Last updated November 2026
Though the internet and AI chatbots make it easier than ever to plan a vacation yourself, travel agents—now often known as travel advisors—are in the midst of a worldly renaissance. A recent Wall Street Journal story reported that the number of travel agents rose 63 percent between 2024 and 2025; a survey by IBS Software found that 47 percent of Americans have used an advisor or agent to book a trip.
What does a savvy travel pro have that your laptop or phone can’t offer up? Familiarity with destinations, knowledge about local customs, and contacts at hotels/restaurants/Egyptian camel-riding companies. Many advisors are super-specialists (African safaris, multigenerational trips) who provide superior service. Consult one, and you could figure out how to avoid tourist hordes, which ships offer the best routes and amenities, where you’re most likely to spot bears in Yellowstone, or which rug merchants offer the best deals in Istanbul.
Here’s our advice on when—and how—to find a trip whisperer.
Why Use a Travel Agent?
Good travel agents can save you a lot of legwork—performing research, searching the internet, pricing, and booking—but also provide other benefits.
If you use a travel advisor familiar with your destination, you reap the rewards of their firsthand experience and local contacts. Someone trustworthy can tell you whether activities really are as much fun as they look online, if a hotel is as opulent as the website claims, which tour guides know their stuff, where (and where not) to eat, and how to avoid the tourist traps and overtourism.
Advisors may also be aware of—and have access to—special money-saving deals and promotions. They can alert you to current security warnings, obtain visas and other essential travel documents, and help with other practical details. Traveling with others? An agent can coordinate arrangements for the entire group. If you have special needs (disability, diet) or special interests (ecotourism, antiquing, golf, spelunking), an agent’s expertise is especially valuable. And if anything goes wrong, a good advisor can be a central source of help and leverage. By using a travel advisor to book tours, charter flights, and other services that may not go according to plan, you get a responsible party to handle your complaints and help make things right.
How Do Travel Agents Get Paid?
Since many types of trip-related commissions have dried up, travel agencies now charge fees for most services, so using an advisor usually costs more than booking on your own. When airlines paid travel agencies a commission on the tickets they sold—typically 10 percent of the fare—agencies could survive solely on airline ticket sales.
Pre-internet age, if you wanted to find out airfares, hotel rates, and availability from multiple providers, you either had to call them yourself or contact a travel agency, which could access all the information using fancy software.
That’s all different now. Except for corporate travel, airlines pay no commissions. And consumers can scour the internet, checking prices and availability of multiple airlines, hotels, and other providers at a single website.
Agencies still receive commissions on hotel bookings (typically five to 10 percent, although only about half of hotels pay them), cruises (10 percent or more), car rentals (two to five percent), and tour-operator packages (10 percent or more).
Travel advisors now work differently, usually getting paid a bulk fee that includes their services and the hotels and transportation for an entire trip. Some old-school services are available. An agent could book you an international flight ($100-$250 fee), a cruise for nothing (cruise lines usually pay a 10 percent commission), and charge $100 to $200 per hour for research and planning advice.
Many consumers balk at paying a travel agent to plan a trip. But fees should not be your main consideration. What matters is whether an agency will really help you. And an inept agent’s bad choices could cost you hundreds of dollars. You have to choose one who has the expertise to find out what you want and works hard to get it for you.
Looking for a Special Agent?
To help you find a travel agency, our Ratings Tables report feedback on companies from surveys of consumers. We primarily surveyed Checkbook subscribers, but also other randomly selected consumers we invited to participate. For agencies that received 10 or more ratings, the table shows the percent of surveyed customers who rated each agency “superior” (as opposed to “inferior” or “adequate”) on several questions: “advice on options and costs,” “doing service properly,” “pleasantness,” “letting you know cost early,” “completing service promptly,” and “overall quality.” Click here for further discussion of our customer survey and other research methods.
Getting Good Advice
Your first question for prospective agencies should be whether or not they have staffers who specialize in your desired destination. Some advisors focus on cruises vs. Europe vs. South America vs. seeing Disney efficiently. So if you’re looking to jet to Jamaica and the agency admits to relatively little experience with that island, take your business elsewhere. You want to work with an advisor who has recently visited your destination, or at least has onsite expert contacts and books several trips a month there.
Good agents can also provide insider information on other matters—frequent flier programs, visa requirements, areas dangerous due to political instability, great places to eat, things to see, and much more.
One indication that an agent has a solid base of knowledge is qualification by The Travel Institute. To earn its Certified Travel Associate (CTA) designation, an agent must complete required coursework, have a year of experience in travel sales, and pass a proctored exam. To maintain certification, agents must complete additional continuing education courses each year.
The Travel Institute also offers a Certified Travel Counselor (CTC) designation. To earn that certification, agents must have a minimum of five years travel industry experience, earn CTA certification, pass an exam, and complete a white paper or submit a qualifying project. Agents must perform continuing education requirements to maintain their CTC qualifications.
The Travel Institute also offers educational programs for destination (i.e., Europe, Hawaii) and niche market (golf, honeymoons) specialists.
Since certification requires a substantial amount of time and effort, it does indicate that an agent takes the work seriously. But lousy advisors still can do coursework, and many very good agents never seek certification. Also, certification says nothing about whether an agent will be diligent and helpful. Nonetheless, it wouldn’t hurt to ask any agency you are considering if it employs certified agents.
Although these programs appear to be a well-conceived, well-managed effort, be aware that there are many other certification programs for travel professionals—and that many may not mean much because certification requires little effort.
Getting Prompt, Courteous, and Reliable Service
You’re excited about a trip, so you don’t want to wait days or weeks to get information from your agent. If your vacay is close at hand, you don’t want to miss out on a good fare, a prime seat, a nice hotel room, or other opportunities because your agent acts slowly, doesn’t act at all, or makes a mistake. You especially don’t want to discover a booking error when you are far from home.
The customer survey scores on “doing service properly” on our Ratings Tables will help you find a reliable agency, but you’ll quickly form your own opinions by working with an agent. A good one will stay on top of details and keep closely in touch until your plans are firmly set. If an agent does not know the answers to all your questions, they should at least know where to find them. If an agent is slow to respond, proposes flights that fail to satisfy your travel constraints, inaccurately describes destinations, or misses other details, consider making a change.
Getting the Right Price
The scores on our Ratings Tables for “advice on options and costs” will help you identify agents who will work hard to get you good prices.
In general, you want an agent who uses various cost-saving tactics, including shopping for third-party discount airfares, locating hotels or resorts offering special promotions, and negotiating the best cruise prices.
Unfortunately, this is an area where there can be substantial variability. Because agencies get higher—or more reliably paid—commissions from some travel suppliers than from others, the industry is rife with conflicts of interest. Agents you hire should look out for your best interests by selecting the best options and seeking ways to save you money, but don’t assume that all will do so.
Especially if you’re booking a tour operator, a cruise, vacation package, or other trip that involves bundled services, ask three or four different agencies for proposals. You’ll likely see big differences in costs, even for similar itineraries, lodging, and other services. For example, a few years ago, Jennifer Barger, Checkbook’s director of content, had several agents price out a two-week trip to Egypt for herself and her husband. She gave each the same dates and her specific choices of hotels, cruise company, and ship, plus requested help booking private guides and transportation, and airport assistance. One agent quoted $7,000 per person; another wanted $11,000.
Some types of trips (foreign travel, tours, large groups) are more conducive to using travel agents than others (it’s not hard to plan a jaunt to New York City to see a show, hit some delis, and see Lady Liberty). Many agents leave booking airfare to their clients, focusing instead on dispensing advice, planning activities, providing local guides—and reserving hotel rooms and other services that still pay commissions to agencies.
If you own a business and often book your own travel, consider opening a corporate/business account with an agency. Because airlines do pay commissions for corporate travel, the fee structure with travel agencies is much different than for individual consumers. Many agencies charge no fees to business clients.
Tips on Working with a Travel Agent
Perform at least some research on your own. Knowing the basics—including information about available deals—will help you determine if you’re working with an incompetent or lazy agent.
Shop on your own if your flight requirements are complex. You may also turn up package deals unknown to agents. Or use an agent that specializes in flight booking only.
If you know exactly what flight, hotel, cruise, or other services you want, and if the service provider pays commissions, consider doing your agent a favor by letting them book the trip. (Obviously, under such an agreement you shouldn’t have to pay the agent any booking fees.) Giving easy commissions to an agent should build goodwill that might result in fee discounts later, when you need their expertise. In some situations, of course, booking through an agent may not be a good idea—for example, if you can qualify directly for a hotel rate that isn’t available if booked through an agent.
Even if you regularly rely on one advisor, consider using a different one for trips requiring special knowledge. For example, if you’re going to Thailand and your regular agency has little expertise in Southeast Asia, contact an agency that knows the territory. Know, too, that you don’t have to use an agency that’s even located in your city. Since they can conduct business over the phone and via email and internet, specialty agencies can be located anywhere. You might consider using an agent based in the place you are traveling to, as well; you’ll often get a better deal and more insider knowledge.
Beware of suppliers neither you nor your advisor has heard of. They may have significant strings attached.
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