Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

This falls under the life plan aspect of being an entrepreneur.

My bride Suzanne & I are planning a honeymoon trip to Italy. Of course, we`ve asked every person we know who has traveled to Italy about their experience and picked their brains on where to go, what to skip and all things related to the trip: accommodations, restaurants, airplane tickets.

We got hooked up with a travel agent and are meeting with her this afternoon. We haven`t worked with a travel agent ever and always do all of our trip planning using the resources on the internet. So we`re not sure what the value exchange of using such an entrepreneur is. We`ve done a little bit of homework in advance of today`s meeting and this article at SmartMoney.com gives some insight into the pros & cons of working with a travel agent.

Does anyone have any scoop to share?

If you`re a travel agent, explain the value that you provide.

If you`ve used a travel agent, tell us what your experience was like?


For some additional cool content right here at StartupNation.com on the topic of vacationing for entrepreneurs, check out

Vacationing For Success
Strike a Work Life Balance and Cure that Vacation Anxiety

My partner and I travel a great deal.  As he works for a very large company they have their own in-house travel agents (representatives of a large travel company).  When any of our travel is related to his business he is required to use their services.  However, if they are booking a ticket for me, at the same time, we are required to pay an addition travel agent fee.  It kind of bugs me as then the airline ticket price is more than I could get buying directly online.

In the past, my publisher required me to use their travel agent with travel related to my work for the company - until I showed them I could save them a great deal of money by booking things myself and getting reimbursed later.

When traveling to Italy (we are going again for 16 days in October) - or any other foreign destination - we have always used the services of a travel agent.  Any additional expense (perceived or real)  has always been worth it.  Our most recent experience involved a great deal of research by the travel agent as we were requesting avoiding flights in and out of Rome if at all possible.  (We`ve done Rome and just don`t want to deal with the airport again).  The travel agent provided a variety of alternatives, for the four of us traveling together, and gave us some great options.  Knowing the ins and outs of travel in Italy she was also able to book a rental car for us to pick in at our arrival destination (Bologna) and that we could leave in Florence when were to head home.  We actually got the car for much less than our last trip to Italy two years ago.  The travel agent saved us a great deal of time, energy and possible stress in coordinating everything. It`s also good to have a person to call directly if you run into any issues while on the trip.

We`ve always booked our farmhouse, hotel or villa rentals ourselves and the reservations are usually made based on our past experiences or the referrals of friends. 

Hope you have a fan-frickin`-tastic honeymoon vacation.

- J.



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Jeff Fisher | Jeff Fisher LogoMotives | Tweet! Tweet!

Thanks for the great insight Jeff. We met with the travel agent Friday and I`m feeling that for this trip it`ll be worth any additional expense. She charges $50 per person for a consulting fee and gives us a spiral bound book with our itinerary and notes/details.

She will make all of the hotel, rental car & private tour reservations for us. My understanding is that she gets a % of the revenue from each of the hotels & guides. We have full decision-making control over the hotel choices and which private tours we opt in for.

This is our first trip to Italy & as it`s also our honeymoon, we`re more willing to allow all of these details to be handled for us, understanding that it`ll cost us more money than if we made all the arrangements ourselves. We feel we`re perfectly capable of doing it ourselves, but as you explained, we expect that the time & stress saved will be worth the additional expense. Hey, it`s our honeymoon!!