The Travel Planner takes care of bookings: what are the benefits for the traveler?

Today, we are going to look at the advantages of booking for travelers rather than doing trip planning. So, obviously, this article is aimed at travel creators who are wondering: is it more interesting for both the travelers and for me, to create the trips and go all the way to booking for the travelers? Or is it better to offer them a simple personalized itinerary and then let them book it themselves?

First, there are many travel planners who just provide their advice and then deliver a personalized itinerary to travelers, who then have to make the reservations themselves. And it's true that this worked quite well, at least before Covid, especially with very diligent travelers who were able to book very quickly.

Is it more interesting for both travelers and myself to create trips and go all the way through the booking process for travelers?

But actually, there is a basic problem with this way of working. Indeed, one plays their advisory role, meaning that one creates the itinerary, selects the services by precisely crafting the tailor-made trip for their clients. And once the personalized itinerary is created, one provides them with a link per service, whether it be for accommodations and possibly even for the plane, whether it be for activities or for transport. And then, they are supposed to manage on their own.

This allows you to be compensated by simple consulting fees, which are a flat rate. So why is it disappointing? First, because in fact, most of the time, customers will not hit the exact same prices, because there is a small latency period between when we do the research for them and when we plan their itinerary. And they may not necessarily find the same prices, whether for flights or for hotels.

Evolving Prices

In any case, it's very rare that they find the same prices. And in addition to this price issue, they will surely also have availability issues, which forces having backup plans, etc. So, first thing, it can be a bit disappointing in terms of prices and availability. The same services are not necessarily found afterwards when the client makes their own reservations.

The Absence of Insurance

Some travel planners therefore book themselves on the internet and the problem is that there is no insurance or guarantee, and as a result, the client ends up buying from several different sites and generally, they are not going to get the best prices each time. They will also have an invoice for each service and will ultimately have to manage different travel suppliers themselves, without going through a structure that provides guarantees, without having any specific insurance, taking it upon themselves and without any help in case of unforeseen events. And we have recently seen that there can be unforeseen events.

Beyond that, there are all the insurance issues that we have already seen in two Facebook events and which mean that indeed, even if we only give advice, we must be very careful to have what is called professional liability insurance.

Offer the Best Prices

Customers often feel that by buying themselves, they get the best prices but that's not always the case. Travel planners offer to find the best prices for their clients and charge them a variable fee for this service. And therefore, if we are able to provide them with the best prices, it makes no sense to charge them fees because these fees will be seen as mere handling charges, whereas ultimately, the trip planner could very well earn their keep on the services themselves by doing the work thoroughly, that is by making the reservations on behalf of the travelers. And in these cases, they need a license.

With the guarantees of a travel agency

This is precisely the whole point of the platform that we created with Vialala, it is to offer both a technical tool for creating personalized itineraries and to provide the travel contract, insurance, etc. We do this at the same price that the customer could get by themselves by searching on different sites with different providers and ultimately providing everything that a traditional travel agency structure could offer, that is the travel contract, indeed, and the travel documents, but also the insurance and the guarantees that the services will be properly delivered.

So, ultimately, the client has the same prices as if they were searching by themselves, they will have the same rates and the same services as on the quote, and a single invoice with a structure to turn to in case of a problem, or if there is a delay or a modification needed. We are an organization that manages all of this.

For better service

So as a travel planner the benefit is very simple: you offer a better service for your clients. They will get the same prices as if they were looking themselves, but with much more help, much more guarantees both before the trip and after booking, since all the customized follow-up is done up to the trip itself and during the trip. And thus, all of this is taken care of for them at the same price as if they were making lots of bookings themselves with many different suppliers that they would have to manage each time with all these different suppliers.

Better compensation

So it's better for these travelers and it's better for the travel planner as well. In fact, we are able to earn more money than by offering just a simple advice package, which would be less comprehensive for travelers, and we can earn a commission on each service without having to deliver them ourselves since it's Vialala that takes care of it.

People no longer want to organize everything themselves by looking for prices, etc. If they go through a travel planner, it's precisely to be helped, and it makes sense to help them to the very end. For the travel planner, it allows them not to add any handling fees for the clients and it indeed enables them to sell, in addition to their advice, all the other services since they will effectively earn a commission on all the services that are booked on the platform.

If they use a travel planner, it's precisely to get help

In fact, it's also a general safety feature that when we offer our services to travelers, we can assure them that everything is guaranteed to the end and that we're not just there to give advice and then leave them responsible for everything they ultimately purchase. No, we are there to support them at the time of booking, and even more importantly, during the trip itself.