If you are at all like I was about 8+ years ago, you may have some reservations about using a travel advisor. I mean, what's not to enjoy about planning a trip out in detail?? I am a planner, always have been, and I used to plan out my vacations down to the hour (so that I could ensure that I see everything that I wanted to). I'd use the normal cheap booking sites online for my airfare and hotels and would always forgo the travel insurance. I felt like I was a pro. Now, looking back at my choices, I can see a few key mistakes.

Experience & Knowledge

I used to take hours looking through reviews and blogs to try to figure out what would be the BEST possible thing to see or place to stay. There would be 5 star reviews right next to 1 star reviews and I would have to weigh which I thought was more accurate—who to believe. Working with me as your travel advisor, you can rely on my knowledge that I have acquired on destinations, accommodations, and activities through my extensive training and personal experiences. I also have access to a large network of colleagues that I can leverage for additional knowledge and opinions to ensure that every option I provide to my clients fits their exact vacation desires.

And don’t even get me started on COVID-19… back in March and April of 2020 when trips were being canceled left and right, hold times were through the roof! Rather than you waiting hours and hours on hold to try to cancel or change a trip, those who used a travel advisor got to relax and let the professional do the waiting! Often we travel advisors have more direct lines of communication with the supplier than the general public, meaning we can get an answer quicker than you yourself could. And now that travel is resuming little by little, it is even more important to have someone planning your trip who has the knowledge of what requirements and protocols will apply for your trip.

Upfront costs vs. smaller deposit

Let’s talk about those cheap booking sites. Sure, the deals you see are appealing and they do make it easy to book, but generally you have to pay everything, up front, all at once. For small vacations within the states that may not be a big deal, but if you are looking for international travel, that can mean thousands of dollars out of your pocket months before you depart. I don't know about you, but I generally don't have thousands of dollars just lying around that I can splurge on a flight and hotel combo. It is WAY more convenient for me to pay in installments over the course of a few months, or to pay a deposit to reserve the trip and save up the rest over the course of the next few months. With a travel advisor, you can do either of those options. For most vacations (unless booked extremely close to the departure date), you are able to put up a down payment and pay in interest-free installments or save up until a specified "last payment date."

Another thing to consider with the online booking sites is that sometimes you aren’t told all the fees and costs until the final stage of booking. So that cheap vacation you found on the site ends up being not quite as cheap as it appeared initially. When I quote a vacation to you, I include all costs involved up front, so you are never surprised at time of booking.

Service with a smile

Another downside to the cheap internet booking sites is that they don't advertise how terrible their service becomes if something, God forbid, goes wrong. Especially with this recent COVID-19 pandemic, you would have been hard pressed to talk to an actual person if you needed to cancel or change your booking. Online travel agencies’ (OTAs are companies like Expedia or Kayak) customer service is mind-numbingly awful, and rarely does anything get resolved in a timely manner. They tell you they don't have authority to offer refunds as it is based on the airline's determination whether or not you get refund (which is true, but still annoying). Even if you were unable to make a flight due to your father having a massive heart attack requiring him to be put into a month-long induced coma, if you use the online booking sites, you will rarely get a refund from them (this is also a true story - I had to miss a flight because of this and it took about 3 months of me hounding them to get a partial refund. I feel lucky to even have gotten that! My dad made it and is doing OK now, for those wondering.). Now I should mention that this is a great plug for travel insurance. Especially for more costly trips, that $100 or so of travel insurance can save you $1,000's if something goes wrong and you are unable to complete your trip. Had I been smart and purchased travel insurance, my refund would have come from the insurance company, would likely have been a full refund, and I would not have had to waste my time hounding the online booking company to try to get them to resolve it.

During your vacation booked through me, if anything goes awry, I am your advocate! I am the one who has to sit on hold for long stretches or who will work to resolve the issues for you, rather than have you have to figure those things out. You don’t get that with the online booking sites, and sometimes those hold lines are LONGGGGGG (6 hours was the max I heard about from colleagues during the peak of cancellations due to COVID-19).

Time is money

Perhaps you enjoy the planning aspect, like I did. With a travel advisor, you can be as detailed with your preferred itinerary as you'd like. We actually prefer to have some idea of what type of things you enjoy, so that we can ensure that we are creating a trip that will be memorable for years to come. So please, if you know that you want to see the Taj Mahal, camp in the Rajasthan desert, trek through the Himalayas and go on a quad bike tour through Goa while on your 2 week adventure in India, let me know and I will arrange it. The benefits to having the travel advisor create the itinerary is that we can do the planning and ensure that your vacation time has been planned wisely, so that you can see everything you possibly can and use your time before the vacation to do other things. Having two small children now, I really understand the value of my time. If I can spend time with them, or have some much needed alone time, it’s something I am willing to pay for!

But doesn't it cost more?

Maybe you've never used a travel advisor before because you always figured it would cost more than doing it all yourself. That may be true, but that doesn’t mean that added cost isn’t worth it. Consider your auto mechanic - you pay a fee for services rendered and likely a little bit more than what they bought the parts for. However, how many people know how to change a carburetor or want to get their hands (and clothes) dirty changing their oil? It’s a price you’re willing to pay to ensure you get a quality service. And while we are talking about that, let me take a moment to let you in on the secret to how tour operators and cruise lines price packages. The commission that a travel advisor makes is built into the price whether or not you are purchasing from a travel advisor. If you buy direct, the tour operator or cruise line is pocketing that commission and you are missing out on the other benefits that travel advisors provide (saving you time, providing knowledge & researched options, being your advocate if something goes awry, etc.).

And sometimes travel advisors can even find deals that beat the prices a consumer might find online as well! I’ve booked trips before where my clients searched to see what they would have paid doing it on their own and have found my quotes to be thousands of dollars less than what they could book!

More choices of things to do

Finally, one last reason you should consider booking with a travel advisor: we often have access to awesome tour operators and unique tours that you might not be aware of when doing a google search of your destination. Everything from adventure tours to walking excursions to culinary experiences, we have a slew of ones to choose from for any place you might like to see.

So next time you are thinking about traveling, consider using a travel advisor like me to help you make your vacation unforgettable. And remember, don't just travel, experience it!

If you’re ready to start planning your amazing adventure, click the button below to schedule a consultation with me. We’ll chat and talk about what drives your interest in that destination, what things you’d like to do or see, and review trip specifics like dates and flight preferences so that when I make your tailor-made itinerary, I incorporate the things that are most important to you!