By now, most of our blog readers are probably convinced of the benefits of using a travel agency to book your business travel–the convenience, the technology, the assistance with making changes, help in tracking your unused tickets, etc., etc.
But do you feel the same way about using a travel advisor to book your vacation travel? Or do you spend hours and hours doing research on the Internet, trying to find the cheapest flights, the best hotel for your budget and preferences, and planning activities to do once you arrive. Travel planning can be very time consuming and frustrating, and yet so many people continue doing it all on their own. Why?
I love this list of the Top 10 Reasons to Use a Travel Advisor, written by Ruthanne Terrero, the Editorial Director of the Questex Travel Group. It’s funny, and oh-so-true!
- You’ve Googled “Mexico vacation,” and come up with 17.8 million responses. Need a little help editing those choices?
- Remember when you used that obscure website to book your hotel, and when you got there you spent your beach vacation overlooking a parking lot?
- How many hours were you on hold with the airline when your flight was canceled because of a snowstorm?
- Did you really mean to spend your honeymoon at that resort whose one tiny pool was filled all day with 12 screaming children?
- Who knew that when you booked that “villa” in Tuscany, it would be a small room with a kitchenette and no air conditioning? Funny, it looked much better on your computer screen.
- No one explained to you that in July, its winter time in Rio, and so you showed up there with nothing but five Hawaiian shirts and three pairs of swimming trunks.
- How about the time you really needed a restful vacation, and you ended up in New Orleans during Mardi Gras and someone threw up on your shoes?
- Yes, I guess that hotel must have used a telephoto lens when they took a picture of those guest rooms that you saw on their website.
- I suppose contacting the Attorney General to resolve the fact that that Internet site has billed your credit card three times instead of once is the only route to take at this point.
- It was definitely odd that there were no cab drivers at the airport at 3 o’clock in the morning when you finally landed in Costa Rica, but booking a transfer to your very remote hotel would have been a good thing to remember when you purchased your airline ticket and hotel online.
If this list sounds at all familiar to you, it may be time to contact a travel advisor and see what a huge difference it makes in planning your next vacation. Andavo Travel has an amazing group of world-class travel advisors with years of experience. You can pick one who has the destination specialty you’d like, here.
