You Get The Vacation That You Pay For!

You Get The Vacation You Pay For

A couple of weeks back, one of my favorite travel columnist, Richard Turen, had a tongue-in-cheek piece with a little reality included in the Travel Weekly that I thought bears additional coverage. My guess is that he had received several phone calls from folks wanting him to help plan their vacation, but with the caveat that they wanted a “good deal”, and “good, but cheap” vacation.

He had some advice to give. He said that if you were looking for a cheap travel bargain, you might want to go to another travel agent. He said he just Googled “cheap travel” and got 5.7 million hits, and if you started right now, it might take you a year to get to them all. But, he said, let me save you some time. I'll quote him; “You might ask why you would ever want the cheapest anything, since price almost always connotes quality and the cheapest is usually the most poorly made, the poorest design, the worst service or the most poorly trained. Are you certain you want “cheap?”

“Your next vacation will not be inexpensive. You will likely spend more on this vacation than you did on your last visit to the dentist or your financial planner or your doctor. You doctor deals with some of the most difficult times of your life. Your travel professional deals with the best moments of your life. Given that, I am curious. Did you seek out the doctor, the dentist, the surgeon, the real estate broker, the financial adviser or the home builder with the cheapest prices? My guess is that you didn't, because you told yourself that you pretty much get what you pay for.”

He also asked the question of the customer, “would you really like to make your airline arrangements booking the airline with the most poorly paid pilots or the tour operator with the best pricing because they hire the cheapest guides while using the cheapest available hotels?”

Then he ended his conversation with these questions:  

• “Does the cheapest hotel come with the best night-time security? Or any security?

• Rude fellow guests can ruin any hotel stay. Who will your fellow guests be in the cheapest accommodations you could book?

• Did you know that in most cheap or moderately priced hotels bedspreads might only be changed every six months? 

• Did you know that in most cheap or moderately priced hotels, including most of the major brands, maids are asked to “eyeball” the sheets and are encouraged not to change them unless absolutely necessary?”

Mr. Turen is not too far off in his conversation with his client about a “cheap deal vacation”. I can say that our agents at The Travel Factory do our best to recommend to our clients the best-valued vacation we can find, using tour operators we trust, cruise lines we have been on, hotels and car rentals that, because of experience, we have confidence in. We only hope that our travel supply partners treat our guests as we would want to be treated on a vacation, and that their service model is the same as ours. We want our customers back and we treat them like that. So, give the agents at The Travel Factory a chance to help you find the vacation of your dreams. Call us at 698-1421 or come by for a visit at 4150 Southwest Drive, between Rosa's and Chick-Fil-A. We always think we sell the best-valued vacation in town!!!