Darren

Though Tripso is for Americans, I thought I would take a stab translate that in to the UK.

1. Agents need your must have’s for your holiday. We also need you budget and by that we mean a rough amount, what sounds a good budget to you may be different for some one else. (Example I have booked a customer who got excited at a “cheap late deal” I found them, and promptly handover £6500).

2. There is a big difference between an Independent agent and a chain. Chains are there to most sell there companies or there companies approve products. Independents are that, we sell a wider range of preferred products plus anyone else who will let us.

2. Internet can be cheaper, but then so can an agent (some company’s now make sure agent can undercut there web price, most tour companies we can match). If you got a price off the web tell us. However the main reason the internet is cheaper is because it saves on staff costs, so do not expect to save money and get gold service…. choose which you want. If you want to book via an agent for the same price do so, you then got some one to help you if things go wrong, but do not expect them to answer 101 questions.

3. Does not matter where you have the quote from tell us… most agents will know if there is a chance to match, if not we will tell you to book it where the quote came from.

4. We know you shop around, so tell us if you are. We take your name and other information to get your quote only to contact the tour operator to be told, yes we have a quote on that already you’re the 12 agent I will add you to it. That drives us around the bend.

5. Be flexible for a late deal, and no you will not get the 200 deal your friend got when they went in May if you’re travelling in July.

6. Build a relationship if you want one with an agent, so if you find a cheaper price tell them, it could be something that seems minor to you that’s different or it could be a deal they can try and match. If you have a relationship with an agent, they will always try that bit harder for you.

Just a few tips if you want to get best out of agent

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Where to start? Well this sums up the worst for me, so here’s my ‘rant’!

If you want to go anywhere, don’t care where, want it cheap, want sunshine, have seen a cheap deal on teletext last week (maybe can’t remember where) for less than we can buy it, then you’ve called the wrong person! NEXT CALL ….

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My apologies for opening a can of worms…

If you’d like a seasonal occasion, like the cherry blossom in Japan, you need to travel in that season. We cannot recreate naturally occuring phenomena.

If you want short haul, it’s the northern hemisphere, it’s cold in winter and hot in the summer, I can’t change that.

I can’t book you an extra room in that fully booked hotel I told you needed booking months ago.

If I told you it was snowing and you took a t-shirt that’s really not my fault, I promise you.

The insurance policy you purchased from me will not cover flippant reasons for cancelling your holiday, like the fact that your son’s testicles are a little chaffed (honestly this was a call).

You want to go to Thailand and your husband wants Siberia? No I don’t have a holiday that can cover both of those, have you thought about separate holidays? No…. I can’t help you then.

So you can’t eat rice, fish or use chopsticks? Do you think you should have mentioned this before you booked the holiday to China?

No I can’t make it any cheaper, if I do that, I pay you to go on holiday and that’s just not economical.

Yes you can get it cheaper with Achmed holidays of Azerbijan but do you really want to?

The laws of economics means if you want to upgrade the hotels, flights and have a butler, it will be more expensive not cheaper. I know it’s a difficult concept to grasp.

You couldn’t sit next to your husband for the short internal 45 minute flight? I shall have the pilot beaten on the tarmac madam.

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Will it rain? Will there be a hurricane? I am a travel agent not mother nature!

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Q: “What type of plane is it”?
A: “Its a big shiny one with wings and the seats are inside”

Believe me I have more interest in a plank of wood than a plane!

One lady wanted a nice beach, so I suggested one, to be told she’d been there and the sea wasn’t deep enough for swimming in. I said you had to walk out a little bit first. I had been there and swam everyday! Odd.

Love your post Zoe.

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@Deborah – well sorry, but as a mere customer we sometimes like to know if you have some knowledge of the local climate at a particular type of year.

@Julia – we customers like to know what type of plane we are going on because sometimes we will be sitting in it for 12 hours – and the type makes a difference to comfort. Not that you would seem to care obviously.

Seems like you don’t offer much more value than the Internet.

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some from the past months:

C: Client
TA: Travel Agent

C: Id like to fly to the usa
TA: Ok where to exactly
C: To my aunts
————————-

TA: Ok so the first time you booked with them there was a problem with the room? The second year the airline they used to get you to the destination went bankrupt and you had to wait at the airport for 24 hrs untill they got a new one and last year they canceled your trip 2 days before it was supposed to start? Uhm So please tell me why you want to use that Tour Operator again?
C: *mumbles*
TA: ah the price

————
just from last week:

C: Id like to go to Greece
TA: Ok maybe Crete would be interesting?
C: No no – only Greece

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@John Yes of course we need to inform people if is hurricane season, but I do inform and they will still ask do you think there will be a hurricane when I go, when they are booking in hurricane season months ahead of time! And as for rain….that is impossible to know, June usually one of the nicest months to be in NYC had 23 rainy days out of 30! There is only so much we can predict, we are not weather gods.

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The client who only complains about the trip after they return after staying there for the entire time sort of annoys me.

Don’t be afraid to call your travel agent if you are not happy during your trip. If my clients can not reach me my company has a 24 hour service to call. Why be miserable your entire trip and come home and complain. I would suggest if you use a travel agent and you are NOT happy where you are or the service you are receiving, call who ever you booked your travel with for help at that time. Many good agents or large agencies have contacts at these resorts/hotels and we can try to make your stay more comfortable so you can ENJOY your trip while you are still there. Or come up with alternate options. We all have limited vacation time, so it is important to make sure we enjoy our vacation/holiday!

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@ John Agents do offer excellent value and advice, but not for things that are outside of their control.
RE: Planes: Now this is why I don’t discuss planes because agents do not control the airline fleets. Sometimes the airlines replace the specific type of plane for technical reasons (or the airline fails like XL), this in itself is enough not to comment on the type of aircraft as it might not be the one you actually fly on. I don’t get complaints about the flight, because as you rightly say, I don’t discuss the planes. As long as you get to A to B, there’s a pilot and crew, its on time, you get a seat and have food and can go to the toilet, does it matter that much? Not to me when I fly anyway.
RE: Weather: Sometimes the weather is not as predicted & customers complain that they had some rain, when ‘we’ said it was the best time to go

For everyone – If you don’t like long haul go to Europe. Even if you pay zillions for a flat bed, you still won’t get a good nights sleep, so no I can’t guarantee you will sleep, or that there are no children in business class.

If anyone else reads this please take it with the good humor intended and don’t take it too seriously.

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@John

We get asked the weather questions after given the standard climate advice.

And as to type of aircraft, we are mostly like to be asked this on charters within 4 hours, and simply put……no we do not know, it is charter and it probably has not been set by the airline so they can change the Boeing for an Airbus if another charter needs a certain type (e.g. runway length).

Sorry the agents are not going in to detail and it hard if you’re not an agent to understand the frustration of saying the monthly average is 24c and 8 hours of sunshine with 2 inches of rain …. To be then asked will it rain in September 2010 when I am there. (and yes we get ask all the time)

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Some more client quotes (all real and less than a year old).

TA. I am sorry but I can not even get close to that price.
C. Well thats no good, my friend told me the internet is a lot cheaper I will never use an agent again.
TA. Please make sure you have the right place before booking.

2 months later

C. Can you not do anything, I honestly did not know there is a melbourne in america
TA. No not really, what did the company you booked with say.
C. They will not do anything the girl said it because it says Melbourne, Florida USA on the booking.
———————————————————————–
C. The fire details where no good, in england they always show you the route to take when you leave the hotel, not just say stand on far side of pool!
TA. you stayed in a poolside bungalow?

———————————————————————-

C. the hotel lost it roof and there was a car in the pool
TA. but you ask to go and chase the twisters
C. Yes but you should of made sure they would not hit the hotel.

———————————————————————
Old classic

C. A flight to canada please
TA. Where?
C. it does not matter my brother lives there he will pick me up
TA. It is a big country
C. Just the cheapest
TA. Toronto it is

Later

C. I heard back from my brother about the flight you booked me to canada, he suggests I pick myself up as London is closer to Toronto than Vancouver where he lives.

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Oh thank you everyone for the laughs… these are great… please keep them coming! )

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If you want a price match/beat then PLEASE tell us what you have been quoted and who from. Saying arrogantly “You give me your best price first” is neither A) Helpful, B) Polite or C) Any flaming use whatsoever.

Travel Agents do NOT set the prices/overbook hotels/cancel flights/not give you a flight meal because you are black (yes, we’ve had that one) and we are as frustrated as you when things go wrong as it takes us time to sort everything out.

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…. Here’s another, Darren!

There are not a lot of places in Mediterranean Europe during August where I can guarantee you “not very many children around” and “temperatures under 30 degrees”.

I wonder how far a customer would get asking *that* of a website?

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Don’t ask for a cheap late deal as there is a credit crunch and everyone in travel is losing their jobs so there must be some cheap deals, as we need to keep our jobs. It doesn’t go down well funnily enough!

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I Think in a Travel agency any where in the Country we have probably all had some of these comments at one time or another! Please feel free to add more.

“I think it should be explained in the brochure that the local store
does not sell proper biscuits like custard creams or ginger nuts.”

“It’s lazy of the local shopkeepers to close in the afternoons. I
often needed to buy things during ‘siesta’ time – this should be
banned.”

“On my holiday to Goa in India , I was disgusted to find that almost
every restaurant served curry. I don’t like spicy food at all.”

“We booked an excursion to a water park but no-one told us we had to bring our swimming costumes and towels.”

A tourist at a top African game lodge overlooking a waterhole, who
spotted a visibly aroused elephant, complained that the sight of this
rampant beast ruined his honeymoon by making him feel “inadequate”.

A woman threatened to call police after claiming that she’d been locked
in by staff. When in fact, she had mistaken the “do not disturb” sign on the
back of the door as a warning to remain in the room.

“The beach was too sandy.”

“We found the sand was not like the sand in the brochure. Your
brochure shows the sand as yellow but it was white.”

A guest at a Novotel in Australia complained his soup was too thick and
strong. He was inadvertently slurping the gravy at the time.

“Topless sunbathing on the beach should be banned. The holiday was
ruined as my husband spent all day looking at other women.”

“we bought ‘Ray-Ban’ sunglasses for five Euros (£3.50) from a street
trader only to find out they were fake.”

“No-one told us there would be fish in the sea. The children were
startled.”

“It took us nine hours to fly home from Jamaica to England it only
took the Americans three hours to get home.”

“I compared the size of our one-bedroom apartment to our friends’
three-bedroom apartment and ours was significantly smaller.”

“The brochure stated: ‘No hairdressers at the accommodation’. We’re
trainee hairdressers – will we be OK staying here?”

“There are too many Spanish people. The receptionist speaks Spanish. The
food is Spanish. Too many foreigners.”

“We had to queue outside with no air conditioning.”

“It is your duty as a tour operator to advise us of noisy or unruly
guests before we travel.”

“I was bitten by a mosquito – no-one said they could bite.”

“My fiancé and I booked a twin-bedded room but we were placed in a
double-bedded room. We now hold you responsible for the fact that I find
myself pregnant. This would not have happened if you had put us in the room
that we booked.”

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