The Travel Agent-Client relationship can get really personal. We find out bits of information that our customers haven’t shared with anyone else, like their partners, family or therapists.
These times can get super awkward pretty damn fast and we’re supposed to maintain eye contact and stay professional, while we process the situation and figure out how to respond – without offending or making our customer feel uncomfortable.
Sometimes it’s the Travel Agent that needs to start these types of conversations – and this makes it even harder, especially with certain touchy subjects.
Experienced Travel Agents will have come across most of these scenarios more than a few times, for novices, good luck to you – you’ll need it.
1. The Unfaithful Client
Imagine you’ve had a lovely married couple as clients for a few years.
You’ve booked them on romantic beach getaways, an African safari and perhaps even their honeymoon.
Then imagine that one of them comes in and books a last-minute weekend escape.
You quote them up and print out an itinerary, assuming that they’re travelling with their partner, before being told that the second passenger’s name is incorrect. You’ve just booked a dirty weekend fling, queue red faces.
2. The Sex Tourist
Unfortunately this is probably the most common of awkward sitches.
Female sex-tourism is actually a lot bigger than most people think, but they tend to be a little more, say discreet about it.
You can usually spot a male sex-tourist from a mile away.
He’ll swagger into the shop like he owns the place, leather jacket and slicked hair and all, and then make it absolutely clear that his hotel in Phuket must be booked for twin-occupancy, even though he’s travelling by himself. Gross.
3. The Medical Tourist
Travel Agents are trained pretty extensively.
We can handle Schoolies, weddings, honeymoons, babymoons, full-moon parties and everything else with a moon in it.
We can be caught out though when we’re asked about a price for a breast augmentation.
This is where it gets tough to maintain eye contact. It gets even worse when we’re asked for our opinions (yep, it really does happen).
4. The Person That Might Need Two Seats
This is another one that our training usually neglects.
We’ve all read the stories in the news about obese passengers on planes. But how does a Travel Agent bring this up?
I’ve been in the situation where my customer has brought it up himself, which was really easy to handle.
But what happens if you’re sure that the customer will need either a second seat or an upgrade to business class? Queue difficult conversation.
5. The Gay Couple Getting A Quote To Saudi Arabia
The world of travel has opened up a lot more than it used to be.
Airlines are now flying into cities and countries that used to be unreachable for the average traveller.
This also means that our customers are heading to regions where people (and governments) have different views (and laws) pertaining to one’s sexual orientation.
I believe it’s a Travel Agent’s duty of care to make sure his customer is aware of the risks involved in travelling to places like this.
This can be a tough subject to bring up, especially if the couple in front of you could just be mates!
6. The Break Up
This situation could actually end up involving the person from #1.
Alarm bells will start ringing when both sides of a couple visit you separately to ask about cancellation/change fees for a future booking they’ve made together.
It gets really awkward when they end up travelling on the same dates to save money and then add their new boyfriend/girlfriend to the booking.
Just make sure that you pre-select seats on the plane for them – at opposite ends of the cabin – or else there could be some Jerry Springer action at 30,000 feet!