Here, There and Everywhere

We are a traveling group of people right now.

As I write this on Sunday, Marty is departing for Cancun. He will be staying at the Azul Beach Resort, one of our favorites. The occasion for his trip is that we have a large incentive group down previewing their chosen property (not the Azul) and having meeting regarding specifics about the group.

On Tuesday, Terrah will be departing for Hawaii. She'll be traveling to Oahu, Maui and Kauai (no small feat in a 5 day trip).

I'll be leaving for Costa Rica next Saturday. I'll be staying at the Occidental Grand Papagayo for three of the nights, the Monteverde Cloud Lodge for the remaining night.

We are also traveling on a smaller scale, since our home is on the market. We had two showings the first night it was on the market. (Thursday) We had one showing Friday night, FIVE showings yesterday and one showing today so far.

I always thought keeping the house clean constantly would be the most annoying thing about living in a house on the market. What I've found is that I really don't mind that. In fact, I prefer to keep the house picked up anyway. If anything it's easier on me now because I have more family support to keep things picked up than I do normally. For me, the hardest thing is the feeling that I can't get started on anything because I could be interrupted at any moment.

For instance, I really need to do some website work. Marty and Terrah have both given me pictures for property photo tours that I need to get put up. I need to take down that Iberostar special thats on our first page. (It expired Thursday.) I feel like I am in a constant state of flux due to not knowing when at any minute the showing service could call and we'd have to pick up and leave.

Right now I have several things planned that I need to do that we could do if we get another call. Just watch, there'll be no more showings today since I have a plan to use the time productively......

In other news, we have a new hire starting on Tuesday. We're very excited to welcome Heather.

More Later.

The News Story Went Well!

http://cbs11tv.com/topstories/local_story_145225018.html

Here's the link if you didn't catch it live. (But you did...didn't you?)

I was more nervous waiting for the story to come on than I was actually filming it. Go figure.

Watch CBS 11 News Tomorrow (Thursday)

The interview went swimmingly well. The camera man was very impressed with our office, especially the flags hanging overheard. Very colorful and films well, I guess.

They tell me it should air for tomorrow's 10pm news.

If they post it on the website I'll put a link here.

Breaking News

We got a call a couple of hours ago from CBS 11 news here in Dallas. They want to do a story about the apparent increase in travel from the US to Europe. I'm flattered to be asked and I'm excited about the interview.

I ran home to change clothes and am now awaiting their immediate arrival.

I'll post a link from here if they put it on their website. I'll also come back and let you know if they tell me when it will air, just in case you are local.

More Later

Free Cruise

We put our house on the market today.

This morning in the shower, right before the Realtor came by to take the pictures and fill out the paperwork, I had a brainstorm.

Free Cruise!

Why not offer a cruise for a quick sale? I ran it by the agent and she thought it was a great idea. We're offering a free four night cruise for the first acceptable offer made before June 15th. (Cruise certificate to be provided at closing.)

If it works well, I can see that I will be contacting every real estate agent in town!

(Oh, and if you're interested in buying our house...shoot me an email and we'll arrange a showing!)

"We'll use our miles to upgrade."

I do a great deal of custom European tour planning. Some folks don't relish the idea of an escorted tour, so we plan an individual itinerary and I help them know how to navigate the trains, sightseeing options, etc.

Something I've heard an awful lot of this year is folks who fully expect to book a coach airfare and upgrade with miles. They've been saving these miles sometimes for years and this is always what they've had in mind for using them. It's a wonderful plan. I mean, if that isn't why God made miles..what's the use?

The problem is that, in order to snag one of the 1.73 seats on any given flight designated as a mileage upgrade seat, you need to book waaaaay in advance. (i.e., this summer it isn't going to happen my friend!)

It's frustrating to me too. I hate having to explain to people why they will either have to ride in coach or cough up mucho dinero.

Bottom line: If you expect to do a business class mileage upgrade to Europe, let's plan in the fall for next summer. Okay?

"Hot Deals"

People are always asking if we have any "deals". The truth is, we are inundated with deals constantly. The challenge is figuring out what is wheat and what is chaff. We consider it an honor to have a relationship with each one of our customers. We don't want to go broadcasting something that we don't really feel is notable.

Every time we send out an email, we get replies from other people who've received it forwarded from other people asking us to add them to our list. Others ask why we don't send out "deals" more often. The reason is that, when you get an email from Legacy Travel, we really want you to know that it is something to look at carefully.

Happy Travels!

Sometimes Life Creeps In!

This is a professional blog. It is primarily about what it is like to be a travel agent, run a travel agency, travel, be an employer, etc. Sometimes, though, life creeps in.

My mother passed away 2 years ago today. She died after a year long battle with Pancreatic Cancer. I miss her beyond terribly. This whole part of the year feels sad to me.

I'm having a hard time concentrating on work, but I'm doing the best I can.

More Later!

Airfare Research Fee

We have been in a quandry as to how to handle the growing number of requests we receive for airline tickets. While that might sound odd for a travel agency, please understand that the bulk of what we do is plan vacations. Most of the airline tickets we attend to are within the context of vacation packages.

You might remember that about 11 years ago airlines started reducing and eventually eliminating commission paid to travel agents for issuing tickets. At that time we were primarily a corporate travel agency. We had already started a transition to vacation travel a while before this happened. Today we are just about 100% leisure travel. We do almost no air.

We have found, however, that over the last several months more and more people call and ask for our assistance in working out air travel. Since the initial commission cuts from the airlines, we had been charging a "ticketing fee" for air. The problem with this pricing model is that we do the work up front, we provide the value up front..but the customer has the option of not following through with the transaction...and then we don't get paid.

So, for a while we have just been telling people who call for air only "I'm sorry, we only do vacation packages". Well, I don't like the way that sounds. I don't mind if people don't choose to do business with us, but I don't ever want to appear unhelpful.

I decided that we would move the service fee to the part of the transaction where we actually provide the value. Therefore, when we get calls for air only we let people know that we are excited to help them. We let them know that we will charge "X" amount as a research fee and will provide them a complete report of available airfares through various sources. At that point they can either have us facilitate the ticketing, or they can use that information in whatever way they wish.

I will admit that this form of pricing is unusual. However, it moves the fee to where the value is actually added.

I'll let you know how it goes!

Playing with Podcasting

This morning I have just finished editing my first podcast. Last night we had a staff meeting with Susan Huston with Crystal Cruises. I took the opportunity to record a conversation with her about the "Crystal Clear Difference".

I'm just learning about the world of podcasting, so I'm sure I'll get better at it as time goes on. If you'd like to hear the first one though, here's the link:

http://www.legacytravel.com/podcasts/Episode1.mp3

Enjoy!

Help Wanted

You may have seen our "Help Wanted" link on the front page of our website.

Finding new employees is an evolving art. Back when we first got into this industry, we would place a newspaper ad whenever we wanted to hire someone. People may still look at newspaper ads, but we are needing a more technologically savvy person, so now we list the job on Craigslist as well as mySpace. We also promote it on our own website, as you can see. We also notify our network of friends and family that we are in the market for someone to add to our company family.

The reason we put together the information page about the job itself is that we were tired of setting aside time for job interviews to spend with people who weren't really clear on what the structure of the job is. We train from scratch. We hear often from people that are making good money in other professions and want to step right over into travel without skipping a beat. The fact of the matter is that it is unreasonable to think that you will transition from one industry to another with no sacrifice in income.

We have a good time in our office and offer great earning potential. If you know someone ready for a change, have them read our page then give us a call!

More Later.