In my experience the brochure price is usually what you pay.If your lucky they might offer free insurance or free car parking at the airport.They used to do a percentage off the brochure price-10% or 20% but they don't seem to anymore.

hi

how about booking it DIY? there are plenty of holiday and flight websites for you to pick and choose your own flights from. For example booking a holiday through first choice will limit you to flying when their airline has a flight - which may not be great times or a day you want but if you book it yourself you can pick and choose your dates/ flight times etc.

IMHO when booking through a travel agent you are paying for the "name" you can get holidays much cheaper by doing it yourself.

To give you an example we went to fuerteventura in june for 2 weeks thomas cook,first choice etc quoted us £2500 doing it DIY we paid £1400 for the same hotel, same dates etc etc.

HTH fatcodycat

lets look at it from a different angle

A Price on an article or in a brochure is only an offer to sell if you are willing to accept that price fine however holidays are usually well over priced.. the same goes for the holiday tv prog over the week end i saw exactly the same holiday advertised the special deal from the tour operator was £ 335.00 per person, an independent travel agent offers £285 per person same holiday same flights through same t.o

Never paid brochure price for a holiday yet. In fact the full brochure price for our holiday later this month would have been £650 for two. By going to a travel agent (independent agent) we saved well over a hundred pounds off that price.

Andy.

Forgot to say. the brochure price didn't include flight supps, fuel supps or meals. The price we ended up with was all in, so actually saved a whole lot more.

Also the price compared to the brochure prices can increase and I have seen this happen quite a few times!! One TO where I have seen this the most is Thomsons.

Brochure prices should be used to indicate which hotel is more or less expensive than the others in the brochure. They don't usually include fuel supplements for example. Ask your travel agent for a discount - there is no reason why they can't discount. The level of the discount will depend on how much commission the agent earns. Some tour operators pay more than others. I'm a TA and rarely look at a brochure for the price - I always just give the best price that is available on that day. TOs often give discounts if they have excess availability.

The brochures I find the most accurate are the direct sell brochures of Direct Holidays, Portland and Eclipse. When you phone the price is normally the same as that quoted in the brochure, and if you book on line you get a (small) web discount.

I find the prices in the brochures that you pick up in the travel agents a work of fiction. It's down to who you talk to on the day and how keen they are to make a sale. So I would say there is definately 'leaway'.

The brochures are guide prices and the holiday prices can and do change daily!! Even checking all the flight supplements, under occupancies etc 9 times out of 10, for most operators the "system" price will be different.

Agents use Viewdata to obtain prices. The viewdata price will be the price the agent will make their maximum commission. If asked, or if they think they may lose the sale they will then reduce the price. The viewdata price will be the same at all TAs that use that system. The lowest price you will get, will be from the TA that is prepared to reduce their commission the most!!

A good rule of thumb on getting discounts via the main high street agencies is to use the 15% rule.

If the travel agent is part of the same company as the tour operator (for example Going Places is part of the Mytravel group, or Skydeals from teletext is part of Tui..ect ) Then you'd expect 15-25% commission of the total booking price going to the agent.

Other agents and independents generally come in around 10% commission with the big tour operators but its dependent on turn over of the agent and what deal they've negotiated with the operators.

Also remember that the agents also get commisson on such annoying things as Ticket on departure charges ect...

An example on how one company (part of Tui) discounts is this.

Say total viewdata price is £500 for a weeks SC break to PMI with thomsons (TUI).

This agent is on 15% commission with Thomson so its £75 in Commisson.

£500 -15% = £425 to get the net comm price.

This agent has a pricing rule to add £15 on to the net comm price to guarantee a set minium profit on each booking. This the gives the all important lowest retail sale price. In this case would be 425 + 15 = £440.

Armed with is knowledge you can then go to the agent ,get the Viewdata price and walk out.

Do the maths in the comfort of your home ect. to work out how much the agent is making roughly in Commisson but always rembember to add £15 or £20 to get the lowest retail sale price.

The agents are well aware that people knock of the standard comm rates and can see that people are just tring there luck.

Go back to the agent and say I've been quoted this price with another agent can you match it. Very important to say match not beat!!

The agent sould then see if the price is with in the lowest retail sale price ( which it will be ) and if they need the booking for sales targets... they should start entering in your booking details before you;ve had time to speak. )

I should add that this method "price haggling" it does tend to work better when dealing with call center agents as they have generally higher sales targets to met and as long as the price is above the lowest retail price they will acept it.

Normally call agents have to earn commission for the company before they start to get any bouns. In some call centres the agents have to earn £6K in commission alone!!... Before they start getting commission for themselfs on a sliding scale. So the agents are desprate for bookings to get their sales numbers up and also long as you ask for a discount with in the lowest retail price everyone should be happy. The agent with the booking towards the targets and you with a nice discount.

Just one word of caution when dealing with call centre agents. They often dont quote the "sreen" price first time, ie they will often inflate the price to get a bigger commission. So always call around and never except the first quote. Once you get a consitant price for you hoilday query then its time to start the discount game.

I also posted some info on Pricing models here.

http://holidayforums.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=85062

Hope this helps people get a better price.

Caz

Can I just correct you on one point? Agents only get commission on the base fare on charter flights. Items such as fuel supplements, flight meals, ticket on departure charges are non-commissionable. For example, I booked a client to Dalaman yesterday (flight only). The base fare was £9, but with all the extras - the total fare was £79. I only got commission on the £9 part! Great business to be in!

Look at the profits Tesco posted yesterday - you can grow your own veg, make your own bread etc but no-one moans about the prices they charge - don't deny me the 63p I made on that flight - I had to do quite a bit of work to get the client the best deal!!!!

IMHO when booking through a travel agent you are paying for the "name" you can get holidays much cheaper by doing it yourself.

It depends what you mean by DIY....and I may be off the mark here, apologies if I am.
It's getting easier to organise trips independently, but the bad news is that when things go wrong you have fewer rights than those who travel on a package holiday, and if you book a villa/apartment holiday direct with the owner, you have very few rights"¦and those that you do have, are difficult to enforce.
One advantage of booking through a TO/TA ...is that legislation has been put into place to protect you the customer.
I'm not a lover of TO's, but here is an example.....
Should you book through a TO and you find yourself sharing a room with an infestation of insects, then according to the travel/package regulations (a copy can be downloaded from HT) the TO has a legal obligation to remove you from the infestation.

Should you go DIY and book direct with the hotel and the same thing happens, then the hotel could just say "tough" and has no LEGAL obligation to remove you from the infestation and your only recourse is to go through the local courts, but if the hotel is part of an international group/chain with representatives in this country, then you can insist that court proceedings be heard in the UK.
In fact legally, the TO is responsible for just about everything that can go wrong on your hols and believe it or not"¦if you fall on a cracked pavement whilst abroad, the regulations give you the right to enlist the TO's help to make a claim against the local council.
Like I say, I'm not a great lover of TO's, but let's give them and the law some credit....Hotels used by TO's have to meet a certain criteria.

Some of us are old enough to remember the horror stories of people diving into the pool in the shallow end and spending the rest of their lives in a wheelchair because the depth was NOT marked on the side of the pool . the poor souls who died being slowly poisoned in their sleep with carbon monoxide in self catering apartments due to faulty water heaters and the tragic deaths of people trapped in a burning hotel because there was no escape route, fire extinguishes or signs/plan of the hotel to the emergency exits.

Whilst most hotels in Europe in the 21st century do fall in line with the law, the ones used by the TO's have by British law to be checked out (for your safety) and it is in their interest to do so...."¦otherwise they would find themselves in a British court of law when/if things go tragically wrong.
Paying that little bit extra against DIY might just be easier to swallow when you consider the pros and cons.

We shouldn't just take things for granted that everything will be OK.
Sanji

I don't book anywhere until i have checked it on at least 3 review sites and if its not in any brochures that immediately raises suspicions and i leave well alone which so far has meant no nasty suprises on arrival at the hotel.

I always use websites which are ATOL and ABTA bonded which i believe gives you the same rights as booking through a tour operater - i am prepared to be corrected if thats not right
As far as im concerned the savings i have made in the past outweigh any "security" i might feel about booking it through a high st travel agent and for me its part of the fun trying to find the cheapest deal and then ringing other agents and getting them to beat it!!

Whenever i have advised people to try DIY to see if they can get a holiday cheaper i always advise to check out reviews on websites like this!!

fatcodycat

ATOL protection only comes into play if you book a package that includes an air element and a hotel/ground package element. If you book them separately, you do not have ATOL protection. This is a protection in case the tour operator fails - usually works to bring you back from holiday if the airline goes out of business or gets you a refund if this happens before travel.

ABTA protection is slightly different. Many tour operators have ABTA membership and many (but not all travel agents) - this protects you financially if the travel agent goes out of business (all pay into an insurance bond to cover this). Same works for the TO side.

However you can DIY through an ATOL protected travel agent who puts together their own packages. DIY price but protected.

thanks for clearing that up olly

Hi Diamond Olly...

The large retail agents I've consulted for do get commission on the majorty of TOD charges. There are the odd exceptions and most of and the independends travel agents do have a poorer commission structure due to their lower turn over.

Speaking of Flights, when I was at a large TUI phone based booking agency that advertises heavey on teletext and is based just north of Manchester. This agency had a very good commissions with the major operators on TOD and there was only one smaller operator that did not offer commission on TOD's..

A good side note on commissions was on car hire.... TUI had a 25%!!! with one well very known "hoilday" car hire firm. A good example of to ask for a discount on every booking item.

Obvously the smaller agents/independents do not get these generous comm rates. However they more than make up for it with a far more personal sevice and 9/10 greater product knowloge with can be priceless if your of unsure of what you want.

Lets face it you don't get the same service especially over the phone with the tour operators retail agent outets compaired with a face to face with a specialist independent. So If people know what they want, don't need the one to one help, then the main agents are the ones to use. The trade off is you sould never pay screen price on add on items when dealing with these large outlet agents.

Cheers caz

TOD's are relatively small charges - usually £10-15 on average. We don't get paid commision on the high fuel supplements or airport taxes - which can mount up to be quite a large proportion of the final cost. We also don't charge for advice, working on itineraries etc - sometimes which don't result in business.

Anyway, this has gone off-topic, for which I apologise

No need to apologise for taking this one off-topic Diamond Olly as it wasn't you who did so.

I for one am pleased we have a long standing member who is also a travel agent, as you are posting from a perspective of someone who knows how the travel profession works, rather than just being a gifted amature.

I often see posts from new members posting poorly researched mis-information on such things as ATOL and ABTA membership as though it is fact just to support their point of view.

fatcodycat wrote:

IMHO when booking through a travel agent you are paying for the "name" you can get holidays much cheaper by doing it yourself

.

Yes, but I like to have that "name" behind me in the event that anything should go wrong with my holiday, or if in the unlikely event I should find myself in a situation, such as a terrorist incident, or a severe weather problem....hurricane etc etc....something that would mean I would need to get home very quickly.

Doing it yourself, you don't have that name behind you, do you. Maybe I am wrong, but I am still not comfortable with going DIY. Too much hassle if you ask me...finding accomodation, booking it, finding flights, booking them, organising transfers and booking them....and what do you actually save? I'd sooner pay the "name" to do all that work for me in one simple transaction in the travel agency. Even if that means I do pay a little more.

No need to apologise for taking this one off-topic Diamond Olly as it wasn't you who did so.

If it was me...then I apologise

Sanji x