Travel Agents

Fuck knows. I guess they've existed for so long (centuries, literally) that they've got the business down to a T and know all the formulae for giving rich grannies a good time.
Also it's fair to assume they have a network of the best guides, restaurants, hotels, etc. I don't doubt you'd have a better time with an agency than you could possibly have on your own -- if your goal is to have a completely unoriginal vacation, that is.

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Here is a list of excursions that my grandparents are able to take during their two week trip. This trip is a little bit cheaper than their trip last year, only $6500 compared to $14,000. The excursions are not included into the $6500. The $6500 is hotels, flights, transportation between cities, and some boat trip. I honestly don't see how you get $6500 for two weeks of hotels, trains, and a flight. Is the travel agent really keeping that much for himself?

If this is the case, is it worth it to start a freelance travel agency? I've been traveling solo internationally since I was 16 and I love it. I even plan out hypothetical trips I would never take because I just enjoy the portion of planning it out. What more is there to do besides book the flight, hotel, transportation, hook them up with some local tours and guides, and give them a list of things to see and do?

Hell, give me a scenario of a trip you'd like with some dates and I'll send you back a detailed trip itinerary for probably 1/10 of what these slimebag travel agents charge.

why are you doing another thread with the same pic?

stuff like this always weirds me out, shills from ASTA?

>>1216296
http://archive.4plebs.org/trv/thread/1207054/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veblen_good

you end up with group stuff, and a great way to ensure that people get along is by charging a high price so that only upper class old people pay for it

you're just used to it from the other end, good chance you stayed at a hostel by khao san road and met some young people trying to do thailand cheap

>>1216296
>>1216297
Not me. It's just one of the first pictures that comes up when you google "travel agents"

>>1216295
>Literally using calibri with default formatting.
>being professional

Idk if you're charging through the nose for an itinerary you could at least put some style or care on the page to make it more readable than an 8th grade book report.

>>1216302
This is not me. This is the travel agent.

This is what I'm talking about. These slimebags charge 10x normal prices for absolute horseshit and the thing is that people actually pay for it. The money that the travel agent makes off of my grandparents and their friends is probably more than what I make in a year. Please tell me this is not the case because I can come up with better and cheaper in an hour. Are baby boomers and retirees really this ignorant? Is there that much potential money sitting out there waiting to be sucked up?

>>1216305
I mean...paying $20 for a hamburger at a restaurant versus cooking up some juicy patties at your grill at home for free -- it's the same principle as I see it. Youre paying for a) the experience and b) the feeling of exclusivity.
Though I pity you watching your inheritance squandered.

>>1216311
No no no. You're not getting what I'm saying.

I'm talking about travel agents overcharging exorbitant prices for seemingly simple and low cost services. My grandparents were charged $1600 each to fly to London when I can spend 30 seconds and find flights for under $400 round trip. They were charged $6500 each for hotels, transportation, and shit but when I add up the costs it's <$2000 for everything and that's being liberal with costs. I don't know how you can justify $99.95 for a 3 hour visit to Blarney Castle when I can find $11.50 guided tours and transportation for pennies. These people are laughing all the way to the bank.

I'm thinking if these people can make this much money on simple tasks then what's stopping me from doing a better job for 1/4 the cost and getting swamped with business?

>Though I pity you watching your inheritance squandered.
You don't even know the beginning of it

>>1216290
Travel agents don't make money like they used to make. Many actually claim their bread and butter is incidentals like travel insurance and money transfers immigrants make back home. They are still used for corporate travel needs, however, whereby a busy businessperson has shit for time to google and find the cheaptest airfare and most central hotels, transfers, or put his busy secretary on it, so many major universities use a agency, for instance. Many executives are experienced travelers, but their assistants are not. And for people on business trips, things like limos to and from sights are a hassle to set up.

Anyway, your "ripoff" stuff that you claim your grandparents are paying sounds like tours where some person is collecting a salary driving six people around, chilling and waiting while they sightsee, etc. This is a private driver. When it comes to Ireland, those prices look good enough to me. Also, the older you get, the less likely you are to accept 6am flights that might be a deal, or a hotel that has 3 flights of stairs to drag your bags up, or walking two blocks with your wheeled bags to the train station, stuff your bargain self wouldn't mind at all.

I use travel agents some of the time, such as with a company that has since closed ecruises.com where my cruise insurance was refunded after my trip if it went unused. That saved me about $80-150/cruise. I have used europeanvacations.com when I go to eastern europe because the credit card fraud is so bad. I can prepay hotels and breakfasts, and eliminate swiping my card at about 15 places, or have my rate disputed or other crap. With that company all of my hotel prices were the best I could find in person or online. If you have so-so credit, you'd also like that they have a better exchange rate and one single foreign transaction fee with the single charge on your card, versus various country's terms with your bank card. Sucks they call you at 3am once before your trip, LOL.

>>1216340
You're just an ignorant (and jealous) grandkid. You said it yourself, they're spending more than you make in a year. Get off your duff and improve your life, so you stop hating what other people can spend. They are contributing to local economies, not getting ripped off. The cost of their airfare isn't negotiable when they are requesting 6 seats at a specific time of day, of course.

That $99 for the blarney castle is because the driver is sleeping each night in a B&B too, as their van moves across the country, and getting a salary for his time. He's not a simple A to B taxi driver who returns home to his own bed at the end of the day. They get reliability, maybe a nicer than average vehicle, the same friendly face, their van with contents watched for them like bags and shit they don't want on their person while they are on a site's tour, etc. I wouldn't get in a car with just anyone on dangerous Irish roads either. I would however, skip Blarney Castle. If you have never had a tour guide to see a country well, you're missing it. It is like knowing someone locally. That octogenarian holocaust survivor driving you around during his summer vacation from university teaching while in Israel is priceless. That guy who takes you around Guatemala or Mexico is safer than on your own, but also gives you a real sense of life when they share their family history with you. If you are lucky, you'll be invited to lunch to meet the wife. These are the highlights of a trip for many people. Stop being so cheap. Even Rick Steves uses local people to show him around. Have you never traveled with other adults who couldn't make decisions or agree on a plan? This is also built-in serenity.

>>1216290
Europe. Summer. Kids out of school. Peak prices.

The great deals are in May and September, when weather is sketchy/rainy, and kids are in school.

thats why i openend up this thread >>1214926
its 400 eur for two weeks in europe. you would need to add the flights from us still and i guess they would prefer a hotel instead of hostel, but i could plan a very nice trip way under the price you mentioned. i just wonder if people would visit my website.. i would just point out the deals, show where to book, recommendations etc. but no fee or anything, just some ads on the site..

OP, see
>>1216355
>>1216356

You are oblivious of the actual services behind the fee.
I, too, plan my trips on my own for a portion of the price an agent would charge. But that's because my wife and I are OK to improvise, look up for shit to do, places to go and how to get there. We compromise, when necessary, over convenience, or price, or whatever variable that matters at the moment. We rent cars, book train tickets on a poorly translated chinese website, try to find a local cheaper way... And we save big bucks.

My parents in law, on the other hand, are the perfect Tour Operator crowd. Monolingual, worried of the internet, oblivious of general directions outside of their comfort zone, afraid of "weird" foods and experiences.
They pay out of the ass for pre packaged vacations just to have everything wrapped up in a nice bundle, know someone will wait for them at the airport, drive them around and so on.
They take 4 to 5 trips to Mauritius, one cruise, and 1 or 2 other vacations a year, amounting to a retarded sum in your or my perspective.

HOWEVER, I have planned and taken them to 3 "big" trips with us. 2 weeks in HK and Macau in 2012, 2 weeks in China (Shanghai, Beijing, Xi'An, HK) in 2014 and 10 days in South Africa in 2015 (Kruger and the region, garden route, Cape Town).
I have worked everything around them (best plane tickets according to their availability, every booking necessary hotels, excursions, train tickets, car rentals in SA...) as well as guiding them, showing them around, translating everything for them, ordering for them, bargaining in markets for them, basically everything you need to do for mildly retarded kids.
I can tell you this is a full time job that deserves to be paid. And the travel agent needs to pay those kind of guys all year long to make sure they are available and eager to please whenever necessary. They also probably purchase large allocations of tickets, seats and whatever to be sure they are available for their customers.
>ctd

>>1216391
Ctd
Also some travel agents DO have some deals on some destinations, or with some resorts/hotels.
Speaking for HK, my TA charges roughly the daily room charge PER person. Obviously way cheaper to book online directly (For instance, for a given hotel: EUR 129 per night online, around 110€ per person with TA).
However for Mauritius, or some other specific destinations, their packages and even hotel deals are cheaper than anything I could find online for the same hotel. Up to 30% cheaper than your usual booking sites. I still rather rent a big house over Airbnb for a portion of the hotel price, but if I needed to go to a hotel (like for our honeymoon), I know the TA is cheaper than anything I could find.

They also often have more flexible policies compared with airlines: you can book a plane ticket and have it on hold for a given period of time, which is handy when you prepare your trip well in advance and the seats sell fast. I just booked some tickets online yesterday, and the airline website offered to hold the booking for 3 days...against 15EUR!
My TA usually holds the booking as long as the airline will allow, sometimes several weeks... And their fee doesn't change.

>>1216295
Yeah they're taking dumb American tourists for a ride. Considering how weak the pound and euro is at the moment i'd be surprised if that all came to $2500. Travel agent is taking about 200% profit.

It makes me glad that the internet, smartphones and tech businesses are exposing these sharks and eating into their businesses. Uber and Grabcar, for example, are some of the best things to ever happen for travel. Seeing taxi drivers rioting after they know their game is finally up makes me chuckle. The Japanese government had to step in to save their taxi drivers. And you can see why when they charge $12 to drive up two streets. Now they just line up at the side of the road all day with only people in a rush taking them.

Anyway, grannies can't adapt to our generation's technology, so they'll still continue to be taken advantage of.

>>1216302
And actually know how to spell the cities on the itinerary. I hope they have fun in glascow

>>1216431
Like OP, you don't seem to make the difference between doing something for your leisure, and doing it as a job. "200% profit". Based on what? What you'd charge from your room?

This is the reason why so many people quit a job they hate to "make a living out of their passion", and end up hating it too, because it's not about them anymore but about their customers.

Not saying taxis aren't a big scam in many places, but they just filled a spot in the market. They are challenged by Uber and other new concepts, but taxis have been around since the cars exist, and I'm not sure the private drivers will take over any time soon.
It seems easy peasy to use your brand new car and charge half what a taxi charges, but even assuming you don't end up chasing upvotes and working your ass off to feed Uber, you won't be able to cover the expenses in the long run with low prices. Good luck to be a private driver with a beatup, 7 or 8 yo car that you can't afford to exchange for a new one.
Also who is the shark, a man who charges money to drive you around in his car, or a faceless company that charges you money to drive people around in your car?

Nowadays everyone with a computer or an app thinks he can do better and cheaper than brick and mortar shops, it's true for some but not a generality.
Also the more online "experts" like OP the more scams, and the less people will trust web based operators and return to travel agents.

My mum and dad went on a package tour. I asked them why they did, why couldn't they be like me and make no plans. My mum said that she's a teacher and she spends her life planning, so when she goes on holiday, she wants it done for her.

fair enough.

>>1216290
I only use travel agents for international flights. I live in tasmania tasmania so Europe or us are liable to be 2g minimum, flight agents are good at coding across airlines if you're flexible with dates and can definitely get better routes that still don't leave yu jetlagged to shit. Last year I booked tas to dallas, NYC to Rome, and Helsinki to tas for $2300 aud. They were at reasonable times without shifty layovers. That's $800 cheaper than I could find online.

>>1216462
You don't seem to be aware that taxi drivers have to pay huge fees for a taxi license, which is exactly the same as paying someone like Uber to be their middle-man. Additionally, you're much more likely to be scammed by a random taxi driver in bumfuck nowhere who takes you round in circles than somebody registered with grabcar, which even gives you the fare before you step foot in the taxi.

Anyway, you seem to enjoy wasting your money. As they say, a fool and his cash..

>>1216472
Try Emirates if you're flying to Europe. £600-700 return. You'll have to get a cheap regional flight to Melbourne or Sydney first though.

>>1216477
Thanks for pointing that professionals do have expenses that impact negatively the price they can sell a product or service.
taxis pay a fee for a license issued by an official organ to give them the right to transport peoples. It has Nothing to do with paying a tech company to use their app.

I think you didn't really read my post.

Not even defending taxis as I don't use them except on very, very rare occasions.

Also it is you who took the topic away by focusing on taxis, but just don't go around touting that amateurs with average joe's means behind their computer can compare to actual businesses with a rent, advertising, employees and contracts all over the world.

I'm probably wiser with my cash than you are, no matter what you think you gathered from my post.

>>1216483
>I'm probably wiser with my cash than you are
Yes, i'm sure you are, buttercup. You're that kind of guy they definitely saw coming.

>>1216432
>>1216302
>excurstions

>>1216485
Ad hominem after moving the posts and other retard alerts. Keep going strong bro

>>1216477
You know lots of uber drivers live in their cars and are poor as fuck because uber isn't working?

>>1216506
Sorry, what? Any more buzzwords you don't understand you'd like to use? Honestly i gave up debating with you when you failed to work out the salient similarity between a taxi driver paying a governmental agency for a license to use his car as a taxi, and an uber driver paying uber to use his car as a taxi.

It's no fun debating somebody with a double-digit IQ.

>>1216516
Uber's company valuation has risen 400% over the last year. Looks like it's working to me.

>>1216571
>Honestly i gave up debating with you
Except you never debated, you just held onto an argument that's itself off topic. Still haven't proven any of my points wrong, retard

>>1216576
I don't recall you ever making any, just going on a rant about company's overheads or something.

>Still haven't proven any of my points wrong, retard
Oh the irony.

>>1216578
So your memory is as shit as your understanding, that's too bad.

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>>1216290
There are two circumstances where I think they can still be useful.

One involves situations like we have in my family -- we try to go somewhere once every year or so, there are 14 of us, living scattered around the country, ranging in age from 6 to 85, with varying degrees of mobility and such. Booking the lot of us to go somewhere and do something is a pain in the ass -- if somebody will do it in exchange for a few bucks, and stop my Grandfather from worrying about it, I think that's probably worth it.

Yes, yes, we COULD each make our own deals and meet up at Destination, but that's when the worrying starts. It's Grandpop's dime he is entitled to not have to spend his time being aggravated about shit.

I have also sometimes found them useful in trying to book travel that involves multiple tickets on multiple non-related airlines. COULD I do it myself. Sure. But I'm not so poor that it kills me to pay a few bucks for somebody else to fuck with that shit.

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>>1216290
>They always book through a travel agent and today they received their itinerary for the summer in addition to other trips and stuff they could take with prices on all of them. Of course they are prices from out of this world.

>Why do not grandparents stay in hostels and travel cheap like I do?

Because they don't fucking have to.

>>1216340
If you are so fucking good at this, why are you not volunteering to book shit for you grandparents? They'd probably be thrilled, unless you are such a ne'er do well that they know you'd screw it up.

>>1216290
Travel agents are a good deal for upper middle class or riche people who don't need to pinch pennies.

If you were to call one as a gap year backpacker trying to spend $2,000 for 2 months they would be annoyed with you.

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My family is in the process of booking a trip to western Europe through a travel agency. They're paying out the ass for a bunch of tours and schedules. I have to go, and pay my own share. If I back out, they simply won't go at all.

I hate tours and I hate the idea of having to pay $2k+ to go on a bunch of them. Is there anything I could do to make this experience slightly more enjoyable?

>>1216682
Are you an adult?
If so, act like it and do whatever the fuck you want.

My apartment is right behind a strip mall that has a travel agency. I've never booked with them, but I've converted currency there and they had better rates than Wells Fargo. Friendly people. I live in northern Wisconsin so places like these are thriving because the average age of my city is over 50. There are computer shops still open.

>>1216682
being 12 was hard for all of us

>>1216290
I used a travel agent on my first vacation as an adult. I really didn't know what i was doing, but we were just going to Las Vegas.

We stayed at Treasure Island and when i checked in, they told me they were going to put a $200 hold on my debit card for "incidentals" or some shit. Turns out that hold was 200 per guest.

I get home from Las Vegas and noticed I had a bunch of auto payments bounce and my checking account was like - $500.

I called the travel agent, he took care of all of that in between my bank and Treasure Island.

Easily worth the small fee that one time.

>>1216714
>Are you an adult?
>If so, act like it

I was going to say this part, in terms of go travel with your family and don't be a dick.

It's just service, same reason people pay others to cook their food and clean their house. Not everyone enjoys planning a vacation, not everyone enjoys cooking.

>>1216290
Fuck

Fuck

really, for this cash I could travel a month or two a year for 30 years

You made me sad, op

>>1216516
Uber is big here in PA and I've never heard of that anywhere. most do it as a part time gig for extra cash but full time is certainly profitable will just wear down your car after time.

uber select/black/SUV drivers make large amounts, 6 figures easy in a large city.