It's past midnight and you have fourteen tabs open. Two resorts with near-identical photographs, and a review section that can't decide whether the pool is a highlight or a car park. One guest called the food the best of their life; the next is still furious about breakfast. You close the laptop no closer to a decision, or you book one and spend the holiday wondering about the other.
This was meant to be the easy part. Somewhere along the way, the travel agent became a punchline, filed beside the fax machine and made redundant by a search bar. I understand how people got there. I'd still like to argue, calmly and with specific evidence, that they got it wrong.
Not wrong about the internet. The internet is extraordinary for travel research. Wrong about what a good travel agent actually does, which has very little to do with booking flights and almost everything to do with something the internet is structurally incapable of providing: judgement built on genuine relationships and real-world knowledge. That's the gap. That's where I work.
Part One
What People Get Wrong About Travel Agents in 2026
Most of the objections I hear about travel agents are based on a version of the job that hasn't existed for fifteen years. Let me address them directly.
The Myth
"It's more expensive to use an agent. You're paying a middleman."
The Reality
Boutique agents operating through established host agencies access trade rates, preferred partner pricing, and supplier relationships that aren't available to the public. In many cases the price you pay through an agent is the same as or lower than what you'd find online, with considerably more included. And when something goes wrong, there's a person accountable for fixing it rather than a chatbot.
The Myth
"I can find everything I need on Google and TripAdvisor."
The Reality
You can find information. You can't easily find the right information. TripAdvisor gives you a thousand reviews weighted by whoever bothered to write one. Google gives you the properties with the largest SEO budget. What you can't get from either is a straight answer to "given what I've told you about how I travel, which of these two resorts will actually suit me?" That answer requires a person.
The Myth
"Travel agents just take a commission and book what's most profitable."
The Reality
Volume-led agencies, the kind with shop fronts and package holidays, operate closer to this model. Boutique independent agents don't. My business is built entirely on repeat clients and referrals. A client who comes back is worth infinitely more than a commission on a booking that disappointed them. The incentive structure points in exactly the same direction as the client's interest: get it right.
The Myth
"Using an agent means losing control of your trip."
The Reality
The opposite. A good agent builds the trip around what you want, asks the questions you didn't know to ask, and then executes against the brief with more precision than most people can manage independently. You make every meaningful decision. I handle everything else.
Part Two
Why I Started RGM Travels, and What That Has to Do with You
I didn't start RGM Travels because I spotted a gap in the market. I started it because I kept having the same conversation with people around me, friends, family, colleagues, who would come back from holidays that should have been extraordinary and weren't, not because the destination failed them, but because something in the planning did. A hotel that looked better online than in person. A resort that was perfect for the couple they'd been five years ago and wrong for who they were now. A safari booked through a platform with no one accountable when the logistics fell apart.
I realised that what was missing wasn't information. Everyone had information. What was missing was someone who would actually listen, ask the right questions, and then use real knowledge, not algorithm-ranked results, to make a recommendation they stood behind. That's the version of this job I wanted to do. That's the version I do.
In my own words
RGM Travels operates under The JLT Group, which gives me access to trade relationships, full PTS Trust Account financial protection (PTS 6090), and ATOL coverage (ATOL 12564) that take years to build. But the part that matters most to my clients isn't just the legal infrastructure. It's the approach.
I don't take on every enquiry. I take on the ones where I'm confident I can genuinely improve the trip, where there's a brief I can work with, a client whose priorities I understand, and a destination where my knowledge or relationships add something real. I'd rather tell someone honestly that they'd be fine booking independently than build a trip they didn't need me for.
That honesty is, I think, the thing clients remember most. Not the hotel upgrade or the restaurant reservation I secured. The fact that I told them the truth when the easier thing would have been to take the booking.
"The best trips I've been involved in weren't the most expensive ones. They were the ones where the brief was clear and the trust was mutual."
Part Three
What Working with RGM Travels Actually Looks Like
No mystery, no vague promises. Here is exactly what the process looks like from the moment you get in touch to the moment you come home.
The Process
Six Steps, Start to Finish
01
The First Conversation
You reach out via the enquiry form or email and tell me whatever you know: the destination you have in mind, the dates if you have them, who you're travelling with, what you're hoping the trip feels like. You don't need a polished brief. Rough is fine. The conversation does the work of turning rough into something I can build from.
02
The Questions That Matter
I ask the questions the booking platform doesn't. Not just "how many nights" but "what do you need this trip to do for you?" Not just "what's your budget" but "where in that budget does value matter most?" These questions change the output significantly. They're also the part of the process that most clients say felt unexpectedly useful in itself.
03
The Proposal
I come back with a clear, considered proposal: specific hotels or resorts, a recommended structure for the trip, and the reasoning behind each decision. Not a list of options to choose between, a recommendation with the thinking shown. You can push back on any of it. Most clients change one or two things. Some change nothing. Either way, we agree on a direction before anything is booked.
04
The Booking & Safeguarding
Once you're happy with the plan, I handle the bookings. Flights where relevant, accommodation, transfers, any specialist experiences or restaurant reservations that need to be secured in advance. All payments are protected through a secure PTS Trust Account and backed by ATOL protection. You receive a full documentation pack with everything you need, organised clearly, including emergency contacts and what to do if something doesn't go to plan.
05
Before You Leave
A brief check-in before departure to make sure everything is confirmed, answer any last questions, and remind you of anything worth knowing before you land. Small thing. Makes a difference.
06
While You're Away & After
I'm reachable if something goes wrong. Not on-call 24 hours, I'm one person, not a call centre, but accessible and invested in the outcome. When you're back, I want to know what worked and what didn't. That feedback is what makes the next trip better, whether for you or for someone else I send to the same place.
Booking Independently
Hours spent comparing hotels on platforms that rank by commission, not quality.
RGM Travels
A recommendation based on genuine knowledge of the property and whether it suits you specifically.
Booking Independently
Payments go directly to individual vendors with fragmented, varying levels of consumer protection.
RGM Travels
Your funds are ring-fenced in a
PTS Trust Account (PTS 6090) and fully backed by
ATOL (12564) protection for complete financial security.
Booking Independently
Separate contracts for every element, zero overall package cover if an airline or hotel changes schedule.
RGM Travels
Fully covered under the
Package Travel Regulations 2018, making us legally responsible for delivering your entire itinerary smoothly.
Booking Independently
Reviews from strangers with different priorities, tastes, and standards to your own.
RGM Travels
Insight from someone who knows your priorities and has either been there or has direct supplier relationships with people who have.
Booking Independently
A customer service number when something goes wrong, and the patience of someone on hold with automated chatbots.
RGM Travels
One person, contactable, accountable, and backed by clear
FCDO travel advice cancellation and disruption rights.
Booking Independently
The public rate, or whatever the algorithm decides you should pay today.
RGM Travels
Trade access, preferred partner rates, and supplier relationships that often include complimentary additions the public rate doesn't.
Booking Independently
A trip that's as good as your research, which is only as good as the time you had to do it.
RGM Travels
A trip built by someone who does this full time, who has done it before, and who won't send you somewhere they wouldn't send a close friend.
The Honest Close
The Trip You're Already Thinking About
There's a version of your next holiday that exists somewhere between what you've been browsing and what you actually want. The gap between those two things is usually smaller than it feels, and almost always closeable with one honest conversation.
I'll be straight with you: RGM Travels is still early. I'm not going to pretend I have decades of client stories to draw on, because I don't. What I have is something that's harder to find in this industry than experience: genuine attention. Every enquiry that comes to me gets my full focus, not because I've built a system for it, but because I haven't scaled past the point where that's possible. Right now, if you work with me, you have all of me.
I chose to build this properly, through The JLT Group with full PTS and ATOL protection, with supplier relationships that take time to earn, and with a commitment to only recommending trips I can stand behind. Not because I had to, but because doing it any other way would defeat the point.
If there's a trip in the back of your mind, one you keep coming back to but haven't quite committed to, that's usually the one worth having the conversation about. The enquiry form is there. So am I.
Ridwan
Founder, RGM Travels
I run RGM Travels as an independent boutique agency under The JLT Group. Every enquiry comes to me directly. Every itinerary is built by me. If you work with RGM Travels, you're working with me, not a team, not a system, not a platform. That's the point.
