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Travel agents vs booking everything yourself vs last minute
Posted on 6/15/20 at 4:55 pm
Posted on 6/15/20 at 4:55 pm
How do y’all book your vacations? Are travel agencies still a thing? Do y’all book every detail yourselves months in advance? Do you book some things ahead of time and do some of it spur of the moment? What’s your strategy trying to balance convenience vs price?
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Posted on 6/15/20 at 5:05 pm to kingbob
Myself. Some things in advance. I like to get my hotels and flights in advance. Car rentals I wait til the last minute. I just Google flights . For stays I use Priceline or Airbnb/VRBO .
Posted on 6/15/20 at 7:45 pm to kingbob
Book it all myself. I don’t book anything last minute or spur of the moment.....I generally have at least a rough outline of how long I’ll be spending in a place, and I prefer to know where I’m sleeping at night.
Posted on 6/15/20 at 8:22 pm to kingbob
Depends on the trip, but I typically book flights and 75% of hotels in advance. We like to utilize public transportation when we are travelling and sometimes that requires booking trains and/or ferries in advance, but otherwise that is all spur of the moment. We typically know how long we are staying in an area and I will leave the last night or two unbooked in case we find somewhere we really want to stay or make friends. One of those usually happens. Activities are all spontaneous and based off of lots of research and local suggestions. I bring a travel journal on all of our trips organized by region with our itenerary, receipts, confirmations, and activity suggestions.
Posted on 6/15/20 at 8:24 pm to kingbob
Book everything myself, usually well ahead of time if it's a location that requires significant planning.
I don't see any use in a travel agent if you have internet access.
I don't see any use in a travel agent if you have internet access.
Posted on 6/15/20 at 9:16 pm to kingbob
The internet is putting travel agents out of business. I know because I have several friends and neighbors who are travel agents and former travel agents. I usually do research on Trip Adviser and book through Expedia. It is easy and I find it enjoyable.
Posted on 6/16/20 at 9:05 am to geauxpurple
quote:
book through Expedia. It is easy and I find it enjoyable.
Booking through Expedia is one thing I won't do. Fine to research prevailing prices, etc, but boooking direct with hotels or airlines is always going to result in better customer service if things go sideways. Even if things don't go sideways, your chances of a room upgrade are way better if you've booked through the hotel's own website versus a third party. Ditto on the chances of being bumped if the property is oversold.
Posted on 6/16/20 at 10:05 am to hungryone
Pirceline, Expedia, etc I will not use. You get better results with airlines and hotels in the event that you need to make a change if you book direct through them and there's certainly no savings to justify booking elsewhere.
It's fun to book and plan a trip yourself. You get the exact itinerary that you want and not some canned itinerary a travel agent is selling. Also as noted, travel agents are basically a thing of the past. The brick and mortar travel agencies certainly are.
It's fun to book and plan a trip yourself. You get the exact itinerary that you want and not some canned itinerary a travel agent is selling. Also as noted, travel agents are basically a thing of the past. The brick and mortar travel agencies certainly are.
Posted on 6/16/20 at 10:54 am to kingbob
quote:
Do you book some things ahead of time and do some of it spur of the moment
This, we book flights and hotels in advance. Also, we typically book at least a couple restaurant reservations in advance, as well as anything that requires tickets that could sell out or needs to be scheduled. Everything else is pretty much spontaneous.
For example, this past February/March we went on an 8 day trip to Paris/Amsterdam. We booked our flights, hotels/BnB, train tickets, reservations at 2 restaurants, and tickets to the Louvre and Anne Frank museum ahead of time. The rest of the trip was spontaneous. We don't like to be on a tight schedule, because that could cause stress and who needs stress while on vacation. So, typically we do about half and half scheduled vs spontaneous.
ETA: I also don't use a travel agent or book through Expedia, etc...
This post was edited on 6/16/20 at 10:57 am
Posted on 6/16/20 at 1:05 pm to kingbob
i find that you can save some money if you use a local travel agent from wherever you are going. for instance my wife and i went to portland, ME a couple years ago. my wife called a portland, ME travel agency who saved us a significant amount of money on the rooms compared to what i could find online. also she was able to get us reservations at restaurants that were hard to get into.
Posted on 6/16/20 at 2:07 pm to Coater
Yeah I actually think Travel Agents have done a horrible job advertising themselves. You can certainly DIY these days, but many Travel Agents can find deals and reservations that are otherwise not available to the public. Furthermore they are often paid directly and that's not reflected in the price you pay.
Posted on 6/16/20 at 4:06 pm to geauxpurple
quote:
I usually do research on Trip Adviser and book through Expedia. It is easy and I find it enjoyable.
Great for the research, but Expedia can be very problematic. I can find rates just as good other ways. If something goes wrong, it's very hard to really get help from 3rd party agencies.
Posted on 6/16/20 at 4:14 pm to baldona
I generally do a LOT of planning and researching. There are some things you just won't get to do without planning because it will be sold out. I also find that doing my own research quite often gets better and smaller tours and more off the beaten path experiences. Besides that, for me, planning is part of the fun.
You can enjoy your trip 3 ways...Planning the trip, taking the trip, and remembering the trip!
You can enjoy your trip 3 ways...Planning the trip, taking the trip, and remembering the trip!
Posted on 6/22/20 at 3:39 pm to kingbob
I was just searching for this. someone had a link on here on where to book flights online discounted.
Posted on 6/22/20 at 3:45 pm to kingbob
Posted on 6/22/20 at 3:56 pm to baldona
quote:
Yeah I actually think Travel Agents have done a horrible job advertising themselves
I agree they have. I've never used one, but I am trying to remember to think of them in the future. I've noticed a few experiences that are available to them that you can't book yourself. Like a behind the scenes tour of a museum overseas with the director, etc. Most regular travel agents probably don't have access either.
I imagine the experiences get more niche and interesting the more money you have to throw around for them.
This post was edited on 6/22/20 at 4:00 pm
Posted on 6/23/20 at 8:06 pm to baldona
quote:
Yeah I actually think Travel Agents have done a horrible job advertising themselves. You can certainly DIY these days, but many Travel Agents can find deals and reservations that are otherwise not available to the public. Furthermore they are often paid directly and that's not reflected in the price you pay.
Have been using the same travel agent for 20 years, in addition to what you have said they provide a lot of insite that you may not get doing your own research. They usually have a lot of personal feedback from prior custormers, I tend to regard online reviews as less than reliable. The biggest benefit of a travel agent to me is I dont have to spend time doing research, and booking. I tell him what I want to do, when, and for how long, and he will put together several options, and I just pick one and pay. Was also invaluale when I had to cancel a European trip due to a emergency, he took care of everything, and even got some fees back that were non-refundable, didnt have to go through the hassle of using travel insurance.
Posted on 6/23/20 at 8:28 pm to EA6B
Who’s your guy?
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