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5 Reasons You Should Avoid Your Local Travel Agent

1) Choice of products

It may or may not surprise you to know that retail, face-face travel agency groups simply do not have the range that can be offered via the internet. This is in part due to their revenue model. Agency groups work on a limited number of 'preferred' partners who will pay them kickbacks on top of the front end commission paid to any single travel agency. So XYZ accommodation company will pay 1-3% additional bonus on the groups total revenue with that company. Thus, if you walk in and ask for 5 nights in Bangkok they will use one of their preferred partners whose rates are significantly more than what can be found online. Some agencies will use internet based partners who do not pay this back end kickback such as Octopus Travel & Hotel Club, some of RoundAbout Travel's accommodation partners. This way you can have the security of a point of contact and an online travel agent but you don't have the pay a premium in higher rates. Someone has to pay for all those brochures they hand out & the familiarisation trips and it's not them...it's the consumer. The idea that the travel agency group gets you some sort of special deal is well and truly dead. Packages are largely gone except for charter group tours. Hotels largely distribute via the net and if you deal with wholesale companies in between it's just adding another layer of supply you have to pay for.

2) Airlines and Airfares Offered

All major agency groups have special deals with each major airline for back end commission. Similar to what is offered with wholesalers but this time with airlines. So, for the financial year targets are set by airlines to receive this extra bonus. Throughout the year agency groups will focus on one or two particular airlines pushing these products to the consumer to reach their sales targets. This can mean you are being recommended based on their back pocket and their interests, not yours. So if you walk in in June you may be recommend Qantas who pay their bonuses up till 30 June. If you walk in in March you might be recommended Singapore Airlines who pay up till 31 March.

Independant and online travel agencies will often offer choices of airlines because their commission is widely the same with no back end deals. Bear in mind that service fees for bookings are already widespread practise in the Australian travel industry and are built in to the total price. At the end of the day we're all in business but surely the shift to the online model should have greater benefits to the consumer. Online you will find much lower fees and total prices as overheads are lower and competition is higher. Often no fees are imposed for some airlines, however, for domestic bookings it is always best to book on the airlines websites as this is easy to handle and the cheapest way about it.

3) Service

You may think that the service you get a local, face to face travel agent should be better. However, this would appear not to be the case. Face to face travel agencies are constantly interupted with walk in traffic grabbing brochures or wanting to talk to agents. This means you're phone calls and emails will often be delayed in being returned...if they are returned at all. Don't take our word for it see these websites...

Flight Centre - Average Review 2/5.

http://www.productreview.com.au/showshop.php?shop_id=1289

Harvey World - Average Review 3.5/5. Bear in mind Harvey World is a franchised business so service and quality can be linked to the franchisee.

http://www.productreview.com.au/showitem.php?item_id=34745

STA - Average Review 2.5/5

http://www.productreview.com.au/showitem.php?item_id=34750

Saying that, poor service can be with online companies as well. See Best Flights...2.5/5

http://www.productreview.com.au/category.php?cat_id=1688

Now, obviously this is only a small piece of the pie and these companies would not be in business if they weren't at least compotent for the majority of bookings. What really keeps people coming back to these companies is the promise of cheaper prices but what good is that if the service is disgraceful. The real question is whether or not you want to gamble your holiday in the hands of someone who is under so much pressure to make commission targets that they take on more bookings than they can handle.

You can read some of RoundAbout Travel's testimonials here.

4) Experience

Following on from the above point regarding service a lot of this, and the common occurence of complaints, is due to a lack of experience. Some major chains are better than others. Some will only hire staff that have done a 6 month tafe course or have past experience. Others will look at the basic skills of an employee without any need for travel industry experience. Each approach has its' pros and cons. It's a matter of preference, a good travel agent or a good sales person? Most companies, generally speaking, will have around 2 novice staff [under 12 months experience] in any 5-7 person office. This is because attrition in the travel industy's major companies often ranges from 25-55% per annum. Imagine losing nearly half of your employees every year...over time your ability to find the right skills diminishes. The huge downside with the travel industry is that no one will tell you they are a novice. Unlike a hairdresser where the apprentice will mop up and make the coffee whilst learning and giving free hair cuts the novice travel agent is thrown in to the deep end within 2-3 weeks of employment. It's sink or swim. And I've been there, I was a novice travel agent many moons ago and made  few errors along my way as we all do in life but the real question is do you want to be risking your holiday with a novice? The risk isn't the new ones who are the most exciting and greet you with the biggest smile, the risk is with the staff that have been there for 4-6 months, haven't yet learnt it all but are running before they can walk. They stop checking the finer details and errors creep in. Travel is a complicated industry and it's very easy to mess up if you're not on the ball. At RoundAbout Travel our policy is a minimum of 2 years full time travel experience for all our staff. Round the world flights are a difficult subject and we ensure our staff are highly trained.

5) Price Guarantees

So, you're booking at a retal travel agency because they display a pricing policy. You assume you're getting the best deal right there. I can't blame you, I often buy my hardware at Bunnings who have a similar price guarantee and I've never been bothered making sure the price of my potting mix is cheaper elsewhere. But that's $5 potting mix, a holiday can be a much more expensive exercise and round the world holidays will often total over $5000-7000 per person with accommodation, travel insurance, flights and taxes. Thus, 2-3% differences can really add up. So, back to the price guarantees. If you read these closely you'll notice one thing...no one is GUARANTEEING that they have the cheapest prices. All they are saying is you can be bothered getting a better price they'll beat it. The real question is, does our subconcious brain distinguish the difference when we see and hear the marketing on a consistent basis? We know these companies are making big profits. Just take a look at the annual reports on the ASX website. So if you aren't getting the price beaten then you're in effect paying for all of those people that do...at the end of the day it all comes out in the wash if you have to pay out a few people with below cost holidays it offsets all of those that assume they are getting the best price.

So, reflecting on that, doesn't it make more sense to be loyal to the company that offers the lowest price straight away? At RoundAbout Travel we won't put a pricing guarantee out there that we'll beat any price, simply because we believe it's an unethical statement to dupe regular customers. We do, however, regularly monitor the prices of our competitors to ensure we are consistently offering the best price the first time. All we ask is, if you do want to take that price to a competitor so that they can beat it by $20 let us know, we're more than likely to want to sharpen our pencil and can come up with discounts for payment by bank transfer and package savings on accommodation and travel insurance. We don't want to lose your business based on price, we want to win it with the best service and knowledge. We want our competitive pricing be just as important to you as our support, easy to use website and imformed travel suggestions when making your choice to book online with RoundAbout Travel.

Comments? Feedback? Alternatively share your experiences with us of retail travel agencies...good or bad. We'll post your replies online & we'd love to hear from you...feedback@roundabouttravel.com.au

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