Booking With An Agency..

How do you book you holiday? Or if you're from across the pond, I guess I should
be saying vacation right?
In this post I'll be giving some tips when booking through an agency.
I personally book everything myself and if you'd like to know how I do it, let me know in the comments and I'll do a part 2 to this post..
*Before I start, I just want to say that as great as these images are, none of them in this post are my own. They were all found via trusty old Google*

So many people get tricked into going to a travel agency and trusting them to find you the best deal for where you want to go. The truth is, they overprice. When you go into a travel agency, you're paying that little bit extra for their time. Try and remember that no service is usually free.

Now I'm not saying all agencies are dishonest and greedy. If you're lucky and get a nice sales person, they really will help you to get the lowest price. At the end of the day you have to keep in mind what their job title is: a sales person. Driven by sales and targets. Some people may work on a commission basis, others just on the amount of sales they get in a day to hit a target. Whatever the case, their going to make the package they offer sound too good for you to turn down. 
Another thing that's handy to keep in mind, is that different agencies sometimes have the same package deal, at competitive prices. If you do your research, you'll find another company who offers you your holiday at a lower rate. 

DON'T BE AFRAID TO "HAGGLE"
•The price is not always set in stone. If you do book with an agency, make them lower the price for you, or add in some extras for free.
•Be brave. Be bold.
•Ask them for some money off.
•Tell them a lower price than what your budget really is.
•Say you've found it cheaper elsewhere.
•At the end tell them you're not sure on the price and that you want to go away and think about it. If their desperate for that last sale of the day, they're going to try and do all they can to make you book, including lowering the price.
Have you ever noticed how your flight going normally ends up being in the afternoon? When you finally arrive at your destination, it's late evening and your whole days been spent travelling? Or when you're due to fly back and your flight home is in the morning and again by the time you're home another days wasted?
You pay for a 7 day holiday and end up only spending 5/6 days enjoying yourself, where the other day or two are spent travelling.

TIME AND DATES
•Look at the dates they're giving you with the package. Ask to change the flight times. Most companies have more than one flight to that destination a day.
•Flying out on the first flight in the morning is always cheaper.
•Flying home late in the evening is cheaper than an afternoon flight. 
•Think about your dates. Sometimes you'll find it'll be cheaper to fly out on a Sunday or Wednesday. Ask the agency to check those days and times for you.
Hopefully some of you found this post to be helpful :)
As I mentioned at the start, I don't book with an agency I do it all myself. So if you're interested to see how I go about planning/booking my trip and saving money, let me know in the comments and I'll do a part two.

Do you have any tips when dealing with agencies?

Love Hannah xx

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16 comments

  1. Woah this is so informative and sounds really effective. I'm gonna have to try doing this.

    Love, Fads
    InstagramTwitter

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  2. Great Tips Hannah, I normally try and book it all myself but this year we decided to go with a travel agent and managed to get it cheaper as they price matched it to another agency who offered it cheaper. I totally agree with what you say about them being over priced though, would love to see a part two to this post please :) xx

    http://my-world-heather.blogspot.co.uk

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    1. Thanks Heather :) glad to hear they price matched for you. I will be doing a part time shortly since this one has received such positive feedback xx

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  3. Thank you for sharing these great tips! Definitely so helpful <3

    xo,


    http://www.aikocunanan.com/

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    1. You're welcome and thank you for commenting xx

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  4. Great post! We have a friend who's a travel agent so we usually get help from him because he's always going to try and give us the lowest price possible of course!
    Aleeha xXx
    http://www.halesaaw.com/

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    1. Ahh thats definitely a handy friend to have haha xx

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  5. Great tips, Hannah babes :) Most often we book our holibobs ourselves but have done through a travel agency lots of times. Thankfully, I always came across fab agents who didn't only give a great discount but really went out of their way to ensure we have the best everything!
    xox Nadia
    www.mielandmint.com

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    1. Thanks sweetie!! Glad to know there are good agents out there willing to help you to the best of their ability xx

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  6. I don't think I've ever booked a trip with an agency before just because my family doesn't believe in agencies, but these will be tips I bring with me when I do make a booking with an agency one day. Thank you, Hannah!


    MAY | WWW.THEMAYDEN.COM

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    1. Hi May. I'm glad I could give you some good tips to take away with you :) thanks for popping by. Love Hannah xx

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  7. Really interesting. I've never booked through an agency before but I'll definitely look into it more when it's time for my next holiday.

    www.saarasofia.com | Bloglovin’ 

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    1. Hi Saara. It's so interesting to hear so many people don't book with agencies. I really thought more people did! Love Hannah xx

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  8. I booked my holiday for the first time with an agency this year, my God was it so much easier getting them todo all the work! Great tips lovely!

    Megan Xxx

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    1. Haha!! Ahh see I enjoy doing it all myself. It can be a little stressful and long-winded, but that's just because I'm so fussy and there's so many to choose from. Thanks for the comment hun xx

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