Best Travel Agents & Booking Services

What does a travel agent do for you?

Travel agents plan and book trips for their clients, whether for business trips or holidays. They listen to your travel preferences and source anything from flights and accommodation to tours and restaurant bookings for you.

Ultimately, a travel agent’s job is to ensure you have the best possible experience. To do this, they also:

• Liaise with hotels and hotel agents, airlines, tour operators, and other travel companies to ensure you have a great experience without you needing to put in much effort.
• Assist you if you get into any sticky situations abroad.

Using an agent is generally thought to save you hours of research, which is why using a travel agent instead of booking online may be a good idea for time-pressed people. Of course, you will be paying extra for these little luxuries, but for many travellers, the trade-off is well worth it.

What is a booking service?

You can now act as your own travel agent and use airline, car rental, hotel, and other sites, such as Odynovo and Travel Online, to book your own trip. These websites let you compare different travel deals and purchase whichever ones strike your fancy.

Those who still want a little bit of guidance can still consult an online travel agent or travel consultant without enlisting them to plan their whole holiday for you.

Booking your own travel is generally more suited to spontaneous travellers who like to plan as they go, shoestring travellers who aren’t picky about where they’ll stay, and travellers who have an exact idea of what they want to do and aren’t necessarily seeking advice from an agent.

Consider what kind of travel you want to do

Those who like to travel with a daily itinerary and have their activities planned out may be more inclined to use travel agents, while those who prefer off-the-cuff, spontaneous travel with just a general idea of what they want to do rather than a specific plan may suffice with making their own bookings.

Many travel agents these days will also specialise in a certain area, such as cruises (like cruise agents at Clean Cruising) or honeymoons. If you’re after a particular type of getaway, then finding an agent who knows all the ins and outs of exactly what you want to do could be a good place to start.

You can think of it as dating of sorts - you’re in better hands with a travel agent who takes a genuine interest in you and your travel ideas. Whether you want to do a rail trip around Europe or backpack through South-East Asia, an agent whose eyes light up at the sound of your plans and adds their own personal touch is a good match.

What to look for in a travel agent

Accreditation

Travel agents in Australia aren’t required to be licensed, however they can still get voluntary accreditation with the ATAS, or the AFTA Travel Accreditation Scheme. This is run by the Australian Federation of Travel Agents (AFTA), the peak travel agent body in Australia, which vets agents to ensure that they meet industry standards and are adequately trained.

According to ATAS, the benefits of booking with an industry-accredited ATAS agent include:

• Expert guidance. Agents know how to wade through the abundance of travel information online and have access to high quality product suppliers.
• Extra value. ATAS agents have access to exclusive deals and can find the most well-suited products for you.
• Professional advice. They offer insightful, timely, and professional guidance to get you where you want to go.
• Consumer advocacy. If there are any problems while you travel, your agent will act as your advocate, providing support and assistance in the case of events like flight delays or cancellations, rescheduling, natural disasters, and personal accidents.

Knowledge

No travel agent is going to have local knowledge of every single city and country on the planet. However, finding an agent who has been to, knows about, or is ready to go the extra mile and do research on your destination is usually a good sign.

Customer service

A high level of customer service is key to ensuring you get the most out of your holiday. Of course, a friendly travel agent will help you enjoy the process of booking your travel, not just the travel itself. On top of this, you should keep an eye out for transparency and timeliness when comparing agents.

Transparency

A good agent is transparent about their fees and charges, the terms and conditions of your trip, and why they think certain deals are better than others - some even show you their computer screen so you know they aren’t hiking up prices. If they wait before revealing hidden or extra costs, then that’s a red flag.

Timeliness

A travel agent who replies promptly is often a keeper. Not only does constant communication make booking your travel a whole lot quicker and easier, you’ll also be able to nab up the latest deals without a hitch. If things go wrong on your trip, an agent who helps you in a timely way when you’re in need can make or break your whole holiday.

Deals

Some travellers, such as students and pensioners, may have access to special travel deals, information, and discounted fares that they normally wouldn’t be able to find with a few queries on a search engine.

Don’t expect every travel agent to know about all these concessions. For example, students may want to look for a youth-oriented travel agency or agents situated in backpacker-heavy locations.

Cost

The price that travel agents charge for their services can vary greatly, and will also depend on the length, complexity, and nature of your trip. For a week-long holiday, you can generally expect to pay somewhere between $100 for more inexpensive solo trips to over $2000 for a luxury stay.

It’s normal for travel agencies and tour operators to charge reschedule and cancellation fees, so make sure you know these costs before you book.

What to look for in a travel booking service

Ease of use

A decent booking service should be clear and easy to navigate. Clicking on a link should get you where it tells you it will, rather than to an advertisement or some other pop-up. Complicated booking sites may be that way to obscure hidden fees or sway you into choosing a flight or hotel of their liking.

A website which lets you save information as you search, such as the dates you want to fly on and any hotels you’ve “favourited”, will make the whole process a lot quicker and easier.

Transparency

A booking site may advertise a certain price, but then show a different price once you click on the deal. This could mean that either the pricing just isn’t up to date, or that the website is intentionally showing you a cheaper price to get you to click through. Either way, these booking services are misleading and you may be better off avoiding them altogether.

Rewards

Many travel booking sites will reward you for using them to plan your holidays, incentivising you to use the same service for any future trips.

Expedia, for example, lets you earn Expedia points with every trip you book through them, which you can then use to save on hotels, travel packages, and car rentals. Some services also offer you perks the more you travel, giving you things like discounted spa days and free Wi-Fi on your trip.

Prices

Just because using a booking service is generally cheaper than using a travel agent, that doesn’t necessarily mean that there won’t be fees associated with using them, so ensure you double check details to see whether you’re actually paying a good price.

Some booking services also offer price matching, offering the same or a better price than the lowest price you’ve found.

You can always use both

There are pros and cons to using a travel agent and a booking service, so don’t feel like using one means you can’t use the other.

Some people like to do their own research and compare prices they find to quotes from agents before deciding who to go with. Some also use travel agents for bigger purchases - such as flights and accommodation - but prefer to do car bookings, rail bookings, and organise day trips themselves.

At the end of the day, it’s your trip, and how you plan it is entirely up to you.