Aito Agents chair calls out suppliers for lacking respect

The chair of Aito Specialist Travel Agents has urged tour operators to treat agents with respect and remember they are “clients not order takers”.

Gemma Antrobus, owner of Haslemere Travel, spoke out as Aito, The Specialist Travel Association, reported increased interest from members to work with agents following a recent panel debate on the benefits of trade distribution at its autumn general meeting.

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She identified a “minority” of operators forgetting the rules when it came to engaging with agents, from turning up unannounced without doing research on recent bookings to not listening to what agents say when discussing a client’s wish list.

Antrobus said: “There are some operators with extensive on-the-road teams who don’t know the etiquette of working with agents.

“Some of them don’t do the basics; the worst thing is if they come in unexpected and don’t know you did a booking last week. At least come in with a thank you for the booking.”

Some operators also still have a poor perception of agents, said Antrobus, insisting: “We’re not stupid, and we’re not order takers.”

She stressed: “We might not know your hotel as well as you do but we have a good idea of how to put that itinerary together and we know the client, so listen to what we are saying. 

“If we say the client doesn’t like trekking, don’t send us an itinerary with trekking in it. Listen to what the agent says, work with the agent and understand they have built a very successful business, [mostly] based on client relationships.”

Agents should be treated as operators’ clients in the same way as direct clients are, she noted, adding: “The operators we work with are the ones we have mutual respect for and trust and understand.”

Antrobus reported “super interesting” conversations with at least six operators considering trade distribution following Aito’s autumn general meeting.

About 75 of Aito’s 100-strong supplier membership currently sell through agents but only about 40 do so proactively.

Antrobus added: “More and more operators are asking to join Aito and one of the reasons they are citing is because they want to work with agents – we are open to that conversation.”