May 1st Declared "Hug Your Travel Agent Day"

May 1st is hereby declared as National Hug Your Travel Agent Day.  You may be wondering why, so I'll answer with a story (one that most travel agents can probably relate to).

A new customer called over the winter wanting to get away with his wife for a relaxing beach vacation. He'd been looking online and was overwhelmed by the choices. He was having trouble narrowing down the destinations and the resort options. He didn't have the time or the desire to spend hours at his computer and then risk his vacation dollars on a pretty picture or a "cheap deal".

I proceeded to ask him some questions about what he was looking for, what was most important in a resort, what his budget was, etc.  I listened carefully, and then we found the perfect spot for him and his wife - it met all of their criteria and then some. I was even able to take advantage of a special promotion that I knew about, which saved him a tidy sum off the total.

Of course, he got online and started reading reviews and called me back asking about the online reviews. How can you tell which ones are accurate?  I told him that the reviews on the site he was looking at are very subjective. Some of them might be accurate and some might not.  Some people are very picky and will never be happy, no matter how great the resort, and other people are just the opposite. The reviews travel agents use are strictly first-hand reviews by travel professionals (if they haven't personally been there themselves), and I was confident that he would be happy with the resort we had selected. It was going to be a perfect fit. He stopped worrying and started packing..

When I saw him after his trip, he gave me a hug and told me that it was "the best vacation ever"!  The resort was everything he wanted - gorgeous beach, great food, excellent service- and he could not have been happier with everything, including the birthday celebration that I had pre-arranged with management.  His co-worker winked and said that he'd talked about nothing else since his return. As far as next year's trip, he insisted, "I trust you completely, and I won't book another vacation without you."

So for all those time-liberating, money-saving, party-planning, expertise-sharing travel agents out there, May 1st is their big day.  Go ahead and give them a hug!