> My wife and I have been touring the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland for
> our summer holidays for the last 14 years, so when we saw this programme
> (first series) we took a special interest in it, and so last year we decided
> to visit the chateau - and yes, these two people are real cardboard
> cut-outs - what you see on the telly is *exactly* how they are in real life
> )
>
> To me, the word "chateau" conjours up visions of a castle-type place in it's
> own vast grounds, but not here. Yes, they have made the chateau very nice
> but it's next-door to the local Spar shop (in fact, it's the *only* shop as
> far as we could see - not even a local pub/bar anywhere) in a village that
> is in the middle of nowhere and they want to charge £100GBP per night for
> it, whereas we stayed in the Hotel Magnolia in the heart of Piestany (a
> beautiful town with lots of shops/bars/restaurants), with a room overlooking
> the river for *far less* than half that.
>
> It's well worth a visit to have a coffee and just to check that these people
> are for real, but there's no way on earth that I would ever stay there.
>
> Oh, and while I wish you every success with your travel agency business, I
> have to ask the question - why do you think that people need travel agents
> in this day and age?
>
> My wife and I never book any hotels or accommodation in advance - just turn
> up, see a hotel we like the look of and go in and ask if they have a room
> available. In 14 years we've never failed to get a room yet.
>
> Even if you do like to have things booked in advance, almost all hotels have
> websites where you can see photos and book online or at least a phone
> number, or there are sites such aswww.hotelconnect.comto help you. I
> thought travel agents were a dying breed these days.
>
> John.

Actually opposite is true john. Travel agents are no where near dying breed these days. Industry is flourishing more then ever speaking of which these year's been predicted to be the strongest over the long period of time. The only change is happening in the high street. Travel agents are and ultimately will become only supporting centres for online sales and the form they're in nowadays will disappear. However the whole market is moving towards new technologies. No more it's just internet that supports this monster grind for money but others such as mobile internet and live booking systems via any network or handset, but also active advertising when you will be able to scan your holiday via billboards directly into your phone or any other portable device and live interactive internet TV or interactive brochures. This is the only change that is currently happening on the market. it's a huge shift but that's all there is.
Now let's get back to your question why to use travel agents rather then booking it online? Well I believe you know answer to that. Maybe it's not you but generally speaking, people like convenience. And it's not just about being served and managed by someone else, or saving time, but you have to take into account that if someone is interested in something special, lack of language doesn't really help. Well unless you go for backpacking type of holiday. Secondly, if one is smart enough, will have to realize that this market is full of opportunities. Let's just mention possibility to go on holiday as many times as you like. What do you do? Well, you know that just to switch off and still experience that feeling of being abroad and being able to treat yourself with new special memories, you don't want to use your holiday allowance from work. You will rather use that for one mega vacation with entire family. However, if you want you can go for city break, which you can build yourself the way you want it (well at least on our website you will be) and all it will cost you is Friday night abroad, Saturday night abroad and on Sunday you sleep again in your bed. simple, but effective. You can’t even imagine how much we are able to work with those three days and two nights these days. You can experience pretty much anything you imagine and all those things we don’t offer can be individually acquired for our clients who obviously give us enough notice. And that regards to hotel prices, well there still are companies which put huge mark-ups on top of the hotel offered price for their clients, however are prices are exactly what you get from the accommodation provider. It’s all about being smart and making the right choices.


ivan
BumRats

Well, I think it depends on what you are really looking for, what kind of a holiday you are going next. I think it is a must if you for example are going for your honeymoon, you would like to have an expert making sure that everything would be perfect and all the special arrangements are being taking care of!!

Yes they are excellent at mis-leading you

Depends on the holiday. It's easier for a lot of people booking through an agent as everything is sorted out for you; if you go it alone you have to sort out accomodation flights and transfers separately.

We went with First Choice this year, paying £680 for two all-inclusive at a 4* + hotel. It's cheap and much easier than booking separately.

Bit of an elongated post so havent had time to read it all but going by the thread title I would say yes there is a need for travel agents these days cos not everybody has a comp to book their own holidays. Some people prefer a package which is all put together for them