Why you need a travel agent (Financial Gazette 7-13 April 2011, Page D10) By Tatenda Nigel Chinodakufa Do you really need a travel agent? To someone who has experienced nightmare mistakes through making their own travel arrangements on their own and basically being “Their own Agent” and therefore responsible for their own mistakes, I am certain your answer is a big “Yes”. For starters, the service when using a travel agent is just better; you are dealing with one person instead of various websites where if you have a problem or need to change anything on your reservation, you are calling customer service (which is not necessarily available 24/7), getting put on hold, getting transferred to a supervisor, getting transferred back to the last department you spoke to and so on. Furthermore, with the level at which technology is taking over business operations nowadays, you might even be answered by that familiar voice of the answering machine, while you are on holiday, thousands of miles away from home. Imagine having to undergo all this hectic process for all aspects of your holiday tour, from the flight ticket, hotel accommodation, car rental, boat cruise, and travel insurance company, just to make one simple alteration to an arrival date on your itinerary. With a travel agent you simply tell that favorite consultant of yours what needs to be done, and the way you want it, and they simply get it done, including a surprise birthday welcome for your sweetheart at a restaurant, thousands of miles away from home. Considering the fact that the original concept of communication among travel agencies is being on familiar terms with the destination prior to contact, you are more likely to get better service from the hotel, airline, or tour operator. One fact you need to know is that travel agents bring service providers (hotels, airlines, resorts, etc) a lot of business and they want to keep it that way. If a travel agent gets a complaint from one of their clients they are not likely to send people back to that resort or airline, and the resorts and airlines know this, they would not want their business diverted to a competitor by travel agents. Another fact is that you do not have to pay your travel agent extra money to research and book your travel, or make amendments to your reservation because travel agencies make their money from the companies with which they book the travel, they make a commission from the hotel, resort, insurance company, car hire or tour company, for example. Another advantage of taking this route is that your travel agency will have contacts at all of the major holiday destinations, touring and hotel companies. Because of this, they are likely to locate special deals and discount packages that you would not be able to benefit from by searching on your own. But what many stranded clients have learnt is that traveling without the services of an agent can leave them scrambling for help when something goes wrong. If you are a busy person who wants a vacation planned, all the work is done, and if there is any troubleshooting, we do it all. Agents work for you and will do everything they can to meet your travel needs and some literally go that extra mile to help their clients.
Posted on: Tue, 24 Sep 2013 16:39:13 +0000
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