After hearing of a friend’s woes after the holiday that they booked directly online went horribly wrong, we asked the question “why should you use a travel agent’s services?” around the Complete North America office.
Obviously the whole team had something to add, so here they are – our top reasons why you should always use a professional travel agent when booking your next holiday.
1. Experience
Experienced travel agents know the travel market inside out and will be able to organise and plan your perfect trip, perhaps with better prices, experiences and holiday extras than you could spend hours up hours finding yourself.
Plus, they do all the boring booking leg work for you and you don’t have to worry about schedules and timings from the start!
The team here at Complete North America know mostly everything about the USA and Canada, and we can share all of our knowledge and insider tips with you for free!
2. Activities
Travel agents have access to booking systems and long standing supplier relationships that the average person is not aware of and has no access to.
Because you’re our customer and we want you to have an amazing time, whenever possible we will try to get you the best value for your money – be it on a flight, a car, RV or bike rental, at your hotel/resort or even on show and event tickets.
Travel organisers can also plan activities and excursions for you. Because we know the area, we know how and where to get the best value and can help suggest the most enjoyable activities for you.
3. Convenience
Nowadays we all have less and less time to waste. Your time is valuable and searching online for hours for the perfect destination, hotels, prices and duration of your trip can be downright confusing and stressful!
Here’s the thing: A travel agent can do all of that for you.
All you need to do is to speak to us for a few minutes and share your thoughts on what is important to you from your travels. We can then begin planning your ideal holiday, with your preferred destinations, activities and budget in mind.
4. Direction
Sometimes there is a difference between everyone else’s bucket lists and the destinations and activities you would enjoy during your well-earned period of relaxation!
Travel agents can provide appropriate and creative suggestions to help you make your plans work best for you – sometimes even suggesting cities, attractions and ways of doing things that you might not have thought of!
Travel agents like ourselves have had the privilege of visiting many destinations across the whole continent and are able to share this valuable advice with our customers – and all for free!
We also have your best interests at heart and will advise you if your itinerary has too much downtime, too many miles to cover in a day or if it simply doesn’t seem like ‘your’ holiday from what you’ve told us.
Some destinations may look good on Instagram, Pinterest or TV but may not be ideal for you personally. Travel agents will always help you to better plan what it is you want to get out of your holiday – it’s our job!
5. Security
We hope that it doesn’t, but if something goes wrong on your trip such as a hotel closure or cancelled flights, a good travel agent will step in straight away to support you, speak to the relevant companies if you need us to and get your holiday back on track.
6. Added value
There are a lot of holiday extras such as exotic tours and exclusive treks that can only be sourced and booked by a travel agent.
Want to know the best part? We can sometimes provide you with little extras like airport lounge passes, car upgrades, complimentary GPS with your rentals, hotel room upgrades and even flight upgrades!
7. Value for money
There are a variety of ways travel agents can save you time and money, mainly via our long and lasting supplier relationships and knowing and sharing the best and most current offers so that the best deal can be passed on to you.
8. ATOL and ABTA protection
If you do nothing else, look out for these two logos when you book your next holiday!
When an ATOL member company organises and books your holiday, not only is it possible to pay one initial deposit payment and make your balance payment 12 weeks prior to your departure, but all payments will be financially protected by the Civil Aviation Authority.
The ATOL scheme ensures that you will never lose the money you have paid and will not be stranded abroad should the ATOL holder fail.
ABTA membership ensures high standards and allows you to travel with confidence.
Booking with an ABTA member covers your holiday from start to finish: from the information before you book, through the booking process, to helping you complain if anything goes wrong.
9. Peace of mind
Travel agents make your life easy and stress free, and your travel plans better suited to your personal tastes.
Whatever the destination, type of holiday or itinerary, you will be able to return home and say, “We booked with an experienced travel agent that organised a complete package, offered us great service and excellent value for money, made our booking experience simple, and gave us a holiday to remember.”
10. Be happy
Travel agents want their customers to have a great experience, from the initial travel planning, through to the booking process and the travel experience itself, to the memories gained.
We want all our customers to return again and again, knowing that they are investing in reliability, competency, financial security, a great travel experience and most of all a happy holiday! 😊
1 Comment
It's great to learn that a travel agent can help plan your holiday with your budget in mind. My wife and I are wanting to book a trip for our entire family to go on and we are worried that we won't budget right. I'll be sure to tell my wife that we should hire a travel agent to help us with planning out our trip.
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