 Poster: A snowHead
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Pre WWW days I used to use the Co-op Travel for packaged ski tours - but mainly because I wasn't in UK and it was easier to use the same Agent that the company used. I'd pre-select from TO brochures and a couple of faxes and maybe a phone call sorted the booking. Then when on leave I'd call in at the shop and pay and collect the tickets and vouchers. They'd give me 5% off brochure prices and free insurance.
Used Trailfinders in London about 3 years ago for a long haul return flight - they still send me expensive brochures to my home address.
Now I do everything on line except when I need to change a booking - then it's easier to go to the Airline office here. The last alteration took them 1 hour to sort out on their system. It would have been impossible on the net.
So to answer the OP ? High Street Travel Agents are dying slowly. Airlines drastically reduced the commission they gave Agents about 10 years ago (IIRC) and that took away a lot of their income. There are some small family owned businesses that can still give good service and reasonable prices but the big boys have been whacked hard by the net.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Dubaian, sorry but I just don't agree that travel agents are "dying slowly". The internet will of course have had a negative effect on travel agents, and people like you and indeed myself are much more comfortable with booking online with TOs as well as organsing independent trips. But as I said earlier in this thread, having worked for TUI (Crystal) last season I was still amazed just how many people had booked their holidays through a travel agent. There will still be plenty of people who just don't want to spend hours of their own time researching various different ski resorts to find something that fits their needs; there are still many who desire the "personal touch" and simply feel better having a supposed ski expert make recommendations to them; and there are still many for whom a travel agent is considered a more convenient, reliable and easier process than the intricacies of the online booking process. Add in the factor of people who've never booked a ski holiday before and have no clue about lift passes, lessons, equipment hire etc etc and the role of the travel agent is very clear, and still a very large part of many people's choice for how to book a holiday.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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Dav, all you say would be true if the high street agents actually knew their stuff.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Dav, summed it far better than I did.
Jonny Jones,
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| having a supposed ski expert make recommendations to them |
if you know no better then even crap/ropey info is taken as read.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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I used crystal to get this years x-mass break sorted, purely because they could arrange the rooms at a better rate than the hotel ( ? yes, thats what I thought too).
Three of us flying from manchester to italy staying for 7 nights. Mum & dad driving up to meet us from Lake Como staying in the same hotel for 7 nights, no flights required.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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| homers double wrote: |
| I used crystal to get this years x-mass break sorted, purely because they could arrange the rooms at a better rate than the hotel ( ? yes, thats what I thought too). |
Why the surprise? Crystal have probably contracted to take (e.g.) 20 rooms a night for the whole season. For that much business they are going to get a *big* discount.
When you went direct, you were competing for the few remaining rooms that they could sell to just about anyone at a much higher price.
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If the booking and subsequent holiday goes just as planned then there's no easily seen benefit from booking through a high street travel agent.
If (as happened to me this year), things change between booking and departing (or as a couple of years ago whilst away), then I find it much easier to talk to someone face to face to resolve rather than at the other end of the phone. It's also cheaper to sit in a travel agent to resolve a problem for an hour or so than it is to be on the phone.
I book cheap 'sun' holidays where there are less things to go wrong in a variety of ways - but ski holidays are always with the security of the high street agents
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| RobW wrote: |
| homers double wrote: |
| I used crystal to get this years x-mass break sorted, purely because they could arrange the rooms at a better rate than the hotel ( ? yes, thats what I thought too). |
Why the surprise? Crystal have probably contracted to take (e.g.) 20 rooms a night for the whole season. For that much business they are going to get a *big* discount.
When you went direct, you were competing for the few remaining rooms that they could sell to just about anyone at a much higher price. |
They get a big discount to increase their margin and other hotels we looked at were offering rooms at a better rate than crystal so this one suprised me.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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| Jonny Jones wrote: |
| Dav, all you say would be true if the high street agents actually knew their stuff. |
It depends what degree of knowledge you expect from a high street travel agent, really. The bare minimum I'd expect would be a comprehensive knowledge (and the ability to explain) the vaguaries of lift passes, equipment hire and instruction. When it comes to individual resort information, that's a different matter entirely. I consider myself a relatively very well travelled skier to the average punter (one working season, one half leisure season plus around 25 weeks of additional holidays in around 15 different resorts worldwide). Yet ask me to be able to tell you in depth about every resort in a company brochure, and I'd be stuffed; flick through your average brochure and you'll probably find up to around 100 different resorts. It's practically impossible to have a working knowledge of all of those resorts. However, it is entirely possible to come to understand a ski brochure and have an idea of the different sizes of resorts, which are good are particular levels of skiers, resorts that are more snow sure than others etc etc.
Quite what the level of knowledge with the average travel agent is, I don't know. But the benchmarks I've listed above really shouldn't be very hard to attain.
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The premise in the original post is a bit off-kilter really. In the UK most "high street travel agents" are actually the retail outlets of the major Tour Operators, specifically the Thomas Cook Group and the TUI Group. As such their primary objective is to sell the products of their group companies. As a secondary line they will also sell competitor products, both those of the other major operator and of smaller tour operators. As a very poor third they will put together itineraries themselves from individual airlines, hotels operators etc.
The demographic that they supply is largely C2D and they still have quite a good market penetration albeit one that is gradually eroding as the propensity to buy online becomes more widespread.
Real independent travel agents are pretty thin on the ground but if you do manage to find one they can occasionally achieve things that you would not manage for yourself in a month of Sundays. However this is very much the exception and I would expect that the vast majority of  can manage perfectly well without them. Definitely the denizens of this place will be more knowledgeable than the staff of the average high street holiday shop.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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| Richard_Sideways wrote: |
| I keep offering to work for them so they can tap the lucrative exotic snow markets for Iran, Peru, Alaska etc, but they just tell me to get to the bar... |
Alaska is "exotic"?
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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abc, as a skiing/riding location, yes i'd include it as an exotic location.
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Why?
I mean is it any more exotic than Montana or Alberta?
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You know it makes sense.
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| SnowboardVicky wrote: |
If (as happened to me this year), things change between booking and departing (or as a couple of years ago whilst away), then I find it much easier to talk to someone face to face to resolve rather than at the other end of the phone. It's also cheaper to sit in a travel agent to resolve a problem for an hour or so than it is to be on the phone.
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I've just arranged our annual trip for 28 people, I have never met my travel agent face to face, and have no desire to whatsoever. I find e-mails much better than conversations, so I can read them at my leisure and everything is confirmed in writing, and occasionally it is necessary to ring up with payment details or to check something that is a bit more complicated. Plus talking to real people is so 1990s 
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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Fascinating thread for someone who spends a lot of time pontificating on the future of the travel agency. Used to work as a hi street agent too, but got out when I started to notice that people knew more than me about a lot of places they came in to ask about! That is the power of the internet for you, and it is going to be very rare for even a highly trained individual to be able to expertly answer the wide variety of trips and locations that are thrown at them every day.
So it is broken? In its current format, yes I think it largely is. As many said, they are perhaps more use for reminding you of a name to look up when you go home, or a source of nice pics and the odd idea. I think there could be a future for the high street travel agent tho, in a radically differnt format. it needs to embrace the internet and mobile age, remove the reliance on human agents and become more of a inspiration/social space to plan your trip perhaps?
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Poster: A snowHead
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It should not be broken really but the trouble is the tour operators. It is their model that is pretty broken living on the past and a certain clientele. Given their buying power their ability to mix and match should be much greater, to drive hotels to provide what customers want (or at least some) - just looked at a package to Cyprus - none of the hotels appeared to have free wifi in rooms, limited single rooms or those that are are doubles charged at double prices. Cheaper to actually rent an apartment independently in the country away from the noise of the beach (but atcually not going there as the flights were very expensive).
TOs are still pathetic at catering for single travellers - if they were flexible - when they have seats on the aircraft and unused rooms you would have thought they would have cheap deals for single late bookers - but the system is too inflexible and the travel agent appears not to be able to battle through the system anymore. Btw doe anyone know any trvae agent who can battle through the system to get cheap late deals for single travellers?
Usual answer is therefore drive or fly independently and ski with SCGB rep occasionally if there is one in resort.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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| abc wrote: |
Why?
I mean is it any more exotic than Montana or Alberta? |
Yes, i'd say it is. It's geographically remote, and something of a rarity in peoples ski repertoire. Plus theres a certain massive mountain, big beardedness to saying "Why yes, I have been skiing in the Alaska back country"
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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always preferred organising my own holidays, being able to get exactly what i want. perhaps more time-consuming but better value
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Can't honestly remember the last time I booked via a high street travel agent, have uised Neilson/Crystal/Jet 2 online, which I suppose counts as using a travel agent, but as for going and sitting in front of someone whilst they do their stuff - no thanks!
I prefer a paper brochure, as you can flick through it at your leisure, but it's the internet all the way for me, whether booking as a package or DIY.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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| Richard_Sideways wrote: |
| abc wrote: |
Why?
I mean is it any more exotic than Montana or Alberta? |
Yes, something of a rarity in peoples ski repertoire. Plus theres a certain massive mountain, big beardedness to saying "Why yes, I have been skiing in the Alaska back country" |
OK, as a marketing slogan or bragging rights. Yes, it's exotic.
Otherwise, engaging a heli/cat operator in Alaska is no different than engaging a heli operator in Alberta.
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| It's geographically remote, |
And in this age of cheap flights, there's no place on earth is any more "remote" than London.
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abc, With respect Alaska is geographically separate and distinct from the contiguous US and is probably the most "frontier" state - highest proportion of wilderness, least dense population etc etc. And it isn't easy for Europeans to get to - I can fly direct into Calgary from London but for Anchorage I'm looking at a connect through Seattle. So it might not be quite as much a mission as getting to the Kamchatka Peninsula but its still fairly exotic. Equally visiting Kasakhstani gasfields or Liberian oil fields would count as exotic for us even though I'm sure Westerners live in relatively high standards.
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