Gone are the days where holidaymakers rely on high street travel agents to book their holiday, with the introduction of the internet, holidaymakers are realising that they can book online at the fraction of the cost and also have the flexibility that comes with it.

In January I went to my local high street Thomas Cook travel agent and asked for a quote on 7 nights stay at a hotel in Boston, New York and Chicago, I stressed that I wasn’t rich, so wanted a low priced hotel, within walking distance of all of the attractions that the cities bring.

The travel agent clicked a few buttons, and within a matter of seconds said ‘Okay Mr Cronian, I have a few hotels for you to look at’ I thought to myself, wow that is quick, I’m impressed, but I spoke to soon, and excitement turned to frustration within seconds.

The prices she was quoting was £80 a night at each city, I asked why she thought that was a low cost hotel, and she simply said, ‘I’m sorry, but these are the only hotels that are coming up’ I replied by saying, ‘Oh you will earn good commission on that won’t you’ and laughed.

Luckily, I knew what I was doing and asked for the names of the hotels, and said I would be back later on in that day to book the hotels. I went home, and jumped on to my laptop and did a search on Google for the hotel names, and then called the hotels in the US.

All of the reserversation desks were very helpful, even told me the attractions that were near the hotel, and gave me much more information that the travel agent had given me. They then told me the price of the hotel, expecting them to say £80 a night. I was amazed when each hotel quoted me a price that was 100% cheaper than what Thomas Cook were going to charge me.

The hotels booked direct were going to cost me £40 a night, compared to £80 a night through Thomas Cook, so I booked the hotels direct with my debit card and later that day visited the same branch, and spoke to the same travel agent, who had a big smile on her face, probably because she thought she was going to get a nice big commission cheque.

I asked her what the attractions near the hotel, and she gave me a load of well known attractions, in which two of them were a 1hr walk from the hotel. I then told her that I had spoken to each of the hotels and that they had quoted me much cheaper prices and why was that.

Her reply was ‘I’m sorry Mr Cronian I don’t know and your wasting my time’ I got out of my chair and walked out of the travel agents, and followed me were two other customers who were stood waiting to be served, each one spoke to me outside and said that they were going home to search for a holiday on the internet.

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