May 15. Many travel advisors are saying fees are not only more important now than ever before, they are also more accepted by the clients who have to pay them.
«Post-pandemic clients are more accepting of fees,» said Andrey Zakharenko, founder of My World to Travel / Always Travel and co-founder and owner of Russian Connections. «A few of my clients remind me to charge them fees and volunteer to pay fees, something not common before.»
Michelle Gordon of Jetset World Travel has seen similar reactions from clients.
«Yes’ to fees,» proclaimed Gordon. «With the overload of information online, review websites that may or may not be accurate combined with everything we’ve been through with the pandemic I feel there has been less pushback with fees vs pre- pandemic times.»
For that reason, now is the time for agents who haven’t charged fees to start doing so.
«Of course the workload for the agent has increased,» said Zakharenko. «Most suppliers are still short-staffed and clients are needing extra attention when planning the most basic trips.»
«Clients are very inclined to pay fees to work with advisors now,» said Nikki Miller, owner of Travel with Nikki. «During the pandemic, many of them learned the hard way that large OTN will just shut the phones off when call levels get too large, or you’ll be in a 24-plus hour callback cue for the airlines. They are more than willing to pay a travel advisor to get out of having to go through all of that frustration.»
Sally Smith, co-owner of The TravelSmiths, said keeping track of all the different COVID protocols was enough reason for a client to pay an agent a fee.
Source: Caribbean Journal
