Vacationers who hire Suzanne Burr book their travel the old-fashioned way. They tell Burr where they want to go and what they need when they arrive, and leave it to her to make it happen.
Burr's business has been booming recently, in part because some people who've been booking their own trips on the Internet are returning to her. "They would push the button on some of these websites, and that was it," Burr says. "There was nobody to ask a question. Nobody to ask for help. When it comes to really spending money and wanting an advocate, people are turning back to agents because people care. A computer doesn't."
For some travelers, do-it-yourself booking is losing its luster. A study by Forrester Research found that in the first three months of this year, 28% of leisure travelers in the U.S. who booked their trips online said they'd be interested in going to a good traditional travel agent. That's up from 23% in 2008. Another Forrester report finds that the number of leisure travelers who enjoyed using the Web to plan and book their vacations dropped to 46% last year, down from 53% in 2007.
The findings reflect a growing frustration with websites that fail to simplify an increasingly complicated travel process or to meet a vacationer's specific needs, some analysts and travelers argue.
"We believe it's a function of consumers' increasing desire to get the best value as well as the increasing amount of complexity associated with planning and booking a trip," says Henry Harteveldt, a travel industry analyst for Forrester Research. "Planning and booking a vacation should be fun. Instead, most travel websites deliver a very clinical experience and a very intimidating experience, and one that is about as much fun as walking through quicksand. It's just not where it should be."
Such dissatisfaction could provide a window of opportunity for traditional agents, whose numbers have dropped by the thousands over the last decade, winnowed by a loss of commissions, a faltering economy and the ever-growing number of travelers who sit down at their own computers to book rooms or flights.
"Any time you have confusion in a marketplace or in a channel, it bodes well for those who have the potential to relieve you of that confusion," says Harteveldt, "and a travel agent can obviously provide advice and counsel."
In addition to getting clients special rates, upgrades and perks, a traditional travel agent can help passengers avoid the headache of figuring out varying rates and restrictions on their own. And they can take action when a trip goes wrong, be it an oversold hotel or a natural disaster such as the volcanic eruption in Iceland that spewed an ash cloud that left thousands of fliers stranded throughout Europe in April.
"A lot of people are finding that travel has become more complicated than ever and that they need ... the assistance of professionals that are going to understand," says Paul Ruden, senior vice president for legal and industry affairs for the American Society of Travel Agents.
Noting the travails of passengers on board the Carnival cruise ship Splendor that had to be towed to shore in San Diego last week after it lost power, Ruden added, "I'm not suggesting that type of event is a common thing. It's not. But even little things that go wrong can be hard to handle if you don't have an expert working on your behalf. More people are realizing that."
An agent, for instance, could have helped rearrange a cruise passenger's flights, or found them a hotel where they could stay until they were able to fly home, says Ginger Mittelstaedt, who owns Free Spirit Travel in Portage, Wis.
Websites do brisk business
Travel websites are doing quite well. Online booking of leisure travel in the U.S. is projected to rise from $80 billion this year to $86.6 billion in 2011 and to $110.7 billion by 2014, with everything from tours to summer rentals becoming available for purchase on the Web, according to Forrester Research.
And the lines between online and offline agencies are increasingly blurred, says Andrew Weinstein, spokesman for the Interactive Travel Services Association, which represents online companies such as Orbitz and Expedia.
"I think what you're seeing is a convergence in many ways between online and offline worlds, as you are in other industries," says Weinstein, who notes that most travel websites have around-the-clock customer service to assist those who have problems or questions. "Many brick-and-mortar travel agents use online travel sites to price their itineraries, and most online sites offer full-service human support. This is really an industry where everybody wins when more people travel, and we think both online and offline travel sites offer valuable services."
Dan Toporek, a spokesman for Travelocity, says the Forrester research indicating some frustration with travel sites is probably "less about a shift away from online travel sites and more about the need to offer a personal touch online." Travelocity, he says, is offering more personalized options and suggestions tailored to choices a consumer has made in the past. "There will be a lot more to come in this area."
Harteveldt says there are numerous advantages to booking online. "It's open 24/7," he says. "You have access to an almost unlimited amount of information. If you have the time, if you know what you want, or even if you don't, you can explore to your heart's content. ... So it's not that the Internet is all bad."
However, he says, such sites may not match other Web-based areas of business in ease of use. "There's a lot of risk if you make a mistake," he says. " You could have purchased a non-refundable ticket and, depending on when you discover that mistake, you may be out money."
When do-it-yourself won't do
Traveler Ken Kushnir, 62, says he conducts many transactions online, but booking a vacation is no longer one of them.
He veered away from traditional travel agents for a short while, "but then after maneuvering around the Internet trying to get some stuff done, I figured it just wasn't worth it for any of our vacations or trips that were a little bit more complicated than just buzzing down to Los Angeles."
Kushnir, who lives in Healdsburg, Calif., and works in telecommunications, says that he has dealt with broken links, pages that don't load correctly and travel sites that don't accommodate specific needs, like bringing along a pet or making sure he gets a hotel room on the ground floor when he's had back problems.
"Even if it costs me a couple hundred dollars (in fees) for a vacation, I know when I get boarding passes and the rest ... it's going to be done right," he says.
Still, traditional travel agents have been disappearing. At the end of October, there were 15,087 travel agencies, including corporate travel departments and some online travel agencies, selling air travel through ARC, an airline-owned firm that provides financial services to the travel industry. That's down from 27,719 in December 2001.
"Certainly the Internet ability to book your airplane tickets and hotels contributed to it, but the economy certainly was a factor," Ruden says. And he says that an end to the commissions paid to travel agents by airlines in 2002 was a significant reason for many travel agents shutting their doors.
Those who survived learned to specialize, focusing on trips to particular parts of the globe, cruises or travel packages, Ruden and others say. And they started charging for their services to replace lost commissions.
"It was so hard for us when we always gave away everything to turn around and start charging people," says Mittelstaedt, a travel agent for 27 years. "It was probably the hardest thing in all my years in the business to do. We still get people who say, 'I can go online. I don't have to pay $25.' I say, 'Well, you're on your own.' "
Roughly nine travel agents in her area have gone out of business in recent years, she says. And when she recently addressed an audience at a Kiwanis Club gathering, "Probably half of them didn't even realize that travel agents were still around."
Travel agents have clout
Many travelers do prefer to book online.
"I enjoy doing the research, and unless the travel agent is top notch, they don't know a lot about the location, hotels, etc.," says Scott Hudson, who works in financial services and lives in Providence "I don't want to pay someone to read me a hotel description from a website."
Others switch back and forth, making their own reservations for shorter jaunts or business trips but using traditional travel agents for cruises or longer, more complicated journeys.
Two weeks ago, Suzanne Burr got an e-mail from a client who was on her honeymoon in Costa Rica.
"They'd paid for the royal service with the butler, and when they got to the hotel it was oversold and they put them into a standard king room," she says. Burr immediately called the tour operator, and word eventually reached the hotel's manager.
"By the end of the evening they were in the top-of-the-line room, even more than what they paid for," Burr says. "And that would have never happened if they were on their own."
But as this summer travel season approaches, anyone hoping to use miles to upgrade to business class to Europe, say, should first read the fine print — and then take out the calculator.
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