A question I am often asked when I am out socially and someone hears I am ‘in the travel business’ is “How do you compete with the internet?”  “It’s so easy for people to source their own information online these days and make their own travel plans.”

Quite frankly, if you are internet savvy and you need an airline ticket to visit your family or friends, I say ‘go on-line’ and do it yourself.  But if you may need to change the travel date or city visited or need to coordinate stops or multiple travelers, maybe paying a small fee is actually a  good idea.

When shopping for best values, you may have to visit multiple websites to make cost and schedule comparisons and you can ultimately wind up spending a fair amount of time.  Are you going to remember to confirm to be sure that what you booked is still operating as originally scheduled?  Now what happens when  your connection in Chicago is cancelled due to a weather or mechanical delay…who are you going to call to assist to you make alternate arrangements?   You certainly can queue up with the other 250 stranded passengers…or maybe you would  rather check into a nearby hotel while your travel agent sorts it all out for you.   Some people have the time and patience, and may even enjoy the process…so go for it.

I receive many calls from very internet savvy and sharp folks who say…”I have spent  countless hours in the last month searching  dozens of websites for this or that, and I am more confused than when I started.  I know where we want to go, but I need a villa in this region for 9 with en suite acomedation and a chef for 3 nights,  and we need to be walking distance to a hill village or I need to meet this price point for 4 nights in Paris and Rome and Barcelona…or we want to go on a cruise, but we are trying to satisfy the budget requirements and tastes for 5 different couples, etc”. You can hear the relief in their voice when after a few minutes of conversation, you tell them that you will be happy to take over navigating the overwhelming array of choices while meeting their expectations and budgetary requirements.