My first hotel booking reservations attempt netted me no money but I did get some experience.

My first attempt at hotel booking reservations for a client's trip netted me book knowledge but no money.

In the midst of a conversation one coworker overheard another ask me how my travel agent business was going.

She asked if I could get her information on a all-inclusive family resort for a group of 25(then she bought it down to 20) to the Bahamas or Dominican Republic.

"Man this is big job!" I thought to myself.

My second attempt for a piece of hotel booking reservations knowledge.

"Let me see what I can do." I told her.

I immediately called up the referral travel agency I was with and they hooked me up with Pleasant Holidays.(Out of the 4 agencies we work with Pleasant was the only one that booked groups.)My continued search for hotel booking reservations knowledge.

I called the number and a agent named Robert picked up.

This was my first time doing this so I didn't know where to start.

Finally I just told him, "I have a client who wants to book for a group of twenty. She's looking for a 4 star all-inclusive family resort in the Bahamas or Dominican Republic."

He seemed to be in bit of a rush(or maybe I was the one in a rush. I was talking to him during my job hours so there was a lot of commotion going on.

After about 10-15 minutes he came back with all-inclusive trips from JAMAICA!

I had to correct him and let him know she didn't want any resorts from there.She had been there already.

He came back to me and said that there were no all-inclusive trips that would accept children in the Bahamas. He did find 3 resorts in the Dominican Republic that met all the qualifications.

The Paradisus Punta Cana All Inclusive Deluxe Jr. Suite Dreams Punta Cana All Inclusive Deluxe Occidental Grand Punta Cana All Inclusive Deluxe

Before we could talk price my boss called me.I asked if he could call back later but he said it would be better if he e-mailed the hotel booking reservations information.

Later I checked my e-mail. Zero messages from Robert.

I called Pleasant Holidays back and was told that the agents were moving to another space. The computers weren't working properly. The person who answered the phone said they'll leave him a message.

After 2 days I called back.

A female agent answered the phone and said her name was Vanessa.

I explained my situation with Robert and she explained again that the agents were moving to another space and the computers were down. She said she would help me and needed to get the folder with my hotel booking reservations information on it.

About 5 minutes later she read over the information with me and asked if she could have a few minutes to look up some prices.

Because of the computer problems she wasn't able to immediately add on the air prices.

These are the initial figures she quoted me over the phone.

Paradisus * Single:$1115 Double:$795 Triple:$730 Child(under 12):$400

Dreams * Single:$930 Double:$630 Triple:$600 Child(under 7):$255

Occidental * Single:$700 Double:$485 Triple:$440 Child(under 12):$200

*(without air)

She told me she would send the new quotes in an e-mail that included air. As soon as her computer was running smoothly.

I showed the initial figures to my coworker and she seemed impressed.

I forgot to tell her those were hotel only figures. My third piece of book knowledge.(Don't forget to tell your clients everything.)

A couple of days later no e-mail. The good thing about working with Vanessa was the effective communication between Her and I.

She got back to me to see if I had received the e-mail.

I told her I didn't.

We found out the reason the e-mail didn't make it was she sent it to the wrong e-mail address.

Once corrected, I received the mail looked it over and saw the figures(and totally forgot that the new prices included air).

"Why are the numbers so different?"

"The air is included remember?" Vanessa informed me.

I printed the e-mail and the new figures looked like this,

Paradisus Single:$1990 Double:$1670 Triple:$1605 Child(under 12):$1275

Dreams Single:$1805 Double:$1505 Triple:$1475 Child(under 7):$1130

Occidental Single:$1575 Double:$1360 Triple:$1315 Child(under 12):$1075

When I showed my coworker the new figures,she was no longer pleased.

"These prices are too high.I know I can find them cheaper because I've done it before on my other trips!"

I explained to her that we are not always the lowest price but we are competitive with other online travel agencies like Travelocity and Orbitz. Book knowledge.

I told her if she could find lower prices elsewhere she should "Go for it!"

So I didn't make the sale but I learned some serious book knowledge or booking knowledge.

From Hotel booking reservations to Homepage