Agent to Agent: Clients With Unrealistic Budgets

Dear Tammy: What should I do when a client isn’t realistic about their budget? For example, one of my clients said they wanted to book a trip to Europe and Italy for 10 days and for 2 people, and only had a budget of $3000.

Tammy: Great question, as it’s just about impossible to book a trip to Europe and Italy for a 10-day vacation for 2 people for $3000. Whenever you are faced with this type of situation, it’s important for you to be on top of your rate game, which means knowing how much things cost. As a professional travel agent, you want to make sure that you don’t come across as someone who doesn’t know what they’re doing.

So what to do when you have clients who are not realistic about their traveling budget? Be upfront with them right from the very beginning. Explain to them why they need to add more to their traveling budget, which will require you to be prepared in showing them some of the costs associated with traveling to their vacation destination. The point is to always be there for your clients when they need you.

You can also offer them another destination that’s within their budget. For example, maybe they might be interested in traveling to the Caribbean, instead? Ask them if there are any other vacation destinations that they're interested in traveling to, and if they are interested, have them tell you right then and there so you can determine whether or not these additional destinations are within their budget.

Because talking with clients about their budget can be tricky for some travel agents, instead of asking them what their budget is, you can ask them for a price range instead. Or some travel agents have their clients fill out a travel planning form and include an area to list their budget. It’s really important to be specific, especially when they're taking a non-inclusive vacation. When taking a non-inclusive vacation, costs must include airfare, accommodations, travel insurance, entertainment, food, etc.

When you have to deal with a client that doesn’t have a realistic budget to start with, you’ll need to find a way to let them know that they need to either increase their budget, decrease their first choice trip, or choose another vacation destination to explore.