We get a lot of clients who come to us for help in planning their vacations because they don't have time to do it themselves or they need help with a complicated itinerary or they just need help with a destination that they are just not that familiar with etc. Some even come to us because they have read somewhere that travel agents can save you money. Those are all great reasons for using the services of a travel professional, but one of the reasons that gets overlooked is that we are the client's advocate when things don't go according to plan. While we all hope everything goes as scheduled and things are better than expected during the vacation, things can happen that are out of the control of the client as well as the travel professional. And when things do come up that are unexpected and not as you hoped, you want someone in your corner who will fight for YOU, not the resort, or the cruise line or the airline etc.
Case in point. Sandals Grande Antigua announced a few days ago (from the time of this writing) that they were closing the resort from Sept to December for "major repairs." Well as you can imagine, vacationers who were looking forward to their tropical getaway during that timeframe just had their entire vacation uprooted. Yes, Sandals is offering options to the guests who cannot change their travel dates etc, but so many are left with the question of, "what do we do next?" I should say that the ones who did not use a travel professional are left with that question.
Our clients know exactly what their options are. One such client didn't have to hear the news and panic because our consultant, Julia, had already heard and was putting together the options before the client had heard the news. Within a day, the client was given an alternative that fit their schedule and fit what they were expecting for their vacation. The client did not have to try to get in the phone queue with Sandals or with one of the online booking companies and spend their valuable time trying to figure things out on their own. They did not have to spend hours of researching what was available to them for alternate resorts etc. It was taken care of by their travel professional who interacted on their behalf with the tour operator and resort.
So hopefully you see that we do more than quote and book vacations. We stand ready to assist our clients when assistance is needed and make sure their best interests are being represented when things come up before or during someone's well-deserved vacation.
