Travel Place — My head aches | Travel Research Online

I have been struggling this month with getting work done.  Over Labor Day weekend, I knocked my head and suffered a minor concussion.  For the doctor it may be minor, but for me…not so much. I am told to expect headaches and ringing in my ears for weeks, perhaps months.  Throw in some blinding headaches and I am many shades of miserable.  Still, I am sucking it up and coming to work, but I feel as though my concentration has slipped a bit and it’s a challenge to tend to all the work I need!

I specialize in custom Italian vacations and last week three of these came in from out of the blue – at the same time. There was a client for a high-end Baltic cruise and two Rhine River cruises all at once.  All these bookings are for close in travel and require a good deal of handholding.  Along with these I have a group school trip to India, a destination wedding to get started, the “wrap up” on a huge Italian trip, and many, many walk-ins.

I have made errors on two tickets in the past week and a half – costly ones. This is a rarity for me. Over the past seven years, I have only received one debit memo.

So I am feeling a little bit challenged and frustrated!

But, the joy of taking care of people and giving them a great experience still looms large for me.  Last week I heard from a client who had just celebrated his 50^th anniversary at Cambridge Beaches, a young-ish woman who enjoyed a solo Un-Cruise in Alaska, and this morning I spent a half hour hearing from a client who just returned from a three week long, top of the line, first class trip. He could not stop talking about how smoothly it all went.  This gentleman has mobility issues and I had to be certain every vendor knew this and that there were no stairs in any hotel.  All went fabulously and he is very, very pleased with me!

So in the end, I am holding it all together, throbbing head and all! I am fortunate in that I work in an office and can lean on some co-workers if needed. How do the single person professionals handle a physical downtime?

Mindy Milliron has been a professional travel consultant since 1996 working in suburban Washington, DC. She specializes in personalized vacations and exotic adventures. Mindy has earned her CTA, and is certified as a specialist luxury travel and destination weddings. She has been employed by three agencies and her current agency is in the process of shifting affiliations from American Express to Travel Leaders.