Just recently, My Vacation Lady had a honeymoon consultation with Laura and Keith. In their initial contact form, they gave me their wedding date (14 months away and peak season in the Tahitian Islands), their preferred destination (French Polynesia- Moorea and Bora Bora) and their budget of $8,000 or $8500 for hotels and flights, with a maximum budget of $10,000 with all meals and out of pocket expenses.
Hilton Bora Bora
I also asked Laura and Keith to fill out some info on where they had traveled to in the past and what they thought of the destinations and resorts. And then asked what they thought My Vacation Lady could help them with, they wrote:
We feel it is important to have someone help plan this trip for us. This is a once and a life time dream trip and we want everything to go smoothly without any confusion or complications. Also, its nice to get recommendations on hotels etc. from the experts! We are planning so much as it is right now for our wedding that it will be nice to have someone take our information and find us the best bang for our buck!
Yes, we do agree. This is a once in a life time vacation and one that should be stress free and wonderful.
Once we started the consultation and found out what Laura thought of 1 resort that she went to for a family celebration (didn’t love it— nor do I and nor do I recommend it, unless you are very, very budget oriented). I realized that they type of honeymoon that Laura was dreaming about was going to be more luxurious (within their budget). I asked her if she wanted to go to a resort that was similar in style, service, etc to the one that she went to for the family celebration and her answer was very definitely NO. Since Keith was a bit less traveled (never internationally), he really didn’t know the kind of resort Laura’s grandfather took the whole family to but we kept talking about their dreams and Keith was certain that he wanted “Couples Retreat– without the therapy”
Later on, Laura mentioned that they had spoken to a number of other travel agents and all had said the same thing that I did—- prices wouldn’t be out until October– about 10 months before their anticipated arrival date in French Polynesia. But she also mentioned that 1 company gave her pricing based on this current year and it came out (with breakfast/dinner and flights) to $8600 for 9 nights split between Bora Bora and Moorea. Laura was surprised that this company would be able to quote pricing, since everyone else said the same as we did— pricing wouldn’t be available for another few months.
When probed about the hotels, I tried not to choke. This other company clearly had not spent any time talking to them about their dreams and how they envisioned their honeymoon— only about budget and where they wanted to go. Laura and Keith did want to have an overwater bungalow in at least 1 destination, as most of our honeymooners do and Bora Bora would be pricier for those rooms. This itinerary included a garden bungalow in Bora Bora at a entry level hotel, which I would recommend to the back packer type client. They were offered an overwater bungalow in Moorea in the property that I would only recommend a garden pool bungalow. I didn’t like their overwater bungalows– I didn’t feel the water underneath was clear and I wouldn’t swim in it. But, the price met their budget (but of course, we can’t lock in the flights so everything is subject to change until the air became available).
We spoke about a realistic budget for what they were hoping for- 4-5 Star resorts, some activities and, while they did say that they would prefer to go longer, the quality of the hotels were definitely important. They realized that the itinerary they received was not going to fit their dreams or how they envisioned their honeymoon to look.
My Vacation Lady won’t be the first to tell you that your honeymoon should be special but we are the right honeymoon travel agency to make your honeymoon special. So think about this— do you want your honeymoon to be special within a reasonable budget or do you want your honeymoon to be just ok, because it fits your budget. If you want your honeymoon to be special— Contact US to set up your honeymoon consultation.
