Does anyone do inside travel agents to book holidays anymore

[88greebballoons]

Just wondering, as looking on line as we usually do, prices are just ridiculous and then someone told me going inside travel agents they can sometimes save you a lot of money. I can't see it as surely they make a profit?

I did when the kids were tiny and I wanted to make sure there was a travel cot, microwave etc but wouldn't now. I wanted that extra level of reassurance and point of contact.

I've always found travel agents to be more expensive, usually by as much as 20%. Maybe it's just the ones I go in to, as I know some people say they can be cheaper.

I get that it can be easier, and they can do all the research for you. But I've never found it to be cheaper than doing it yourself. And I'm a bit of a control freak over holiday planning, so I don't mind doing the research myself!

For me though that's the whole point. Instead of me wasting hours of my time someone else does it for me.

Unfortunately my DH disagrees as he enjoys the research so we only used them once or twice. They were by far the least stressful holidays we ever had. 1 set of tickets and nothing to do but show up.

I can see how it might be beneficial if you’re doing an unusual multi-centre trip, but I think for normal family holidays and city breaks it’s cheaper and easier to book online. I actually can’t believe there are still travel agent shops open.

In a town centre near me there are three different travel agents so someone must still be using them.

I have just used them to have a 'one stop shop' style holiday when 15 of us are going to the same place but for different durations and staying in different categories of accommodation. I'm assuming that should a challenge occur, it will be easier to rectify with one booking number and, on-line, I could only book as 6 different holidays. I costed it out and the price was basically the same but, using an agent, the rooms are slightly upgraded.
I also use a cruise agent (on line though) and they always get a bigger discount and added benefits than I can get by going direct. The cruise company have confirmed this is the case.

I hadn’t used one for years, then earlier this year I was trying to book a flight and hotel for Corfu because I had an opportunity to sing some recitals there, so the dates I needed were fixed and also half term. I nearly wasn’t going to go because I couldn’t get the price to something I could live with. As a last resort, popped into the local independent agent. They found a perfect 4 day holiday within my budget and covering the dates with a special offer which meant I got an upgrade to a suite and a reduction in price of £90.
Will I always use them again? Probably not. Will I consider them if I’m stuck? Definitely

I was quite surprised recently when a 20 something colleague used an agent to book 2 nights in London. She just said it was easier so she didn't have to be messing around online herself.

It's strange but we all have different views on what is worthy of our time and money. Many people would pay a lot extra for a ready made meal to save 20 mins prep, or pay delivery to save a trip into town, but would see nothing wrong with spending 5 hours or more researching holidays. To me online research is the ultimate time wasting and I'd rather outsource it.

Maybe that’s it? I like looking at holidays online, doing the research etc.

I think it's a bit of a misconception that all travel agents are more expensive. Often they are just earning the same commission as say, booking.com, would get if you booked through them.

The local travel agent is easily the busiest shop in my town.

I’ve used it a few times, not for every holiday but I find they’re good when you have a budget but aren’t really sure what you’re looking for. First time was for our honeymoon, the plan had been a city break, just a few days somewhere like Rome because we were going to a friends wedding in America (American bride, not a destination wedding for the sake of it) less than 6 months later so planned to travel to a few different cities while we were there as our honeymoon ‘proper’. We ended up booking a cruise, a week around the med, including flights and drinks, was cheaper than 4 nights in Rome. We would never have looked at that ourselves and still had our big trip to America.

I also used a travel agent when I booked Disneyland Paris - I had looked at it online and it just seemed really complicated by the time you started adding meals etc so I wanted to know it was done right. The travel agent also made all our restaurant bookings for when we were there. If we ever do Disneyland in Florida I would absolutely use them again.

Everytime I have used one, they have given me a worse or more expensive option than what I had already found online.

They once found us longhaul flights for 50% more than what we could found online. I guess they simply don’t have as many hours as I do to search online for the best option for me.

We have used our local independent travel agent many times to tailor make trips and they have been great. Our last trip was in October/November to NW USA and Canada and they accommodated all my whims without question. I could possibly have booked it online, but to have it as one package meant that we were covered by ABTA if anything went wrong. It also saved hours of my time.

A couple of years ago DD was trying to travel to Japan. All her accommodation was sorted, we just needed flights. Because of Covid restrictions there, only JAL was offering direct flights from the UK. We went in to the same Agents to see if they had any other thoughts. All they could do was push Lufthansa or Finnair, with lengthy stopovers in Frankfurt or Helsinki. DD wanted direct flights, but they seemed not to be able to offer anything, so I booked with JAL directly online and all was fine. It's the only time they didn't really help us.

I think it's more for a certain age group or people that aren't confident booking online?

Overheard once on a train from someone wearing a corporate travel agent uniform. “I only have to sell another 3 holidays with xxx and l get a free weekend in Paris”.

Just saying!

We use one for big long haul holidays because the staff are very knowledgeable and have been to all the hotels, and know which ones are child friendly, which are better for adults, which are full of influencers wrecking the views with photoshoots etc

They also seem to have good links with the hotels so are able to request things like a specific room. One time, they found out that we were the only people staying with young kids so the hotel could make an exception and let under-2 DS into kids club, saving us having to book an extra babysitter service

We always do a quick comparison with BA holidays and booking directly, and they are always cheaper. Not by a lot, maybe £200, but enough to mean I am happy to keep using them rather than do the legwork myself

But when it’s a 10-days-in-Greece kind of holiday, I book directly

We went to a travel agent because we thought they'd be able to get all the travel companies up on the screen to compare prices. But they couldn't. They went through them all one at a time just like we do at home. So no point in using them.

Yes and I got a really good deal with very little hassle.

My parents do when they do bigger long haul not package holiday more tailored trips
I think sometimes online it's quite hard to book when you have something specific in mind

I wouldn't use an agent these days cause I am fairly specific with what I want(mostly due to the kids), so prefer to search myself. I can't see how they'd get it any cheaper than i would, as im a whiz at looking online. However if it was just me and hubby looking for a really cheap deal anywhere, with flexible dates, then maybe a agent would be cheaper.

We have booked for this year with a travel agent for the first time in years. They were really helpful and genuinely put us together a package we couldn't have done ourselves. (and I was doing it myself long before we had internet, so I'm not a novice).

I think if you are looking for a standard package from a brochure you can do it yourself. It's when you are trying to fit together elements which you wouldn't be covered for if something went wrong then they come into their own.

Incidentally the day we were there the travel agents was full and every desk busy. People were coming in and having to wait. We could hear the conversations and everyone was actually booking, not just looking for info.

I always do! I go into Tui. The reason being is they match online price and waive admin fee. But for me it's more that if I have an issue, I can speak to them face to face or over the phone. You can't do that when booking online and I've heard the online customer service line is horrendous. My son loves going in with me to book so will continue this way.

I have memories from childhood of spending hours (probably wasn't but felt like it) in the travel agents while my parents compared different holidays and did loads of searching. It was quite enjoyable looking at all the hotels and brochures. I do actually enjoy the experience of booking a holiday through a travel agent if it's a big trip like Disney world or something, it starts the excitement build up and have got some great advice and info through doing it that way. We're planning Orlando again next year and will likely do it through a travel agent but I will have scoped out prices beforehand and looked at different options. If I can do it cheaper myself then I won't book through them though.

My parents. In their70s. Used to book flights, hotels, transfer themselves back in the day when there were villas advertised in the paper and you could book a flight on ceefax.

Nowadays they like the ease of not having to search t'internet. Plus money not an issue.

They tend to get a coach or cruise.