Travel Agency Services

How does the Travel Agent / Client relationship work?

The focus of The Blue Walk is to create memorable, possibly life changing, travel experiences for our guests through our small-group, walking vacations. Additionally, we are a travel agency. Our greatest expertise is in the regions we visit with our tours as well as most of Italy, where we live. We often provide travel services to our guests for personal travel planning before or after tours with The Blue Walk. We are also happy to assist other travel needs.

The services of a good Travel Agent can be invaluable in terms of helping you save time and money, avoid pitfalls, and make the best informed choices for your vacation. As with other professionals, you turn to a Travel Agents for their time, expertise, advice & resources.

Travel Agents are paid through a combination of service fees from their clients, and commissions from their suppliers, including most hotels, tour companies, cruise lines, etc. Our client fees are based on the time and complexity of the arrangements, and the level of commission that the suppliers pay to the Agent.

  • Our Client Service Fees:
  • Non-commissionable Transportation: $25-$50 (such as booking ferries, train tickets, etc.)
  • General Tours: $40
  • Non-commissionable Tours: $60
  • Blue Walk or Art Walk Tours: No fee
  • Commissionable hotel booking: No fee
  • Non-commissionable Accommodations: $40 (such as apartment rentals, some hotels and B&Bs)
  • Independent Travel Itineraries: $50-$200
  • Travel Consultation Fee: $60/hour
  • Flight Research Fee: $60-75 – see below

Service fees are per person, per booking, and are non-refundable. Fees are payable in advance with any major credit card. Fees are strictly for our research time only – we make no guarantees of results.

Please note: There is a $50 fee for cancelling any arrangement once we’ve booked it in addition to what the airline, hotel, tour company, or any other supplier may charge

 

Flight Research

The Service

Those who have spent time researching international flights know it can take endless hours, be complicated, frustrating, and confusing. Why not leave it to the experts?

With decades of experience in domestic and international air travel, (and Europe being our specialty), we have a few tricks up our sleeve from keeping up to date on the best search engines, open-jaw flights, when to go directly to the airlines, and when it’s best to construct our own flight connections with lower priced cities; to checking with our consolidators (companies that work directly with travel agencies and can sometimes give us lower fares or better terms through their group or contract rates with airlines.) Either way, we use our time and expertise to find you the best fares and most convenient schedules we can.

The Process

Let us know where and when you’re going, what your top priority is between the lowest airfare, best flight schedule, or other particulars.

It generally takes 1-3 days for our research. Once we’ve found the best itinerary we can, we’ll contact you and get your booking started.

The Fee

Our Flight Research Service fee is $75 per person. For all Blue Walk or Art Walk guests we offer a 40% discount: $45 per person.

For past Blue or Art Walk guests: When booking airfare for our tours, our service is complimentary – no charge. For booking other travel with us, we offer the discounted fee of $45.

The Fine Print

All Flight Research Service fees are payable in advance and are non-refundable.

Although we use our efforts to find the best schedules and lowest fares, airfares and flight schedules change continuously. The fee is strictly for our research time, and we make no guarantees about our results, written or implied.

For groups, our maximum total fee is $350 for up to 10 guests traveling together on the same dates and itinerary. ($200 max for Blue/Art Walk guests)

Please note: The Blue Walk does not issue tickets. We either order the tickets for you (in the case of using a consolidator) or walk you through the process of booking the best fare/itinerary on line that we find for you.