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Total Views: 293 - Total Replies: 9

POSTED BY: ankit on 01/24/2010 00:38:13

Internet and affordable website solution has made all of all a pan India travel agent! An Agent sitting in Bhatinda would also have courage to display Hotels of Shirdi on his web portal very eagerly waiting for inquiries to hit inbox :)

But how many times it happens that even after receiving the inquiry such Agents are able to close the sale or more importantly able to help and guide the guest to right choice of Hotel?

Infact the biggies (national OTAs) have their call center in place but the executives with very little information. A couple of days back only I called up one such big company's toll free number and inquired about a lake side Hotel in Udaipur. I was served with several options. My next question was "what kind of water level do we have in Lake Pichola?", now the executive zapped! She had no information about that while being a Customer I must know that if I am payng for a lake side Hotel and for a lake view Room, if there is any water in lake or not?

Let me come to the point :)

Now imagine me as a customer calling up a local Hotel booking Agent in Udaipur and asking the same question. I am more than sure that he would very confidently explain me the water level and may also send sme recent pictures of lake. This is what I called "edge of being a local Agent".

Not only this, being local has also many advantages
1. Customer has a better faith since you are based in the city he/she is travelling
2. You have a better approach and access to the deals with Hotels
3. You know the management and may be the owners to get something done out of the way
4. You are aware of busy, peak and empty dates and can help the inquiries very quickly
5. You may also have a stake to juggle out Rooms in busy period with your local contacts
6. You update your website with latest pictures and deals
7. You ca handle the "bounce/overbooking" cases very quickly, ontime and efficiently
8. You are most updated about the services that Hotels could offer and guide the Customer to right choice
many more

Do you think that local Agents can beat the biggies based on the above proposition?

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POSTED BY: Rajeev on 01/25/2010 16:15:58

greetings !!!

it's indeed an opportunity to deal with a local or regional travel agent vis-a-vis someone operating out of an alien city. Little more than that is genuine approach towards your guest/customer.there must be those who operate out of udaipur,will know facts but still have the audacity to provide inappropriate information to their guest.why hold agents only responsible!how many times do you find the hotelier conveying the truth,seldom is the word...

further on the subject, the advantages cited by you are as genuine as content of this portal but fact remains, are local agents trustworthy! there are exceptions and travel made easy is indeed one,to udaipur. but largely speaking, they are more unreliable than biggies. they are more demanding than national players. they cannot be trusted for their financial dealings and let's accept this fact. haven't you experienced the local in and around udaipur!!!most of them are uncouth....lesser said,the better.

All we need to do is to have a positive,service oriented approach towards our business. the edge over others is always in following "good practices" and trust in long term profits.

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Lake Side Hotel in Udaipur

POSTED BY: Pravas on 01/25/2010 18:16:35

Hello,

Thanks Ankit for starting this discussion. There are many views / opinions / questions / doubts and most of all the way we do business in our country.

Every where in the world China and India are compared but according to most economist after certain time India will grow faster than China and above all sustain its economy mainly through its enterprising Entrepreneurs. I seriously do agree with you that all local agents will have information with maybe 5 to 10% Accuracy difference.
But the worrying fact is they do not disclose or are not interested in giving out such information. According to this kind of travel agents that is a waste of time. Check out in wikipedia.org regarding makemytrip and you will know. That every body from top to bottom gives importance on Sales and converting queries into confirmation and are not interested in customer service. I know only handful travel agents who can give all details to another travel agent so that we can answer to all or atleast maximum of the clients doubts.

Regarding the positives you have given here i do agree but for above reason.

Now coming to a bigger question is that Is tourism a sector which you can fully computerise?
I doubt.

1. Its a very interactive sector. So the members in this sector need to interact more.
2. Vastness. World is so huge that we cannot tell about all tourist spots, so local knowledge is needed. (Punchline for HSBC Bank is the world's local bank.)
3. In time of distress local agents with help of their drivers do know better alternative routes and can handle many other situation (Localized Solutions for problems).

I do agree that we can provide a lot of Information But even for that sake many a times googlemaps are wrong.

Also thanks to Rajeev for speaking truth from heart.

We need to come out with lot newer and better solutions. We cannot stop problems popping out, But we need to solve it as quickly. some of the areas are

1. Hygiene at Hotels and Restaurents.
2. Employee Behaviour - like Drivers, Waiters, even Owners.
3. District wise associations - for Hotels, Restaurents, Travel agencies, Car Rental agencies, Guide Guilds etc.
4. Lobbying with govt for better policies not just financial but infrastructure development.
5. Issues like Drivers making a commission for some Unathetic handicrafts from some Crafts showroom giving Commission to them.
6. a Interactive Govt Dept with all associations so that all B2B & B2C Info site is available from district to district.

There are millions of things to do. But lets start from 1 atleast.

Regards,
Deepak

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Pravas - Smart Choice of the Smart Agent

POSTED BY: ankit on 01/25/2010 21:47:33

Pravas wrote:

Hello,

2. Vastness. World is so huge that we cannot tell about all tourist spots, so local knowledge is needed. (Punchline for HSBC Bank is the world's local bank.)

This is the core of this topic, I am trying to take out plus and minus of "Hotel booking Agents focusing on selling local products with a better service and support". This may help the Guests as well as Industry as a whole.

I have a firm belief that based on the local knowledge and power to service, local agents can compete biggies in their own niche.

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POSTED BY: vizagtourism on 02/20/2010 20:15:59

This is a nice topic. Local agents would surely have an added advantage as they are locally available and can clearly explain the situation as per the circumstance.

I have read a couple of posts stating that local agents are not reliable. It true most often, but it also depends as how the agents can create a better branding as a local agent for their destinations. If the customer is able to figure out a professional local agent then he is for sure going to have a better experience when compared to booking it through a OTA. Ultimately the reason a Guest walks upt to a Agent is because he expects he would be guided with a good choice of hotel or a tour plan. Hence the local agents will be able to answer the Guest more quickly and with more confidence.

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vizagtourism

POSTED BY: basant on 03/02/2010 18:09:36

Dear All,

Greetings!!

Need IPL 2010 Final Match 250 Ticket.

bestrgrds

Basant Kumar

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Travel Consultant

POSTED BY: satish_perala on 03/03/2010 19:36:07

yes, i do agree! Local agents definitely have an edge over big OTAs.

But the main advantage OTAs have over Local agents is their global reach. OTAs provide a lot of options for the customers, an easy-to-use interface etc. which actually converts customers from enquiry to booking.

I think the local travel agents, lack a bit in this area. They should have a good presence on the internet (most of the local agents don't...).

A good way to go about this is ... all the local travel agents of a region (state may be ...) agree upon certain conditions and develop a strategy together for a good web presence. May be they can build a single website, all the agents of that region will have dedicated pages each and they can display their packages. This can be a good platform for local agents to showcase themselves.

And certain common features, like the payment gateway etc. kind of things can be shared by all of them.

This helps reduce costs for online presence and can give a better competition to OTAs.

Whatz your opinion on this??

POSTED BY: ankit on 03/03/2010 21:51:02

satish_perala wrote:

yes, i do agree! Local agents definitely have an edge over big OTAs.

I think the local travel agents, lack a bit in this area. They should have a good presence on the internet (most of the local agents don't...).

And certain common features, like the payment gateway etc. kind of things can be shared by all of them.

This helps reduce costs for online presence and can give a better competition to OTAs.

Whatz your opinion on this??

Very good post indeed!

I 100% agree that if local agents form a union, it will be really easier to compete with the larger OTAs. I have been burgeoning with an idea to provide a platform to Local Agents to market their services (B2C) for a long time and I hope to come up with some proposal soon.

Portals like iviaworld has offered such platform to local agents but its more of B2B and I myself did find it little complicated to deal with.

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POSTED BY: satish_perala on 03/08/2010 11:27:36

Thats a great idea to have a B2C platform for local travel agents. I am waiting for your proposal.

Ankit, I too have some ideas on this front. If you wish we can work together to come up with some proposal.

POSTED BY: ankit on 03/08/2010 14:57:16

satish_perala wrote:

Thats a great idea to have a B2C platform for local travel agents. I am waiting for your proposal.

Ankit, I too have some ideas on this front. If you wish we can work together to come up with some proposal.

That will be great! you may drop an email to me at mail@ankit.in

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07/30/2010