Day in the life of
Travel Advisor – Kiernan Cochran
My name is Kiernan Cochran and I am a Travel Advisor for Inca Expert Travel. We are a boutique travel agency that arranges personalized trips to Peru and the Galapagos Islands.
My work involves answering client questions via email, speaking with booked and potential travelers on the phone about their trips and trip options, preparing new itineraries, customizing itineraries to match travel preferences, and contacting providers about availability. The best part of my day is when I get an email from a client telling me how much they loved their trip!
A typical work day for me begins with checking my inbox and prioritizing who I need to reply to. Sometimes clients have simple questions about their trip or trip options, other times they want to make a lot of changes to their itinerary.
I also receive new travel requests from my managers twice per day, in the morning and in the afternoon. Once I have received a new travel request, I make it a priority to reach out by phone and email to start the conversation with them about their trip. It usually takes me 1-2 days after first speaking with the client to put together an initial itinerary. We then work together to make adjustments until the itinerary is exactly how they want it and they are ready to book the trip. Each time I create a new itinerary or make adjustments, I always re-check hotel availability by directly speaking with the hotels, quote out all of the services, and double check flight schedules and prices.
Once the client has booked their trip, I work with our Finance and Operations teams to reserve all of my client’s services. Once everything is ready, I send my clients more detailed information about their trip including pick up times, hotel reservation codes, etc. We typically have a phone call a few weeks before their trip to review the itinerary and so I can answer any last minute questions they might have. Each day, I balance the work I need to do for my booked clients, my potential clients, and my new travel requests from that day.
In any spare time, I research the destinations we work with in order to offer the best and most up to date recommendations possible.
On top of creating itineraries and speaking with clients, destination knowledge is a key part of being a Travel Advisor. Having destination knowledge allows me to recommend options in certain places that might be similar to an experience my client doesn’t have time to fit into their trip. It also means knowing what days certain trains operate, the weather patterns of each destination, the best restaurants in every town, etc.
Throughout the year our company sends different employees to the destinations we work with to get better first hand knowledge of everything we can include in the itineraries we offer. Each person who participates in these trips shares a presentation on the information they have gathered with the rest of the team when they return. This allows the whole team to have better first hand knowledge of every destination, hotel, and tour we offer. Since I work for a small, boutique agency, all of the Travel Advisors are incredibly helpful and happy to share their knowledge with new team members.
Being a Travel Advisor is a commission based position, meaning it’s up to you how hard you want to work. Some Travel Advisors work evenings and weekends to make sales while others keep a good balance and don’t, and that’s purely a personal choice. The harder you work the more rewarded you get which is a really nice work-style for certain types of people but may not appeal to others.
Pros
Working in the travel industry is so rewarding, especially as a Travel Advisor. Creating once in a lifetime trips for people and then seeing your clients having an amazing experience is the best feeling. Travel is less about the destination and more about the experience and creating incredible memories your clients will always cherish. That’s definitely the biggest pro about working in travel. Another great pro is getting to travel for work! I have been on a few trips to test new services for the company and each one was better than I could have imagined. The pros definitely outweigh the cons but being a Travel Advisor isn’t always easy.
Cons
With all the good also comes last minute changes to itineraries due to international flight changes, bad weather, lost luggage, etc. Sometimes finding hotel availability can be an incredible challenge, especially if your clients are late bookers. There is definitely stress involved because you want your clients trips to be perfect. However, I will take the stress if it means getting to see how happy my travelers are after their trip. If you love travel, new experiences, and working with people, consider becoming a Travel Advisor!
