Dear Travel Agents/Advisors,

Wouldn’t it be wonderful to have a first client consultation and find that all parties are on the same page about pricing and expectations? But we all know that chances are, this will not happen, and that the first consultation will turn into two, three, and perhaps many more. Sometimes it will even come to a point that an email, message, or even his/her phone number on your caller ID triggers a bad taste in your mouth. So – how do we deal with this?

My best advice is to be honest and candid with your prospective clients, starting with the first communication.  In my opinion, it is best to NOT start any conversations through email or message. This can provide an opening to misunderstandings. Just tell your prospective clients: LET’S TALK!

If you speak over the phone, you and the other party will have better communication. If you get the feeling that the other party believes you can perform miracles, explain to them your knowledge and expertise. Most importantly, tell them that your commission is small and already included in the price of the cruise or package, and that you will receive it ONLY and IF the client takes the vacation, and it will be paid to you AFTER they are back. That means that until then, you are working for FREE.

It is important to explain this. Many prospective clients have a misconception that TAs have access to huge discounts on trips, plus that they make a lot of money with every payment on a client’s trip. It doesn’t matter how clearly you express this in writing, or how many times you share this blog with them, you have no control over their interpretation. You do have more control during a conversation over the phone with no distractions or interruptions. Even if they can’t afford the vacation, they will remember how kind and honest you were, and how you took the time to explain this to them.

If you want to, tell them that some TAs charge a service fee for this reason. You can either state your fee, or tell them that you don’t believe in fees, or don’t want to charge them. Whatever you feel is better for you and your business.

Building bridges and getting people on your side is the best way to make a business grow!

Cheers!

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Blogs @ http://www.travelwithrosana.com

 

Dear Travel Agents/Advisors,

Have you ever wished that you started your business years ago? Or wished for more friends? More followers? More money……

How easy is to visit the land of “How I Wish”!

People do it all the time. These thoughts happen to everyone. It also happens to people who you believe have everything, because truly, no one has everything! But, these thoughts can cause frustration and anxiety.

I love reading the posts of new travel agents celebrating their first booking. I still remember mine, and all the emotions I felt. My feeling of accomplishment was gigantic, as if it couldn’t fit it all inside myself.

I also remember how I felt on my first trip to Europe… my first time in an airplane… my first cruise (I brought so many medications because I was sure I was going to be seasick!) …

I love the feeling of arriving in a new country and being amazed by a different culture, all the colors, the smells, etc. I also love posts from people thanking God for another day and celebrating having another opportunity to start again.

What happens to the memories of these wonderful feelings when people spend their time thinking, “How I wish I had …?”

How can we guide our thoughts to think about our blessings instead of “How I Wish?” How many of us imagine that others wish to be just like us? Life is not always fair, and I am writing all of this not only to remind you, but also to remind myself to be less critical of myself, to treat myself with more kindness, and to be my own best friend.

Life is too short, especially when we spend our time frowning and wishing we had, or we were, or we did.

To all the beauty in the world that only those who really love themselves can see and celebrate. Raise your head high and smile. You deserve to see the beauty and feel happy! 

Cheers to you!

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Dear Travel Agents/Advisors,

We keep reading posts on social media about standing up for ourselves, being proud of who we are, and all those other important ideas about self-esteem and self-respect. This is all good until I hear complaints from some people I mentor or comments in response to my postings (more like venting) from many travel agents.

TAs sell a service – not a product or merchandise. The commission comes AT THE END of the trip IF it is not canceled for any reason. That means a TA works “for free” for a long time to get a percentage of the total sale, maybe 6 months or a year from the date of purchase.

Many TAs complain that they get phone calls all the time for questions like: “What is the temperature of the swimming pool at the resort?” or, “Can you call the 85 people in my group to remind them about their passports because they don’t read your emails.”

Well, if you don’t value your time, why should your client?

My advice is to charge a service fee. You can’t work for free until your commission comes!

Be more selective of your clients. If they don’t want to pay your service fee, they don’t deserve your service! (Now, you are setting your real value!)

Think about it: You need a beautiful and perfect haircut for a special event. Who will you choose to go to, the very inexpensive one? Or do you believe that the stylist who charges more has more clients and experience?

Cheers!

Follow me at:
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Blogs @www.travelwithrosana.com

Dear Travel Agents/Advisors,

Imagine if you can that this entire world is an enormous airplane, where different people sit together with no regard for their background, race, political views, culture, finance or anything that divides us. Somehow, we would all sit together and try to communicate with each other, making the long journey a very pleasant one.

Thinking like this and believing that travel makes people humble and capable of learning more about each other and oneself, I wonder if schools should teach more about other cultures, about other countries, and more about tolerance, acceptance, kindness, the importance of travel and even how to travel with only a carry-on. In my humble opinion, those classes should be mandatory (maybe not the part about the carry-on LOL!)

We need to value our lives and enjoy every minute of them. The only certainty in life is that our days our numbered (and we don’t know how many!) We owe it to ourselves to live our best lives. And we owe the future generations to leave this world a much kinder and better place!

Book as much travel as you possibly can, pay for it in payments if you need to. Time doesn’t ever come back, regrets are painful. Be sure to use all of your five senses when you travel so your memories are even more intense!

Cheers!

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Blogs @ http://www.travelwithrosana.com

Dear Travel Agents/Advisors,

I wanted to start this blog by asking if you can guess whether the number of people traveling is less, more, or the same as it was of pre-pandemic.

When I was searching for some data, I found the term “Travel Revenge” and that made me think about my personal travel to Europe, more specifically, to Italy.

This was our 13th trip to Italy, and I can assure you that it was definitely our “Travel Revenge.” We never paid so little for food in great restaurants, transportation was really cheap (taxi, Ubers, and trains), and shopping was so much fun (between name brands and no brand!) By planning far ahead we got good deals on airfare and beautiful hotels!

Our “Travel Revenge” experience was so great, we have already purchased a trip to Spain for May 2023!

If Europe was such a great deal for us, imagine travel to other countries that were already very affordable before! Well, Colombia here we come at the end of October!

Now, let’s go back to your guess of the number of travelers I asked you before. With all these deals, can you estimate how are we doing in travel as compared to 2019?

From the US TRAVEL ASSOCIATION from September 1st, 2022:

Key August Highlights:

Travel spending was roughly at 2019 levels in July, which marked the fourth consecutive month that spending, was at, or above, 2019 levels.

According to Morning Consult’s recently released State of Travel and Hospitality, as of July, 36% of Americans plan to travel in the next three months, down from 39% in April.

The return of business travel continues to be uneven.”

Now, based on “Travel Revenge,” and following these trends, with affordable prices to eat, enjoy and even shop in countries that used to be more expensive to us, how can you or your clients let such a great opportunity pass by?

Cheers!

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Dear Travel Agents/ Advisors,

People seem to be admired and respected when they are assertive. We all know there is a big difference between being assertive and being rude. I am sure we’ve all experienced both, and also that many of us have admired assertive people.

How can we be assertive, while not being rude, especially with our clients and prospective ones?

My advice, and also something I mentor travel agents/advisors about, is how to set boundaries. Imagine if you will, that everyone is in their terrible twos. People (like two-year-olds) will want to take from you as much as possible; not because they are bad people, but because they want to “see” if you will allow them to. So, like you would with a little 2-year-old, you will have to set boundaries without being rude (or spanking, LOL!)

For example, a client called while doing errands. For sure, she is distracted and I can hear all the noises in the background. I told her to please call me when it was a better time. She told me that it was a good time for her. I told her how much I valued OUR time (not mine, nor hers) and would appreciate her calling me back when she could be fully there for the call. Always – with a smile in my voice.

Another example: a client called asking if my price was better than she could get with another company. I asked her who referred her to my company, and she told me. I asked her if she trusted that person and she said she did. I asked her that if she needed someone to build a house for her whether she would line up people by price or by recommendation. I told her a good and reliable vacation was the same – it is not who is cheaper, but the best you can afford, especially through a good recommendation.

The most important thing is to speak assertively with a smile in your voice. Don’t be rude, don’t be demeaning, don’t be arrogant, don’t get into arguments. If the other person becomes defensive and raises their voice, lower yours. Speak with care and passion. Just be your true self. 

People will be attracted to you by your caring assertiveness, which definitely gives you more power than all the knowledge in any subject.

Assertiveness is not a gene all people are born with. Most need practice. I love to roleplay certain scenarios and practice with travel agents as a mentor. Feel free to ask me.

Cheers!

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Dear Travel Agents/Advisors,

People are always asking us when the perfect time to travel is. There’s really no such thing as the perfect time to take a vacation, so the best answer is always ASAP!

Should we list the reasons why? Let’s do that! Listed below, and not in any order of priority:

Life happens
Celebrating an event
Rewarding yourself
Being kind to yourself when something sad happens
To learn about other cultures
Meeting new people
Seeing the world
Appreciating what we have
To learn more about ourselves
Giving thanks
Love, live and laugh
Treating family and friends to a nice vacation
Or, just because…

You could probably add even more reasons why people should travel now and not wait. Planning ahead for new trips keeps us young at heart and hopeful for better days ahead. It is a healthy and very positive mindset to bet on good health, happiness and to expect only reasons for celebration.

Travel can work better than a good anti-depressant medication without any side effects! It is a great stimulant without addiction (actually, traveling can be addicting, but it is a good addiction!) and gives us plenty of topics for fun and interesting conversations.

Having a Bucket List is very empowering and gives the traveler great reasons to make their lives more beautiful by creating fun expectations ahead.

Share this post or rewrite it in your own words, but make sure you spread the word that there is no such thing as the perfect time to take a vacation, so the best time is always ASAP!

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Blogs @ http://www.travelwithrosana.com

 

Dear Travel Agents/Advisors,

We all seem to know the meaning of the word “procrastination.” Procrastination is the avoidance of doing a task that needs to be accomplished by a certain deadline. It could be further stated as: a habitual or intentional delay of starting or finishing a task despite knowing it might have negative consequences.

Raise your hand if you ever done this. A diet that will start after a holiday, exercise that will start after a vacation, a list of new behaviors as a New Year’s resolution, or even deciding to start charging service fees in the New Year.  

Something many people don’t know about me – I do have flaws, but procrastination is not one of them. Actually, I take pride in fighting the urge to procrastinate, and that is why I enjoy guiding people to be their best. I was a size 16 until 2004 (I was a big girl), and then I decided to cut out bread, pasta, basically all gluten and dairy from my diet.  I did it cold turkey! I lost weight and kept it off, and I am currently a size 4.  I lost over 80lbs.

I did the same 33 years ago with cigarettes. I started smoking at age 14 in Brazil, where it was cool to smoke. One January 1st, I gave it up. Honestly, now just the smell of a person who smoked hours before makes me nauseous. 

I exercise daily, even on an airplane, in an airport, on vacation and anytime. I need the endorphins, and I need to burn my stress through exercise (not strenuous exercise – I walk fast and do Pilates).

I believe in setting goals and having accomplishments, and the best way to do that is to fight procrastination. For those of you who still procrastinate, can you try it? Feel free to reach out to me. I am not a guru, but I love helping you!

Wishing you all success in all your endeavors!

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Dear Travel Agents/Advisors,

What happens when the things that we enjoy having and wearing are not safe to display or enjoy anymore? How frustrating it is to see people getting robbed and/or beaten up just because they have something they worked hard to get.

My dear friend just got robbed and badly beaten up by a robber who demanded everything she had in her house. It was a very traumatic ordeal and the perpetrator got caught a few hours later. Unfortunately, her trauma didn’t disappear at the same time.

My husband has a love for expensive cars. He had a couple of Maseratis and his latest car was a red Aston Martin. He really loves his cars! When he heard that someone in our neighborhood got beaten up after parking a Ferrari on the street, he sold his cars right away and got a Tesla.  I asked him if he was sad, and he said his life is worth more than his “hobby.”

I am telling you this not to complain about life, even though it is very upsetting, but to look at the other side of life where we all can enjoy life safely: by traveling!

We don’t need fancy cars, jewelry, expensive clothes or anything to become a target. By traveling, we can go first class, business, coach or even by private jet and enjoy life safely (just don’t scream too loud on social media, LOL!) You can go to a Presidential suite, a suite, or any kind of room when you cruise. Go to a fancy or simple resort. Just enjoy life safely and don’t become a target by wearing fancy jewelry and advertising for a fancy brand!

Enjoy life, travel as much as your life desires, and know you do not have to be a target!

Cheers to life!

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Dear Travel Agents/Advisors,

Every time I write a blog or I post something on Facebook or Instagram, I remember an old cartoon of two men, side by side, digging deep in the ground. The man on the left finds a small diamond. The man on the right sees the man on the left with the diamond, so he stops digging on his side, and moves to the left where the other man stood. We can see that if the man on the right continued digging on his side, he would have found a much bigger diamond, but he gave up, thinking that all the diamonds were all on the other side.

How many times have we heard success stories like that of Coca Cola? Today, more than 1.4 billion servings of Coca Cola products are enjoyed every day — nearly a million servings every minute. But in their first year, 1886, they sold an average of 9 drinks a day. Today, Coca-Cola is available in more than 200 countries around the world.

We can talk about the success stories of Disney, Oprah and so many others. The biggest secret to success is focus and persuasion.

These stories sound so wonderful BUT what if I am following the wrong path?

What if this is not the right thing for me?

What if my neighbor has a better idea?

So many of these thoughts come to me in the middle of the night and I can almost feel my bedroom being “invaded” – it feels crowded!

There are so many people that just want to make their mark. To be famous and respected, to have their opinions quoted by many – to find the diamond when they are digging.

To those people and to myself I say: Continue digging! Don’t move to another place – follow your heart and do it with love. It doesn’t matter how many sales you are booking at this moment. Just focus and persist. At this moment you are creating! No one can do it for you, and in few years from now, you will remember how good it was.

Cheers!

Follow me at:

Facebook @travelwithrosana

Instagram @ travelwithrosana

Blogs @www. travelwithrosana.com