Wednesday, June 3, 2015

Must-Have Tools for Each Travel Agent

Being a travel agent is a lot of fun, but it's also a lot of work! These are some of the tools I use to make things a little easier, in no particular order.

  1. Remember the Milk. I use this for my shopping lists but it's a great way to track travel checklists for each client and make sure everything gets done.
  2. EasyWDW. They have free crowd schedules and they help me pick good dates for the parks my clients want to go to. Some people like TouringPlans, but I have found EasyWDW has better dates and it doesn't cost anything. EasyWDW is easier to use and the author is responsive to feedback on his site and on social media. I don't really like TouringPlans's forums and I don't like the image maps they produce.
  3. WDWTools. This site is a must-have! Before I found them, I would spend hours manually checking for reservations and frankly my clients would miss out a lot. Another site called Disney Dining Buddy sprang up recently and has been putting a lot of money into ads (my friends and I see their ads all the time, even though we don't want to use them), and someone asked which was better, so I gave it a try for $8 and set up the same reservation at WDWTools, which was free since I have a membership there. It was a test reservation at Be Our Guest that I wasn't planning on booking. WDWTools was far and away the winner. I would usually get notified by WDWTools 5 or 10 minutes faster than I would get notified by Disney Dining Buddy, and Disney Dining Buddy missed several reservations. Out of dozens of notifications, Disney Dining Buddy was only faster 3 times. WDWTools also has a very nice design with beautiful pictures from Disney World. Disney Dining Buddy uses stock photos and is ugly.
  4. Amazon Prime. I love Amazon Prime! I can order a lot of Disney stuff and get free, fast shipping, whether it's stuff for myself or a client packet.
  5. Weather almanacs. Help your client prepare for the weather at Walt Disney World! A little rain can make the parks a lot nicer because it can thin out crowds. Your clients will love that if you help them plan ahead and make sure they have ponchos! You can use an online almanac, of course. In Florida, you should always be prepared for rain!

These are few of the tools I use all the time to help make my clients happy. Let me know what you use in the comments!

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