Why You Get More Value Not Booking Vacations Direct

This month I had the rare pleasure of speaking with a cruise line reservations agent to about my own anniversary trip.  As we talked about the ship, she said "Wow you're going to have a good time the Breakaway looks like a great ship."  The way she said 'look' made me ask, "Don't you guys get discounts to sail?"  Her response, "Yes, but I NEVER have."  Wow. I felt bad for her and thought, if you have never experienced a product how can you possibly be of value to the customer?  Well since they are responsible for one singular cruise line, she knew lots of technical details.  If someone is willing to do lots of research, read reviews and make objective decisions about what's best for their particular trip, that reservations agent is valuable.  To the vast majority of customers who just pick the place their neighbor/co-workers/family just went to and posted fabulous Facebook pictures of; the value is next to zero.

 It's easy for me to forget doing the same thing for a while that everyone doesn't know what you know.  Especially in the age of instant internet experts.  Fast forward to the ship and we run into a couple at dinner that is upset that their youngest child can't participate in the kids club. They thought both kids would get to, but the youngest was only two and needed to be three to go to the supervised activities without a parent.   Guess what, they made a decision based solely on price.  Now for a week, those leisurely romantic dinners they had been planning include a stroller.  Had they used a travel consultant surely they would have found a vacation that fit the needs of their family.  The first time I kept all this as internal dialogue ( I can't start talking shop on the FIRST day of vacation!), but later in the week when we ran into them again I did share a couple of suggestions and asked that they contact a local travel professional next time.  Not in a salesy way, because I never told them my business name or handed them a card, it was just my PSA for the profession that week.  Turns out they were planning a family reunion cruise and the relief on their face told me they would definitely take my advice once they got home.