‘I’m a travel agent – here’s why you’re wrong on five-star hotels’ | Money News

If you’ve ever spent your morning commute daydreaming about starting afresh with your career, this feature is for you. Each Monday, we speak to someone from a different profession to discover what it’s really like. Today we speak to travel agent Shaun Taylor…

An employed travel agent can typically earn… a starting salary of around £25,000 to £30,000 a year plus bonuses and commissions, which can be unlimited depending on how many holidays they sell and at what price. It can be possible to earn more than £60,000 a year by becoming an independent agent with high sales volumes.

I typically work about 40 hours a week… including a lot of Saturdays. It is mainly office hours as I am shop based, but can include evenings and Sundays for urgent queries or questions.

Certain suppliers will offer discounted holidays to me… as they know that me experiencing a destination or hotel in person will make it easier selling it to my customers. We also get offered free trips called familiarisation trips to go to destinations to look round hotels and experience the destination. It is certainly not a holiday as you can be looking at upwards of 10 hotels a day but is a nice necessary perk of the job. You have to know a product to be able to sell it successfully.

A common misnomer is that holidays get cheaper the later you leave it…That is not always the case as flights generally get more expensive nearer to departure date, which pushes the price of the holiday up. We are currently booking holidays up to 2028 and beyond. It also gives you more time to pay for the holiday as you can often book with a low deposit now to secure the best prices.

A mistake people make is… thinking stars equal quality. This is not always the case as stars measure the number of facilities, not quality. I have had better food at some three-star hotels than five-star ones. Yes, a hotel with a higher star rating is generally more luxurious but as an example an amazing 3 star small boutique hotel will never be able to get 5 stars due to a lack of some facilities.

An airline upgrade is a lot more difficult nowadays… as airlines will generally give any upgrades to their frequent customers = so make sure you sign up to the airline’s frequent flyer schemes.

A service that travel agents offer that customers under-utilise is… our access to lots of contacts in the industry. We can help in lots of ways such as getting that free hotel upgrade or securing tickets for a sold-out event or restaurant. We have access to many services that a customer cannot get themselves.

If you’re looking for some winter sun without breaking the bank… Marrakech in Morocco is a great often overlooked destination with temperatures in the mid-twenties in March and great value starting from around £400 a week staying in a larger hotel or a smaller riad.

A hidden gem that people don’t visit is… Tunisia. It offers fantastic weather and prices along with a short three-hour plane journey. It has great beaches as well as lots of history, such as the El Djem amphitheatre, which rivals the Colosseum in Rome. Prices can start from as little as £300pp for a week’s all-inclusive holiday.

Cruise holidays are seeing a massive increase… in popularity at the moment. They can offer unbeatable value when you look at everything that is included and get to experience multiple destinations in one holiday.

The longer two or three-week holiday is getting less popular… as people seem to like to spread out their holidays more across the year with one or two week-long holidays and a few city breaks a year.

Customers assume booking online is cheaper… but we often have exclusive deals with hotels and travel companies and can match and even beat online prices. Along with this we offer a travel concierge service to all our customers free of charge.

The pandemic in the long run has been good for my business… We helped out so many people during it and more people now realise the added protection, expertise and knowledge you get with using a travel agent, which has increased my business. Similarly with Brexit I have all the knowledge about any new changes due to Brexit such as revised passport rules and the EU entry/exit system.

In general, holidays can be about a third cheaper outside school holidays… but if you factor in any fines parents would get it is not always much cheaper.

Read more from this series:
Marine biologist on what you can do to save planet
‘I can lend £100k in an hour’: Life of a pawnbroker
‘I’m a nanny – this is what society gets wrong about children’
‘I’m a window cleaner – here’s what annoys us’

If someone is not happy about their holiday… they need to make sure they let someone know as soon as possible while they are away, such as to the local rep in resort or the hotel manager so it has been logged and they get a chance to resolve the issue immediately. The best way to get a resolution if you’re unhappy is to take any photos of the issues and make notes as that will help with any complaint on their return.

A customer once complained after… he was refused his hire car because he did not have his driving licence with him. Another customer complained to me it had rained on his holiday.

The thing I hate about my job is… putting a lot of time and effort in getting a quote together for a customer and then being ghosted and never hearing from them again. Even a simple thank you for your time but not for me would make a world of difference!