By Gilly Bachelor
It is not every day that someone declares you a disgrace to your profession, particularly when they have never booked a holiday with you. Yet that was the verdict delivered to me this week, and while the phrasing was dramatic, the conversation behind it is worth having because it highlights a common misunderstanding about how travel agents work and what our clients are actually booking when they choose professional support.
At the heart of the exchange was documentation. It is always the traveller’s responsibility to ensure their paperwork is correct. Passports, visas, entry requirements and health forms are issued in the traveller’s name, and legally the responsibility sits with the person travelling. That part is non-negotiable across the industry.
However, this is precisely where the value of a travel expert becomes clear. As I regularly explain to clients, it may be your application, but you are not navigating it alone. When someone books with us, they are not simply buying flights and a hotel. They are securing guidance, experience and a second pair of eyes. We explain entry requirements in plain English, flag timelines, sense-check passport validity and talk through the nuances that still cause confusion, particularly post-Brexit. Very often, we sit beside clients while they complete forms, answering questions and ensuring everything is submitted correctly. The responsibility remains theirs, but the reassurance is very much part of the service they have chosen.
Since Covid, we have also operated a free travel helpline, and we continue to receive regular calls from travellers with straightforward questions. Do I need six months on my passport? Is my passport too old? Do I require a visa for this destination? These are typically quick and simple for us to answer, and if a short conversation can prevent someone being turned away at the airport, we are more than happy to give that time. It builds goodwill, it reflects our expertise, and quite frankly it is the right thing to do.
Where the line becomes blurred is when guidance turns into full administrative support for a trip we have not arranged. The call that prompted the “disgrace” comment involved a traveller who had proudly organised her entire trip to India independently. Flights were booked online, hotels secured online, and she was very clear that she did not require a travel agent. What she did require, however, was an hour in my diary so that I could sit with her and complete her Indian visa application.
When I explained, politely and professionally, that this is not a service we provide to non-clients, I was told that as a travel agent it was my job.
It is not.
Our profession operates on commission. We are paid by travel companies when our clients book and travel. That commission covers the research, the supplier relationships, the planning, the checking, the time spent resolving issues, the amendments, the behind-the-scenes conversations and, importantly, the documentation guidance. There is no retainer quietly running in the background and no consultation fee for trips booked elsewhere. The support we provide is attached to the booking itself.
Independent travellers can and do create wonderful holidays. Choosing to plan your own trip is absolutely valid, and many enjoy the process. But independence also means ownership. Every element of the journey, including the paperwork, becomes your responsibility. Professional support is not something you can decline at the planning stage and then access in full when a visa application feels overwhelming.
Our clients understand this distinction. They come to us for reassurance, for experience and for the quiet confidence that someone is looking after the details. They value being able to pick up the phone and speak to someone who has seen it before and can calmly guide them through it. That is what they book, and that is what we are proud to provide.
Being called a disgrace to my profession was perhaps unintended irony, because protecting the value of professional travel advice is, in fact, part of honouring it. Generosity with simple advice is one thing. Offering unlimited administrative support for trips arranged elsewhere is another entirely.