You’ve heard about using a travel agent for your destination wedding and why you should or shouldn’t need one, but just can’t decide if it’s really necessary. As you’ve started looking at resort options, pricing, and booking, you’re immediately overwhelmed by the lack of experience you have.
Some couples know they’ll hire a travel agent right away, and others just aren’t sure on exactly what they do, how they help, or if it’s worth hiring one. So that’s exactly what we’ll help you with. We’ll go over exactly what they do, the pros and cons of hiring one, tips on picking one that’s right for you, and red flags and expectations.
What Exactly Do Travel Agents Do for Your Destination Wedding?
1. Vet and review resorts
Some couples know right away what area, resort, and time of year they want their destination wedding. But, most of the time this isn’t the case. Most couples don’t even know where to start as far as choosing an all-inclusive resort. This is where a travel agent can be really helpful. It’s their job to know which resorts not only have destination weddings, but which ones actually specialize in them and do them really well. Which ones are easy to work with, have rave reviews, and have destination weddings every single day of the year.
They not only know about how the resort accommodates destination weddings, but the quality of the resort itself. The service, cleanliness, food quality, and everything in between. They’ve usually been to this resort themselves, or have recommendations from other travel agents that they feel confident enough in recommending to couples.
2. They get resort and travel quotes for you
As long as you have an idea of where and when you want to have your destination wedding, they take care of the rest regarding how much it will cost you. If you have a specific resort in mind, and know what month, or even week, you want your wedding, they can provide a pretty accurate estimate on the cost of you and your fiancé’s stay at the resort plus transportation (round trip flights and rides from the airport to the resort).
3. They can get better deals
Because travel agents work with resorts on a daily basis, they usually have access to discounted rates that you won’t find on your own. Some travel agents will even provide you a cash back deal depending on how many guests book through them. This can be a big deal when sticking to a tight wedding budget.
4. They handle all the booking for your guests
Trust me, you DO NOT want your family and friends texting/calling/emailing you with questions about their own booking and travel. You will already have so much to plan and coordinate that the last thing you’ll want is people bugging you about their flights, resort stay, or transportation questions. Unfortunately, you still may get bombarded because some guests won’t understand that you have a person dedicated to exactly that, but just remind them of your travel agent’s contact information.
5. They typically get through to the resort faster
Unfortunately, some resorts take a little longer than you’d like to get back to you with questions you have. Your travel agent can take that stress from you and handle all the communication with the resort themselves. Some things you’ll want to talk to the onsite wedding coordinator with yourself, like décor options or meal questions, but the majority of the big planning can go through the travel agent.
6. Saves you stress
Since your travel agent will be handling all the above mentioned tasks, this will save you from stressing out about doing it on your own. Your wedding day should be focused on you and your soon-to-be husband with as little stress as possible, so planning it should be the same way. This is one of the biggest reasons to hire a travel agent for your destination wedding.
What If You Don’t Plan on Hiring a Travel Agent for your Destination Wedding?
I will always recommend a travel agent, but I understand that not everyone wants to hire one. Keep the following in mind in case it’s something you’re considering.
1. Guests may have varying costs depending on how long they wait to book their trip
If you choose not to have a travel agent, you can’t really give an estimate on costs because it will vary widely. Where they fly out of, what day of the week, and what day they’re looking at prices will all factor in the varying prices. In contrast, with a travel agent, they can give them a pretty accurate estimate and you don’t have to be the one telling guests information that may not be accurate.
2. You don’t have the expertise and knowledge the travel agent has when it comes to picking the right resort
Online pictures of the resort can be deceiving. Everything may look beautiful, but we all know the internet can trick us. Most travel agents recommend resorts that they themselves have been to, or have received plenty of really good reviews from other agents and guests. For that reason, they know the service, food, accommodations, and quality of the resort is to a high enough standard for you. Certainly we’ve all heard those horror stories of the resort completely flopping based on what the guests saw online, don’t be one of those guests!
3. It can be difficult to get in touch with the resort/onsite wedding coordinator
As mentioned above, the travel agent usually has a better chance of hearing back from the resort on a regular basis. If you don’t use a travel agent, you may have a hard time getting your questions answered on a timely basis and this can be a huge stress for you when planning your wedding. Also, there can sometimes be a language barrier as well, which will only add to the stress if you don’t completely understand what the resort is communicating to you.
Tips For Guests Not Using Your Travel Agent for Your Destination Wedding:
Some guests will choose to not go through your travel agent, which is fine. We had a few guests that were very frugal and could find a little better pricing through sites like Trip Advisor and Expedia. This is obviously up to them, but keep a few things in mind for these guests.
1. They should not be bombarding you with questions on their travel because they chose not to go through a travel agent. If they have questions, politely explain that the reason you have a travel agent is to answer said questions and that you don’t feel comfortable helping them book through a 3rd party.
2. Don’t feel guilty if something goes wrong. If those guests got scammed or missed their transportation from the airport to the resort it’s not your fault! They chose to go with a slightly cheaper option, which is a risk they should be willing to take in case something like that happens. Give them your travel agent’s contact information and the resort’s information if they run into any issues, but don’t feel pressured to solve their problems if they run into any.
How to Pick a Travel Agent That’s Right For You
Now that we’ve talked about what exactly travel agents do, and you’ve decided you’re interested in hiring one, finding one that’s right for you can seem daunting as well.
Most importantly, because we’re talking about hiring one for your wedding, I strongly recommend one that specializes in destination weddings. They know the ins and outs of not only booking you and your guest’s trip, but can give you a more accurate cost on your entire wedding because they’re familiar with wedding packages, add on charges, and how to negotiate the best rate for you.
Next, you’ll also want to make sure they’re very responsive and communicative. You’ll be able to determine this within your first few interactions with them and if their response time lives up to your expectations or not.
Finally, you want to make sure they accommodate your wants and needs. You should come in with your own ideas and vision for what you want your wedding to entail, and they should try their best to make it happen. You never want to feel like you booked a resort you didn’t really want just because they pushed it on you. Feeling like you’re voice is heard will make the planning process so much easier.
As for actually finding them, Facebook destination wedding groups are a huge help. They have thousands of members who are actively planning or already had their destination wedding and a majority of them used a travel agent. Because of technology, you no longer need an agent that’s local either, so the opportunities are really in your favor. Start by searching ‘destination wedding travel agents’ and contacting a few that you’re interested in.
Red Flags and Expectations
With all of that being said, the most important aspect of using a travel agent is for them to help book your wedding and your guest’s accommodations. We’ve all heard the stories of being ripped off or scammed into something, so there are a few red flags to look out for.
A deposit is NOT necessarily a red flag
I’ve seen in Facebook groups that brides can tell other brides a travel agent should be free and if they charge you anything up front it’s a red flag. With the way destination weddings are evolving that’s just not the case anymore.
If your travel agent does ask for a deposit (some do and some don’t) you’ll want to ask exactly what it’s for. Most of the time, this is for their extra services they provide to the couple. Whether that’s providing welcome bags for all your guests, securing your stay through the resort and then reimbursing you later, or including activities or events during your trip that they’re planning. They should be candid about what exactly they include so you know if the deposit is valid and fair.
A long response time
As I mentioned earlier, you want to make sure your agent is responsive enough that you aren’t waiting days to proceed with your planning. Of course we need to give time for agents that are working with other couples and other tasks they’re doing, but if you feel like it’s holding up your wedding planning or they aren’t making sure the resort is staying on task, it may be time to switch agents.
They book your trip and leave the rest up to you
For a travel agent, especially one specializing in destination weddings, they should be checking in with you throughout the entire process, leading up to your wedding day. As mentioned, they should be making sure the wedding coordinator through the resort is staying on track as well, and reaching out to the resort for you if they aren’t. They should be responding to all your guest’s questions without worrying you with any of that information, and sending you updates on how many of your guests have booked or haven’t reached out yet. At no point in the process should you feel like you don’t know what’s going on if you needed to.
I hope this post about travel agents and your destination wedding has been helpful. If you couldn’t already tell, I would recommend a travel agent to make your destination wedding a simple and stress free process, but some will go without one and be just fine. Comment below if you have any other helpful insight, or contact me here!
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