Your Rights Against A Travel Agent
Everyone wishes to break free from the mundane and travel to a new destination. Human beings are by nature travelers. Now, Imagine the number of traveling that is happening per day across the world? It is really mind boggling, I wonder if it is possible to even quantify. Travel industry is the primary revenue earner for many countries.
Source- Pixabay
But have you ever thought about the travel rules and rights? For a layman, it is really difficult to understand the implied and explicit consumer agreements and contracts that govern a number of transactions during the course of a trip. These contracts can range from car rentals, airline reservation, hotel booking and many more.
Also Read: Travel Scams: How To Avoid These Tourist Traps – Nomad Lawyer
Through this blog, NomadLawyer will highlight some basic consumer rules and rights pertaining to travel primarily against a Travel Agent. The objective of this blog is to create awareness amongst our readers. We will try to cover some important parties who you may deal with during your travels.
What do you think is the job of Travel Agency?
A travel agent’s job is to provide fair and reliable information to the consumers and make arrangements for them . The goal is hassle free experience for the consumers. The consumers can have multiple questions especially when traveling to a foreign country.
Some Basic Questions For A Travel Agent
Questions pertaining to travel such as currency exchange rates, local customs, weather conditions, places to visit and the required travel documentation.
A travel agent under all circumstances is expected to make true representation and disclosure. In case of any malafide representation and consumer is entitled to legal recourse.
Benefits Accruing To Travel Agents
A travel agent receives compensation from travel suppliers and as a result, they have a degree of loyalty to the suppliers. The primary duty of a travel agent is to make reservations for his or her client. But a travel agent has some other duties also which may not be explicit but are implied like- duty to any negative information which the client may not be aware of under reasonable circumstances, a travel agent also has a duty to investigate and stay informed about any conditions that would affect a client’s trip. Finally, a travel agent has a duty to disclose the client’s identity that will deliver the service to the client.
How to Resolve Travel Disputes?
A traveler books for the vacation months in advance to avoid any last minute hassle. The idea of the vacation is to relax and have some quality time. Unfortunately, not everything goes exactly according to plans and there could be last minute changes. If you come across any issues there are multiple ways to resolve any problem.
The problem with an airline ticket or hotel room can make you frustrated, but generally communication with a representative or a front desk executive does not generally solve the problem. Also, the front desk representative actually doesn’t have the actual power to resolve the actual dispute. The best recourse is to escalate it and communicate with someone higher in authority like a manager, who has actual power to resolve a dispute.
There are also some other things you can do during your conversation with the manager. If you’re a regular customer, it could help pointing this fact out. It’s important to keep in mind that it’s more effective to mention that you’re a regular customer discreetly instead of as some kind of threat. A business knows that repeat customers are vital to its business, so letting the manager know that you’re a regular customer might help resolve your situation. It’s also important to be flexible because the business might not be able to offer you the solution that you had in your head.
Legal Recourse
In case no solution is provided, it is imperative and the consumer has every right to hire a local consumer attorney. Generally, most of the situations are handled however, hiring an attorney is the last resort, if everything goes out of hand.Hope you find this blog helpful and if you have any query, you can write to us connect@nomadlawyer.org