huicy

Dear all,

I am a newbie here. I hope you guys dont mind if I ask some elementary questions.

I browsed the forum and is interested to book the Four Seasons Bora Bora for several nights for my upcoming trip.

My questions are:
(i) does the travel agent charges any commission from me if I book through them?

(ii) do I need to give the travel agent my credit card details?

(iii) do I pay at the hotel or I pay the advance payment to the agent?

I dont fully understand the mechanism -- if there is any problem (e.g. being double charged, failure for the hotel to provide the additional benefits), how I can complain / follow up with an agent who may be thousand miles away from my home country?

Thanks all and have a happy weekend!

Travel K

I am sure you are not the only person wanting to know, so please don't worry about asking.

I can only answer for Virtuoso, but I am sure Amex FHR is similar.

The hotel property pays the commission to the travel advisor/agency. Depending on what you are specifically looking for (what level of service - hotel, rental cars, excursions, transfers, etc) , some travel advisors will charge a fee.

Yes, we will need your credit card information to reserve the room for you. There is really no other way around this. We reserve it for you with the Virtuoso rate, you pay the hotel upon checkout (assuming no prepaid rate to the hotel was selected) and the hotel then pays the advisor/agency.

I can't speak for all other advisors, but I know when my clients are traveling and check in with them. We are able to help with issues while at the property or even after you returned home. Being in the same town, state, or even country doesn't make a difference. What is important is establishing a good relationship with an advisor who you work well with and trust.

DrGiggles

to expand on the existing reply:

plane tickets will typically carry some kind of booking fee (though doesn't sound relevant here)
The agent will pay using your card based on whatever terms the hotel requires (if a deposit is required X days out, etc.). but no difference from if you were to book yourself.

My travel agent is located 6 states away and i have never met her in person but that has never been an issue (and we have had occasions where we needed stay-issues remedied). the only potential issue i could think of if your travel agent was far away woudl be scheduling times to talk depending on respective time zones and maybe marginally less familiarity with airline networks/schedules from an airport that might not be in their typical fairway (though this should be able to be handled).

RichardInSF

Great idea to ask this question! I have posted a link to this thread at the bottom of the wiki listing the Virtuoso agents.

Boraxo

How do I get a virtuoso agent? The website lists about 100 here in California. There can be such a thing as too many choices

SanDiego1K

Start with one of them active in this forum.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/luxur...t-members.html

chinmoylad

I think this pretty much covers it. I just had a booking off someone who found me on Instagram and wanted to have a good experience in Phuket. Had never known this person before, or met her. Luckily she lived in Hong Kong so I did get to meet up and discuss the trip in more detail to find out what she wanted before we went ahead and booked something for her.

I charge for all types of bookings and also by the hour if creating a more complex itinerary, but sometimes offer some things gratis depending on relationship.

This will vary depending on agent.