Travel Agency Keeps Talking about Percentages

LTeller on 06/11/2019 - 20:24
Last edited 06/11/2019 - 22:25 by 1 other user

Hi.

As a comparison to booking online for a overseas trip to Europe , a few of us(7) thought we might try a physical agent so we tried a local one who was independent from the Hello World and flight centres . We did get a surprise from the travel agent as we talked about what airline , countries and accommodation and how long we were planing on staying in each country.

The travel agent started to to talk about what percentage are we going to be on the plane for, what percentage are we going to be in each Europe country, percentage of accommodation and every other thing each of us are going to do
for example eating , drinking ,sleeping and so on.

We were all stunned , we made another appointment in 2 weeks time.

The agent wants all of the percentages detailed, we don't understand this.

Travel Travel Agency

Comments

  • brendanm on 06/11/2019 - 20:25
    +9

    I'd like to know more, this is a fascinating story

  • PissLUR on 06/11/2019 - 20:29

    why would you delay your planning? do your own research now.

    • brendanm on 06/11/2019 - 20:31
      +2

      I thought the better question is why would you continue to go back to this travel agent if you thought they were crazy?

      • Teller on 06/11/2019 - 20:42

        Will go back to see if the agent explains , these percentages?

        • brendanm on 06/11/2019 - 20:43
          +3

          You are actually going to waste time waiting 2 weeks to ask someone to explain some bizarre percentage fixation, that you could have asked about when you were there? Or simply just use another travel agent?

    • Teller on 06/11/2019 - 20:41

      We do have the trip planned, just thought we might try a travel agent ad see what they can offer , do not understand why the agent wants to know the percentage

  • Stewardo on 06/11/2019 - 20:34
    +2

    Can you detail the percentages for us, on this physical online bargain forum?

    • Teller on 06/11/2019 - 20:39

      lol , yeah corrected the error

  • elgrande on 06/11/2019 - 21:08
    +7

    The industry standard is 30/40/30

    30% plane
    40% hotel
    30% squabling

  • Dlw on 06/11/2019 - 21:19
    +1

    Perhaps to justify the amount of spending for each.
    If you’re going to spend a short amount of time doing one thing, then the spending would be less? Or if you spend an extended amount of time staying in one place then fork out the extra cash. I would think people would do this anyway but maybe this person loves numbers.

  • sw0rdy on 06/11/2019 - 21:34

    Teller, tell us more

  • chumlee on 06/11/2019 - 21:37

    Life is a game of percentage

  • Umicro on 06/11/2019 - 21:48
    +1

    I'm an independent travel agent and I don't use this system,
    But it should be to see where you are spending your time and what portion of your money you are investing in to each part.
    As if you flying a lot then to look for better/more comfortable airlines / more time in hotels then to select nicer hotels ect.

    But I am only guessing as I have never asked clients what % of what they are doing. Better to look at the big picture
    the % only comes in when trying to go down a travel insurance band and decrease the cost of travel insurance as they may be
    eligible for a lower band depending how much of their holiday is in each region

    A good agent should have a conversation with you about your goals for a trip first then give suggestions based on your needs.
    It shouldn't be a formula

    Best of luck with your travel plans!

  • Halo375 on 06/11/2019 - 21:50

    Either ditch the travel agent or pay an Ozbargainer to do a proper job of planning your trips for you.

  • Eeples on 06/11/2019 - 22:30

    I suspect you have too many flights or too many trains or too many travel days in your itinerary?

    Do you?

    In my opinion intentionally wasting this TAs time [twice!] (when you have no intention of booking with them) is a low act.

    • Teller on 07/11/2019 - 06:55

      actually if we weren't thinking about booking with the agent , we wouldn't be going back in 2 weeks

  • Meho2026 on 07/11/2019 - 01:21

    The agent is crazy but it might be a good thing.
    I went to an independent travel agent once to get a quote for a flight just to see if they could offer anything better than I found myself.
    It was like a job interview, we had to explain why we wanted to travel there (Brazil) and all these other irrelevant crazy questions that made no sense.
    Then the nutter found us this flight with best connections and cheapest price, he saved us a couple hundred $.
    Nut job travel agent=best price

  • Typical16-bitEnjoyer on 07/11/2019 - 08:36

    It's a tactic to distract you from the price and to pay more. Nothing else.

  • Love a bargain on 07/11/2019 - 14:41

    I'd head straight out of the door if I were you.

  • brokenglish on 07/11/2019 - 15:09

    Did the agents say they’re at least 60% water? Otherwise run away, could be alien.

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