To Client-Friends Who Have Not Booked With Us Yet…
Dear Client-Friends:
We hope and trust that you will book your next vacation with our team. But, we know there are alternatives out there, and we know you are receiving mailings and seeing ads that often urge you to book directly with a travel supplier online.
We enjoy an open and honest relationship with our clients. So, we would like to share some straight talk with you about using toll-free numbers, or websites, to book your vacation directly with the provider.
The best-kept secret in the travel industry is that those who book direct are paying for something they are not receiving: the services of a professional travel consultant.
I realize you are being told that it is easy to book your cruise, tour or airline tickets online. You can do it yourself. Just trust the supplier to take care of everything and have your credit card within easy reach.
Be thrilled that you live in a time when you can just click and travel. It’s all so easy, isn’t it? Turn over your credit card number and personal information to someone in a cubicle in a reservations factory or, better still, to outsourced labor working out of a call center overseas. Now your credit card information is in Bangladesh, and your vacation will be expertly planned and delivered. Unfortunately, they won’t inform you of any changes that may take place before you leave home such as itinerary port changes. They are “computerized” for efficiency!
So why use our services? Well, the first thing you need to know (the industry’s best-kept secret) is that you are going to pay our fee or commission when you book directly because it is always – not sometimes, always – built into the price of any brochure program. It’s the way the industry prices.
Tour operators and cruise lines, even top-grade hotels, love direct bookings because a portion of the travel agent’s commission that is built in to every program simply goes into their pockets. They believe that it costs them far less to maintain order-takers in a reservations center. One hotel chain, years ago, was actually using prisoners on work release to handle phone reservations. Most telephone res agents who work for cruise lines are commissioned salespeople with little knowledge of the industry. Their goal is simple: Try to get a direct booking, earn their smaller commission, and let the company pocket the rest of the total commission built into the fare.
So, when you book something directly, you are making a sucker bet that the person on the other end of the line has your best interests at heart, will look out for further discounts and apply them to your booking, and will be there for you in an emergency.
Imagine what happens when you make a direct booking. Your credit card information is stored, and you receive a computer generated invoice. That’s it. You are now a travel statistic. The computer software that is now your “agent” may, or may not, notify you when final payment is due, and you will receive final documents.
Of course, you will not receive any of the amenities available through our office, so you might actually be missing out on pricing incentives and advantages.
Let me state it as clearly as we can: With the exception of certain airline and hotel websites that run occasional online “sales,” you will never receive preferred pricing on any online site.
If a tour operator or cruise line did not give us pricing that was equal to, or better than, what they offer on their site, no reputable travel consultant would ever again sell their product. It just never happens. You can always count on the fact that our pricing will be as good or better than any tour or cruise prices you see on direct booking sites.
But frankly, we don’t want you to book with us because it is always a better value than booking directly. There are other, more important reasons that have little to do with price.
There is not enough space to list all of the things we provide to our valued clients that are never provided when you book directly with a cruise line, or tour operator. But, here are just a few to keep in mind:
- We are going to compare what competitive companies offer.
- We are going to advise you on the very best product to meet your needs.
- You will always have options and lots of information to choose the best vacation.
- We can point out the advantages and disadvantage of several options. and may offer alternatives you didn’t know existed, or were possible.
- Booking directly puts you in touch with a single product sales person. That is all you get. We may offer alternatives you didn’t know existed, or were possible.
We provide special documentation and advice about ports, sightseeing options, and even restaurants. We know the best time to do your itinerary, and we might have affiliated offices abroad that can make your vacation truly memorable and share our personal experiences with you on ports and tour operators.
One of the most important things we can do is analyze your travel insurance needs. If you book direct, you get no options, no discussion. You are offered only whatever the site happens to be selling. We offer a universe of options, and that often saves you money.
Suppose something goes wrong? Suppose someone gets sick, and you need help getting home in a hurry? Suppose your vacation experience was unsatisfactory? Who is your advocate if you are dealing directly with the company operating the program? You have none.
Perhaps the most important single thing that we do is give you an honest, unbiased view of both the upside and downside of the vacation option you are considering. Book direct and you get none of that. Everything about the product will be painted in glowing terms.
Finally, a personal note.
When we go to sleep at night, we are generally aware of where our clients are traveling and what current conditions they are likely to encounter. We worry about our clients. We think about their welfare, and we think about ways that we can enhance their experiences abroad. We are fairly certain that the direct booking tied up somewhere in a supplier’s software booking program is incapable of showing a “booking statistic” much empathy, or assisting in an emergency.
This letter was originally written by Richard Turen of Churchill and Turen, a vacation-planning firm that has been named to Conde Nast Traveler’s list of the World’s Top Travel Specialists since the list began and published in a trade paper.
He expresses the heart of every travel agent who truly cares about their clients vacations, and wishes the best vacation experience possible for them, and the service philosophy of the entire team at Cruise Planners who think the world of our client-friends.
