We book with whomever gives us the best deal. Sometimes direct and sometimes a booking website. We've never noted any difference in treatment by the hotel staff or in room location/quality.

Hi Travelerjan,

yes, you certainly HAVE been helpful, as others such as Stanbr, Brotherleelove and Heimdall!

Regarding your comment about smaller hotels, a good agent WILL book them for a client even if we're not making a commission. If I'm booking their airfare as well as other items on an itinerary, I would do it as a service and hope for their repeat business in the future.

As you might guess from my screen name, one of my top areas of expertise is Australia. Right now I have an itinerary for a client where I've booked him in a motel that I won't make any compensation and it's not a large booking to begin with; but I also worked on his last trip to Australia - he's been a good client and has referred me to his friends, so it all works out in the end.

Of course, no one can work for free, so if it was a case of just booking smaller hotels alone, I would just explain that to the client and direct them to this board!

Best regards,

Melodie

Sorry, I haven't used a travel agent in the last 15 years, and frankly ,, have found the quality and satisfaction level of my trips has improved because of that. I spend the time to do alot of research on my hotels, (and airfares), I wring out the best deals, I check out many sites, many reveiws, and I also read guide books.
Frankly, I think travel agents are best used for travel on continents like Afican or Asia or Middle Eastern countries, where contacting and dealing with hotels etc is more difficult. Or for business travellers who aren't paying their own way anyways,, LOL

In this situation I would just go with cheapest deal,, what possible difference would it make,, a ta is not going to help you if your room sucks, excpet to rebook you somewhere else ( AFTER you call them long distance and spend money on that) ... and if your problem happens on a weekend, or when your ta is off ( or sleeping, time difference you know) its doubtful many ta's give out their home phone numbers,, ,, well anyways, rambling along, just go with cheapest deal and ALWAYS get hotel to email you a reservation and RATE confirmation which you bring with you,, that has saved me hassle once or twice for sure..

Hi Bozma,

You're someone that I classify as a travel agent wanna-be - you probably COULD be an agent, because you like doing the research on your own trips and the whole planning process.

Thankfully, (for me) not everyone has that luxury or the passion to do it.

As my friend Debra says "I work 50-60 hours a week and when I get home I don't want to be on the computer -that's why I have YOU!"

You were correct in that travel agents don't give out their home phone numbers - geez, do you have the number of your doctor or lawyer? What I do have though, in many areas of the world, is a contact number of our local rep who can handle emergencies for clients.

Please don't think we're not there to help clients when a problem comes up,because we are. A good agent will. I once spent a YEAR straightening out a problem with Sandals resorts for a client - the resort wanted to give them "free nights" which the client was never going to use. I was trying to get them a $375 refund. And I did - but it took me a year of phone calls, emails, faxes, etc.

It's called service and that's part of the whole package.

Regards,

Melodie

I plan my own trips, and make my own reservations directly with each hotel thru their front desk by phone, fax, or email.

I have never had a problem with this method. and never saw a reason to use a travel agent myself.

This thread has kind of split into two. One question that seems to be taking up a lot of posts is whether travel agents are worth it. The other question is whether you get the same service at a hotel when you show up with a booking made online through the various sites (like venere, worldby, orbitz, etc.).

I think these are 2 different things. Since I don't ever use a travel agent I can't comment on whether they are worth it. I did have an experience with a Rome hotel that I booked through an online consolidator. We were supposed to get a double room suite to accommodate 5 people (I knew about it because friends had stayed in this room before). However, when we got to the hotel we were put in a single, dorm-like room and told that there had been a mistake...an overbooking, I guess. And I was told point-blank that it was better to make arrangements to the hotel directly to avoid this type of problem.

However, I recently booked through a megasite again and then had to make some adjustments. The hotel communicated with me directly by e-mail to make sure everything was straight and we had a good experience.

I don't know if you can get the same price by booking directly with the hotel, but I think your best bet might be to figure out what the online services are charging and then tell the hotel you want that price if they are quoting you a higher price for the same type of room.

Travel agents may be able to get some perks, but if you get to the hotel (especially out of US) and there is a problem...just what can the agent do? With time difference the agent mght not be available, or you will get the agency central office, etc. But when this happened to us the agency did make sure the next hotel gave us a very upgraded room. When our hotel in Vietnam was blown away by storm just before we left US...the agent called us and rebooked us in another hotel but that was an agent in Vietnam. Would a US agent have known???

this is a late reply and maynt help the original poster but still may someone looking for accommodation in prague

i like to deal with the hotel directly - just forthat feeling that you have spoken to a real person who actually knows the hotel, works there

so
i spend a lot ofmoney ringing and talking to the people at the front desk
in prague it is hard to get hold of a number for the actual hotel
most if not all are agents who will ask you ' where do you want to stay' and may not even know the hotel very well
so some trickery is needed

i found out the number of the antik hotel- said something about needing to know if there were hairdryers, washing machines and a need for a direct number in case there was a problem getting to the hotel from the airport
and the agent gave it to me
so i rang the hotel and got 20 euros off the original price the agent quoted me
that was terrific
but then
when it came to cancelling the first booking thru the agent ( tentative though it was) all hell broke loose
i was abused for going to the hotel directly and the woman agent hung up

in the end - i was booked into the wrong hotel anyway - the sister hotel hotel antik city which is NOT near the oldtown at all! furthermore the two antik hotels had very similar sounding addresses so we spent a terrible morning looking for it

moral of the story: there are no morals- you just go for it! if you can beat an agent do it- but if i were to travel to the eastern european countries id definitely book with my local travel agency...

We use a corporate travel agent that canoften get us either reduced rates of special add-ons (free upgrades, or use of spa or something). If that's the case we book through them. If not, and we can get better rates ourselves, we book directly.

I have never found any difference between booking myself or through a travel agent. Booking as part of a tour is different. That way you do get shuffled to the back of the line - and how you're treated usually depends on how much effort the tour guide is willing to put forth on your behalf (often not much).

Our most significant problems with hotels were on one package and one tour. On the package the London hotel still didn't have rooms for us after 2 pm (we'd arrived at about 8 am). I finally caused a scene - including demanding the manager - and we got a room. But at 8 pm we were going out to dinner and some group members still in the lobby waiting for rooms. (The "hostess" had left hours before after selling her optional tours.)

On the one tour that I took in one city they attempted to put me (I was single) in a staff bedroom - after a several hour wait. (It was like a dorm room at a really bad college - in a 4* hotel). Again, the tour guide was useless. So I marched down to the manager's office - waving my American Express reservation form (I had bought the tour through them) and they ended up moving me to a suite - but only when I said I would move to a different hotel if they didn't give me a normal guest room. And that I had photos of the room they tried to put me in. (It really was a room for a live-in maid.)

I recently lost a fair amount of money booking through a travel agent/ wholesaler. They originally gave me a much better price than the hotels, so I decided to use them. HOWEVER, I failed to check the wholesaler's cancellation policies, which were much more stringent than the hotels. Although I cancelled well within the stated deadline, I lost money because the agency's charges were nonrefundable. If I had gone through the hotels directly, I would have lost no money at all. My fault entirely for not paying attention, but next time I'm only reserving directly through the hotels.

I think the gist of this thread is this, and yes am a travel consultant. Travel agents are just like most businesses out there where you can have a good agent or a bad one, a good experience or bad one...and these can come whether you use us or not. I certainly have had stories of both. In the end, for those who feel comfortable doing it on their own, I say more power to you and the ones who don't mind giving us a shot, I say more power to you as well. The travel industry suffers from good and bad products just like you can get a good or bad doctor, a good or bad car, a good or bad home/location etc....

The good ones are here to serve their clients and let them focus on what they do best which is travel and let us handle the leg work...no we can't "guarantee" a everything will always go right a 100% of the time but we’ll try our best...

Weadles--there are booking websites that actually negotiate better cancellation policies than the hotels themselves offer. So shop around; don't close out your options in advance.