Hiring a travel agency can save you a lot of time and effort in planning your trip. However, little do people know that travel agencies have their own tricks up their sleeve that not every vacation or business trip package is worth venturing at. Here are three things that travel agencies don’t want you to know.

First, they give you un-haggled prices. It is a rule of thumb for every buyer to always haggle for the best price. Take airlines for example, the ticket that they get are usually for massive booking. So when travel agents say that you are on the waitlist, it often means that they still don’t have enough customers to book for them to get a better deal. Before saying yes to your travel agent, make sure that you exhaust all means possible like checking flight rates online or going directly to booking offices. There easier ways now of purchasing flights with the mergence of Paypal and other online payment systems. All you need is your credit card but be sure that you only share you card details at secured sights.

Another thing that travel agencies don’t want you to know is that they have a treasure of gift certificates. Because their business are usually done by packages, they get free services or rooms from hotels and even flights from the miles that they get from paying for multiple flights with one card. Don’t be too naïve in believing that you’ve haggled the best price for the most premium vacation package. More often than not, the travel agent just told you that they put down the price when in reality, they just sold you gift certificates and free flights that they didn’t even spend a dime on. With this note, it is highly encouraged to make full use of all the gift certificates that you acquire with whatever means and not to sell those that you have to prevent sneaky travel agencies from fooling innocent customers into buying zero capital packages from them.

The last thing that travel agencies don’t want you to know is that you can actually create a customized package on your own. It will just take more time, patience and effort but unlike before when long lines are the only trend in booking flights and rooms, the ever dependent internet makes it easy for travelers to create the kind of vacation or business trip that they want. As much as possible, plan your trip at least 2 months in advance to get the best deals. The saying “the early bird gets the worm” is highly applicable to traveling. Look for sites that are solely for destinations and airlines only. Be on the lookout for special packages to get the best deal. Also, keep in mind the schedule of peak and non-peak seasons to at least get a valid reason for the price that you pay. It is one thing to have someone do the job for you, like having travel agencies plan your trip but it is way too different when you put your money on something more worthy of your hard-earned resources.