NEW ORLEANS -- Still smarting from the latest airline commission
cuts, nine agents who gathered here for Sonesta Hotels &
Resorts' advisory board meeting talked about shifting business to
hotels and cruises, abandoning retail space, creating niches and
charging fees.
"What bothers all of us is the airlines' attitude," said Ron
Hersh of Columbus, Ohio-based World of Travel. "Not only are they
not going to do anything to assist you, they're working against
you. The most common scenario: Someone wants to make an adjustment
to their ticket, and, of course, the airline said no. Then the
client goes out to the ticket counter and [the airline will change
it for them]."
Barbara Leddy of Suburban Travel in Milburn, N.J., said she had
a family of eight cancel a flight to Orlando, Fla., when one of the
kids became sick. "At $50 per ticket, it was going to cost her $400
to exchange these tickets," she said, "and the new tickets were
going to be more expensive. So I said to them, 'Why don't you take
these tickets to the airport and see what they'll do for you.' They
went to the airport, saved the $400 and didn't pay the increase
because for two-and-a-half hours they sat with this guy who didn't
know what he was doing. The moral of the story is, make sure you go
to a different airline agent each time because you'll get a
different answer each time."
"Our credibility is on the line," said Carol Schwartz of CMR
Travel Corp. in Hartsdale, N.Y. "That's the sad part about it.
You're doing your client a favor [by sending them to the airport],
but in the future they're going to say, 'Why do I need an agent?'
"
Clients don't need agents to sell them air anymore, said Debbie
Tucker of Travel Designs by Debbie in St. Petersburg, Fla. "It's on
the Internet, it's direct from the airlines," she said. "We
short-change ourselves by selling air and not concentrating on
hotels, cruise lines and tours. This is where they still need us --
to plan their vacations."
Tucker left her agency last fall to create a business focused on
high-end leisure clients who literally can call her at any hour.
(See sidebar below.) Spending time with everyone who called or
walked in the door didn't work, she said. "In Florida, I'm dealing
with many retired people who have all day," she said. "We used to
serve coffee and cookies every Friday. That was the biggest
disaster! We got rid of the couch and easy chairs and we put in
these ugly, straight-back chairs that are so uncomfortable. You
have to look at your client base and find the 10% that [provide]
90% [of your revenue] and weed out the rest. How many of us have
clients who spend a half-hour on the phone with us because they
want that $119 airline ticket?"
Paul Stalbaum of Stalbaum Travel in Bala Cynwyd, Pa., has a
different philosophy. "Even though it might not be cost-effective,
if someone calls or walks in and wants an airline ticket, we'll
[book it for them] in anticipation that they'll be happy with the
service and come to us to book their vacations and cruises," he
said. Stalbaum said the airline cuts have forced his company to
create new avenues. "We've started a couple of specialized
divisions for certain types of travelers. One is a program for
learning-disabled adults.
"It's been successful so far -- we do about 50 of these groups a
year."
***
A New Way to Do Business
NEW ORLEANS -- Debbie Tucker discovered a new way to do
business. She left the St. Petersburg, Fla., agency she had
co-owned for 11 years and started working from home last fall,
taking calls from clients at all hours any day of the week. She'll
meet clients at a restaurant or arrange travel for clients she has
never met but with whom she communicates by e-mail.
"Most people don't have time to come into an agency between 9
and 5," and weekends are when "you'll get the clients with money to
spend," she said.
Free from the administrative work of running an agency, she has
time to surf the Net for three or four hours each day, creating
itineraries and searching out hotel packages. Some clients want to
do their own Web surfing, but they still need an agent to sift
through their choices, she said.
She doesn't charge fees, and her policy is to never put a client
on hold.