Travel agents vs direct booking
 

Dear travelers,

I am working on my diploma thesis about incoming travel movement to Prague. This is my essentail part of my thesis. By filling really short survey (max 2 min) you would help me a lot (it is completely anonymous). I am trying to get an unbiased opinion.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?s...93RfmhUQ_3d_3d

Thank you very much for your time.

You will NOT get unbiased opinions of the questions of "travel agents vs direct booking" because why most of us are here on Fodor's travel forums, is because we aer independent travelers who plan our own trips.

I'm not a survey person. If a pollster on the street asks me for an opinion, I respond with the opposite of my actual position.

My only use for a TA is to get me an upgraded room or free breakfast at a property I have already selected.

You have a biased sample here---do you care?

I answered your survey because I book both independently (for me) and through a travel agent (for my employer), but I thought the survey was so superficial and short as to be of little or no value in understanding how (and why) tourists make their travel arrangements.

Hi L,

Have you consulted your thesis advisor about your survey?

I wouldn't accept it from one of my students.

Expedia, Orbitz, etc are not TA's. They are booking agents.

((I))

Thank you for your valuable comments especially to the last one. It is pretest and it is part of bigger whole so please dont be suprised by its stupitidy. Thank you once more

Thank you I really appreciate that

Hub and I usually book through an agent for our rooms, transportation for airport and air fare because we like having an organization to fall back on should there be problems. Then we go off on our own via train, bus or footmobile.
We worked for many years with a travel agent who often hooked us up with underbooked tours. We think that saved us money.
After she retired, we have worked with AMEX with ok results. We now contact favorite hotels directly if we re-visit an area. Also have also contacted Air France directly for its non-stop flights to Milan or Paris from Dulles.
Hope that helps.

independently travelling doesn't automatically mean not using a travel agent for certain services.

e.g. some camps/lodges simply don't book directly.

booking directly doesn't necessarily mean it's more favourable.
if a service provider sells directly will be fine with with travel agents who work on contracts as long as the service provider doesn't sell cheaper than the rates the agents have received.

if the service provider sell cheaper than the agents can do - they have to make a living! - the agents cancel the contracts.

it's quite simple!

div

Your comments hepl me a lot.

Thank you again.

I'll do your survey in a moment and hope it helps. But I take exception to Suze's comments about most people on Fodors booking their own trips as I don't think that's true at all.

When I've nothing better to do I might attempt to quantify it. In Europe the DIY-ers might just have the edge, but elsewhere it's "which tour", and even more prevalent is the question "which guide"? People seem to be able to get themselves to foreign climes, but once there they don't seem much inclined to work things out for themselves.

Actually, on reflection I can't fill it in because it is meaningless (like most multiple choice surveys). If it's of any help I turned off at the point where you ask if I would book direct on line and then gave as an example Hilton Hotels.

Sure, if I don't just pitch up, then I book direct - used to be by fax, now online - but I have never EVER consulted the Hilton. So to answer "YES" would be totally misleading.

To further answer those questions I do all my own planning because:

(a) I think I am well informed enough to make my own choices (and if I know nothing about my chosen destination then I make it my business to find out).

(b) I know ME and exactly what I am looking for. An agent would probably just pop me in a stereotyped box, and besides his/her aim is to make a profit.

(c) In doing my own organising, I DO arrive better informed than I would have if someone had arranged it all for me.

(d) I like an adventure.

We do a combination.
We get an agent to book flights etc. but do our thing once we get there.
There was one occasion when a family emergency meant that we had to get a flight out of Venice ASAP.
We got on the phone to the agent who was actually at work at 8am.
He set to work and managed to get us a flight with Lufthansa.
We might have managed to get a flight on our own, but it was far less hassle to get the agent to do it.

I do it all myself. Maybe I'm a control freak, but I find it so easy to research flights and hotels online that I'd prefer to make the decision on which airline, how much time to allow between connecting flights, what hotels, which car rental, etc. for myself.

I booked a car rental for Ireland through AAA a few years ago and it was a total screwup (they neglected to provide the correct paperwork) and I learned my lesson then. If anything goes wrong, which hasn't happened since I took over for myself, I have no one to blame but me.