Other columnists for this site, who are also travel agents, have written excellent articles about what makes a good travel agent — very handy advice and very well-sourced as it is, coming from the proverbial horse’s mouth.
But it struck me, in this me! me! me! generation — what about me?
What do I want in a travel agent?
Maybe I’m too demanding, and I’ll ask my fellow contributors to say so, if its true, but I think I’m a pretty good expert in what I need from a travel agent. I want a travel agent who is professional, but who can personalize my agenda and be Johnny-on-the-spot.
Do I want too much? I do believe that a traveler has a responsibility to be smart and involved when working with an agent.
1) Information. First of all, I want them to be knowledgeable. That’s not as silly a requirement as you might think. When planning my Disney cruise, I was vastly disappointed by my agent’s personal data pool on the subject. I expect my representative to know how to navigate the sites of the travel providers I will be using.
Instead, I found myself giving the haplessly outdated woman a tutorial on entering travel documentation on the cruise site. I want them to know whether my cellphone will work onboard or not. I want them to understand and communicate to me in terms I can understand what all the fees and regulations are. I want them to know all the deposit and confirmation deadlines that they (and I) will have to comply with. (A really good agent will be able to size up your ‘travel quotient’ and determine how experienced and knowledgeable you are about a destination/cruise/travel procedure and adjust their technique accordingly).
2) Access. It’s all about access. I want a travel agent that can be available in some form 24/7/365. I want someone I can tweet from the airport and say, “Hey, I just missed my connection, how can I get to Lisbon this afternoon?” I want a rep that can navigate time zones and foreign currencies and grapple with all the unpleasantness of a ticket error at the check-in counter in Bangkok – without requiring me to stay in the airport overnight until they open. I don’t want voicemail, I want a real live person, at least within the hour.
3) Connected. Anyone can hang up a shingle and start to sell package tours. Not everyone has been in the business long enough to learn the ropes and establish the relationships that can really pay off if there is a problem. Need to get tickets re-issued? Need to find a hotel when every other one is sold out for Fashion Week? Need to get out of a foreign country without a passport? Ever need to do anything without getting stuck on hold? I want someone with the moxie to get me another primo room in Paris at the oversold hotel of my choice when mine has no air conditioning. I’d like someone on my side who can wrestle that last rental car away at the counter. In short, I want a friend when I’m far away from home.
4) Familiarity. I want a travel agent that knows me. OK, so maybe this might take a few years, but I think my loyalty should be rewarded with someone that not only remembers my name when I call, but who recalls that I like to stay in luxury four-star accommodations in the city, but prefer bed-and-breakfasts when I’m off the beaten path. I want to work with someone that won’t need a refresher in my preferences (non-smoking/bulkhead/king with a view/direct flight only) every time I call.
5) Contemporary. I want someone that’s ‘with it.’ Someone who keeps abreast of all the best travel trends, who can suggest the hottest new hotel openings and resorts, who knows that Disney currently has a promotion my kid would love. I’d like to find an agent that is as up-to-date with travel technology as I am. I want an experienced traveler, not just a desk jockey, who can tell me where to get the best authentic Thai food – in Tokyo.
6) Flexible. I want someone that comes equipped with options. Don’t tell me I can’t get there from here, tell me how to make it happen. Offer me three or five hotels in Hanoi, not just one. Let me know its better to hire a porter after the cruise than to try to schlep all my luggage through customs. Give me both the platinum and the shoe-string budget scenarios. A real gem could figure out if its more favorable to me, on that particular date, to pay with local currency instead of dollars for my international fare.
7) Sophisticated. I want someone at least as worldly as I am. Someone who can keep me from making that embarrassing American etiquette faux pas in Japan. Someone who knows the best way to get to my hotel in Kuala Lumpur, and about how much it should cost. Someone who understands what I can and can’t bring back from my travels, as in, “Don’t even think about bringing back that raw poultry from Saskatchewan!” And it’s really helpful when that person can tell me, “You have a 45 minute stop and your connection is all the way over in the other terminal.” One particularly helpful tip an agent gave me regarding a stop in Mexico City: “Go outside and get a cab from one terminal to the other.”
8) Pampering. I want to be coddled. Let’s face it, if I wanted the simple, stark and impersonal, I’ll go online and make a few clicks and be done with it. I want someone who offers suggestions of things I might like to do in Belgium. I want my own personal concierge to walk me through a twelve segment itinerary. I want someone that soothes over the rough edges between me and the hotel reservations desk when they’ve lost my reservation. I have enough on my mind trying to enjoy an eight country European tour with three other family members in seven days – I need a travel mommy, someone that will nag me to put down that deposit or renew my passport. I need someone that won’t leave me stranded, ever, because you know, Mom just wouldn’t allow that.
9) Respectful. And like a child, I want a travel agent that knows when to leave me alone. Don’t litter me with every travel marketing gimmick all year long. Don’t send me brochures for every new resort on the planet. Don’t call me, I’ll call you – unless (see above) you know me well enough that you’re positive that mark-down on the trans-Panama canal cruise will make me wet my pants.
And now for my confession – so far the only travel agent I can find anywhere near that description is my father. True, he’s a former travel agent, but I think it’s the family connection that really helps fulfill my wish list. After all, he has experienced the glories of my entire persona: stubborn, adventurous, demanding, appreciative, anal and capricious.
