4 min read
Travel Smarts
Why Use a Travel Advisor? (And Will It Cost You More?)
The two questions I hear most from new clients are the same two, so here are straight answers with the numbers behind them. Booking through me costs you nothing extra on the trips I sell, because the cruise line, the resort, or Disney pays me out of the price you would pay them anyway. And there are trips where you should not use me at all.
How a travel advisor actually gets paid
Suppliers pay advisors a commission on what they sell. Cruise lines pay 10% of the fare as a base and up to 16% to high-volume agencies. Hotels and all-inclusive resorts pay 10% to 15%. Tour operators pay 12% to 18%. Disney pays a flat 10% on Walt Disney World and Disneyland packages, 10% to 16% on Disney Cruise Line, and nothing on one- and two-day park tickets.
The commission comes out of the supplier's margin, not on top of your price. That is why the same Royal Caribbean cabin or Disney package costs the same whether you book it on their website or through me. Disney publishes the same package price to authorized planners that it shows the public, and my host agency, InteleTravel, guarantees its advisors' bookings match the supplier's price.
The one place this breaks down is airfare. Airlines pay 0% to 2%, which is why most advisors charge $25 to $175 a ticket for flight-only bookings. On my side: quotes are free, and if a trip involves work no supplier pays for, I tell you the fee before I start, not after.
How much does an advisor make on a $10,000 trip?
Between $1,000 and $1,600, depending on the supplier and the agency's volume, and it is paid by the supplier 30 to 60 days after you travel. The average booking through a US agency in 2023 was $4,375, which works out to about $438 in commission. That is the whole business model: I get paid when you travel, so I have every reason to make sure the trip happens and goes well.
What you get that the website does not give you
Repricing. Royal Caribbean will match a lower fare any time before your final payment. Carnival gives 110% of the difference as onboard credit within 48 hours of a drop. Disney lets an existing reservation be re-booked under a new discount while rooms last. Nobody at the cruise line or Disney is watching your booking for a better price. I am, weekly, on every file.
Group perks. Eight cabins on most lines earns the group one free berth and holds space without a deposit for months. Individually booked, those same eight families pay full price and race each other for connecting rooms.
Insurance timing. Cancel-for-any-reason coverage only exists if you buy it within 14 to 21 days of your first deposit, and hurricane coverage disappears once a storm is named. I add insurance the day we pay the deposit.
A phone number that answers. When Hurricane Lowell hit Kauai this month, advisors spent the week moving clients to other islands and rebooking flights. When Winter Storm Fern grounded airlines in January, the people with an advisor had someone rebooking them. The cruise industry's own trade group says 72% of cruises are booked through advisors, and that advisor-booked cruisers rate their vacations higher than those who book direct.
When you should book it yourself
A domestic flight and nothing else. A single night in a chain hotel on points. A trip where you enjoy the research and have the time. I would rather tell you that than take a booking I add nothing to.
Where I earn my keep: anything with more than two moving parts (flights plus resort plus transfers), anything with a booking window that opens at 6 a.m., anything with more than one household paying, and anything you cannot afford to have go wrong.
How to check any advisor, including me
Ask for the CLIA number if they sell cruises, and check it on the Cruise Lines International Association's public lookup. Ask which host agency they book through and whether that agency is registered as a seller of travel in your state. Florida requires sellers of travel to register with the Department of Agriculture and post a bond; independent advisors work under a registered agency's number. InteleTravel is registered in Florida (ST-32452), California, Washington, Hawaii, and Iowa.
Walk away from anyone whose pitch is about recruiting you rather than booking you, and from anyone who cannot produce a verifiable number.
The short version
You bring the dates and the budget. I bring the supplier relationships, the calendar of booking windows, the repricing, and a phone that answers when a flight cancels. You pay the same price you would pay direct. If that trade sounds worth it, send me your dates and I will send back a quote, free, with no obligation to book. If you are planning Disney, start here; for cruises, my cruise page has the lines I book.
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