How Much Would You Pay?

Don't know how to begin to response. In the old days the travel agent received a percentage. Maybe 5 to 10% of the total cost? At least a couple days of hard work. 16 to 20 hours at $25/hour - $500 plus.

Hmm,, I guess for someone who wants everything done for them ,, well, I am going to assume money is not a huge issue. That said,, Frank made a valid point, if booking hotels most travel agents get a commission,, but I don't think they do for trains and airfare. Here most tas will charge a 50 dollar ticketing fee for flights. Don't know if that is common practice in States. Andrea, I started a travel agent program many years ago at our local college,, got through about 4 courses when I realized,, although fun, there is very little money in planning travel anymore,, unless one is lucky and plans alot of corporate travel. I think one could easily end up underpaid for actual work done for just a personal pleasure trip like you are using as an example. I have a friend who sells cruises,, she makes little money, actually has another job,, but she does end up on 3 or 4 short cruises a year as rewards, she sells lots of cruises.. so thats why she does it,, not for the cash, there just isn't alot there anymore( unless as I said you get a good position dealing with corparate travel for a big agency
So, are you asking to give a friend an idea of what to pay for such a service, or are you asking to see if there is a career idea here.. if so, do it cause you love to travel,, and you do recieve alot of discounts as a ta,, my friend gets hotel rooms dirt cheap because of selling cruises,, we paid 50 dollars for a room that normally goes around 250 last time i travelled with her.

Not looking for a career...I already have one of those! :-) I know some people put trips together for those who want to travel independently, and was wondering what would be a reasonable fee to charge someone for that. For example, I have friends who went to Italy. They went to a man who made their lodging and tour arrangements and charged them $600. They arranged their own airfare. If you were to do something as I described in my original post for an aquaintence, what would be a fair payment for those services?

I don't have much experience in this area, but we did use the AAA travel service to book an "independent" trip to Chiapas, Mexico a number of years ago. The service booked rooms and flights for us. There was no additional charge for the service at that time.

Thanks for the responses. I am not asking this question because I am considering paying someone to do this for me. Here is the situation - A friend of mine invited me to go to Europe with her and her friend. We will stay in my friend's timeshare for one week of the trip. They asked me to plan the rest of the trip, which is 3 weeks total. We had an agreement that we would share the cost of the rest of the lodgings equally three ways. I found apartments big enough for all three of us. My friend's friend, who I barely know, has health issues. Travel insurance was purchased in an amount that would cover the agreed upon expenses. At their request, I booked the airfare, lodging, train (1st class at their request) and car. I did all the research, etc. Now my friend's friend decided that she is not going on the trip. She has also developed amnesia about our deal that we will each pay 1/3, even if we can't go. I told her that if she gives us the money before she submits her insurance claim she would be reimbursed for it. She chose not to do that and she won't pay. She is asking me to act as her travel agent and provide her with an itinerary and invoice as to her expenses. All her payments for the plane ticket, apartment deposits and train tickets were checks made out to me. I think that if I am her 'travel agent' I should be paid as such. She is leaving us holding the bag for the remainder of her rent. We leave in a few weeks and I've looked for smaller, cheaper places to stay. I couldn't find anything. What she might pay would help offset the additional amount we will have to pay for her share. I am just trying to come with a reasonable amount to 'charge' her for the job I have done and the job she still expects me to do. I have learned a valuable lesson in all this - get all agreements in writing!!

Hi Andrea, Before I even got down to your last post explaining about the third person in your group some red flags popped up in my mind. No good deed goes unpunished, I know because I've been in a similar situation. You did some things right too, that is buying the trip insurance, but I don't know if it will work or reimburse in this situation. Is she willing to pay you anything at all? At the very least she should be paying 25 to 30% of what she would have normally paid, what is your mutual friends feelings on this, has she asked her to pay? If not she should be backing you in this matter, because this trip just got 50% more expensive for her too. My initial thought was when I first read your post was what if one booked a trip for a friend, the friend did pay a commission, but didn't like the accomodations that were booked, it's kind of like lending money to a friend, if you can do it and are willing to lose the friendship over it because they oftentimes don't pay it back go ahead and do it.

Let me see if I have this right. She is going to submit a claim to the insurance company, for rreimbursement of her prepaid expenses, based on her payments to you. She needs receipts and invoices to do that, to prove the amounts. That would be airfare, train tickets, and her share of the apartment deposit. Call that part A. Fine so far. But it sounds like you are also being asked to create receipts for her UN paid share of the apartment, based on your agreement. Call that Part B. I don't see any way the insurance company would pay on that agreement; she hasn't paid the money yet and if you create an itinerary and "receipts" as her "travel agent" showing those expenses, that is not being honest. And she'll prebably get caught and the claim refused. She will have to reimburse you on those expenses from her own pocket, based on your agreement, which apparently she has refused to do. What you might try, assuming you are the keeper of the original receipts for airfare, train tickets, and apartment deposits, is tell her you are holding those (hostage) until she honors the agreement to pay 1/3 of the apartments. If that is the only way she can get reimbursed for the airfare and train tickets, she might have to agree. In any case I don't see any way she is going to pay you anything further for your services as "travel agent". And if you just follow Plan A, you 've already done the work and don't have to do anything more than produce the receipts. Won't your mutual friend step in and remind her of the agreement? Or would that be too awkward?

I'm not sure what, if anything, travel insurance will pay in this case. The airline ticket isn't unusable, it will just cost to get it changed. And it seems to me that if payments were made to an individual who was not the property owner, the insurance won't consider them paid for the trip. Travel insurance only covers costs that you otherwise lose - unrefundable deposits, unusable tickets for attractions, etc. How would the insurance know that the payments were for the trip? In any event, if she gets reimbursed by the insurance, she should reimburse what she stuck you with.

Part A of that scenario is correct. She has no intention of paying the rest of her share. She said I can include the amounts she is still 'obligated' to pay on my invoice. If the insurance pays it she will give it to us. We all know they aren't going to pay it!! Yes, MY friend is totally backing me up. This affects both of us financially, not to mention some other ways. Frankly, I think it is safe to assume that their friendship is over. My thought is that I have put many hours into planning this trip, booking accommodations larger and more expensive than we now need, etc. Now, not only is she totally screwing us, but she wants me to do more work so she can get reimbursed for her airfare, deposits and train ticket. I am not inclined to do this without compensation for my time. Without the itinerary and invoice, all she has are cancelled checks made out to me. I guess I do plan to hold her hostage for the information she needs, if that's how you want to look at it. I don't know that she has a claim without it. That is why I am looking for a dollar amount that is fair for the work I have put into this.

She has a 'valid' reason to cancel. She gave back her vacation time so her co-worker can get married in Hawaii. Now she can't take the time off. Whatever... Her insurance person told her that she can get reimbursed for the airfare and the money she has paid - when she provides the invoice, etc. from me. My guess is no invoice, no reimbursement. I look at it this way, if she pays the money will go towards the amount that she should have paid for her lodging. If she doesn't pay, my friend and I have to pay anyway so we aren't out any more than we were. She, on the other hand might be out everything.

How about this, figure out how many hours you spent working on all this for her and charge, say $25 an hour? I agree with others, get what she owes you before giving her any documentation.

I think you are in a pretty good position. Charge what is fair (to you) for providing the documents so she can get her airfare money reimbursed. I called that holding it "hostage" but I didn't mean it in a bad way---just that you can use this to your advantage. I wouldn't figure the amount based on your time spent in planning, since you are still going on the trip and that time benefits you and your friend. It should be more based on what she owes you under the broken agreement. As long as it is less than what she will get back in airfare, etc., she should pay it.

No thoughts on what you should charge, but just feel bad for you . What an awful situation. Feeling very Pollyanna-ish today so will also add thank goodness you found out before you left because it would have been terrible to be stuck in Europe with her!! I can guarantee she would have made you miserable.

This sounds like one for Judge Judy. My suggestion is to cancel what you can. Subtract any refund money from what she has already paid you and owes you; split the difference. I don't have this all worked out without more exact money amounts, but that's my basic idea. Fifth grade arithmetic wasn't this hard. You've done a lot of work and will have to do more yet, but this can be settled. If the friendship isn't ended, at least you know not to make plans again with this person. I have good friends like that; I just don't expect them to be on time or stick to plans. Stuff happens..... Some co-workers of mine ran into a similar situation and just went out and found another travel partner to share their apartment with. It worked out.

I am not friends with this person and I doubt I will ever see her again. I can't cancel things, as my friend and I are still going. The best I have been able to do is get one apartment owner to lower the price, based on only 2 people staying there. We leave in just over 3 weeks. I couldn't find anywhere else to stay that would save us any money. It is too late to find another travel partner. My thought is to charge her the same amount that she is costing me by canceling. If she pays, I told my friend I will use that to pay towards the other persons share, and we can split the difference. I think we dodged a bullet with her canceling!! :-)

Yes, you dodged a bullet! I too would hold hostage all your paperwork till she pays what extra it will cost you 2 to go without her, plus at least $20-25/hr for the work you already did planning the trip. She will probably be out more if she doesn't submit paperwork to the insurance company, so it behooves her to ante up. I had the same thing happen to me, but it was only about $60 airfare and I wanted to keep the friend, so...You've learned a lesson tho, just remember it for next time! Good luck, hope this doesn't ruin your trip for you and your friend!

You definitely dodged a bullet! You're so much better off without her going with you and ruining your time in Europe. Forgot to say earlier... I'm sorry this happened to you : )

Personally, I think your friend should suck it up and pay whatever that extra 1/3rd share is for the apartments. It was HER friend who flaked out on you both, and they invited you to join them yet then stuck you with all the planning and logistics so they could travel 1st class on trains and stay in apartments too pricey for just 2 to swing. Let your friend fight it out with her friend to try and recoup some of that money. Frankly, I'd be pissed off at both of them - the one who flaked and the one who now expects you to fork over more of your cash to offset her friend who bailed at the last minute. I think you will take away a number of lessons learned from this... Like get agreements in writing, don't book any lodging that can't be cancelled at the last minute (I know people on this board love renting apartments, but they are typically impossible to cancel without paying some sort of penalty), and maybe even the most important lesson - travel solo and enjoy a stress free trip where you don't have to deal with this kind of drama!

My offer still stands...I was thinking I'd start off with a roundhouse kick, ...;-) (hanging head in shame) "I'm sorry, Helpline Community, for advocating the use of violence to resolve personal matters".

In defense of my friend, she has offered to pay the entire amount we would be short. I declined her offer. This will be the second time she is hosting me in her timeshare at no cost to me. The first time she invited me AND my husband. We have been friends for 30 years and I know she is not in the financial position to easily absorb the cost by herself. If I don't get paid for the work I have done I will consider the extra I have to pay as worth the price to not travel with that person!! We are looking forward to putting this behind us and enjoying our trip. If we had more notice we could have booked other places. As I said before, we are only a few weeks away from leaving and anywhere less expensive is not available for our dates. @ Eileen - She lives out your way. I'll let you take care of her!!

Just checked out this sight http://bobthenavigator.homestead.com/
Bob does itinerary planning and recommendations for accommodations, car rentals, etc, but I don't believe he does the booking. Charges out at $50/hr. So I guess her share could be $25/hr and call it good. So sorry this happened to you, but forget her and have a great trip with your good friend.

@ Eileen - She lives out your way. I'll let you take care of her!! Suh-Weet!!! There's always small claims court...I'll be a hearsay witness; I was privy to this arrangement months ago. Of course, that means I'll need to wear a disguise when I, ahem, 'meet up' with her ;-)

Eileen the Enforcer. Andrea, I don't think you did anything wrong. You had an agreement that sounded reasonable, but now it turns out to be hard to enforce. We should all learn this lesson, that when acting as a trip planner, each person should directly pay as much as possible. If they don't trust you with cc numbers, they can book their own trip. My husband and I both have friends that tend to cancel. Now, when we book concert tickets, etc, we get their card number and put their tickets on their card. But, of course, that's different than an apartment rental. Good luck.

Andrea,
I am very sorry to hear of your misfortune. My wife and I have had a similar thing happen. Let me just say that you are very fortunate this person backed out. We did all of the planning for a trip in 2008 to Germany, Austria, and Switzerland for us and another couple. We had a mutual couple friend living in Zurich who we stayed with on the weekends. We thought we were very open and met once a month in the planning stages, probably 6 times total. We got over to Zurich and we got the "where are we going tomorrow?" "Why are we going there?" "Can't we do XYZ?" "I've always wanted to do XYZ?" "Why is everything so expensive?" After about the third very frustrating day my wife and I asked if they had read through the itinerary (with budget) we gave them a month before we left and also why they had not given us this input before we left. We got the "we are so busy and didn't have time" and "you guys have been here so many times." After this trip my wife and I decided that travelling is the thing we both love to do. We get two weeks of vacation a year. We are not going to let anyone else spoil it for us. No more vacationing with friends or family period. This is a help line and I am glad that you shared your experience and I just thought I would share mine as well. We can all help each other save time, money, and frustration. We were with the other couple a few months ago and there were 6 other couples and the wife says "I think we all should go to Tuscany next year." "Nate and Brittany can plan it and it will be a great time." We went around the circle and I finally said "no way!" They were all surprised.

I just read this entire thread today, and my first thought was, "Hey, you should invite Eileen to come along now that there is an extra spot!" But then I read further and it would appear Eileen has a violent streak, so perhaps it wouldn't be a good idea to share an apartment with her. At any rate, I have a few friends in the travel business and my understanding is that if you have an agent who books the whole enchilada, you can expect to have anywhere between 10-20% of the cost of the trip built in as their fee. For instance, if the trip expenses totaled $1000, the agent would actually bill you between $1100 and $1200 (but you don't often see a line item on your total bill that says "Agent Fees," more often the fee is built into each expense). I'm sorry this happened to you, and hope you are able to resolve the issue and have a tremendous trip!

Good boy, Nate, good boy. Sure, you could ALL go - at the same time - but separately;-) I'm sure you'd be happy to type up a list of suggested guidebooks, hotels, points of interest, airline/train sites, etc. Maybe meet up The Last Day in Europe for a glass of wine...and keep your itinerary a secret! Good job, Grasshopper - many don't learn after only one bad experience. I've got my phone with me at all times, Andrea, in case you need to call The Enforcer...

I would have invited Eileen...maybe...but she has other places to be at that time. Like Germany and Italy. She said something about Oktoberfest and limoncello. You can see she has a one track mind! :-) I think this will work out for the best, even if it ends up costing more than expected. I sent the person an email last night informing her that under the circumstances I expected her to pay for my services. The amount I told her is exactly the amount (well, more or less depending on the exchange rate on any given day) she is sticking me with by not paying her way. I gave her just over a week to pay (check or money order - I don't want her stopping payment on a check!), and if she doesn't do it she won't get anything else from me. That's it. It will be interesting to see if there is any further communication. I figure that I'm not out anything more than I already am, and she will be out everything possibly. She can show a check made out to me for the exact amount of the airline ticket. I'm not sure if the insurance company will go for that. The other canceled checks could be for anything. I have password protected the ticket so only I can cancel it. If she cancels, it will cancel ALL 3 tickets. I don't want that to happen. Thanks to all for your advice and for sharing your stories. I will post back if something happens. Stay tuned... @Eileen - you might have your phone WITH you, but the question is...is it turned on? ;-)

Some years ago, I signed up for a local community college's course called "Plan your own trip to Germany". The "instructor" was a travel agent who had recently gone on a package tour of Germany. She brought along brochures of the tour (which of course she would sell). That was how you were supposed to "plan" your own trip to Germany, by buying her package. Many of us who had taken the "course" complained and got our money pack. I don't think any travel agent could plan a trip for me the way I want to go. Mostly, they sell packages, big hotels, etc. How would one book my rail travel, a rail pass or tickets through RailEurope? Can travel agents get me Sparpreis tickets or Länder tickets? Where would they get my accommodations, with big hotels that pay them a commision? I don't think the places I stay at pay commisions to travel agents. A rental car? The trip, neglecting their commision, would cost extra. It wouldn't be their commision only, it but the very expensive things they would book me into. If I won a billion $ lottery I would still plan by own trips.

Andrea, it just seems to me that in all fairness, neither one of you who are going should have to pay more than what you had been anticipating for the last however many months. Personally, if you could only get her to pay her portion of the hotels & tours then I'd consider it a good deal since she won't be there to ruin your fun! I'm looking forward to hearing if she responds to your email. She also shouldn't expect the insurance company to pay and expecting you to contribute to her shenanigans hints of fraud! (Fraud would certainly not look good on a resume!)
I'm crushed that you and Eileen didn't invite me to go with you on your trip! I'll wave to you from Italy as you're landing in Spain!