Have you ever gone to the grocery store and filled your cart, only to find they have no (or only one) open checkout lines with a cashier? The only way you are getting out of that store with your purchases, in any reasonable amount of time, is to go through the self-checkout line. We all know you aren’t getting a discount for doing the work yourself. The grocery store already has the cost of employee salaries built in to the cost of their goods. So, the grocery store just made a bigger profit by forcing you to check yourself out. They didn’t have to pay an employee.
The same holds true in travel. The hotel already has the cost of a travel agent commission built in to the room rates. Read that again. The HOTEL pays for the travel agent. Not you. If you spend your time searching through all of the online booking sites to find the best deal, you are working for free. AND, you won’t find a “best deal.” Go look for yourself. The cost for the same room on the same dates is the SAME on all of the sites.
Here is just ONE example for this high end hotel in New York City. Notice how all of the public sites have about the same price?
(This is our “public” platform for subscribers, our agents can do even better!)
This is due to a law in the travel industry called rate parody. The hotels don’t want their brand devalued, so the online booking sites are not allowed to offer discounted rates. You just paid retail, and you did the work for free! If you actually ENJOY doing the research, go ahead and do it, and THEN call your travel agent.
On the other hand, a Travel Agent has access to ”unpublished” rates, so they can almost always find you a better rate than you could find online. And the hotel still pays their commission, even on the discounted rate they can offer you. You pay less, and you have an expert on your side.
Tell me again why you aren’t using a Travel Agent?