How do travel payment plans work?

[mswhatever]

I have had several people ask me about putting their vacation on layaway. I am clueless on the subject. I searched for layaway or payment plan with no luck. I found several post about per person deposits. Could someone explain how this works and point to a TA to help with this? Thank you in advance!

[flipflop.tee]

For our wedding my sister (who is my TA) got our guests to put down a deposit of $200 and that is due by September 15th and the guest can go into the travel agency anytime from now and December 10th which is when the final payment is due. We also have some other guests who have gone to a different TA (loyal for 25 years) and their deposit is $50 and they have up until 45 days from departure for final payment, which we are getting some of our other guests to take advantge of if they can't afford to have the trip payed off by the middle of December...hope this helps! There are quite a few TA's on here so I'm sure they can explain it to you as well! Good Luck!

[*kellis*]

I didn't know TA's did that. I'll have to hint this to FI since he's driving me nuts not booking our honeymoon yet.

But I promised him I would let him plan that so I need to stop trying to control it...*breathe*

[Flasong]

I think we paid our airfare up front in order to book it since it was only 4 or 5 months before our wedding. I think we also had to pay $150 deposit for the hotel. The remainder of the balance was due 1.5 mos before the wedding...I think! lol But it was nice not to have to pay everything up front which is what you have to do if you book through an online site

[TA Dina]

Deposits will vary depending on which supplier your TA uses, or which resort they are working with.

 

For example, probably 95% of my bookings require a $200pp deposit when booking and then final payment approx 60 days prior to departure. Airfare is always due in full at the time of purchase and is nonrefundable. However I don't require people to book airfare with their room deposit. I will add it on whenever the guest is ready.

 

Some of my brides have asked me to make up an actual payment schedule though where we tell people after the intial deposit they owe $100 monthly (or something along those lines). The brides just want to make sure their guests keep paying along the way to avoid a big lump sum being due months later. That is up to them and I will do whatever they want (you know your group better than I do).

 

Now if you're dealing with an actual group contract that is going to vary by resort and vendor. Many times I get better negotiated rates in Hawaii going direct to the resort & they usually want 1-2 nts deposit (which could range from $200-600+/room). My Caribbean bookings however usually require $100/room through my tour operator. It's all different when you're doing contracts so no TA is really going to give you the same reply that applies everywhere.

 

Online sites are going to want you to pay in full at the time you book. Personally I only require that if you ask me to price-match to a website. In that case their terms become mine.