Booking air travel, making hotel reservations and arranging vacation travel in general has changed completely with the advent of the internet and many people act as their own travel agents. While you can arrange secured in a dark most of your travel yourself, you can't do as well as your travel agent in a long run!
Travel processionals, whether your local travel agent, tour operator or destination specialist still possess contacts that you as an industry outsider do not have. As in number of other professions, travel agents, whether in a shopping center near your home or an online agency, wherever they may be located, truly do know something you do not, have way to book and arrange travel for you in ways inaccessible or unknown to you.
Traditionally you could contact a travel agent and inquire for a quote, whether an amount of an air ticket, hotel or a vacation package. For the most part travel agents still provide that kind of information, although there is a limit how much information they may disclose as not all information is readily available to them.
First of all, most travel agents indeed may have at their convenience routine cost of air ticketing, hotel rates or certain holiday packages available and will be happy to supply price information to you instantly when asked. But once your travel request will need to be somewhat customized, whether tailored to your dates of travel or your other travel preferences, to find a relevant answer will be time consuming. Because of this time element involved, do not automatically assume an agency is keen to spend the time to furnish the information you seek when there is no commitment you will travel at all.
Look at the situations from the following perspective. Back many years ago if you had a problem with your car, you'd drive it to your neighborhood car mechanic and asked him to see what was wrong with it. You would drop the car off at the garage, the mechanic would have a look and tell you what the problem was. He would also give you an estimate and it was up to you to decide if you wanted him to fix it right then and there, wait or seek another opinion and another quote. His services cost you nothing.
But not anymore Cargo. These days, no garage, no car repair mechanic is prepared waste time looking for what's the problem with your vehicle without charging you at least one hour labor upfront. Pay and he will look and tell you. Up to you if you will decide to take your car to another shop or have him fix it, he has covered his time spent the diagnosis of what's wrong with your car.
Similarly, many travel agencies and professional travel planners and tour operators will charge you an upfront travel planning fee if you are requesting travel arrangements that first of all are time consuming, or there is no guarantee you will book anything. All you are after are essentially private tailor-made travel arrangement s and there are no simple answers or options to give you, and the only way to find out will be for the agent to dig and consult all sorts of different sources he has at the garbage disposal and then present the travel alternatives to you for you to choose.
When working with a travel agent, travel planner or any other travel professional such as a knowledgeable destination specialist, keep in mind that a certain protocol will assure you will get not only the kind of travel arrangements you want in general but also you'll gain a true partner that will always work in your best interest whether you'll travel away from home on business or for pleasure.
First of all, when contacting a travel agent, whether in person or online, don't hesitate to give them your name - don't worry, most agents won't spam you back. Without your name when you're asking for a valuable travel advice most agents won't take your request too seriously. Call if you want but most agents prefer not to take notes, email is a way to go and for an agent to look up a service often a time means he has to plug in a name, so should that name will be your real name. If you decide not to accept the booking the reservation will expire and no harm done. If you decide later to purchase the reservation the agent does not have to rekey it into the system all over again.
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