Jenny

I have been talking to bunch of travel agents to book a week vacation to Hawaii. Most of them in the same price range.

However, if I call the hotel directly the per night rates are lower than those on some website like Pleasant holidays.

Any experiences (upside and downside) by doing reservations yourself or going through travel agent.

I do not want to offend any travel agents but just relaying my experience.

Thanks

don't need 'em

Travel agents are a thing of the past. The internet has all but obliterated them. They are in business (the few left, that is) to make commissions off their bookings. Anybody with internet access can very easily book themselves. In my opinion, that's part of the fun of planning/anticipating the vacation. I guess computer iliterate people and business travel may still use them.

Laura

I would use a travel agent if I had a multi-city European trip with eight thousand stop-overs or some other difficult itinerary. We book 99% of our trips ourselves. We shop around, wait for the right airfare, hop into the airport (6 miles away) and bingo, we are done. We do our homework when we are going away, but we find it to be fun. We love to check the different sights and watch the airfares. It's like a cat and mouse game to us. The thrill of the hunt.

Jenny

I agree with both you regarding the fun in doing the research.

Plus, when I did searches via Expedia, Orbitz and call the Hotel directly, I do not find any difference in price the Travel Agents offer.

Any other opinions?

candy

I use a travel agent as I have found they have the best package prices from my west coast city. I used expedia once but somehow the dates were wrong and it was a nightmare. I disagree that travel agents are on the way out. Some of us here still use them.

Reservationist

Typically, promotional rates and discounts have their own availability (i.e., they could "sell-out" before the actual hotel rooms), therefore it is usually wise to compare rates across sources for the best deal.

xxx

Any expensive complicated trips (i.e. international) I use a travel agent. Short domestic trips I book myself. I use my travel agent so if something goes wrong, I can call her to fix it.

diane

I recently booked all the hotels for a three-island trip to Hawaii myself, using Hotels.com, hotel chain websites and one direct call to a hotel. It was my husband's job to book the cars. I never occurred to either of us to talk to a travel agent.

In 1985 (pre-Internet) I spoke to several travel agents trying to get some help booking a three-week, six-country car trip in Europe. One agent actually said, "All we do is book tours." Perhaps it was unreasonable of me to expect knowledgeable advice on small, interesting hotels, and since we wanted inexpensive hotels too, the commission would have been small. I got lots of information from library books and one or two that I bought, and I made reservations by phone, a few to 800 numbers but some by direct phone calls to Europe. We traveled without reservations around England (no problem--used B & Bs--) and three nights without reservations on the continent, partly because it was too difficult to figure out where we would be. Two of those nights we found terrific places; the third was an unhappy, expensive night in Geneva.

Sam

Jenny, one thing to make sure of is tax. I booked a Hawaii trip with an agent after finding out that her rate included tax (which is very high in Hawaii) and transfers from the airport. The rate for the same Outrigger on their website was slightly less per night but did not include tax, let alone transfers. Plus she got me a much better deal on the airfare as part of a package.

TravelBug

Actually you must remember that the "package" prices travel agents quote include all fee's and taxes. Therefore it might account for the differences in price.

angie

I would also like to add the advantage of using a travel agent. And it's not for price. It's a little silly to call a travel agent and expect them to get a price cheaper than what you could get doing everything on your own (and sometimes they can anyway!). It's like taking your car to a mechanic and telling him he can have your business as long as he can fix your car for you cheaper than you buying the parts and doing the work yourself!

The reason to use a travel agent is because they know the destination that you're going to, they've been there (and don't book with one who hasn't) and they know the truth about the hotels and locations which is better than the glossy brouchere images you're looking at on the internet! They will also be less likely to forget something that you may forget like taxes or transfers! And if you do have any questions or problems, you'll have someone to turn to for help. If those things aren't worth something to you, don't even call a travel agent.

Yes, planning your own vacation is fun and exciting but if you forget something, miss some fine print or if something goes wrong, look in the mirror when you need someone to complain to because no one else will owe you any help. I only say that because I've seen way too many self-bookers trying to find someone to blaim for their own mistakes. If you can except that then go ahead and make your own arrangements.

anon

Did we hit a nerve there Angie? Are we a wee bit bitter? Because we're a travel agent Angie?

Dick

Angie,

What you say may sound good in theory.

On several occasions I have run into travel agents that sound as though they have first hand knowledge of a location...like they really know the place(hotel, destination, etc).

When I asked them straight out, " Have you actually been there?"..I was shocked to learn that they hadn't been.

Regarding packages, I recently read(in the WSJ I think) that agents get up to 15% commssion on packages...far more than they get with indiviual bookings.

Travel agents seem to like packages because it is fast, inclusive and get a a a larger commission on everything in the package.

Bottom line...travel agents are not as objective as they want us to believe.

Sam

Amen, Dick

xxx

Judging from previous replies on this forum, TAs are not as helpful as they would have you believe either. They love to use scare tactics to frighten people away from the big, bad internet, as if we're all two year olds who couldn't possibly plan our own trips without screwing things up. Plenty of people have posted here to complain about their agent's reaction (or lack of it) when the AGENT'S planning went awry. Do a search.

dejahma

Aloha;

I usually book all of my trips myself, including a 30 day tour of the far east for 4. However this past summer I was on Maui for 2 months and had to return to the mainland for a funeral. Obviousely this was a last minute trip and airfares were extremely high. A travel agent on Muai got me a ticket at less than 1/2 the hotwire fare. I can post the name of the agency if anyone is interested.

TA

I am a travel agent. I would like to throw this out there.... if you don't think we are usefull, don't book us...but why not at least give it a shot? What could it hurt? All I do is Hawaii and I have never had a complaint on the pricing or service I provide. If you don't like the agent you talk with, find one that specializes or go ahead and do it yourself. But for those to say we are extinct or anything like that, you are wrong. If you have one bad experience, you can't hold that against all of us. Thankx.

mercy

I'm a travel agent. I don't mind if people book their own travel on the net. I take good care of those who use my services and get them what they want, at the price they want, packages or no. Repeat business is more important than the commission on one booking.

anon

I go to Hawaii twice per year and my travel agent *always* beats the lowest internet rates I can find. I search for low rates myself on the net first, then tell her what I've found and she will beat that price by $100 or more. This last time she saved us $600 in airfare alone. Also, an agent can get you upgrades in hotels, which happens about 75% of the time when I book with her. I would suggest a big travel agency that a lot deals with Hawaii.

Jeff

Oh puuuhlleeaazzee, Angie.

What a pathetic, helpless (and NAIVE!) attitude.

Most travel agents haven't any more of a clue about where you're going than a well travelled and research-capable reader here at Fodor's.
You need to look up the word gullible in the dictionary.

(And I'm not criticizing specialty TA's who have detailed knowledge about certain places, like agents who only book France/Germany, etc. I'm speaking of your generic TA).


Conde Nast Traveler had a contest a couple years ago in which a computer literate 'regular joe' went up against an experienced TA trying to book the same 4 complex itineraries. It was a draw. Which means: no harm in checking with an <experienced> TA, but don't assume they'll get you a better deal.