When you are planning a relaxed vacation, you want all your problems handled by an agency with trained staff, specialized expertise, and established reputation.
But how can you know whether to trust, say, Boiana-MG when you hear about it for the first time? Here are some hints to help you to choose wisely.
Reliability
Few things are worse than finding yourself abroad with no support, and it’s hard to find someone who speaks your language. To avoid this, you should search for a reliable travel company. Look at the following criteria:
- Years on the market. The longer the company operates, the more trustable it is.
- Local offices in the country where it operates. It’s easier to start with outsourcing, but having a local office shows that the business is serious.
- Personal experience the managers can share with you. It may be useful to read about countries your company operates in, but being there, seeing the hotels and the resorts, speaking to local employees and employers, and feeling it with your own skin is precious.
- Reviews by other clients. Sometimes it’s hard to tell whether certain reviews are real or fake, so it’s better to trust someone you know.
Local Awareness
Hardly is there a country in the world that has nothing to show off. The question is whether there is someone to show it off in all its grandeur. Natural wonders and historical places, festivals and cuisine, relaxed leisure or challenges for the brave – is there anyone to lead you through?
A good travel company should know it all. Bulgaria has a lot to offer. Sand beaches and mountains, lakes and parks, Greek, Byzantine, and Ottoman legacy, as well as modern cities, festivals, restaurants, or serene remote places. It takes 5 minutes of googling even for an unaware traveler to find out more about it. A good agency, though, has to be more competent than that, knowing the industry inside out.
Pricing
As you compare prices for similar programs, you may find that offerings by some companies are overpriced. On the other hand, cheap tours are also suspicious. You may actually get much less than you expect and thus pay for. Extra expenses may get too high, and the quality too low.
How to deal with it? Again, rely on reviews. Those before you have already compared the prices and the service. And if they mismatch, chances are higher that someone writes about it.
The Human Factor
One of the most important things when you choose a travel agency (regardless of the country) is how the communication goes. How do its employees understand your needs? Do they try to sell you something you don’t want? When they offer you some new place or program, how does it correspond with wishes you express? This is what you will feel as you contact the company and speak to its managers. If you don’t feel heard, the rest doesn’t matter.
Hope you find the right agency and enjoy your vacation. And then tell your friends about all its pros and cons if any, helping the best in establishing on this untranquil market. By doing this, you make the travel industry better.
