Honeymooners & Give Us More Info, Please!

Honeymooners...

Recently I met with a really nice couple planning their honeymoon. My favorite trips to book are often honeymoons and Disney packages. The people going on these trips are enthusiastic, funny, optimistic and above all, excited. That excitement gets me excited about the trip I want to book for them, to fulfill their dreams in a way.

Honeymooners often have a "vision" of what they want for their honeymoon. (Sometimes it's a budget-based vision, but that's okay too!) It is a fun challenge to bring their vision to life for them or if possible, to pleasantly surprise them! What can be really interesting is that each couple's vision of their perfect dream honeymoon can be completely different. And sometimes completely different than what their agent expects. This is where we take ourselves out of the picture so that we focus on what our clients want and need for their trip. If we leave ourselves in the picture, it simply doesn't work.

It's also fun to give Honeymooners and "Disney-philes" their travel documents. They are really happy to pick those up!

Give Us More Info, Please!

This might be a little bit of a rant, so please bear with me. :-)

When planning your next trip, it is important to be a part of the process. If you give us good, detailed information, that helps us find the best trip for you. For example, if you tell us that you want nonstop flights -- no connections, that's fine. But if you qualify this with "I'm a nervous flier" or tell us hat you're claustrophobic, that tells us exactly what you want and why it's important to you. We don't care why you ask for certain things, but if you tell us we can plan your trip better.

On the flipside, if you are very specific and tell us that you only want nonstops and you can only go on these dates, that's what we'll give you. Standard proceedure after we've given these to you is that we call to follow up and see if you have any more questions or if you're ready to book. Sometimes, we are told that you already booked online. When we ask if it what the same as what we quoted you, we are often told "no, we're leaving on a different day now" or "no, we are changing planes".

Can you imagine how frustrating/confusing this is for us? We put a lot of work into pricing a request just to be told that you can do things that you ruled out when you first contacted us. Not to mention, we just worked for free. A lot of time and effort with zero outcome. We don't get paid unless you book with us. Ultimately, it is your choice how you book your trip, and all that I ask is to give your agent a fair chance.

Contrary to popular belief in the travel agent community, I believe that competition is good for us and keeps us "real". There is enough business for all of us in the travel business, and it is our job to promote ourselves and tell you through our actions and words why you should book with us and what makes us different. We have to show you why we may have more value to you than an online travel site or the other travel agency nearby.

Between the traveler and the agent, there is a relationship. The more give and take from each side, the more patience, the more communication, the more information, the better it is for both of us.

Happy & Safe Travels,

The ULVC TravelDivas
www.UnlimitedTrips.com
(877) 887-4321 toll free