The Home Based Travel Agent

Why use a travel agent? After all, sites like Expedia, Orbitz and Travelocity have all the best deals. Well, if your only goal is to get the cheapest price then I would say go for the big box travel websites. The problem is, there is more and more travel information on the web. You can research and search until the cows come home. In the end, you may get the best price but you’ve spent hours researching and finally you may not have the best vacation value.

One value point to consider is the value of your time. You might spend hours on the web researching when turning your vacation desires over to an experienced travel agent may be a better use of your time – and your money. The travel agent knows where to go to find the best vacation value for you and your family. Often, the travel agent will pick up the telephone and speak with suppliers that she has a relationship with. These suppliers will help the agent find the best value for the money. You as an individual can’t develop these types of relationships by booking your own travel once or twice during a year.

I recently picked up the phone and talked with a Norwegian Cruise Line travel agent representative. This representative knew that I belonged to a large travel consortium and was more than ready to help me get the best deal and the best cabin for my client. The price that I received was the same price the client could have gotten if they booked their own cruise. But, the big thing the client would have missed by booking on their own was the relationship between my consortium and NCL and the willingness of the NCL agent to find my client the best cabin available. I also knew, without doing hours of research, which hotel at the departing port was the best for the precruise overnight stay.

A travel agent is going to be your advocate as you travel. Your travel agent is going to do everything in their power to help you if you run into a problem while you are traveling. When my clients book with me they get my home telephone number, my cell phone number and my fax number. If they run into a problem they can call me night or day and be assured that I will be available to help them through any travel related crisis. Try to get that service from a big box travel website!

If you are looking for the cheapest price when you travel then don’t use a travel agent. Chances are the smart travel agent doesn’t want to work with you if you’re only focused on price. However, a travel agent is good for you if your time is important and you want to get the best value for your vacation dollar. A travel agent adds value because of their knowledge, experience, networks and service.

Throughout the course of my life I’ve had a few strange coincidences. The coincidence I experienced last week had me scratching my head. I have to put the scenario into context. I grew up in a small town on the Indiana and Michigan border called Edwardsburg. The town had a population of about 1,500 people when I was growing up and it has not grown since then. My high school graduating class consisted of maybe a hundred people. The Edwardsburg High School graduating class is a bit larger today because the area surrounding Edwardsburg has grown.

I now live in a rural area just outside Grand Rapids, Michigan. Grand Rapids is 110 miles north of Edwardsburg. Grand Rapids is the second largest city in Michigan. The greater Grand Rapids area has a population that is home to more than a million people.

Now that you have the context, here is what happened. I’ve been involved in physical therapy for the past month. I believe in doing business where I live so I took my business to Northern Physical Therapy here in Coopersville. For the past four weeks my physical therapist, Sarah, has been putting me through the paces. This past Thursday she asked me if I was feeling any improvement. I told her that I was feeling some improvement but I thought the greatest improvement was going to come from losing weight and exercising. I went on to say that I wasn’t adverse to exercise since that used to be a part of my lifestyle when I was a police officer.

The conversation continued and Sarah asked me where it was that I worked as a police officer. I told her near Niles, Michigan. Niles is the largest town near Edwardsburg that may be recognized here in the Grand Rapids area. Sarah said that she was familiar with Niles because she grew up in Edwardsburg. Well, that blew my hair back. I told her that I grew up in Edwardsburg.

As the conversation progressed I found out that Sarah grew up on Church Street in Edwardsburg and across the street from my best friend Gordon’s house. Sarah calls Gordon’s sister her aunt and considers Gordon’s niece her cousin.

Wow, maybe we, you and me, are only separated by six degrees of separation. It would be unusual for me, here in the Grand Rapids area, to run into someone that grew up in Edwardsburg. It became weirder when my physical therapist is someone who grew up in my hometown and she is intimately connected to my best friend’s family.

Has this ever happened to you? Leave me a comment!

If you are like most people over 30 you are involved in a career and working long hours. You are likely taking medicine for your cholesterol and doing other heart healthy activities. Did you know that one of the best prescriptions for maintaining a healthy heart is taking a real vacation? Actually, dying from any cause is higher if you don’t take quality vacations. A researcher at the State University of New York in Oswego by the name of Brooks Gump studied 12, 000 men and found that those men that failed to take vacations had a much higher risk of dying from heart disease and a much higher risk of dying from any cause. Another study looked at 749 women over 20 years and found similar results for those women that failed to take a vacation.

The best vacations are those where you can truly relax and put your work out of your mind. This has happened to me one time when I was vacationing in Thailand. I became so disconnected from work and from the daily grind that I had to make an effort to look at a calendar so that I could keep track of my departure date.

On my next real vacation I need to leave my laptop and my Blackberry on my desk at home. This next vacation needs to be at a place where I can truly disconnect from work and the day to day grind of the mental and written “to do” lists.

Disconnecting my mind may be difficult. Ironically, as I was developing a title for this blog post, RX Vacations, I began thinking that this would be a great domain name for a travel agent website. I went to Godaddy.com and checked the name rxvacations.com to see if it was available. It was available and now it’s mine!

Are you going to take a real vacation now that you are armed with this knowledge about how essential a vacation is for your health? Have you ever been on a vacation where you totally disconnected? I would love to hear from you!

Wouldn’t it be nice if there was a way to put serial numbers on your luggage with more than 16,000 law enforcement agencies having access to a database that contains this serial number connected to your name and address? This service will soon exist and even better yet, it is attached to a luggage lock and the TSA is familiar with these locks and they have a key. The TSA can access your locked luggage and do a search if necessary and then re-lock your luggage for its further adventures. The serial numbers on the locks are used to identify you as the owner of the luggage if those adventures find your luggage lost.

Safe Skies Locks has teamed up with a company called BoomerangIT to provide this lost and found service. Safe Skies Locks provides a patented luggage lock the TSA is able to open and resecure when they need to inspect your luggage. The Safe Skies Lock will have a BoomerangIt serial number that will identify you as the owner of the luggage. The lock and the BoomerangIT service will set you back about $12.00 for each lock.

You might want to check out BoomerangIT for other property marking services. They provide tamper proof labels with a unique serial number that you can attach to items like laptops, cameras or other valuables. Law enforcement agencies can identify you as the owner of this property by contacting BoomerangIT and providing the number on the label.

I finally got tired of all the comment spam.  I was getting about 50 spam comments per day on this blog.  About once a week I would go in and moderate and delete this junk from the moderation que.  Finally, today I’ve taken action.  It may not be 100% foolproof but I will be happy if it cuts out 90% of the spam.  I’ve downloaded a WordPress Plugin from Skippy.net that allows commenters the ability to moderate their own comments.  When you post a comment on this blog you will be asked for a name and email address.  When you hit the button to submit your comment you will get a notice to check your email and click the link provided in the email to activate your comment.  When you click the link your comment is posted for all to read.

Be sure to check your junk mail folder if you don’t see the email in your inbox.  When I tested this feature the email ended up in my junk mail folder.  However, I have my junk mail filters screwed down pretty tight.

You can always email me if you are having difficulty with this.  My email is barryAThometravelagent.net.  Substitute the @ sign for the letters AT.  Why don’t I just put the @ sign in my email?  Because these devious spammers use bots to scan the web for easy to pick email addresses.  A blog post is easy pickin’s and that is why I disguise my email address.

Also, you should know that I will not knowingly share, give, sell, divulge or otherwise disclose the email address you give to me.  Please feel free to comment on this blog.  You are always welcome!

Have you given much thought lately to the first impressions that you are creating. Would you walk into a travel agent expo wearing your Carhartt overalls? Would you brag to a new client that you never use the internet in your business because you have a bookshelf full of hotel and vacation directories? Would you tell a client that your business is temporary and that you may be moving on soon? No, I’m sure you would do none of these things. But, are you unintentionally conveying a similar message in a slightly more subtle way? Take a look at the email address that is on your business card and stationary.

Your email address could be telling the world that this business may be a fly-by-night operation or the business person behind the email address is not technically savvy enough to use the internet as a marketing tool. You need to consider the message you are conveying to your customers and colleagues if your email address ends with “aol.com,” “hotmail.com,” “comcast.com,” “yahoo.com,” or a number of other web based email systems. Many people realize the fact that it is very easy and free to set up an email account with these services. It is just as easy to abandon these email addresses since there is no real investment in time and money to create them. This gives a client or colleague the impression that you’ve made no investment, time or money, in one of the most important tools for your business.

A few years ago one of the signals that you used to determine if a business was legitimate was a simple drive by and you could see the storefront. The physical presence of the storefront gave you a sense that the business was real and that the owner had made an investment in creating a business. An advertisement in the Yellow Pages gave customers that same sense of legitimacy. The drive by and the Yellow Pages still serve as signals for legitimacy for the local community.

What are the signals for legitimacy in the virtual business community? Today almost all businesses operate in the virtual world of the internet. Most businesses have a physical presence with a storefront, office or warehouse and a virtual presence with a website and email addresses.

If their physical presence is in Skokie, Illinois it is unlikely that I’m going to drive by the business office or even look in the Skokie Yellow Pages to get a first impression of the business. The first impression of your business is going to come from your presence on the internet. If I’m interested in this business I will do a Google search for the business’ website. If I don’t find the website in the first five or six pages of the Google search my first impression of the business diminishes. I may go one step further and search in Google Maps for the business. This search will locate the physical address of the business and show me the location on a map. The search will often show the street address and email address of the business. The email address will give me a clue about whether or not the business has a website. If the email address is something like barry@special-destinations.com then I know that the business has an associated website. The name of the business is Special Destinations and the domain that the email is associated with is special-destinations.com. If I find an email address of special-destinations@yahoo.com then I know the business has not invested in a domain and the business has no website. The business owner has not made an investment in the online business world. My first impression of the business is significantly diminished.

Would you erect a 2X4 style lemonade stand in front of your house to sell luxury cruises? Don’t do the equivalent for your internet presence. If you have a quickie email addresses for your business – dump it! Show people that you have made an investment in your online business presence. Show people that you are here to stay and that you are a legitimate business.

Good listening technique is a valuable tool to help you close a sale. There are a couple of other tools related to listening that you can incorporate into your listening technique that can help you become a super seller. The tools are micro expressions and subtle expressions. It is likely that you subconsciously use these tools in your day-to-day communications with people. It’s unlikely that you’ve heard of micro expression or subtle expression if you are outside the criminal justice community. I first heard of micro expressions when I was taking a training course to become a magistrate in Michigan. Micro expressions are a tool that is used to find out if someone is telling the truth.

There are seven basic emotions that are expressed on the face. The expression of the seven basic emotions is universal among cultures. A person that has been blind from birth will express these emotions on their face even though they have never seen anyone else with the same expressions. The seven basic emotional responses that are expressed on the face are hardwired into our biology. How do we know this? A professor named Paul Ekman, Ph.D has spent a lifetime studying facial expressions.

The seven basic emotions are; sadness, anger, surprise, fear, enjoyment, disgust and contempt. I believe that we can subconsciously recognize these emotions on the faces of people we interact with. The challenge is to consciously recognize these emotions. This may take some practice. The second challenge is to recognize these emotions on a person’s face when the emotion is obvious in a subtle way or obvious for only one-quarter of a second.

Everyone has an internal struggle with revealing emotions. We may believe that we are good at controlling our expressions so we don’t reveal our emotions. But, the most controlled individual will lose at this tug-of-war when it comes to subtle or micro expressions. The real emotion will appear subtly or for a fraction of a second before they can get the emotion under control. The challenge is to pick up on these subtle or micro expressions.

Perhaps you are sitting in a coffee shop with a potential client. The client is objecting to the cost of the Aruba trip that you have proposed to him. In contrast, you are aware of the client’s micro expressions of joy when he talks about his experience with windsurfing and you both know that Aruba is a great place for windsurfing. If you are picking up on the micro expressions you are going to close this sale. People make buying decisions based on emotion. You’ve observed the emotion therefore you are equipped to move the sale to a close even though there is a logical objection to the price.

The adage is that you have two ears so you should do twice as much listening. I agree with this adage. I also agree that we have two eyes and two ears. We should be seeing as much as we are listening. If you are not watching for the subtle expressions or micro expressions then you have left a big chunk of the selling experience on the table.

It was a real pleasure to meet other travel podcasters at the Portable Media and Podcasting Expo in Ontario, California. I had the pleasure to have a lengthy discussion with Alan Lew from the Travelography Podcast. Alan is a fountain of information about travel and tourism. In fact, he is a PhD and professor at Northern Arizona University. Alan is the Department Chair of Geography, Planning and Tourism at Northern Arizona University. Alan shares a passion with me and that is travel in Asia.

I also met Chris Christenson. Chris is the producer of the Amateur Traveler Podcast. Chris and I have exchanged shout outs and promos on our podcasts. Chris has a great and interesting podcast. He talks in detail about various destinations around the planet. I recommend that you subscribe to the Amateur Traveler Podast. You will learn a great deal about those special destinations.

Standing face-to-face with these travel podcasters was a great pleasure. I’ve spent hours listening to their podcasts and meeting them was a real highlight of my trip to Ontario, California.

Do you have a love for cruising? Do you want to cruise free? If so, sell cruises for fun, money or both. It’s easier than you think.

The two most obvious reasons for selling cruises are for the opportunity to earn money, and to travel free or very cheaply. You may consider a third reason along the lines of a tax-deductible expense. (More on this later).

In addition, cruising is definitely a good way to visit many places you may not have normally considered visiting.

Seven-day cruises will take you to four or five destinations. Take several of these one-week cruises, and perhaps one or two weekend cruises and you will have visited fourteen to seventeen destinations.

Oftentimes, during the course of a one-week cruise, you will have the opportunity to stay at a location for the entire day. Cruise ships often travel during the night and arrive at port early morning, and leave late evening. This type of itinerary gives you the opportunity to get a “good look” at your destination. Go on a guided tour, or do a self-tour by taking a (half-day) cab ride. Better yet, team with another couple or several individuals to split the cost.

The cab rates are very (in fact, extremely) good. Usually, the per-person cost of a half-day cab ride is no more than that of a guided tour. Note: you should strongly consider following the cruise ship’s recommendation on where to obtain cabs.

If you find that you are in love with a particular destination you can return at some future date to stay for a full week (or longer), perhaps at an all-inclusive resort.

Earning money is a good reason to sell group cruises.

In fact, by selling group cruises you can earn extra money and cruise free by taking advantage of the cruise lines’ promotion of providing free staterooms based on the number of cabins you sell.

For example, a promotion may provide you a free cabin for every twelve cabins you sell based on double occupancy. Sell cruises to twelve couples and receive one free cabin.

Continuing with the above example, sell cruises to twenty-four couples and you receive two free cabins. Keep one cabin for yourself and sell the other to earn even more money. These free cabins are in the same value category as the group cabins.

Mentioned earlier was the concept of a tax-deductible expense for traveling. If you have a passion for traveling you can establish a business and write off your cost as a tax-deductible expense.

See how to turn your passion into a business by viewing the information found in the “about author” web page.

Is the face of air travel changing? Oh yes! Recent events include terror plots to blow up planes over the Atlantic have increased airport security all over the United States and the World. Once again world events are subjecting us to longlines at security checkpoints. We are more limited in what we can put in our carry on luggage and the shoe carnival continues. We still have to remove our shoes at many airports even though Richard Reid’s attempt at blowing up an airline with explosives in his shoes has long passed. Now the question is, “how many years will our carry on luggage be subject to heightened scrutiny?” “Will we ever be able to carry a bottle of water on an airline?”

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Enter the VLJ, which stands for the Very Light Jet. Several companies are entering the VLJ market in a big way including Honda. The year 2006 may herald the beginning of the affordable air taxi. VLJ’s are small, Sport Utility Vehicle (SUV), sized jets that carry 5 or 6 passengers with luggage. Some VLJ proponents claim that you can carry more luggage on a VLJ than on a traditional airline.

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VLJ’s are made of lightweight composite materials and are powered by small, efficient, jet engines. VLJ manufacturers believe that their aircraft can compete well in the regional air travel market. The regional air travel market encompasses travel that is between 500 and 1000 miles. The VLJ’s are efficient aircraft with state of the art avionics and they need only one pilot. Obviously, they do not need a cabin crew. Therefore, their cost of operation is minimal. It may be true that these new air taxis will be able to compete with the big airlines.

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Most of the VLJ flights will depart and arrive at secondary airports. The VLJ design will allow it to land and take off on runways that are shorter than you will find at the major airports. For the traveler, departing from small airports means there will be minimal security checks to board the aircraft. With VLJ’s there may be no security checks at all.

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What does this mean to me? I may be able to arrange a family trip at Christmas to visit