Travel Agent vs Booking yourself

Following. Haven't booked my honeymoon yet but debating what route to go.

Where are you planning to go on your honeymoon?

My DH went on a vacation and booked through a travel agent. Paid 4200 for him and his brother. I went on the exact same trip(same flight, transport, resort and same level of guest) and I took my two kids who were considered adults and I paid 2300.

We always book ourselves. Never had an issue with any of our trips.

Whenever I've looked into using a travel agent the prices were compatible. They throw in a bunch of "free" stuff which is sometimes worth it.

I'm using an agent for our honeymoon. I don't know enough about our destination to pick a good resort, etc. I also checked the price of booking myself and the agent came in a little cheaper.

I've used travel agents in the past and much prefer booking myself. I've found better deals and able more customized to exactly what I want. But it may depend on where you want to travel to, as well as how much you want to spend...

I think it depends on where you are going. We used Costco for our Hawaii honeymoon and it was great.

You can easily book yourself instead of using a travel agent. Travel Agents are going to try to add things to your package, and everything they sell you (Most times) comes with a little added pay for them. So their incentive is to sell you MORE vacation than you may need. We avoid this by allowing you to book your airfare yourself, pay your all-inclusive fee yourself, and buy your excursions yourself. We only book the room, and get paid based on how many vacations we sell, not how expensive they are.

Ask Travel agents if they get paid a percentage of the trip cost, or the same for every trip. That will help you realize if its worth it. If they get paid 15% of the total cost of the trip, and the trip cost $4,000, then you will be paying them $600 to coordinate your vacation.

Also, depending on what type of honeymoon you are looking for, a travel agent may be preferable due to their knowledge of the area you want to visit and their relationships with resorts and airlines.

Travel agents can virtually always price match anything you find elsewhere. And they tend to offer perks and freebies either out of their own pockets or based on their relationships with the hotels.

PS: online booking engines are travel agencies, too. They are just massive ones where you don't actually get any service from a real person.

I always book myself. I feel like I save a lot that way. Use google to search flights, Expedia for hotels, etc.

Was the $700 savings worth your time?

We are all heading to HI. Our calculations found that it is worth our time/effort to book from the hotel once we arrive. Of course the downfall is we are not guaranteed 4 seats on the tour at the same time. But this is OK and can be adjusted with our schedule ( meaning we wait or find something else to do).

It's a ver subjective thing.

I always book my own travel- it gives a lot more flexibility for hotel and flight choices. One thing to look at is if your credit card offers any special perks by booking through them. I know signature visas have access to special hotel deals as does the American Express Platinum card- those can include late check-out, hotel credit for meals etc. There may be other credit cards that have similar deals if you look which could provide better stuff than you can get booking through a travel agent.

I usually book my own but sometimes it's worth it to have someone else take care of all the bookng hassles especially on larger trips where there are more things that have to fit together time wise

We are using a travel agent, some of the flights we were looking at for some reason wouldn't allow us to book without a travel agent. It does seem like things are more expensive though

We went with an agent. They found the same price I did, actually they found they lower price. And if there is a problem, they deal with it. We're going to Mexico in October, so just to be safe, if there was a storm, at any point before and we need to change, I didn't want to deal with it while finalizing the other details. Plus with some agencies you get little perks.

Hope you chose the right decision. Coz if I were to give you any advice, I’d definitely recommend you to use a travel agent whatever your trip is (particularly if it’s out of the country). They would make things a lot easier for you guys. Our company has tried hiring this business travel agency before to help us plan and organise our trip, and I can say that it was such a great decision. Just so you know, with these agencies, you don’t have to worry about finding affordable flights, hotel rooms and even car transfers. Anyway, that’s just for me (based on my experience).