Don’t Contact My Clients

A new survey by the Destination Wedding & Honeymoon Specialists Association (DWHSA) found that nine in 10 travel advisors don’t want suppliers contacting their clients after a stay or trip to offer discounts for booking future travel directly with the suppliers (bypassing the advisers).

And if suppliers make those “comeback” contacts, the advisors believe they should be credited automatically for those future bookings (93.3%) and receive full commission as a result (87.8%).

DWHSA surveyed over 5,000 US and Canadian agents this month, and Lisa Sheldon, DWHSA’s president – and the owner of I Do Island Weddings in Janesville, Wis. – said that: “As travel advisors, we believe strongly that our clients belong to us. We book our clients as guests with suppliers – we’re not sharing those clients. And, as the survey results show, we don’t need the help of suppliers to follow up with our own clients.”

Sheldon noted that the surveyed agents want credit and commission when suppliers decide to approach their clients about future stays/trips.

“We’ve done the hard work and shouldered the expense of turning consumers into clients,” she stated. “It’s unfair – and unethical – for suppliers to take our clients’ information, talk them into future bookings at rates we can’t always match as agents, and reap the profit from those sales.”

And John Hawks, DWHSA’s administrator, pointed out that: “DWHSA members routinely tell us they appreciate the approach of the major cruise lines. If our clients book future voyages onboard the ship, many cruise lines credit the agent of record automatically and pay commission on those bookings – no forms, no hoops to jump through, just a mutually beneficial and respectful relationship.”

Go to dwhsa.com/suppliercomebackprograms for more.