- Travel Counsellors agent highlights hidden costs of cheap holidays
- Hidden costs include lost time and change fees
- Working with licensed agency provides dedicated expert support
- AI tools cannot replace human travel expertise
- Right travel partner controls risk and protects team
Miriam Kelliher a travel agent with Travel Counsellors has highlighted the hidden costs of cheap holidays for small and medium businesses. Many small and medium businesses pride themselves on being savvy and it is tempting to assume that the cheapest price seen online is the best deal. In business travel cheap can get expensive quickly with common hidden costs including lost time when staff spend hours trawling websites looking for options, change fees and rigid fares that fall apart as soon as a meeting moves, poor connections that increase fatigue and reduce productivity on arrival and lack of support when disruption hits.
Working with a licensed and bonded travel agency means having a dedicated expert who understands travel patterns and preferences, benefiting from advice on fare types, routes and timings that protect productivity, bookings sitting under a financially protected regulated framework and having a real person who knows travellers and will step in when things go wrong.
AI tools can compare millions of prices but what they cannot do is sit beside a business, ask what happens if a meeting moves and recommend the right balance between price and flexibility. They cannot call a traveller when a flight is cancelled and proactively reroute them while they are still in the air. For SMEs the right travel partner is not a luxury but a way to control risk, protect the team and avoid the hidden costs of going it alone.
Miriam Kelliher, Travel Counsellors agent, shared: “Many small and medium businesses pride themselves on being savvy. It is tempting to assume that the cheapest price you see online is the best deal. But in business travel, cheap can get expensive very quickly. Common hidden costs include lost time when staff spend hours trawling websites looking for options, change fees and rigid fares that fall apart as soon as a meeting moves, poor connections that increase fatigue and reduce productivity on arrival, lack of support when disruption hits and you are left in a queue or on hold. Working with a licensed and bonded travel agency like me with Travel Counsellors means you have a dedicated expert who understands your travel patterns and preferences, you benefit from advice on fare types, routes and timings that protect productivity, your bookings sit under a financially protected, regulated framework, and when things go wrong, you have a real person who knows your travellers and will step in. AI tools can compare millions of prices. What they cannot do is sit beside you, ask what happens if this meeting moves and recommend the right balance between price and flexibility. They cannot call your traveller when a flight is cancelled and proactively reroute them while they are still in the air. For SMEs, the right travel partner is not a luxury. It is a way to control risk, protect your team and avoid the hidden costs of going it alone.”
