My good friend Ling, a successful Chinese-American business woman, recently spent a whole night on the internet during her travels organizing her onward air tickets.  She wanted to get from Beijing to Lombok in Indonesia to join us for a vacation, and then fly on to Vienna.  I asked her the obvious question, “Have you thought of asking a travel agent to do that for you?”

She hadn’t and many of her generation think similarly, yet there are professionals out there whose job it is to take the sting out of such arrangements.  What is shocking is that good travel agents will usually do this for a minimal fee, which together with their commission adds a small overall cost to you, the client, and yet saves untold hassle and time.  And there’s the answer to the first part of my title above – that’s how good travel agents conceal and indeed undermine their incredible value. 

Members of the public infer from their low cost that travel agents can’t add much value.  And yet how differently would we feel if they charged a lot more, like other professionals such as accountants or lawyers?  At that point, we’d expect them to work for their higher fee.  We’d insist on their getting us the best value for money.  We’d require their matching us with the exact right suppliers for what we wanted anywhere in the world, whether it be hiking in Patagonia, test-driving a Porsche on the autobahn or fly-fishing in western Mongolia.  We’d want them to manage our travel expenditure so much more effectively with far better results than we could ever hope to attain.  And do you know what?  That’s exactly what good travel agents do for a living.  And not only that.  

The really good travel agents commit their business and a large bulk of their personal time to you.  It’s partly for money, and it’s partly because they are wired that way.  Please do not take advantage of them now that I am letting you into this secret, but these are people who stay up in the middle of the night because they are so concerned you are having a terrific time on safari in East Africa.  They will be writing notes to the Directors of Sales at every lodge to ensure you are being looked after.  So the travel agent’s commission not only gets you the best travel advice money can buy, it not only manages your travel expenditure better than you could yourself, but with really great travel agents, it buys you someone who is passionate about your travels being successful.  Given that we all work so hard in our lives – shouldn’t our quality of life be assured by maximizing our leisure time?  Introducing the value of a good travel agent….

Now let’s look at this from the other end of the telescope.  Let’s pit a savvy internet user, Jo Shmo, against the good travel agent: let me see now, Jo goes to Tripadvisor to look up a good hotel in Lyon, France for an upcoming trip.  He cross-references pricing on hotel web-sites with the hotel’s location on Google Maps to make sure he is getting the best possible deal.  And did you notice that?  He focused on the room’s price (rather than its value to him) right away.  And why?  Because that’s all Jo knows about since he’s never been to Lyon – it’s about all he can control, given the haze of data overload he’s dealing with.  Does he have the faintest idea where the area of town that interests him is?  No.  Has he included taxes and the service charge in his comparisons?  Probably not.  Does he know which room he is getting?  Is there a pastry shop nearby for his breakfast, and if not how much is the hotel breakfast?  The internet does not easily reveal this information.  And anyway, does he know what’s he’s going to be doing once he gets there?  Not really.  On the one hand, there’s too much information.  On the other, none of it seems relevant to his particular situation, because for many people travel, particularly leisure travel, is NOT a commodity.  Our travel aspirations are as unique as we are.  So, what does Jo do in the end?  He picks one hotel thinking, “there are all these positives, how bad can it be?”  And in so doing he commits his funds and his travel companions to a potentially awful decision.  Was that rational?  Was it a good deal?  Oh, please!  What are we organizing here, a train wreck or a vacation?  That is no way to spend your hard-earned cash – it’s penny rich, pound poor.

By contrast, the good travel agent – often someone who has spent a decade or so of his life developing a network of reliable contacts from his inspiring mentor to a range of suppliers across the globe – will meet with you to find out what makes you and your nearest-and-dearest tick.  Are you the kind that is into museums or self-indulgence?  Do you love fancy-shmancy or are you into clubbing and the real deal?  After assessing what makes you you, he will go to his network and choose from a continuum of suppliers covering your desired destination one who matches your needs the best, and it will be they who recommend you a hotel in Lyon, based on their experience of what will work for you.   So now you’re not choosing the hotel based on suppositions gleaned from unknown amateurs on TripAdvisor, but instead you’re benefiting from the advice of a network of travel professionals who make their daily crust by making people like you as delighted as possible for the price.  Given those two scenarios, which do you think is more likely to deliver on your travel aspirations? 

So, whilst a good travel agent’s method of remuneration might conceal some of his cost, it would be a mistake to overlook his value.  And then it would be monumentally misinformed to ignore the sheer care the good travel agent provides.  A good travel agent is a no-brainer.  If you haven’t yet found one, then wait for my next post setting out what to look for and going into more detail on why working through a travel agent makes more sense that working directly with an inbound tour operator, such as ourselves.  In my view, this represents the core value of the leisure travel agent, which I  touch on above.  In the meantime, to start your search for a good travel agent check out our “Find a Travel Agent” web page, continue by checking out the travel agency consortiums, Virtuoso and Signature, and also try asking your friends for a recommendation.