Vacationing During Hurricane Season

Would you vacation in the Caribbean during hurricane season?  I get that question all the time.  So let me answer that question with a resounding YES.  I am about to embark on a 7 day cruise to the Eastern Caribbean during the peak of the hurricane season.  I have traveled to Florida during the peak of the hurricane season.  And I will most likely book another trip in the future to those same areas during hurricane season.

Here is a fact about hurricanes that make them different from ice storms, tornadoes, earthquakes and other forms natural disasters; you know they are coming with at least several days of advance notice.  That, to me, makes it easier to plan a vacation during hurricane season, as long as I go into my planning knowing that things may have to be altered.

Cruise ships, for example, will reserve the right to change an itinerary if weather threatens their current path.  That does not mean that they will necessarily cancel the entire cruise, but you may end up going to a port that was not planned originally.  Resorts, in a lot of cases, will issue credits to their guests if their resort is in the path of a hurricane and evacuations are necessary.  And there is always the opportunity to buy travel insurance when planning a trip during hurricane season just to give you the added comfort of knowing your investment is protected.

Traveling during hurricane season has two large advantages which make it a great time to vacation, in my opinion.  First, the prices are generally lower for cruises, all-inclusives, hotels etc.  Travel companies/Cruise Lines know that consumers are skittish when it comes to traveling during the months of August to October and they tend to offer lower pricing to entice consumers.  Second, naturally crowds tend to be lower during that time of year.

Lower pricing and smaller crowds are a great combination.  Agree?

So don't overlook the opportunities that present themselves during hurricane season.  I know there are some of you that travel during the other times of year and your vacations have been effected by blizzards, floods, and other weather-related issues that occurred during other times of year.  So the key to any travel these days, including travel during hurricane season, is to remain flexible and realize things happen that are out of your control.  If you can do that, and if you add travel insurance to your budget, then you can still have a great vacation even if your original plans had to be altered.

What are your opinions and/or experiences?  Do you have issues with traveling during hurricane season?  I would love to get your feedback.

Do You Charge Me a Fee?

That is a standard question that travel agents get asked by prospective clients.  I am finding that the majority of today’s travelers do not understand how travel agents get compensated.  So I wanted to write and answer the question, “how doe a travel agent get paid?”

In 99% of the cases where I am working with a client on a particular trip, my services are free to the client (I will explain the 1% in a moment).  The travel “system” as I will call it, has a travel agent’s compensation built in and is invisible to the client.  For example, major hotel chains, cruise lines and even resort destinations such as Disneyland and Walt Disney World offer commission to travel agents as a way of saying “thank you” for bringing clients their way.  The price the consumer pays would be the same whether they used a travel agent or not.  Naturally there are benefits for using a travel agent, but that has already been addressed in previous posts.

So please understand that our compensation is being paid by the suppliers to us (the travel agents) there are no additional fees being tacked on to the consumer’s cost.  

But here is where the exception comes in, the 1% that I mentioned; airlines quit paying commissions to travel agents several years back due to their own economic issues.  So if a client is only interested in booking airfare through a travel agent, the travel agent has to charge a service fee in order to make any income.  Those service fees are discussed ahead of time so there are no surprises.  I personally charge a small fee unless the client has booked other commissionable items such as a hotel, rental car, cruise etc, in which case I waive my fee.

But please understand this one last point.  Almost every professional travel agent out there works off of commission only.  We do not get paid salaries.  So if you go to a travel agent for help with learning about a destination or a cruise and so on, and then choose to take that information and book it yourself, that professional just worked for nothing.  Travel agents have bills to pay and families to feed just like every other working person so please consider that before taking their professional advice and info and then rushing out to book something on your own because you think you can get a better deal.

I hope this answers the question.  Please feel free to ask other questions or offer a comment or opinion.