A Good Travel Advisor Will Be a Partner and Your Number One Advocate
A Travel Advisor is a professional who plans your next vacation, working with clients in a timely and efficient manner. Ideally, a travel advisor listens to their client’s wants and needs and uses those to create the ideal vacation for the client. It’s not their personal preferences and bottom line.
So what makes a GOOD travel advisor? A good travel advisor has outstanding communication skills. A good travel advisor recognizes that your vacation is an investment. They will want to do everything they can to protect that investment. They will use the product knowledge and information they have to create the ultimate vacation for YOUR needs.
A good travel advisor is highly organized and has a great system for tracking every step in the vacation planning process, and promptly. They will know, and communicate, every payment deadline, booking deadline, special event, and more.
A good travel advisor will listen to the client, get a vision of their desired experience, and execute it to the best of their ability to create a magical and memorable vacation experience that will keep the client coming back again and again for MORE magical and memorable vacation experiences! They will be empathetic to the client’s situations, wants, needs, limits, and all applicable scenarios, not judgy. And they will be honest and demonstrate humility. They will be able to admit when they don’t know something. And be willing to learn more and communicate what they have learned promptly.
BENEFITS OF WORKING WITH A TRAVEL ADVISOR
YOU’RE GETTING SOMEONE WHO WILL FIGHT FOR YOU
You should be looking for someone willing to fight to protect your investment at all costs. They should be willing to commit, upfront, to fighting for the best price available. A travel advisor will make sure you are getting the most bang for YOUR buck, not try to convince you that you need all the bells and whistles and everything that is the most expensive so that THEY make the most money.
I have no problem with telling someone “Oh this product is really cool but you really don’t NEED it, it’s more of a want.” And I’ll do that even if losing that add-on loses me money. It’s not about ME. I have had clients, for example, who booked a cruise and they could have spent a bunch of money on balcony staterooms. But they had a family of 12 and asked my opinion on spending the money on the rooms or booking cheaper rooms and spending their money on excursions. In the end, we settled on one balcony stateroom for Mom & Dad with the kids and grands sharing interior rooms. They then took that extra money saved and saw the world, which is the entire point of taking a cruise. This is what I mean by making sure you get the most bang for YOUR buck.
A good travel advisor will take the time to ask you what you’re looking for in your vacation planning. What you want to do and see. They should then take that information and do what they can to turn that vacation dream into a vacation reality. You probably know what you want to do if you want to go somewhere like Italy, so tell your travel agent what that is. Communication, both ways, is key!
A GOOD TRAVEL ADVISOR WILL BE A PARTNER
You should be looking for a partner, someone to advocate on YOUR behalf, someone to work WITH you. You don’t want someone that will never answer your questions, or belittle you. A good travel partner should do what’s in your best interest, not theirs. If a travel advisor makes you feel like a burden, RUN! Find a new advisor immediately!
Furthermore, you want a partner who will build a relationship with you. They’re going to be your one point of contact for every (or most) aspect of your vacation. This means that if something ever comes up that requires a phone call to a supplier, they will understand the situation, understand you and your needs, and be able to communicate that to resolve the issue with the supplier. You won’t have to play call center roulette, your partner, who already knows you, will do it for you!
I had clients traveling to Costa Rica. On their way, they were on a stopover in Houston, and every flight out of Houston was canceled. They were in a 2-hour+ line at customer service and I was on hold with the supplier. By the time they got up to the customer service desk, I had gotten their flights and trip refunded, because nothing was heading to Costa Rica again for about a week. They were then able to focus on getting home. Sometimes things happen that are out of control. A good travel advisor will do the best they can to help in any way possible, even if it just means letting you vent your frustrations.
TIME IS MONEY — GOOD TRAVEL ADVISORS WILL HELP YOU SAVE BOTH
As I’ve said, travel advisors can sit on hold with suppliers so you don’t have to. You get to live your already hectic life without the added stress of planning a vacation.
And a good travel advisor will keep track of discounts and promotions as they become available, and, when possible, apply them. This saves you money and you don’t even have to do anything. This goes back to having a planning partner who will fight and advocate for you!
TRAVEL IS A TA’S JOB — YOU GET NOT ONLY THEIR HELP BUT ALSO THEIR EXPERTISE
Travel Advisors are trained to know, understand, and adapt to all different forms of travel. Great travel advisors are constantly learning and researching top destinations, the best trips to take, and travel recommendations. Bonus if they’re part of a team or consortia because you get their knowledge and expertise, plus their teammates’ knowledge and expertise.
Travel Advisors keep on top of things, like special events, travel advisories, recent news, weather conditions, required travel documents, and more. And then, they communicate this information with clients in a timely and applicable manner. I personally have “read the news and check current offers” built into my personal calendar DAILY. When I say “I’ve got you,” I mean it!
STILL THINK YOU DON’T NEED A TRAVEL ADVISOR?
I have heard a lot of reasons why people think they don’t need travel advisors.
“I can’t afford a travel advisor.”
Travel Advisors are paid by the suppliers directly and their fees are included in the price of your vacation, whether you use one or not. So when you use a travel advisor, you’re supporting a small business. And when you don’t, that big travel supplier makes even more money off of you.
Sure, some travel advisors do charge fees. (In fact, I have a fee structure for certain add-on services.) That doesn’t make them bad advisors, either, it just means they’re probably going to do even more work for you, so they feel it necessary to charge an extra fee. So don’t immediately run away if you encounter a travel advisor charging a planning fee. But not all advisors do. If I’m charging a fee for something, it’s likely to be a time-consuming task that takes a ton of time but makes me no money. It’s usually a task clients can do for themselves, but I have had several just pay me to take care of it for them. Would you work for free? I’m guessing now!
It’s important to interview your advisor before committing. “What can you do for me?” is a perfectly acceptable question, and if a travel advisor won’t answer it? That’s a red flag!
I LIKE TO PLAN MY VACATIONS MYSELF, I DON’T WANT ANY HELP
I can honestly say that I do not think any travel advisor will hear “I want to do all of my own planning” and be upset about it! A travel advisor can be as involved as you want them to be. If you want to plan every second of your Walt Disney World vacation, no one is going to stop you. A travel advisor is a travel partner. You would have them available for assistance and questions if you need them. In this day and age, where travel regulations change sometimes several times per day, I would think you’d want someone “in the know!”
I have some clients who make their deposit and I never hear from them again until they are ready to make a payment or pay their balance. And I am completely ok with that! After all, it’s YOUR vacation, not mine! Conversely, I have some clients who email me monthly asking “What would you do in XXX scenario?” This is also perfectly fine with me! I love travel planning, even if it’s not for me!
SO HOW DO I FIND A GOOD TRAVEL ADVISOR?
Well if you’ve read this far, you already have! That’s me!