When choosing Preferred Suppliers, we always stress the importance of having Supplier Emergency Contacts in case something happens during your client’s trip.

It’s going to happen at least once. Your client is going to be halfway across the country, or in a foreign country somewhere in the world, and something is going to go wrong. Their first reaction is going to be reach out to their travel agent – that’s you! After all, they booked their trip with you. You are the one who chose the supplier to book them with, so now it’s up to you to find a solution.

The last thing you want to worry about is a 2am phone call from a client who has no reservation at the hotel their supposed to be at for the next week over in Italy after flying for 20 hours to get there!

If you chose your preferred suppliers correctly, you would have checked to see if they had a during-travel team to contact, so your client can easily resolve any issues that might arise without you having to be in the middle. It also provides peace of mind to your clients, knowing they have someone they can reach out to. In many cases, the suppliers can rectify situations much quicker by talking directly to the client, especially during the trip. After the situation is resolved, your supplier will typically reach out to you to inform you of the situation, and hopefully it will be a good resolution! Be sure to include the information for the during-travel team in your final travel documents, and highlight it so your client is fully aware of who to contact.

Now, the during-travel team is not just for your client. If your client truly needs your help, or if you are providing concierge level services, then that phone number is going to come in handy for you when you ARE the one making that 2am phone call to fix the issue for your client. If you chose to work with a supplier that is only open Monday – Friday from 9am – 5pm, chances are your client is going to be pretty irate that you can’t do anything until the next business day and now you have to scramble to find an alternate solution on your own.