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travel agents - slovakia



 
 
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  #1  
Old April 6th, 2007, 05:38 PM posted to rec.travel.europe
[email protected]
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Posts: 14
Default travel agents - slovakia

I'm not really sure how many people in the Uk watch Channel 4 show
"Chaos at the chateau" at the moment, but I most certainly am. I
thought it was television gold. They are just great characters - I bet
the producers were rubbing their hands together. Who would meet a
builder in a pool and then get them to do the work?! The best thing
had to be the meeting with the architect. I couldn't believe that it
was genuine at first, but it is as I had a chance to follow their
biblical journey since last year when they decided to go to Slovakia
without any knowledge of the country or the culture or even the
language. I thought it was hilarious.
Anyways, that programme inspired me so much that I've decided to
travel to Slovakia with my girlfriend and some other friends. The only
problem we had was finding suitable tour operator or travel agency
that could take us there, organize our time according to our more than
flexible needs and deal with everything for us so we wouldn't even
have to move a single finger. However there isn't any tour operator or
travel agent that deals with travel to Slovakia and the other
neighbouring countries unless you're talking bout stag dues operators
which is more that enough at the moment. Of course they don't really
have any idea about holidays since they only deal with bachelor
parties and have no flexibility in case u want something more or
something special. I think it was then when we realized that we should
go for it and start such company, which considering our friends and
current team, professionals at local culture and stuff. I'm proud to
announce that it's called BumRats and it's secret website still in
testing mode for another 5 weeks is bumrats.com/index_test.php.....I
hope all you travel excited peeps will like it.....

  #2  
Old April 6th, 2007, 05:51 PM posted to rec.travel.europe
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Posts: 14
Default travel agents - slovakia

You have to be joking. The more you watch it the more you appreciate
it. It's so comical that even if it was a spoof (which it isn't) it's
better and better. Some of my friends almost feel same discomfort
watching it as watching Borat and seeing all those people who take it
so seriously and don't even realize that a normal person could never
ever behave that way. Same with that couple. It just makes you ask
yourself where in the world did those people do business in UK? Some
say he is a genuine fraudster....

  #3  
Old April 8th, 2007, 11:20 AM posted to rec.travel.europe
John[_16_]
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Posts: 2
Default travel agents - slovakia


wrote in message
oups.com...
You have to be joking. The more you watch it the more you appreciate
it. It's so comical that even if it was a spoof (which it isn't) it's
better and better. Some of my friends almost feel same discomfort
watching it as watching Borat and seeing all those people who take it
so seriously and don't even realize that a normal person could never
ever behave that way. Same with that couple. It just makes you ask
yourself where in the world did those people do business in UK? Some
say he is a genuine fraudster....


My wife and I have been touring the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland for
our summer holidays for the last 14 years, so when we saw this programme
(first series) we took a special interest in it, and so last year we decided
to visit the chateau - and yes, these two people are real cardboard
cut-outs - what you see on the telly is *exactly* how they are in real life
)

To me, the word "chateau" conjours up visions of a castle-type place in it's
own vast grounds, but not here. Yes, they have made the chateau very nice
but it's next-door to the local Spar shop (in fact, it's the *only* shop as
far as we could see - not even a local pub/bar anywhere) in a village that
is in the middle of nowhere and they want to charge £100GBP per night for
it, whereas we stayed in the Hotel Magnolia in the heart of Piestany (a
beautiful town with lots of shops/bars/restaurants), with a room overlooking
the river for *far less* than half that.

It's well worth a visit to have a coffee and just to check that these people
are for real, but there's no way on earth that I would ever stay there.

Oh, and while I wish you every success with your travel agency business, I
have to ask the question - why do you think that people need travel agents
in this day and age?

My wife and I never book any hotels or accommodation in advance - just turn
up, see a hotel we like the look of and go in and ask if they have a room
available. In 14 years we've never failed to get a room yet.

Even if you do like to have things booked in advance, almost all hotels have
websites where you can see photos and book online or at least a phone
number, or there are sites such as www.hotelconnect.com to help you. I
thought travel agents were a dying breed these days.

John.


  #4  
Old April 8th, 2007, 01:34 PM posted to rec.travel.europe
[email protected]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 14
Default travel agents - slovakia

On 8 Apr, 11:20, "John" wrote:
wrote in message

oups.com...

You have to be joking. The more you watch it the more you appreciate
it. It's so comical that even if it was a spoof (which it isn't) it's
better and better. Some of my friends almost feel same discomfort
watching it as watching Borat and seeing all those people who take it
so seriously and don't even realize that a normal person could never
ever behave that way. Same with that couple. It just makes you ask
yourself where in the world did those people do business in UK? Some
say he is a genuine fraudster....


My wife and I have been touring the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland for
our summer holidays for the last 14 years, so when we saw this programme
(first series) we took a special interest in it, and so last year we decided
to visit the chateau - and yes, these two people are real cardboard
cut-outs - what you see on the telly is *exactly* how they are in real life
)

To me, the word "chateau" conjours up visions of a castle-type place in it's
own vast grounds, but not here. Yes, they have made the chateau very nice
but it's next-door to the local Spar shop (in fact, it's the *only* shop as
far as we could see - not even a local pub/bar anywhere) in a village that
is in the middle of nowhere and they want to charge £100GBP per night for
it, whereas we stayed in the Hotel Magnolia in the heart of Piestany (a
beautiful town with lots of shops/bars/restaurants), with a room overlooking
the river for *far less* than half that.

It's well worth a visit to have a coffee and just to check that these people
are for real, but there's no way on earth that I would ever stay there.

Oh, and while I wish you every success with your travel agency business, I
have to ask the question - why do you think that people need travel agents
in this day and age?

My wife and I never book any hotels or accommodation in advance - just turn
up, see a hotel we like the look of and go in and ask if they have a room
available. In 14 years we've never failed to get a room yet.

Even if you do like to have things booked in advance, almost all hotels have
websites where you can see photos and book online or at least a phone
number, or there are sites such aswww.hotelconnect.comto help you. I
thought travel agents were a dying breed these days.

John.


Actually opposite is true john. Travel agents are no where near dying
breed these days. Industry is flourishing more then ever speaking of
which these year's been predicted to be the strongest over the long
period of time. The only change is happening in the high street.
Travel agents are and ultimately will become only supporting centres
for online sales and the form they're in nowadays will disappear.
However the whole market is moving towards new technologies. No more
it's just internet that supports this monster grind for money but
others such as mobile internet and live booking systems via any
network or handset, but also active advertising when you will be able
to scan your holiday via billboards directly into your phone or any
other portable device and live interactive internet TV or interactive
brochures. This is the only change that is currently happening on the
market. it's a huge shift but that's all there is.
Now let's get back to your question why to use travel agents rather
then booking it online? Well I believe you know answer to that. Maybe
it's not you but generally speaking, people like convenience. And it's
not just about being served and managed by someone else, or saving
time, but you have to take into account that if someone is interested
in something special, lack of language doesn't really help. Well
unless you go for backpacking type of holiday. Secondly, if one is
smart enough, will have to realize that this market is full of
opportunities. Let's just mention possibility to go on holiday as many
times as you like. What do you do? Well, you know that just to switch
off and still experience that feeling of being abroad and being able
to treat yourself with new special memories, you don't want to use
your holiday allowance from work. You will rather use that for one
mega vacation with entire family. However, if you want you can go for
city break, which you can build yourself the way you want it (well at
least on our website you will be) and all it will cost you is Friday
night abroad, Saturday night abroad and on Sunday you sleep again in
your bed. simple, but effective. You can't even imagine how much we
are able to work with those three days and two nights these days. You
can experience pretty much anything you imagine and all those things
we don't offer can be individually acquired for our clients who
obviously give us enough notice. And that regards to hotel prices,
well there still are companies which put huge mark-ups on top of the
hotel offered price for their clients, however are prices are exactly
what you get from the accommodation provider. It's all about being
smart and making the right choices.

 




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