lauramsgarden

what are the pros and cons of using a travel agent to book hotels and or day tours? My impression is that they only seem to deal with certain hotels. can they get better deals than one can find on line.? I'm feeling very torn about this...thanks

StCirq

No reason to feel torn. And no reason to use a travel agent, either, especially if it's just hotels you're concerned about. Most travel agents, even a lot of them with those country-specific certificates, don't know anywhere near as much about France as at least a couple of dozen people here on Fodors. Just post what you want to know here and you'll get plenty of help!

Michael

It all depends on how you have traveled before. If you have depended on travel agents and had a good experience, then you might want to stick to that way of approaching your travel plans. But between guidebooks and the experience of people on this forum, one can organize a trip without travel agents.

november_moon

I think it really comes down to whether or not you want to research your trip and make the arrangements or have someone else do it for you. All of the info you need (and plenty more) is available online and at the library.

I love planning trips, so I do ours myself.

kraines

I agree with november_moon. I have not used a travel agent since our first trip to Europe and have been much happier with what I booked that what the TA did for us. I enjoy the reading and planning and it has always turned out well. I have used this board for questions and guidance and they have always guided me well. The only day tour that I have ever booked before hand is for a museum in Florence to see David. I am currently dreaming of a month or perhaps two month trip to Europe and this forum will be my first stop!

nytraveler

A TA is useful in booking a tour to France under certain very specific conditions:

1) they have trveled to France several times themselves (very rare)
2) you are going to book upscale hotels that will pay the agent a commission (lower priced hotels won;t and the agent either won;t book you into them - or will have you pay a fee to make up for the lack of commission) If it is a hotel they work with a lot they may get you a lower price than the rack rate - or some extras for free. (Butyou can probably get the same by going to the web site) unless is a hotel very much in demand that it's hard to get into
3) you want very specific private days tours (at very high cost) - any hotel concierge or front desk person can book you on the regular tours a day in advance (and they get a commission for doing so - so don;t tip them)

So - if you want a very upscale trio, have alot to spend and find and experinced travel agent (not one of the chain shops) it may make sense.

Otherwise you will get more for fewer $ doing it yourself - as long as you're willing to do the research.

TPAYT

Ever since we spent 8 hours on an overseas flight sitting next to the bathroom with the door slamming every few minutes, we no longer use a travel agent.

And as far as their "package deals" which sometimes make the airfare less by including the hotel, you can get the same deals on the airline website yourself.

Yes, it does make more work for you, but we find that the planning is part of the trip and makes it last longer.

We have received such great info from the Fodorites. That along with Trip Advisor for basic accommodation info, has been working for us. Choose your hotel, B&B, or apartment, then ask the Fodorites what they think.

Good luck and happy planning.

Lifeman

Where do you want to go in France? You'll get lots of help if you can be more specific.

lauramsgarden

thank you all so much. that was pretty much my instinct, but others have said "oh you should use a travel agent in case you have any problems they can resolve them for you." I love doing trip research myself which is I think why the travel agents all seem to roll their eyes once we get to talking. And I much prefer the smaller hotels which may explain why none of the agents I've talked to seem interested in booking those. thanks. It is especially helpful to know that the concierge can book the day trips if we wish (ie Verseille, or advanced tickets to the Louvre). you are all great.

TDudette

Agree with all posters above. DH and I used a travel agent for quite a few years to book the flight and hotels. We also used American Express-they had a full range of hotels and locations. We never had a problem but I did like the security of having someone to call.

As someone older and slower, I might consider a guided tour now.

The bottom line is do what works for you. OK, here's a question to all travelers:

How did you find out that the train to Versailles is named "Vick"???

Christina

There are some travel agents that would make sense in certain conditions, as I think others have noted. They do not usually just deal with certain hotels, no. They may get better deals and have some "pull" only with certain hotels, though. That would be higher-end travel I'm talking about. That is one situation where it might make sense, or if you have oodles of money and no time and just dont' want to plan things yourself (or are no good at it). If you want something really unusual and don't know how to do it, or special arrangements regarding transportation or something. A travel agent can book any hotel, of course, but they won't get commissions on certain kinds and then will charge you some trip fee.

None of these situations seem to be the case for you. I don't know why you'd even ask a travel agent to book certain hotels if you already had them picked out yourself. From what you said, I don't know why you even went to one or what you expected them to do for you at all.

bilboburgler

When I was a corporate rat we used American Express to manage all travel. I timed the resources required to use them and then booked a trip myself. I discovered that using AE actually used more of my resources than I did to do it myself so I dumped them.

bookchick

Lauramsgarden, unless you seriously have some very distinct, somewhat unusual needs (like you know whenever you're going, you'll be on crutches, so special transportation and "lower floor" accomodations are necessary), there is not advantage to using a TA, and as several posters here have pointed out, it's likely to be more expensive to use a TA.

BC

djkbooks

<<"oh you should use a travel agent in case you have any problems they can resolve them for you." >>

My one experience with a travel agent was that the agent created a serious problem and would not have been available (had I not caught it ahead of time) to resolve the problem.

You'll get much better travel planning advice on a forum, such as this one or TripAdvisor. Otherwise, you're likely to learn, for example, that you could have stayed in a much more charming place for a lot less.

adrienne

<< How did you find out that the train to Versailles is named "Vick"??? >>

From what I remember, it says "Vick" on the front of the train.

TPAYT

As far as "problem solving"---MDH had a serious medical dilema in Barbados so we couldn't make our flight home. Luckily we had booked with Expedia. One phone call, at a time the travel agent wouldn't have been available, and our flights and extended hotel reservations were changed with no extra cost. Now that's service.

kerouac

Some of my best friends are travel agents (whom I have never consulted!), and it really depends on the travel agent. Some of them really take their job to heart and try to make everything absolutely perfect for the customers, analyzing their likes and dislikes. They are of course getting 5 to 15% commission for this, but not from the customer, who is paying the same price as usual. It is the hotels and transportation people who are paying for this.

If you can find a travel agent who is in love with your destination, go for it! They of course have their familiarization and incentive trips, so often they personally know the hotels and restaurants that they suggest and sometimes have very good relations with the owners.

If, on the other hand, the travel agent is just reading things off the screen, forget it.