In the aftermath of the pandemic, fulfilling booking requests and obtaining answers to questions from suppliers continues to be nothing if not challenging due to an unprecedented demand for travel.
“The economic reality is that there are severe shortages of excellent local guides in several portions of Europe,” said Richard Turen of Churchill & Turen. “Spain and Portugal are among the hardest hit. Along with that, you have unprecedented demand for FIT services with average spends up considerably. This has meant that many destination management companies (DMCs) are now maintaining minimums to take on new projects."
“The result is that day trips, full-day shore excursions and one- or two-night extended tour stay options are just not profitable enough for DMCs to work on when they have longer more expensive projects to consider," he added.
For independent contractors, the best course of action is “to require minimum spend requirements and to refuse to do one or two-day programs that are no longer going to receive the attention from overseas operators that they once did,” Turen said.
Holly Lombardo of Holly Lombardo Travel, an affiliate of Travel Experts, said DMCs are reaching capacity much further in advance and for longer lengths of time this year.
“I’ve also begun to see that DMCs are eliminating services that were normally included and charging additional fees for services such as restaurant reservations and spa appointments,” she said. “It seems that they are focusing in on what generates revenue and leaving the rest to the agent or traveler. And I can’t say I blame them. Agents who are also at capacity are doing the same.”
September has been particularly challenging, Lombardo said. "I had two bookings I had to hand compile because multiple DMCs were unwilling to take the requests in August for travel in September. I also had another supplier literally cancel a private full-day tour two days prior to service with zero back up. Fortunately, the hotel concierge came to the rescue."
Pam Walker of Walker Adventures, an affiliate of Travel Experts, said that the situation with suppliers continues to be challenging and in some instances and vastly improved in others.
“For example, it is still horrendous to get answers from Italy, the UK and sometimes France,” she said, "while other countries, such as Germany, Croatia and Greece are back to normal and it is easy to get answers.”
Meanwhile, some cruise lines are also lagging when it comes timely responses, said Kim Schott of Adventures Beyond Borders, an affiliate of Travel Experts.
“I am still experiencing issues within the cruise industry with slow response times and hold times of over an hour seeking answers to questions not available on their agent websites or to book groups.” she said. “The large volume of frustration and challenges were for travel to Europe. Now that the high Europe travel season has passed there is some relief.”
Schott added: “Domestically and internationally, the airline industry and airport staffing remain an ongoing concern.”
“I instruct my clients to be at the airport three to four hours in advance, and more for Africa and Asia, and to be prepared for schedule changes and long airport lines,” she said, adding that she also recommends that her customers opt for nonstop flights versus less expensive connecting flights.
Travel advisor sharing information. (photo via South_agency / getty images)
For Mona Dean of Horizons Travel, this summer proved to particularly challenging. “Resorts had limited room availability, leaving client preferred categories already sold out,” she said. “I found that suppliers and agents had to quickly adapt together to manage expectations for clients. Communication was the biggest challenge. Responses were taking days, causing frustration for agents and clients pending confirmed details."
"Thankfully, suppliers noticed the demand and quickly adapted with adding support. Having a strong relationship with BDMs was key, as they expedited priority concerns when needed," added Dean.
For Jennifer Doncsecz of VIP Vacations, summer brought on a wave of bookings not only for summer but for the remainder of the year.
“Things have definitely gotten better in terms of availability beyond Thanksgiving and Christmas/New Year, which seems to be sold out in the most popular destinations,” she said. “We are very proactive with reaching out to our regular repeat clientele and letting them know that September is the perfect time to plan that spring or summer vacation to take advantage of early booking rates and availability.”
For her part, Sarah Kline of Time for Travel has received a considerable number of requests for Europe in the last few months and said her supplier partners have responded by adding staff and inventory. “Tour operators like ALG have added a tremendous amount of inventory for the in-demand locations in Europe so we can now manage reservations in VAX without the delay of waiting on a reply from an agent,” she said.
“Having too much business is not a bad problem to have,” Lombardo said. “I can think of many worse things to have to deal with.”
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