Online booking vs travel agent for US > international travel

[audreyh1]

It's interesting to see how others plan travel. When we visited Greece last year, I started by making a list of the places I wanted to see (Athens, Corinth, Mycenae, Epidavros, Mystras, Olympia and Delphi). I then identified which towns would be there best bases from which to visit these sights (Athens, Nafplio, Areopoli, Kalamata and Nafpaktos). After that, I looked for hotels in the selected towns using Apple or Google Maps to ensure that the hotel (location, nice views, near restaurants etc). Whenever possible, I booked directly on the hotel's own website or if none was available, used booking.com. Once I find what appears to be a decent hotel, I just stick to it and don't change my reservations. I usually select high-end hotels but for splurgy choices use my Chase reward points.

That’s exactly how I used to do it for many many years up through 2024. I’m no longer willing to do it.

 

[SecondAttempt]

Late to the game here...

I've been mostly booking my own travel for over 30 years. I have against travel agents and would love to find a good one and happy to pay for their services.

I was in an executive position about 20 years ago and our CEO hooked me up with his personal travel agent. She was amazing and very reasonably priced. I could use her for both business and personal travel. I was able to travel business class for work and when my wife joined me she usually got here in business class as well without paying more from economy.

But I was doing some searching recently for premium travel agents. I would be happy to pay for a TA services to handle bookings and such but it seems like that is no longer an option. The ones I found just want to earn commissions from cruises or tours. Sad.

 

[Montecfo]

To do this kind of trip I book everything directly with the airline, hotel, etc.

To Europe we usually book a round trip “open jaw” with a US airline - arrive at one city and depart from a different European city.

We’ve often taken trains between cities, but for much more than a 5 hour train ride we’ll fly between cities and book one way tickets directly with a major European airline.

I haven’t used third party sites for booking airlines or hotels in forever.

I would echo all of this with one exception: In Europe I tend to use booking.com at least for search. Since We tend to stay in apts you usually cannot book those "directly" but they are on booking.

Everything stays conveniently in the booking app which is nice. They also can connect with car transport , activities, etc. It is a nice tool.

I have not used travel agents in forever but there are local "guides" I have seen online but never used.

We tend to not stick primarily to the most obvious places so mass market packages have not looked like an alternative at least to date.

 

[bonvoyage]

Late to the game here...

I've been mostly booking my own travel for over 30 years. I have against travel agents and would love to find a good one and happy to pay for their services.

I was in an executive position about 20 years ago and our CEO hooked me up with his personal travel agent. She was amazing and very reasonably priced. I could use her for both business and personal travel. I was able to travel business class for work and when my wife joined me she usually got here in business class as well without paying more from economy.

But I was doing some searching recently for premium travel agents. I would be happy to pay for a TA services to handle bookings and such but it seems like that is no longer an option. The ones I found just want to earn commissions from cruises or tours. Sad.

There are still travel agents who provide concierge service to the ultra wealthy but there are few such services for those not quite so wealthy,

I love the process of travel planning and can spend hours researching flights and hotels but I understand that not everyone has the patience for this. I think there is a good business opportunity to provide such services analogous to flat-fee financial advisors.

 

[audreyh1]

I would echo all of this with one exception: In Europe I tend to use booking.com at least for search. Since We tend to stay in apts you usually cannot book those "directly" but they are on booking.

Everything stays conveniently in the booking app which is nice. They also can connect with car transport , activities, etc. It is a nice tool.

I have not used travel agents in forever but there are local "guides" I have seen online but never used.

We tend to not stick primarily to the most obvious places so mass market packages have not looked like an alternative at least to date.

I find that Google Maps gives me good location and pricing plus hotel ratings and hotel brand info plus reviews. I do sometimes read the booking.com more in depth info about a particular hotel. I used to use Trip Advisor heavily, but rarely have used them in the past many years. They do have searchable reviews though, and I sometimes need that.

 

[Montecfo]

I find that Google Maps gives me good location and pricing plus hotel ratings and hotel brand info plus reviews. I do sometimes read the booking.com more in depth info about a particular hotel. I used to use Trip Advisor heavily, but rarely have used them in the past many years. They do have searchable reviews though, and I sometimes need that.

I will tell you another reason to use booking: much more detailed info on the room, especially room sizes in square feet. We like our space but we really dislike a room being smaller than expected. Sometimes it is not easy to tell from a picture.

And I also use Trip Advisor as secondary research. Agree on searchable reviews.

I use Google when travelling in US and deciding where to stay on the fly.

 

[kfsinc]

I'm generally a DIY kind of person -- for pretty much everything. When I had a job and an expense account, I used our in house travel agency -- worked really well, primarily because my first priority was my schedule, then preferred airline and hotel. Price was last.

Now that I'm retired and it all comes out of my pocket, I do most of it myself. I definitely book direct with the airline/hotel/car rental. For excursions etc, I've found that Viator dot com works very well. Easy to book, easy to change, and easy to cancel. Good communication also. Not available for everything, but very handy.

I've found that AI is a great way to get a rough plan together if you give it specific enough prompts. I used ChatGPT as a test for a multi-day motorcycle trip thorough the Smokey Mountains in and around the Tail of the Dragon, an area that I'm pretty familiar with. It came back with a well planned itinerary, maps, and suggested logging. Very similar to what I would have put together myself. I've also used it for an overview plan of a trip to and around the Grand Canyon/Zion/Moab/Bryce. Again, very well done and a very good start.

All trip planning ends up in a spreadsheet or document and gets printed out prior to the trip. I find that the more detailed the plan, the less stressful the trip. Very much avoids my most hated statement: "I don't know, what do you want to do?"