Travel agent etiquitte

[mickeynut1]

I agree with everyone else to book on your own or find another TA. If she's not wanting to take time to answer your questions now, it's not going to get any better once she has your deposit. Good luck!

 

[Sue M]

I agree with the general opinion. Find another. Even though I’ve gone to WDW many times, and quite capable of booking myself, I find using a good TA just makes my life easier. I work full time, and don’t have the time to spend on hold with Disney. And making payments is as quick, just sending an email. No going on line, filling out payment form and digging out credit card.

 

[Sandiz08]

I’m an overplanner too, but the thing I most appreciate from my TA is the promptness with which my TA responds to my questions, before or after booking. Tried another at some point, not even close.

 

[jpeterson]

Get a different TA. I know my TA will happily answer questions and make suggestions any time. She helped plan out our entire first trip well before we booked anything.

 

[DisneyWishes14]

Get a different TA. I know my TA will happily answer questions and make suggestions any time. She helped plan out our entire first trip well before we booked anything.

So, let's look at the flip side of this. TA's only get paid once a client books and completes a trip. It's completely commission based and they don't get paid any type of salary or hourly wage. Imagine if your TA had helped plan out your entire trip and you never booked? Or you booked and cancelled. After doing all of that work, she would have never gotten paid. TA's get burned all the time doing this and, experienced TA's, learn their lesson pretty quickly. They are trying to make a living and have to make decisions on how much time they can spend with a potential client before moving on to something that might actually yield them a commission. This TA may have self-imposed a limit on the number of quotes she'll send out or questions/e-mails she will answer before she needs to focus in on other leads that might actually bring in an income. There are only so many hours in a day and only so many of those hours you can work for free.

OP, if you feel like you didn't ask for an unreasonable amount of time from this TA or you don't feel comfortable with how she responded to you, then, of course you should move on. It's your trip after all. Honestly, unless a TA is offering you some benefit (a steep discount or other incentive, saving you planning time, etc.) I don't see a reason to use a TA. I know if you posted your questions here, plenty of people would be willing to help you find the answers.

 

[kappa]

The TA we use has always answered as many questions as I have asked. DH thinks she has esp because she has always answered me so quickly-he swears she's answering as I'm sending! The first time I contacted her I must have asked 20 questions and she has never been impatient. I change plans frequently and again no problems. Definitely move on from this one. You need to be comfortable with the person you are trusting with your money and your vacation.

Who is your agent?

 

[kappa]

Who is your agent?

Thanks for all the responses on both sides. Truly appreciate it!

The questions she wouldn’t answer had to do with a birthday surprise in the hotel room and something about Christmas Disney bands. I guess my concern was that even after I offered to go ahead and pay a deposit so she could continue to answer my questions, she didn’t. Overall she was really helpful up until that point. We were still/are figuring out finances, and I am trying to decide between meal plan or no meal plan. Really *most* of my questions were generic. We probably won’t ask her many questions AFTER we book as I’ll do reservations myself, but thought it would be nice to use one to quickly answer all my random questions upfront in order to help me make decisions of where to stay, etc. I understand the time it takes, but guess that’s part of any sales job. Feel a bit bad switching at this point, but also uncomfortable continueing the client/agent relationship. I’m unfortunately left with a sour taste in my mouth but want to do the right thing. Can we get the same rates without booking through an agent? Do we just book directly from Disney online? We have only done a total package 1 other time and it was with a travel agent.

 

[kappa]

What kind of questions are we talking about? I only asked questions about the booking process before I actually booked.

My questions were about quotes, disney experiences they could set up for us, and magic bands... I will book all my own reservations, so I don't really need their expertise afterwards. It's more for the planning aspect of the trip. When we stayed at Sandals, we always book locally, and they answer all my questions in person, and then I book, so I assumed this would be a similar experience. Kind of like buying a car I guess... Maybe I am wrong. That's why I was asking here before I continued the relationship or walked away. I want to do what's ethical. I don't want to hurt her business, but I want to feel comfortable and know I working with someone reputable.

 

[kappa]

That sounds like the TA I have; she always responds so promptly, normally within minutes, day or night. There are a lot of TAs out there, and I was lucky enough to find one of the pros. People should definitely use an Authorized Disney vacation planner, as they're the ones truly "in the know."

Do you have a recommendation. This is an authorized Disney Vacation planner and came recommended.

 

[PrincessWithABlaster]

Agree with everyone else. I use a TA but honestly, normally I find better info here. I use a TA because she is always on top of new discounts and makes my ADRs for me (so I don’t have to get up to do it - I make my own FPs though). She did also give us advice for our last trip that went against everything I’ve seen here. I begrudgingly took it and it worked out very well for us. We got a very nice upgrade that could have been coincidence or could have been because of her advice.

 

[bumbershoot]

My questions were about quotes, disney experiences they could set up for us, and magic bands...

Except for one ta that we can’t mention on the dis, tas aren’t going to get any deal we can’t get on our own by going through the website and maybe checking out the resort discounts forum here.

Special Disney experiences are likely going to be found on the site as well.

And MBs...ask away! Or read the gigantic thread about them on the themeparks forum.

 

[izzylovesmickey]

Who is your agent?

Sent you a pm

 

[Lesverts]

So, let's look at the flip side of this. TA's only get paid once a client books and completes a trip. It's completely commission based and they don't get paid any type of salary or hourly wage. Imagine if your TA had helped plan out your entire trip and you never booked? Or you booked and cancelled. After doing all of that work, she would have never gotten paid. TA's get burned all the time doing this and, experienced TA's, learn their lesson pretty quickly. They are trying to make a living and have to make decisions on how much time they can spend with a potential client before moving on to something that might actually yield them a commission. This TA may have self-imposed a limit on the number of quotes she'll send out or questions/e-mails she will answer before she needs to focus in on other leads that might actually bring in an income. There are only so many hours in a day and only so many of those hours you can work for free.

OP, if you feel like you didn't ask for an unreasonable amount of time from this TA or you don't feel comfortable with how she responded to you, then, of course you should move on. It's your trip after all. Honestly, unless a TA is offering you some benefit (a steep discount or other incentive, saving you planning time, etc.) I don't see a reason to use a TA. I know if you posted your questions here, plenty of people would be willing to help you find the answers.

I'm a former agent. Probably ran at 30 to 40% conversation, and I was at the higher end in the agency. So many times people would come it, poke around, ask some questions and than go off. I never had a problem with that, it was the people that were coming in and asking for discounts/price matching/beating etc that were the real time sucks. As the agents on the Dreams show says, it is about building a relationship. For a certain demographic; there is a lot of loyalty. I had a lady come in and ask me to help book her flights to the UK. Flights are 0% commission and a lot of agents refuse to do them because of that. I did, took up 10 minutes of my day. Couple months later here is the same woman dragging in her grandson and future grand-daughter-in-law and getting me to price and book their destination wedding. Kindness pays off in the end. So from a 0% commission on a $1,500 booking for 2 flights, to a group booking of 60. All because I took time that a lot of people wouldn't.

 

[DisneyWishes14]

Thanks for all the responses on both sides. Truly appreciate it!

The questions she wouldn’t answer had to do with a birthday surprise in the hotel room and something about Christmas Disney bands. I guess my concern was that even after I offered to go ahead and pay a deposit so she could continue to answer my questions, she didn’t. Overall she was really helpful up until that point. We were still/are figuring out finances, and I am trying to decide between meal plan or no meal plan. Really *most* of my questions were generic. We probably won’t ask her many questions AFTER we book as I’ll do reservations myself, but thought it would be nice to use one to quickly answer all my random questions upfront in order to help me make decisions of where to stay, etc. I understand the time it takes, but guess that’s part of any sales job. Feel a bit bad switching at this point, but also uncomfortable continueing the client/agent relationship. I’m unfortunately left with a sour taste in my mouth but want to do the right thing. Can we get the same rates without booking through an agent? Do we just book directly from Disney online? We have only done a total package 1 other time and it was with a travel agent.

OP, I would check the WDW site, plug in what you asked the TA to quote and see what the price is. Unless this TA's agency is running some type of group booking promo, chances are, you can get the same pricing directly from WDW. This is your trip. If you feel uncomfortable now and you haven't even booked yet, going through with the booking is probably not a good idea, IMHO. It's not unethical to walk away from a sales person that makes you feel uncomfortable.

In terms of the questions about birthday surprises in the room and Christmas bands, you can most definitely ask your questions here and get a multitude of answers, usually quite quickly.

I'm a former agent. Probably ran at 30 to 40% conversation, and I was at the higher end in the agency. So many times people would come it, poke around, ask some questions and than go off. I never had a problem with that, it was the people that were coming in and asking for discounts/price matching/beating etc that were the real time sucks. As the agents on the Dreams show says, it is about building a relationship. For a certain demographic; there is a lot of loyalty. I had a lady come in and ask me to help book her flights to the UK. Flights are 0% commission and a lot of agents refuse to do them because of that. I did, took up 10 minutes of my day. Couple months later here is the same woman dragging in her grandson and future grand-daughter-in-law and getting me to price and book their destination wedding. Kindness pays off in the end. So from a 0% commission on a $1,500 booking for 2 flights, to a group booking of 60. All because I took time that a lot of people wouldn't.

Yes, I get it. Of course there are clients who then bring in other clients and referrals. But as you point out, the woman who asked you to book her flights (which I would have done as well), took up 10 minutes of your time. Sending out multiple quotes for multiple WDW resorts with multiple ticket and dining option configurations takes up much, much more time than that. Most other destinations don't require the level of planning required for a WDW trip. As most on these boards can attest to, both general public and TA's, WDW is a whole other ball of wax when it comes to planning a trip. I'm not saying what the OP's TA is doing is right or wrong, I'm just pointing out there is only so much time in a day and, in a commission-based business, you have to learn to use your time wisely.

 

[jpeterson]

I'm a former agent. Probably ran at 30 to 40% conversation, and I was at the higher end in the agency. So many times people would come it, poke around, ask some questions and than go off. I never had a problem with that, it was the people that were coming in and asking for discounts/price matching/beating etc that were the real time sucks. As the agents on the Dreams show says, it is about building a relationship. For a certain demographic; there is a lot of loyalty. I had a lady come in and ask me to help book her flights to the UK. Flights are 0% commission and a lot of agents refuse to do them because of that. I did, took up 10 minutes of my day. Couple months later here is the same woman dragging in her grandson and future grand-daughter-in-law and getting me to price and book their destination wedding. Kindness pays off in the end. So from a 0% commission on a $1,500 booking for 2 flights, to a group booking of 60. All because I took time that a lot of people wouldn't.

That sounds a lot like my agent. She did a fantastic job planning out our first trip last December. Since then we have booked 5 more trips with her. In reality I have been doing 90% of the booking/planning, etc but we give here the reservation because up-front she did so much for us.

 

[kappa]

Thanks for all advice. I decided to give her one more chance. I'm too nice for my own good. I compared to what I could pay out of pocket through other websites and my employee discount for tickets, and her quote for the package deal with dining was better than dividing it up into separate purchases with discounts elsewhere. Very responsive so far (since I booked), and I can always cancel if I don't feel like it's going well in the next couple of days when I have tons of questions to send her.