When my sister and I went to Paris in 2009, she let me plan the whole trip. It was so much fun. I did TONS of research, read tons of websites, and got almost everything I could in advance. Our trip went off without a hitch and everything went smoothly.
So when my husband suggested we talk to a travel agent about this trip, I was VERY skeptical. VERY. Like….I had a pretty bad attitude. I mean…if I can plan a 9 day trip to Paris by myself like I did in 2009, why in the heck would we need a travel agent? I CAN DO IT.
But husband was very ‘pro’ travel agent. He used one when we went to Hawaii for our honeymoon. And I will admit….our honeymoon was awesome. The travel agent got us one free night at our 5 star hotel. She also booked us at a smaller, more intimate luau a few minutes away from our hotel that was completely AMAZING. She did this because she said the luau held at our hotel each night was super crowded (it was, and we never would have known it). She was an expert on traveling Hawaii, especially Maui. So…it was helpful.
But…I was still skeptical. However, I went along with it and tried to have an open mind. We met him a few weeks ago. He was a VERY nice older gentleman that my husband found on Angie’s List (he got the best reviews). We met our traveling buddies there. Within the first 10 minutes I flat out asked him how he made his money. It was a valid concern! If he was going to quote us a price on something and I found it online for cheaper, than why would we use him? He explained to me how it works. He gets the same prices that we do online, sometimes better. However, he gets paid a commission by the ‘vendor’ of whatever we are buying. So, if he books us a hotel through a particular website (specific to travel agents), that website pays him anywhere from 5 – 12% of the total purchase (and I’m assuming that the hotels pay the website that pays him….I’m not sure how all that works). For instance, while we were there, he booked our train tickets from Paris to Ghent through Thalys (one of the major high-speed train companies in Europe). I’m assuming that Thalys pays the website, and the website pays Dave (our agent). So we, as the customer, don’t pay him at all and pay the same price as if we would have booked it ourselves online. Okay. I felt a little better.
He’s been to Europe multiple times. When we were talking to him about our short stay in London, he had some great ideas. When we were originally thinking about staying at an inexpensive hotel further from the city center, he gently reminded us that we would have our luggage with us and no car, so staying near a major subway station would probably be wiser. He was right. He showed us a map of London and showed us that we would only have to take the ‘tube’ to one of our planned outings (the Tower). Everything else would be in walking distance from our hotel, including the largest subway station (Victoria). Meaning…when we leave for Paris to get on the Chunnel, we will only have to walk about 300 feet with our luggage. That’s important. He also told us to get a spot by the fence EARLY to watch the changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace. He told us that usually the ‘fish’ served with the ‘fish and chips’ so popular in London sometimes has the skin on one side still. GOOD TO KNOW and, ew. Stuff like that.
While our friends were there with us, he pulled up his super-secret website that listed all of the tours and special things we could do in Paris. He turned his computer around so that me and Nancy could ‘drive’ and see and make a list of everything we wanted to do. The tour packages included tickets, transportation, etc. Like Versailles…..tickets, transportation and a clear description about what was included (we are going Saturday and staying Saturday night for the fountain show).
The skeptic in me is still going to price it out individually on my own, but we got a very good idea of the types of things we want to do and seen some things that I NEVER would have thought of on my own. Like spend an hour ‘behind the scenes’ in a French bakery and learn how to make macaroons. We will do this for sure as long as our friends get there in time. Anyways….he can set that up for us last minute if we want, while we are in Paris. Very helpful.
He doesn’t make any money off of booking airfare. Which is really too bad for him, because that’s definitely the most expensive part of any trip. He told us he makes the most money off of tours…especially 3-4 night river cruises, stuff like that. But he also makes money off of hotels and trains too. I think he made $10 for booking our train tickets (which took him about 3 minutes). He will booked our hotel in London so he made a commission on that too, AND it was $13 cheaper than the price I found online.
Soooo…..he was helpful. And very nice. Especially considering we were there for like two hours on a Saturday night. I’m sure he had much better things to do. He even talked to one of our friends about possibly becoming an agent when she showed interest (they can work from home). He gave her all kinds of information. He also answered all of their questions about flying standby (which is what they are doing) and was very knowledgeable. They liked him a lot too.
So. There you have it. I’m a believer for the most part now. I still will check prices online for some things first, but that’s just the crazy couponer/YNABer in me coming out. I can’t help myself!
