A question for experienced travellers

[Richardus]

Experienced I am not, so I must ask this as my wife and I do not have a solid answer and maybe you can help!

Travel agents. What exactly do they do that is helpful? Or what are they doing that I cannot do myself?

We booked our trip to Tobago through a local travel agent this time. She booked the flight and tickets to the hotel. And set us up with insurance. But that was pretty much it. So it leaves us wondering, could we not have just gone to expedia and clicked on "buy now" and done the same thing ourselves? They would have sent us the E-tickets and confirmation of the hotel just the same as they are online travel agents anyway. Why are we using a local travel agent?

[Patrick Dankou]

Hi Richardus,
That's is a very good question, of course you can package an entire holiday yourself, but a good travel agent or tour operator will have access to deals and packages you would not get online, and most important, when something goes wrong they are there to assist you. Of course a good agency employs trained staff who are able to answer most of your questions, saving you money and time. A very good example is the weather chaos that crippled the aviation industry this winter. Many of those who had booked through tour operators or travel agents were quickly rerouted or put in a hotel at no extra cost, the majority of travelers who did everything online ended up sleeping at the airport or had to spend a lot of money they had not budgeted for. If you have a serious problem with the hotel you have booked online, you will have trouble to get your money back and find a place for the same price in a very short time, a good tour operator can negotiate with your hotel or will offer you an alternative and you might even not have to pay anything extra. They usually have a representative in the destination that will meet you at the airport and/or your hotel and are able to help If you have to leave early because of illness or other reasons,... I would definitely use them on family holidays, all inclusive holidays, luxury travel and if you want peace of mind and don't have the time to do a lot of research yourself.

[Richardus]

Thank you for the excellent response. It is helping considerably with my learning curve and makes us feel much better about arranging this through an agent.