ever realize. Who ends up paying for the tickets? The Travel Advisor. The airlines don’t care, they want their money for flying these ‘bad apples’ from point A to point B. We don’t like it, but we must be diligent about protecting our businesses.
Special services for our White Glove clients.
Why doesn’t your Travel Advisor offer to book your tickets using your miles?
This can be a very tricky thing using miles. We spent years doing Corporate Travel for high level Executives that would often request we book flights using their miles. The tricky thing is that if you are NOT the mileage account holder, you don’t have access to the account. Back in the day, before online booking tools, the only way to book tickets using miles was to call the airlines direct. The airline agents would ask questions that only the account holder would know, and BAM….we were shot down and not able to book flights. With the advent of the online booking tools, we could gain access to their accounts – IF the traveler would be willing to give you all of their log in information. This helped, but it was still tricky. Gathering the information, relaying it to the traveler and hoping in the meantime mileage space did not sell out. Not all flights have mileage space available, so this could be a long process depending on response times.
If and when we could complete the mileage transaction, we would hope and pray that plans didn’t change. There are different rules for mileage tickets. It always made us nervous doing these transactions because of the added stress of changes possibly creating a big mess. Most people that are in the position to gain and use mileage tickets are road warriors that travel a LOT. They love their miles and they don’t want to lose even 1 mile if plans go awry. The responsibility was daunting and I think you can see why most Travel Advisors would only do this for very well established clients. At at a fairly significant fee. The years of building the relationship and trust between a Travel Advisor and established clients is something we don’t take lightly. And something our clients appreciate. They deserve the White Glove treatment.
What about credit card miles?
Conversely, we reserve this privilege for our well established clients as well. The first reason is that again, we require full access to all account information. Our well established clients feel comfortable providing this information. The second reason is that the credit card companies all have their own travel departments and trained Travel Agents to provide the service of booking their flights for the credit card holders. We will need to contact these agents as well in order to book the airline tickets for our guests. Again, our well established White Glove travelers are happy to pay the fee to have us do this on their behalf. And we enjoy doing something a little special for our Luxury Travelers.
What about other Concierge Level services?
As we mentioned previously, building a relationship between us as Travel Advisors and our clients can take months, if not years, of working together and trusting each other. It is a very special and something we do not take for granted. We love to spoil our travelers and would like each one to become one of our VIPs. We offer an array of services, for fees, that even our most discerning clients have come to love and appreciate. A complete White Glove Service Package would be the ultimate package we can put together. Imagine hopping in to your private Limo and being taken to a fabulous dinner at a starred Michelin restaurant in New York, Paris, Rome – wherever. Add in theatre tickets, a concert or a sporting event after your meal, while your driver waits for you to return you to your hotel, with a possible stop at a hidden gem bar for a night cap. OR this can include booking private jet charters, private yacht charters or private party on your luxury cruise ship. They sky is the limit and we take care of it all. Our Luxury Travelers deserve the BEST! And we deliver.
One thing that I did forget to advise of in the beginning was this: A lot of our suppliers package travel components together and the combined package rate is always a better value than booking separate segments. These would be our wonderful Tour Operators such as Pleasant Holidays and their luxury partner Journese. There is a big benefit to booking these packages. We can take advantage of contracted airfares and property discounts that usually save our guests some money. When these are booked separately, there are no discount advantages. The other good thing is that when all components are booked under one supplier, they offer Travel Protection to cover their product fully. And for us, if there are issues while you are away, we have one point of contact to work with to solve any problems that arise. As I mentioned early on, it is all seamless to you. And that is a wonderful thing!