Help! Need some advice on travel agent and prices!

Hello everyone!

My fiance and I are trying to book our wedding at the Azul Fives for February 21st, 2009. We are looking at around 30 guests staying for 3,4 or 5 nights.

The group rate my current travel agent gets for this weekend is $827/person for a 4 night stay without airfare...when we do it ourselves through a travel website, we find prices around $40 less per night. So in essence the group rate she is quoting us is much more expensive in than if they just book the rooms themselves ($160 more over 4 nights)!

Does this make sense?

If not, does anyone have a travel agent they have worked with that they can highly recommend?

Any thoughts would be great!

Erinne

A travel agent should be able to get you a better deal than what you can book yourself. I say time for a new TA.

I usually do all my research online and then call a travel agent. They usually match or beat it.

Thanks everyone!

We went through DestinationWeddings.com - Destination Weddings and Honeymoons, destination wedding planners, wedding destinations, wedding travel, wedding vacations and have been very pleased. You can set up a website, have all your guests work with your contact there. Your website also lists people who have booked and you can keep track that way.

Another thing to consider is if the packages are comparable. We always use Liberty Travel and the pices our agent quotes us include things like transfers, all taxes, etc etc.

I second what Jason just mentioned. Taxes for Punta Cana are pretty high but they were included when we booked with our TA and so were transfers. Plus if anything goes wrong I have someone I can call directly and so will my guests. I also use a TA from Liberty Travel

Many brides have mentioned being very happy with Tammy, the host of this forum (Wright travel Agency, look up her usename, Tammy Host)

Then again, I'm sure if they weren't happy they wouldn't post it here on her forum But I'm sure they are all happy, somebody great enough to put this forum together must be a fabulous agent.

I wish I had used a BDW travel agent!