Have you tried to search for a great vacation destination, only to come up with a 3,100,000 results? That’s what I just found when I searched for best tropical vacation destinations. Everything from best travel credit cards to big Online Travel Agencies advertisements, to tourism boards to USA Today posts came up on the first page alone. This can be the beginnings of vacation planning overload— and it can be even worse when you’re trying to plan your dream honeymoon or a vacation for a group of people or even a destination wedding.
This is one of the reasons why travel consultants, like My Vacation Lady, are busier than ever!
It’s a scary world out there. Between the Zika virus, concerns about weather, terrorism and economic issues, our clients are coming to us after they tried to do some research and just felt overwhelmed.
When one search leads to another, to another and to another, and you’re still not getting the answers that you want, the realization of speaking to a live person becomes a light bulb moment! Yes, Travel Agents still do exist and the really good ones are having trouble keeping up with all of the requests that come in.
Some of the reasons that My Vacation Lady is seeing an increase in requests are:
- Dissatisfaction with the service of the Online Travel Agencies.
- A deal is advertised but you realize it’s not such a deal when you get to the bottom of the payment screen when all of the taxes and fees are added.
- You are required to pay for the entire package at the time of booking.
- There’s no one to answer a question
- Everyone is telling our clients where they should go but the person making the recommendation has no clue what they are looking for.
- Have you seen Facebook posts like this: “Thinking of going to Wine Country in September. Where should we stay? GO.” We have and the answers can be downright crazy, from where to stay in Sonoma, Napa to Argentina and Tuscany.
- Our honeymooners are getting advice from complete strangers on where they should go on their once in a lifetime honeymoon
- We have access to upgrades, promotions, amenities that you wouldn’t get on your own. Rob and Lauren are heading to Maui in a couple of weeks and we were able to add in free breakfast to their hotel stay.
- We take the time to get to know you so when we start making recommendations to you, you can rest assured that the hotels, destinations and itineraries were carefully picked with your best interests in mind.
Sometimes you may be able to get a lower price on the Online Travel Agencies. One of our destination wedding guests found a price less than the group rate on one of the big online agencies. It was $25 less than our group rate and he was able to book it at 11pm. So $25 x 2 = a $50 savings. Guess what, it didn’t include round trip airport transfers and he had to pay in full. Our price included round trip airport transfers and he only needed to put down $150 per person. Not sure his deal was so wonderful after all.
We may not be the right travel agency for every client but for those people that are looking for a high quality vacation or honeymoon, a seamless vacation experience and a vacation planned around your dreams and budget, we might be the right fit. Contact My Vacation Lady and let’s see if we can take you from vacation planning overload to vacation booked!
