The recent crisis clearly highlighted the value of booking with a professional travel agent, a value that has too often gone ignored since the online revolution and the prevalence of online travel agents, where simply the lowest price is king.
With professional travel agents, the client is king. And this was immediately apparent when the crisis started and those travellers who booked via a professional travel agent were immediately supported whether it was assistance to change plans and get home quick, reroute travel arrangements or get refunds, these travellers, and the service providers working with them, were well managed and fully supported. While guests who booked alone and online for their flights and holidays faced huge difficulties to gain support or get refunded. This was confirmation, if one were needed, of the importance and value of working or booking with a Professional Travel Agent.
With this pledge Secret Retreats would like to formally acknowledge this importance.
The Secret Retreats Community Pledge To:
- ensure net rates provide a fair and healthy margin to be competitive with rates online, at any time.
- offer not simply rooms to sleep, but a unique and authentic experience in and around the property.
- provide regularly updated information in the Travel Agent Hub of the Secret Retreats website.
- ensure that any and all commissions due are always paid in full, and in a timely manner.
- always provide a quality service to your clients, our guests, and aim to exceed expectations regardless of the rate plan the guest is booked on.
- answer all enquiries in a timely, comprehensive, and professional manner.
- work as partners with a long-term view, not simply to seek short-term profit, in order to ensure a long-term guest-experience focused mutually beneficial business relationship commensurate with being a Travel and Hospitality Professional.
