Now more than ever it is so important to work with a professional travel advisor (gone are the days of order taking travel agents sitting in a call center), but be aware just like with every other profession not all travel advisors are created equal – many folks of late have paid a “membership” fee into a travel club and are advertising as a travel agent, some even with websites , Facebook pages and other social media presence but that doesn’t make them a travel advisor that can help you navigate through these difficult times. As with all industries the times have changed, and travel agents have been replaced with passionate professional travel advisors with travel industry knowledge that can’t be found anywhere else. We asked Linda Dancer with Honeymoons Inc. to give us the top 10 reasons to hire a Travel Advisor. Keep reading to find out.
- A professional career travel advisor has spent years collecting their knowledge of destinations, expertise, rolodex of contacts around the world as well as other resources to create unique travel experiences for their clients. We travel often to the destinations we specialize in and spend countless hours in training to maintain our knowledge.
- If you are booking a simple vacation to a destination for the first time or planning a once in a life time special trip such as a honeymoon or milestone wedding, anniversary trip – using a professional travel advisor will assist you throughout the entire process taking care of the smallest detail to ensure your trip goes smoothly. We are passionate about sharing information such as travel tips, dining experiences, insider secrets, best excursions and more.
- In addition to finding the best pricing and packages for our clients we also take care of room request (such as bedding requests), request welcome amenities, advise resorts of dietary or mobility restrictions.
- Professional Travel Advisors are available to answer questions to narrow down destinations that might work for clients, concerns and issues that may arise before, during or after travel – and if something unfortunately goes wrong during your travel with our contacts, we can assist our clients.
- While I know that many are tech savvy and enjoy the research – I feel everyone can benefit from a professional travel advisor to put the actual trip together by making sure that legal connection times are met, clients have proper travel documents, are aware of the cancellation penalties involved with the components of any vacation package – these especially benefit – Single Parents – that are spread so thin but yet want to create memories with their children, travelers looking to put together complicated itineraries such as island hopping in Hawaii, the South Pacific or traveling through Europe and couples looking to plan a destination wedding – whether an intimate elopement for two or with a group of friends and family
- Professional Travel Advisors are up to date – I participate in several conference calls and webinars each week with various tourist boards around the world and hotel partners to learn what is new at the resort and what that means for my clients.
- Professional Travel Advisors will have perks for their clients based upon relationships with vendors and the amount of volume they provide – such as room upgrades, best room location, in room amenities and more
- Professional Travel Advisors will help you find the best value for the experience you are looking for – while price is important to all of us , cheapest option at first glance is often not the best value when hidden fees and more are added in to the price – we save clients time, stress and money by cutting through all the options and confusion.
- Searching for a travel advisor – Check online presence – those that are serious professional travel advisors will have listings on several professional sites such as Happily Connected, Google Business and others with lots of reviews from former clients and memberships in organizations such as ASTA. We also have specializations with Sandals Resorts, Destinations, Disney and others these statuses are earned by training and other criteria
- Especially during this pandemic and other worldwide crisis and hurricane season you want to have had your reservations completed by a professional travel advisor – during these last few weeks I have had desperate phone calls from people who had booked their own vacation with online sites that simply went out of business, or there is no one answering their call centers and other horror stories – as opposed to those of us that are professional travel agents who have spent countless hours on hold making changes to our clients reservations or helping to cancel and expedite refunds due to clients, keeping in mind that we do not receive any payment or compensation from vendor until after our clients travel, so basically since March we have been working for free – but our clients are like family and because we are passionate and care so much for our clients we have worked diligently working for resolutions, and as the opening dates for destinations continue to change from day to day – we are still working to keep up with the most accurate information possible to share with our clients.
Planning a trip, honeymoon or destination wedding, contact Linda with Honeymoons, Inc. She would love to assist you!