Benefits of Booking with a Travel Agent: 5 Reasons Why You Should Use a Travel Agent to Book Your Next Trip
What’s a travel agent, and how do travel agents work?
A travel agent (or travel advisor-that’s me) is a professional who assists individuals and groups with planning, organizing and booking travel arrangements. They offer personalized recommendations, help create itineraries, and handle all the small details that help save you time and take the stress out of planning.
Depending on traveler needs and preferences, agents can offer trip planning in a single package or simply organize certain portions of the trip. For example, they might arrange hotels, cruises and airline tickets while you handle activities to do at your leisure during your free time.
1. Save you Time
Planning a trip can be time consuming. Researching destinations, comparing prices, and booking accommodations. Travel agents help take the guesswork out of trip planning and all the endless Google searches and comparison shopping. It’s easy to get lost in the details with travel planning, but travel agents handle even the smallest details to help you focus on enjoying your experience.
2. Take Stress out of Planning
Travel agents stay up to date with details you might not think of when planning on your own. Some examples are travel advisories, proper documentation, weather, airport transfers, etc. Their knowledge and experience also give them the ability to help avoid potential problems along the way. You don’t know what you don’t know, so having an extra set of eyes to help arrange details that can get overlooked can help avoid potential hiccups in your travel plans.
3. Offer Expert Advice
Travel agents live and breathe travel. They have firsthand knowledge that can help customize your trip to meet your needs. Not only do they use knowledge from their own personal travel experiences, but knowledge from other client experiences and personal connections provide added value that you won’t get anywhere else. They offer personalized recommendations and tips and tricks learned along the way, like what to see and do on your vacation, the best times to visit certain destinations, how to get the most bang for your buck and much more.
4. Help Manage the Unexpected
Travel is full of surprises – delayed flights, lost luggage, itinerary changes, etc. Travel Agents help you navigate changes when the unexpected happens. Having a resource to help support you when things don’t go as planned can save time, money, and a whole lot of stress.
5. Enjoy Exclusive Discounts and Benefits
In most cases, you will actually get a better price when working with a travel agent. Agents have access to exclusive deals and special agency/group rates, upgrades and discounts that aren’t available online. These could include onboard credit and promotions you may qualify for but didn’t know of that could save you a ton of money on your trip. The very best agents will even keep an eye on new promotions and price adjustments as they become available, and apply them to your trip even after you’ve booked.
