Buyer Beware!
Hank Schrader, USMA '71, Europe Destination & Europe River Cruise Expert
Anne Schrader, Certified Travel Counselor & Certified Luxury Cruise Specialist
This was an interesting week for me. I’m enrolled in 2 certification courses to enhance my ability to serve our clients better.
It has encouraged me to think hard about who we are, what our brand is and what our values are.
So, I will start with those items and then tell you about 2 things that caught my attention and made me think—Buyer Beware!
Our Mission
A mission statement explains the company's reason for existence. It describes the company, what it does, and its overall intention. A good mission statement answers these four questions: What do we do? How do we do it? What do we do it for? And what value are we bringing?
Ours is Anne & Hank Schrader, owners of Visit Dream Destinations, LLC, are certified travel professionals who will provide you with the highest quality, expertly planned domestic and foreign leisure travel with a focus on cruises, European river cruises and European vacations for discriminating travelers.
Our Vision
A vision statement is an aspirational statement made by an organization that articulates what they would like to achieve. Here is ours:
We want you to Savor Life . . . make memories . . . Visit Dream Destinations! Your journey begins here!
Our Values
Values statements, also called a value proposition, are a description of what you believe in, and a promise of value to be delivered, communicated, and acknowledged. It’s a set of five to seven words that articulate what your organization believes in and holds true. Here are our values:
Experienced, Certified Professionals, Trustworthy, Honest, Client First
We are very proud of these beliefs and hope they are meaningful to you also. We try to practice them every day in the conduct of our business and make it right if we don’t succeed.
Anne and Hank on an AmaWaterways cruise
On another river cruise at a wine tasing in France
Buyer Beware 1
One of the risks we take in our business model is not charging a planning fee. Recent surveys of our industry now report that over 50% of travel advisors charge these fees. The reasons vary, as planning takes time and resources and expertise, but two other reasons are the most common problem advisors face and these problems result in lost revenue, so many advisors feel the fee would help compensate them if the prospect decided not to use the information provided by the agent. Time spent with those who decide to purchase on price rather than service hurts the whole industry.
Sometimes prospects will take the hard-earned knowledge provided by the advisor and then book it themselves directly with the vendor. Another reason is consumers try to find another way to save money by looking to online discounters. Even though vendors set the price and there is supposed to be a level playing field among all, some companies offer discounts that are questionable at best. Here is a great example.
We recently had a prospect take a formal quote we provided directly from a supplier, and they reached out to an online vendor to see if they could offer a better price.
They did find a better price from an agent in an online agency, but without a formal quote from the vendor—they just offered prices and a brief description on what was included in the quote.
The first red flag for me was how the funds for the deposit were going to be handled. If they were going to the agent directly and not the supplier, this would be a huge potential problem. I couldn’t figure out how their price could be lower unless funds went directly to the agency and they paid from a different account to the supplier. So most likely the agent cut his commission which is not allowed by the supplier.
The correct procedure is that the agent or agency takes payment information and pays it directly to the supplier, unless there are some circumstances like our D Day trip where the supplier required one payment by agency funds. River cruise payments never have these requirements unless it is a charter of a ship. We never deposit credit card information into our accounts for a river cruise and pay the agreed upon amount directly to the supplier.
The second red flag, which was the true stunning part of the email, was this disclaimer which states:
Agent quotes are confidential between you and the agent offering this quote. You MAY NOT share this information with other cruise sellers.
It was written in bold font, and I copied it word for word. I’ll bet you know what I am thinking—what is the agent trying to hide? Amazing—a non-disclosure agreement for travel!
We plan to report this blatant offer to the supplier for undercutting prices which is not allowed and to the American Society of Travel Advisors. It is unethical and brings discredit to our profession.
Would you consider doing business with this agency and agent—I sure wouldn’t! I sure wouldn’t risk over $10,000 to them—there are just too many red flags here. Buyer Beware!
Buyer Beware 2
I guess I just can’t get off my soapbox about the questionable value of any best river cruise lists.
As a person who reads anything I can find written about river cruises, attends as many webinars as possible about the various companies and we have taken 29 river cruises, I think we have the ability to look critically at the content and opinions of others about river cruises.
I really think they are subjective as opposed to objective and do not accurately reflect what is “best” for you. Even more concerning is they may reflect preference for sales channels regardless of the high reliability of the source.
I recently read an article published online from Forbes. If you are not aware, Forbes plans to publish a star rating of river cruise lines that would be a first of the industry. So, their opinions and methods peaked my interest. I found a recent article lacking, since it implied the cruise line they chose as the best without really proving their one selection was the best line.
So, I hope this critique will help you become more aware of subjective nature of the best lists and how they can influence you to make a poor purchasing decision.
The Problem with Another Best Lists for River Cruises
The recent article published by Forbes that caught my attention was titled “The World’s Best River Cruises 2025, According to Experts.” The article lists 15 rivers to cruise and then a section with “how to do it” for each river. I read the post on LinkedIn and found the 15 river descriptions accurate.
After finishing the artice, I replied to the author “the choice of what line to pick appears to be more an advertisement than the best line for that particular route.” There is no best line for everyone!’
I went on to point out “As an English speaker, do you want to sail on CroisiEurope when the onboard language is French?”
One river included in the article, the Elbe, is a difficult river to sail. My thoughts were “The Elbe is the most difficult river to sail in Europe and uses paddle wheel ships and quite often leads to glorified bus tours.”
I finished with “Best lists are meaningless if it does not match your desired travel style, but it does get a lot of views and makes advertisers happy.”
The author responded to me almost immediately after I posted my reply, but has since taken down his posting on LinkedIn. I will paraphrase his comments. He said the idea was to inspire other to take these cruises and the line chosen for the river was one option among many.
So, let’s put on our thinking caps for a second and see what is wrong with this article. First, this really was only a recap of what is available—there is no best here, only routes available. So, I guess you need to figure out which route is the best for your cruise, as no advantages and disadvantages of each route were provided.
The second part is that the list was complied by experts. There was only one author and only one line selected in the how to do it section. So, who were these experts? What are their qualifications and experience? Why did they pick the one recommended line?
Can you now see how you might learn about possible routes, but the suggested line may not be the right fit for you? I suggest the title of this article was quite misleading.
Our Final Thoughts
Buyer Beware! We sell on value and follow the suppliers’ rules. We do try and find you the best deal in an ethical way as your advocate and a bridge between the vendors and you. We are your fiduciary—your interest comes first, not ours. We will always do what is right when no one is looking! We do it at no extra cost to you, as the suuplier sets the price we are allowed to offer you. We hope you agree with who we are and what we believe and how we do business. We are happy we don’t charge fees, and hope the potential problem would not force us to change our policy.
We would like to thank the hundreds of you who trusted us to be your advisor. We do not advertise, so your refferals make the difference in our success. We only exist as a thriving business due to your loyal support, and we will never be able to thank you enough!
We are travel experts, ocean and river cruise specialists, and Europe destination experts. We have first-hand knowledge of almost anywhere you want to visit in Europe. We know our products and the vendors who sell them to you. We have designed special tours for dozens of clients, led several and will continue to find just the right vacation that will exceed your expectations.
When you are spending your hard-earned money for a vacation, you want an advisor who can match you with the right trip. You want someone who will understand your expectations and fuel your anticipation (or excitement) to get you the best possible trip experience. And, you want someone who can help you with the decision-making process. We think we have all these qualities.
Whatever your Dream Destinations are, we are here to help you get the best possible vacation based on what is important to you! We will provide you with high quality, expertly planned travel. Please give me a call 713-397-0188 (Hank) or email me at hschrader@visitdd.com . We want to help you: Savor life…make memories…Visit Dream Destinations! Your journey begins here!
ANNE has earned a degree from the University of Houston in Hotel and Restaurant Management. Serving as the President of Visit Dream Destinations, LLC, since 2016, she is uniquely experienced professional travel advisor with over 26 years’ experience in the travel industry. Among her numerous certifications, she is a Certified Travel Counselor (CTC) by the Travel Institute, considered the gold standard in travel agent certification and she is also an Accredited Cruise Counselor (ACC) by the Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA), as well Luxury Cruise Specialist also from CLIA. Having traveled often to Europe since 1989, she has expanded on her certification as a Destination Specialist in Western Europe (DS) with extensive first-hand experience in luxury vacations. She holds numerous other specialty designations from individual vendors. An expert photographer, she delights in capturing the true essence of destinations to share with all.
HANK is a certified Western European Destination Specialist (DS) who has been traveling to Europe for 53 years. He is also an Accredited Cruise Counselor (ACC), conferred by the Cruise Line International Association (CLIA). This recognized expert in cruise and leisure travel is a retired Army Officer, and taught World Geography for 8 years. He is a `71 graduate of West Point and has earned 2 master’s degrees. His other Certifications:
AmaWaterways River Cruise Specialist
Avalon Waterways Specialist
Emerald Waterways Specialist
Riverside Luxury Cruise Specialist
Scenic River Cruise Specialist
Viking River Cruise Specialist
Brit Agent
