Interesting series of post that I have just come across and so I thought it might be the moment to offer input from the other side.
I started my first Dive Travel company in the US back in 1986, and prior to that was on a dive boat for 4 years in the Red Sea. My present company has been operating for nearly 20 years with offices in California and the South of France.
I have seen many dive liveaboards come and go during that time, and more than a few people who have lost their shirts when a boat they booked directly, went south and they never saw anything for their hard earned payments. In our modern world, and in particular in these times of the pandemic, really the only safe and secure way to book a dive trip to a foreign land is by using a reputable agency that is licensed and bonded and keeps their finger on the pulse.
For example, there are more than a couple of online booking agencies currently offering liveaboards that are not only not in operations but who are actually being pursued in their own countries for large amounts of deposit monies sent to them. It’s all very well offering every boat in the world, but you have to know the boat, who owns it and can one safely do business with them. Several clients have come to me for advice on what they can do in the circumstances where they sent monies directly to a boat as they were offered a great deal for booking directly. More than likely they have lost it and all I can do is advise them in future to book thru an agent like ours, where their monies are guaranteed and if there is a deal, they can get that thru us, or often a better deal from us.
We have offices in California and south of France with escrow accounts and bonded by the California Seller Of Travel Business bureau. In Europe we have legislation in all EU countries requiring that if an agent sells a trip, that if the trip does not operate, they are obliged by law to pay the full sum back within a 2 week period. Understandably in this past 12 months that put many agencies on the line as they no longer had the monies, and in many cases to avoid bankruptcy, they offered to rebook or credits toward a future trip. The monies are legally covered by obligatory bankruptcy insurance so the clients money is always protected. This is the law in Europe and you cannot walk away from it, but if one had sent payment direct to the boat, there is no comeback.
Many years ago I personally lost over $10,000 when I booked a Maldives resort for clients thru the inbound agent that the Island Resort listed on their website, only to find that when the clients arrived in Male, the resort told them that they had not been paid and insisted that they pay again before flying them to the island. Imagine receiving a 6am frantic call from clients stranded in Male airport. Presuming that it was all a big error as payment had all been made, I gave the resort our company credit card to cover the entire bill while I endeavoured to contact the inbound agent to whom I sent payment. To cut a long story short, we never got our $10,000 back and neither did many others who booked thru this same agency, but the clients never lost a penny and had a terrific holiday and despite the questionable start, have come back to me again and again.
It was my error and I paid heavily for it but I learned you do not send monies to banks overseas without knowing who you are dealing with.
We have perhaps the best and most up to date live availability on our website as well as a secondary availability of trips booked thru other agents in our network. We know it is good as although we do not pay huge amounts to Google to list us, we get many hits and we are favoured in the industry as a reference of availability.
There is no reason in the world why people should pay a boat directly when they can pay reliable agent who know the business and have the clout to take care of things when they may not go exactly as planned. Even Aggressor and Explorer Ventures can have their issues at time, but by booking thru an agency that does lots of business with them, your booking gains a huge amount of clout.
By the way, we do give out boats website and contact details during the whole booking process, but most important, we know the differences between different boats and destinations and advise our clients with our thoughts and input.
We have never been about one booking, the most important one maybe the first, but we presume that if our clients are happy and all goes well, why would they look to book with anyone else. Reliability and integrity are our most valued assets.
I hope that might help anyone who might have doubts in their mind about why they would use an agent.
Dominick Macan
Dive Advice Travel
dom@diveadvice.com
www.diveadvice.com
Tel: +33 492 94 02 99 (France)
SKYPE: adventuredom
http://www.diveadvice.com/liveaboard-availability … for up-to-date liveaboard availability worldwide
"In Partnership with Amazing Adventures Travel of Mill Valley, California"
