Here are the top five reasons you should consult and book your next vacation travel with a travel professional.

1. You Are Not Just a Name or a Number

Your travel professional will take time to get to know you – your likes, dislikes – everything that determines the right fit for you in a vacation. Based on this, he/she will give you recommendations and carry out all the travel bookings of your choice. And this is usually at no charge or at a nominal fee. There are not too many places where you can get quality advice and service for free or nearly free any more.

2. The Travel Professional is Paid by the Vendors but Works for You.

What happens when you call a vendor directly? They have only their product to sell to you – even if it doesn’t suit. Travel professionals know every vendor and product because, chances are, they have experienced it or they know someone who has.

3. Travel Professionals Get You the Most Value for Your Dollar.

What happens when you call a big discount on line vendor about an advertised deal? Quite often you find it is not when you want to travel, the accommodations are low end, it doesn’t include all the mandatory extras, and has a host of other restrictions. So much for the great deal you thought you were getting. Travel professionals realize that you have budget limitations so they will show you, not the deal, but the VALUE in their suggestions.

4.Travel Professionals Anticipate Problems You Never Knew Existed.

Booking a cruise or a tour is not that simple. There could be air connections, pre- or post stays, transfers, visas, excursions, insurance, and so on. There’s a lot of details to take care of and, unless you have oodles of time on your hands to research and coordinate, isn’t it just better to sit back and relax , and let your travel counselor do all the work?

5. Your Travel Professional is Your Security Blanket.

What happens if you encounter a health issue, an emergency back home, a missed connection, a robbery, etc.? Try getting help from a call center. Or handling it on your own. These are not usual occurrences but it is a great comfort to know your travel professional is at the other end of the phone and will work tirelessly to help you.

Feature image courtesy of Bigstock. Article originally appeared on Real Travel Experts.