Why Use A Travel Agent
With everything that has happened in recent years with the Coronavirus, it seems now more than ever is a perfect time to book through a travel agent. Travel agents take the hassle out of the holiday booking experience, providing insights and ideas of where to go and excellent knowledge of the best hotels, locations and flight times for you. They also have contacts that can help make your stay that extra little bit special or sort out any problems much quicker, should they arise.
We at CT4N Travel have noticed lots of our customers coming to us after the pandemic as they want their trips to be special and want our knowledge to help them. It has been a theme discussed often since 2020 with shows such as This Morning highlighting the benefits. The host Eamonn Holmes even said that travel agents are the future.
During 2020 and 2021 we all heard the stories and saw the comments on social media of people being left on hold for hours and hours to airlines and hotels just to be cut off without even speaking to anyone. This left customers in limbo as to what was happening with their holiday and even whether they could cancel or amend it! In a lot of circumstances, it got to the week they were due to travel and customers had still heard nothing from their operators as to whether their holiday was going ahead or not and in a lot of cases people were wanting to cancel or amend their holiday but not being able to get in touch with anyone.
This is where travel agents are worth their weight in gold!! We take all this hassle away as it is our job to sort things out for you and get the outcome you are wanting, without you having to wait on the phone for hours getting frustrated only to be cut off.
Travel agents rely on customers and so YOU the customer are the most important thing to us and we will do everything in our power to make sure you get the service and holiday you require. During these years we spent much of our time on the phones helping our customers find out what was happening and helping them to rearrange or cancel them. We are a small company so your experience is even more important to us than larger companies. There are only 4 (Chris, Caroline, Marian and Ben) of us in our friendly team, so you will always know who you are talking to and we have your best interests at heart.
We are there right from day one, finding you the right holiday at a budget that suits you. We have access to hundreds of suppliers and rates that sometimes you just can’t find on the internet no matter how many hours you spend trawling the web, saving you the time and stress of finding that trip.
We make sure we get the details right and that you are happy with everything before booking, once booked everything is down to us! Having a good travel agent is like having a good friend – we have got your back! The world is ever-changing and so we make sure we are up to date with the latest information, ensuring that you are kept in the know with any changes to your potential destination, whether that be the forms you need to fill in to enter a country or if there are any special quarantine measures introduced.
Like any professional, travel agents are the experts in our industry. If you wanted a boiler fitted you would get an engineer to fit it not look at the instructions on YouTube. Why should that be any different when it comes to ensuring your holiday is perfect? We make sure you have all the required documents you need to travel and any information you need to know about the destination you are travelling to.
Most importantly we care! Ultimately, we want you to have a great time when you are away and when you come back, hopefully you will tell everybody what a great time you have had and how we helped you sort it out. If any problems arise, no matter how small from cancelled flights, or problems with hotels it is OUR problem not yours. You just sit back and relax while we do the work.
Those pesky internet bookings get even harder when there is a group of you. More than 9 seats – oh you can’t book that number directly so you will have to do two bookings. However, when you go back in to do the second booking, the price has gone up. Never fear – we have access to group departments meaning that when we quote you a price per person for a group booking, that is the price.
We understand that people want value for money with everything these days and there are times when we simply can’t match an internet price (though it won’t be for the want of trying). Don’t forget that many prices you see on the internet may not include luggage, seat selection or other hidden costs so the price may not always be what it seems.
However, what then happens when something goes wrong and you have nobody but a robot chat system to talk to? We have all had to do it and the sheer frustration when you just want to explain to someone what the problem is. We are there to listen and to try and help you resolve the problem. Sometimes value for money is not just the bottom line price but the assistance, the personal recommendations for restaurants, the bottle of wine in the room for a special occasion – these are the things which can make a holiday.
We also remember our clients – where you prefer to sit on a plane (my favourite seat is 1C), your birthday (a little card just to say happy birthday), a welcome home postcard to say hope you had a good time – these are all just some of the personal little touches we feel are important when building up the relationship between customer and agent.
Possibly most importantly, an ATOL bonded agent keeps you financially protected, meaning your money is safe and you will be looked after no matter what.
So the next time you come to book your holiday, don’t forget CT4N Travel as your local travel agent and we will be delighted to help you.