Lessons Learned: Travel Advisors Share Their Biggest Booking Mistakes

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cheryl

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Lessons Learned: Travel Advisors Share Their Biggest Booking Mistakes - Travel Market Report

To err is human, even for a travel professional. And indeed, one might say there’s no better way to impart a memory on your brain than by getting things wrong the first time. When Travel Market Report asked travel advisors to share some of the mistakes they made early in their careers, we ended up with 10 tips for travel booking success. Here are some of the tales they told; file under “Why you need a travel advisor.”

1. Either do clients’ online check-in yourself and have them sign a waiver — or have them do it and then recheck everything.
Several years ago, Cheryl Dworman, at Howell Travel and Cruises, had a client insist he would take care of the online check-in for a cruise she booked — and then use his own passport number for each family member with whom he was traveling. When he arrived at the pier, the cruise line would not allow them on board; it took a supervisor three hours to clear them. Luckily, Dworman had him sign a waiver. After that, she said: “I do online check-in because I want to make sure all the information is input correctly. I make copies of all the information and send it with their documents or email them the pages. More work for me, but I know it is done correctly.”

Others suggested that doing the online check-in incurs unnecessary liability; they have the client do it, but then they double-check everything.
 
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