When I told my friends I was going to start working as a travel planner, one of the first questions they had was, "how much will it cost to have you plan my trip?" Most of them were used to making their own travel plans online and figured it would cost them more to have someone else do it for them. Logical, but not necessarily true!
While some travel planners or travel agents may charge you a fee for their services. Not all do! There are lots of travel planners that are "fee free" including myself and the team at Main Street and More Travel.
You might be wondering, well how does that work? How do we get paid? And that's a great question. We get paid by the companies that we make the booking with. So for example, if I book a trip to Walt Disney World for my client, I get paid a commission by the Walt Disney Company after my client completes their trip. You might be wondering, where does that money come from? Are those clients paying higher rates to make up the difference? The answer is no, they aren't paying higher rates. They are paying the exact same rates that folks booking themselves are paying, and in some cases they are even getting better rates!
So how does this work? Let's consider the Walt Disney World example. When you book a trip on your own through Disney's website, odds are at some point you'll be calling their customer service line to ask questions and it costs Disney money to have folks there to answer your questions. When you book through a travel planner, we become the ones to answer your questions and alleviate some of that burden, which means we're saving Disney time and money!
One of the many great things about using a travel planner is that because they don't work for one company, they can give you their honest opinion about which options are the best fit for you. A good Travel Planner is also invested in working with you in the long term and will be looking to understand your unique needs and preferences. If you want to learn more about the many reasons to use a Travel Planner, check out my post on Top 5 Reasons to Use a Travel Planner.
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