5 Examples from 2020 Proving, Why You Need To Use a Travel Advisor to Book Your Vacation.
If there was ever a year that validated the myriad benefits of using a travel advisor to book trips, it was unarguably the year 2020. Sure anyone can go online & find themselves the flights & hotels of their choice. But your travel advisor, a person with professional knowledge, doesn’t just go online & books your flights & hotels on your behalf. Your travel advisor not just books your holiday, but creates an experience for you that you will carry in your memories for a long time & reminisce those vacation days when you get old.
Here are 5 examples that illustrate why it’s always best to book with a knowledgeable travel advisor.
1. Battling on Clients’ Behalf
With all the cities & countries going into immediate lockdown due to spread of COVID, all the future booked tours of the guests stood cancelled with immediate effect. Agents spent countless hours on hold to tirelessly – and without compensation – deal with refunds, travel credits, re-bookings and ever-changing supplier policies. Not only did advisors save clients money, time and sanity, they surely proved and elevated their value to consumers in the process.
2. Ensuring Prompt Refunds Without Clients Losing Their Money
Travel advisors, work relentlessly & use every connection they have so that their clients lose little to no money upon cancellation of their trip at short notice.
One such example was when 2 families with young kids that had booked an entire 1 week’s trip with us for April 2020, were quite skeptical to travel in wake of COVID & wanted to cancel their trip in the first week of March. Now given that the entire trip was non-refundable, had they cancelled the trip in the first week of March, they wouldn’t have seen a dime of their money. But we advised them to wait it out until there was some official announcement from the Government Officials. And as an end result, their patience paid off as the airlines & hotels cancelled all the bookings from their end & processed an immediate refund after deducting a nominal amount. And rest of the services offered a credit note to be used within next 24 months.
3. Capitalizing on Supplier Relationships
In some cases, we have had not just individuals but entire groups cancel days before travel, a situation that in the past would have garnered a ‘full penalty’ (no refund). By working closely with our tour operator and hotel partners, none of the groups or individuals were charged any cancellation fees to switch to new dates or provide credit notes to be used on future dates. Some operators even gave us flexibility to use those credit notes for some other guests, so that we could offer refund to the original guests to whom the credit note was issued.
4. Keeping Clients Safe
Travelers need a travel advisor now (Post COVID) more than ever to make sure they have the proper health forms and COVID test paperwork based on every countries’ & city’s requirements. We are working twice as hard now not only on bookings but making sure our clients have the latest requirements & updates to the place they need to travel. Also, not all resorts/airlines are created equal. We are trying hard to make sure we put our clients at resorts and on airlines that are putting safety first.
5. Scouting Out Close-To-Home Short Getaways
People have been couped up in their houses way too long, and now that they can’t go to their dream vacation to spend their summer in Europe, a lovely three or four-day weekend close to home really comes into play. These short getaways will help people continue to dream and have something to look forward to.
