Become a Home Based Travel Agent

Internet Research Tools for Travel Agents
By Nancy Norris

Those who know me are aware that I spend a considerable amount of time on the Internet.  Much of that time is devoted to travel research and discovering websites that prove to be valuable resources for gathering travel related information. In fact, if there was such a thing as “Destination/Travel OCD”, I would be the poster child. Whether it is preparing for personal travel or providing quality service for my clients, there are a number of websites which I use on a regular basis to aid me in all aspects of trip planning. While I am sure you all have some of your own, I would like to share some of my favorite “go-to” sites which have proved to be invaluable travel agent tools.

While many of us do our best NOT to deal with the air portion of a client’s trip, there are times when we DO need to book air. If you are like me, you do not use a GDS and rely on Internet sources to get the best fares. While there are a number of Aggregator sites, until recently, my 2 favorite were www.kayak.com and www.sidestep.com . Recently, I discovered www.lowfares.com a super search site that allows you to compare the prices of multiple aggregator sites, including Kayak and SideStep, all at one time.

Many low-cost carriers are not listed on the large search sites, particularly when looking for budget airlines in foreign countries. Have you ever heard of Mango Airlines or Kulula Air? They are budget airlines in South Africa that would never show up in a typical airfare search. Use WhichBudget (www.whichbudget.com ), a comprehensive budget airlines directory, to discover the deals offered on these lesser known airlines worldwide or if you just want to find out all air carriers that fly to a particular destination.

We all know that airfare pricing fluctuates at any given moment and when to purchase tickets at the best price is like playing roulette. To hedge my bet, I use www.Bing.com/travel (formerly Farecast) which predicts fare changes based on historical data, to determine when to buy tickets. Also, when monitoring pricing for specific itineraries or watching for bargains from my local airports, I subscribe to email alerts from www.AirfareWatchDog.com . Another site, that has actually paid off financially is www.Yapta.com . This innovative site conducts daily price checks on specific flights and hotels I choose and alerts me when prices drop. Many US airlines have “guaranteed airfare” policies that allow one to claim travel credit if the price drops after purchase.  At yapta.com, I can track the price of a flight before and after booking, and yapta.com will alert me (by e-mail or Twitter) if the rate drops. I can contact the airline directly for a refund or for $15, Yapta will do the work for me. Granted, the airlines charge their usual change fees, but I have had situations where the price drop was significant enough to make the charge worth it.

Other than pricing, there are other aspects of air travel for which a little knowledge can alleviate some of the stress (both while planning and traveling):

--Want to know what seats to request (or avoid) on a particular aircraft, bookmark www.SeatGuru.com.

--While I have learned many of airline codes for the destinations my clients most frequently request, at times there is an inquiry for an airport which I am not familiar. So, I have bookmarked www.world-airport-codes.com .

--For monitoring real time arrival/departure/delay information for flights operating to/from the United States I have found www.flightarrivals.com a simplistic tool to keep me apprised of airport status and weather information relative to flight travel. However, more than just providing flight status and airport delays, www.ifly.com provides an even more comprehensive compilation of information for air travel. Flight status and tracking, directions, terminal maps, parking, layover ideas and security wait times can all be found at this web portal.

When it comes to destination and travel research, the Columbus World Travel Guide is considered a “Bible of the Travel Industry” and one of the most comprehensive guides to global travel on the web. At www.worldtravelguide.net you can find country guides for every country in the world, along with city, ski, beach, cruise and airport guides. The site includes a travel essentials link that provides weather forecasts, a world clock, world events guide and attraction guides. Every travel agent should have this bookmarked as one of their favorites.

A close second to the World Travel Guide is the Professional Travel Guide (www.professionaltravelguide.com) and another of my well-visited sites. This comprehensive trip and travel planning guide has a huge database of information on hotels worldwide, thousands of destination guides and professional hotel and cruise ship reviews. One of the neatest aspects of this site is the ability to customize eguidebooks for your clients specific itinerary for free.

We all know that tourist boards, convention and visitors bureaus and similar organizations are valuable resources for providing free, accurate and unbiased information about their specific destination. I have found the Tourism Offices Worldwide Directory (www.towd.com) to be a handy timesaving bookmark to easily connect with these sources.

As a cruise agent, I often need to reserve pre and post cruise hotels for clients. Some need complimentary shuttle service, others are in need of a hotel that will allow them to park their vehicle while on the cruise, etc. When searching for such properties, I have found that www.parksleepfly.com is a great place to start.

There a number of travel blogs, networks, forums and discussion boards that provide both consumer and agent generated reviews, tips and suggestions that are helpful as well. But those are a whole different category of “Internet resource” and is a separate topic by itself. As stated at the beginning of this article, I am sure many of you have your own “favorites”, which I may or may not have mentioned. In my never-ending quest to satisfy my OCD travel tendencies, if you have a site that you have found to be an invaluable travel agent resource, I would love to have you share it with me. (My e-mail address is PortSideTrvl (@ sign) aol.com).