Need Some "How You Book" Opinions!

[wdwsos]

My son is doing some research for a marketing firm and one of the sections he’s working on brought up a few questions. I thought that since folks who go on AbD trips usually have a little more disposable income than most (his work is targeting affluent consumers in the auto industry), this might be a good place for me to ask this.

Keeping in mind the various ways to book your AbD vacation -- independently, through a travel agent, or through a wholesaler like Costco or BJ’s – what would be your answers to the following questions:

1) I know some folks want complete control over their vacations, some have relationships with a travel agent, and others like the discounts that can sometimes be had by booking with a wholesaler. For YOU, what is the most important factor to make you choose one over another?

2) If you had a previous (and good) relationship with a travel agent, would a discount or cash back offer make you move to either another agency or a wholesaler?

3) If you previously booked trips on your own, would you give up that little bit of control if a travel agency or wholesaler offered a discount offer or cash back?

Thanks for any insight you can provide! I know my answers (and, obviously, being in the travel business, I’m biased!) but this is a diverse group and I thought it would be interesting!

Dotti

 

[sayhello]

1) I know some folks want complete control over their vacations, some have relationships with a travel agent, and others like the discounts that can sometimes be had by booking with a wholesaler. For YOU, what is the most important factor to make you choose one over another?

Control. Definitely control. I've had minor issues in the past with a TA being unavailable for 2 days when the PERFECT cabin came available for my cruise. And issues with airline reservations that needed constant vigilance & tweaking, etc (darned Delta!). I have used travel agents, but I don't have a relationship with any one in particular, and usually just end up doing it myself. Not into wholesalers, either. Usually too restrictive.

2) If you had a previous (and good) relationship with a travel agent, would a discount or cash back offer make you move to either another agency or a wholesaler?

Not really. I'm a big proponent of "You get what you pay for". It would have to be a SERIOUSLY significant discount for me to be even tempted to give up a known good TA for an unknown.

3) If you previously booked trips on your own, would you give up that little bit of control if a travel agency or wholesaler offered a discount offer or cash back?

Again, it would have to be a significant discount. It's not worth a couple of hundred dollars to me to give that up. If there was a very specific service the TA could do for me better than I could do for myself, then maybe? But just for a little money? Nope.

Sayhello

 

[DisFan10]

My son is doing some research for a marketing firm and one of the sections he’s working on brought up a few questions. I thought that since folks who go on AbD trips usually have a little more disposable income than most (his work is targeting affluent consumers in the auto industry), this might be a good place for me to ask this.

Keeping in mind the various ways to book your AbD vacation -- independently, through a travel agent, or through a wholesaler like Costco or BJ’s – what would be your answers to the following questions:

1) I know some folks want complete control over their vacations, some have relationships with a travel agent, and others like the discounts that can sometimes be had by booking with a wholesaler. For YOU, what is the most important factor to make you choose one over another?

2) If you had a previous (and good) relationship with a travel agent, would a discount or cash back offer make you move to either another agency or a wholesaler?

3) If you previously booked trips on your own, would you give up that little bit of control if a travel agency or wholesaler offered a discount offer or cash back?

Thanks for any insight you can provide! I know my answers (and, obviously, being in the travel business, I’m biased!) but this is a diverse group and I thought it would be interesting!

Dotti

Hi Dotti,

I agree with SayHello's answers.

We want control, especially over our flight reservation (Delta is notorious about changing schedules without notifying the customer) and the discount or incentive would have to be significant for us to change TAs. We've only used a wholesaler once (Costco), but generally avoid them as they have too many restrictions.

By the way, your comment: a little more disposable income than most , made me laugh because our disposable income has been totally depleted after this year's many trips!

 

[Bobo912]

Dotti, I agree with Sayhello. Here are my responses - hope you weren't looking for yes or no to #2 and #3.

1) Control
2) Only if the discount is very significant and I am as certain as I can possibly be that the TA/wholesaler is reputable and reliable
3) Again it would have to be a big discount for me to give up control.

 

[Diskidatheart]

1) I know some folks want complete control over their vacations, some have relationships with a travel agent, and others like the discounts that can sometimes be had by booking with a wholesaler. For YOU, what is the most important factor to make you choose one over another?

2) If you had a previous (and good) relationship with a travel agent, would a discount or cash back offer make you move to either another agency or a wholesaler?

3) If you previously booked trips on your own, would you give up that little bit of control if a travel agency or wholesaler offered a discount offer or cash back?

1.) I have a pretty good relationship with my travel agent. I actually prefer to book with my travel agent when possible. I like having her there to clean up any loose ends that may come up. I don't think I would ever book through a wholesaler unless it was a major monetary incentive.

2.) It would have to be a really really big discount offer or cash back. My TA provided us a discount on our ABD trip, so I can't imagine another TA providing enough of a discount to make me switch.

3.) I prefer to do all the research and make sure I am getting the trip I want and then booking it through the TA. I basically use the TA as another source of information, not necessarily to provide the itinerary for my vacation but just make suggestions when possible.


As a side note, a good example of this is going on right now. We are not doing an ABD this year, but are going to Hawaii for 2 weeks this winter visiting the Big Island and Kauai for a week each. I have booked my condos through VRBO.com, but before I finalized those, I checked with my TA to see if I was getting a good deal. She checked different options for me and confirmed I am getting a great deal. I have not booked my flights yet as she has recommended me to wait since flights to/from Hawaii are quite expensive now. She will keep an eye out for me and notifiy me when pricing comes down a bit. This is a prime example of what I use a TA for.

Hope this all helps!

 

[RSM]

Hi Dotti,

1.) The whole question around control is interesting. For leisure or vacation travel, the first thing I tend to think about is what is most important to me and how do I prioritize them. Is it the activities/excursions; is it the timing of the trip; is it the hotels; is it the meals we will eat; is it the travel to/from and internal travel between destinations; etc. Each of these then has elements to them. For example for activities or excursions, do we want to do physical activities, lay on a beach, sightsee, explore different cultures, etc.

I believe by selecting an ABD or any sort of structured group tour, you give up a certain amount of control. Many of the activities and excursions are pre-selected; hotels are pre-selected; etc. I recognize this can vary from one tour company to another, but if I truly wanted complete control, I would go on my own (and trade-off the experience of meeting others in the group and the other benefits of group travel).

For me, once we decide that we will do an ABD or group tour, the most important factor becomes how easy will it be to book the group tour, book any on-your-own activities, book the logistics to/from, and book any before or after the tour trips. If it is easy to book myself (in terms of quantity of things to do or figuring out how to do something), my tendency is to do it myself. If there is alot to do, I usually use a TA.

2.) I agree with Diskidatheart, it would have to be a significant discount to get me to switch, assuming I had a very good business relationship.

3.) In terms of giving up control to a TA or wholesaler, the bigger thing for me is what sort of differentiated value can they bring that I can't "reasonably" do or find on my own. For example, if I asked a TA to recommend a good hotel in Rome near the colloseum, and they handed me a printout with a bunch of hotels, I don't view that as value (I could do that on my own in a few minutes). However, if they narrowed it down and had first hand or first account experience and could recommend, that is a value I can't do on my own. Another differentiator for me, especially for international travel, is 7 X 24 availability should anything go wrong. So, if I have flight reservation problems in a foreign country and the time zone is 6 or 12 hours off-set, can I call a TA or someone who has access to a reservation system for help (instead of trying to navigate it in a foreign airport).

I guess, this is a long winded way of saying that each vacation is an individual case, some I will book, others I will use a TA. I haven't gone the wholesale route, but my inclination would be that it would have to be a very material discount to do it this way.

 

[Grifdog22]

Hi Dotti:

I guess I disagree with some of the previous posts. If I'm traveling in on a group tour, I've already given up the primary "control." My booking process then comes down to two factors: service and pricing.

I've taken two ABD trips and both times booked through Costco. The ADB folks arranged the air to/from. They always did far better than I was able to do on air pricing. When we went to Peru, the airfare per person from Dulles to Lima was cheaper than the previous month when I took the family from Dulles to Atlanta Georgia. Disney did that. They also kept us posted of all air changes. I was satisfied with their services.

I've booked several domestic trips on my own, and many more through local travel agents. I've always been dissatisfied with the local travel agents - somewhat like a local insurance agent - just take the money but don't ask them to do anything... I am very willing to pay for good service...which is the point of the Tauck Bridges/ABD type of travel.

25 years ago through USAA they offered a travel program (it was great, so of course USAA promptly discontinued anything that made folks happy) and the TA we used was nothing short of fantastic. We actually sent her a large tip at the end of the trip. It was a honeymoon trip, so she arranged with Amtrak that we would have the last compartment on the last sleeper car (back when you could actually talk to someone at Amtrak), and had almost disneylike touches and surprises waiting. Very cool.

I've watched and read your postings for the last several years - and the type of care and service you seem to offer would be the highest endorsement. My next trip that needs special services will probably be through you. Given the constant price increases (Disney today raised its park prices 3-9%) finances must continue to be a large factor too. I have three kids - one in college and two 10 year old twins - and we are not living in a high income earning location. A dollar out here in the mountains is chump change to the New York DC folks, in my opinion.

We didn't take an ABD trip this year. The planned trip with Tauck Bridges didn't work out (they were great to work with tho). Instead, we divided the family, and the guys took an extreme wilderness trek with the Boy Scouts in Canada (dropped by seaplane about 150 miles north of Winnipeg Canada) to wilderness canoe and portage for about 110 miles. The rest of the family opted for a full family trip to Kiawah Beach in South Carolina. We were looking hard at an ABD or TauckBridges Galapagos trip for next year, but the kids will be priced as adults, and I just said no.

Thus, service and pricing, in that order, are the factors for booking.

-Grifdog

 

[Bobo912]

I don't want control of the vacation, I want someone to lead me around and take care of me as much as possible. But I do like to have control of the booking process. I've booked both of my ABD's through Costco, but booking that was exactly the same as calling ABD directlysince the call goes directly to ABD. Only difference is that you get a cash card in the mail later. That's my only experience with a wholesaler, so I'm not sure what it would be like for some other wholesaler or even some other travel vendor through Costco. Our Tauck trip this year, I booked directly with Tauck, even though I found TAs offering discounts around $100 per person, but that wasn't enough for me to give up he control. I used a TA last year for our cruise to get the shipboard credits and I didn't like having to wait for them to get back to me when I had questions. I would have preferred to have been able to call DCL myself.