Karen Bodner

Back in the 1960’s I worked for the President of Swank, Inc. a well known company that manufactured and marketed men’s accessories such as wallets, belts and men’s cologne. My boss had a very busy travel schedule, and he was a very ultra deluxe, picky traveler.

He was very detailed oriented and so I began my travel career with the toughest kind of client. The hardest part of my job was planning extremely detailed itineraries, and though it was only part of my job I really enjoyed it. I left work to start a family. Having raised a daughter to the age of 10 I began dabbling in travel , building a business little by little, until the part-time job became a full-time job. Before I knew it I built a large clientele who relied on my judgement. My clients followed me as I moved through three agency positions in a 36 year career. Today I am a Virtuoso agent working for Power Travel.

In the end, what you put in, is what you take out and I love what I do. I don’t emphasize any particular region or any particular travel. I am proud of the fact that I feel comfortable booking almost anything, because what I specialize in is client knowledge. I have a loyal base of clients and I make it my business to know what they want from their travel experience. I don’t have just one kind of client. But whatever their demographic is, I have to be able to get them the kind of experience they’re looking for.

I have great relationships with different suppliers, but I always try to make the booking based on the client. The hotels I choose, the itineraries I prepare all depend on the client , and every single client is different.

I enjoy assembling luxury FIT’s. It’s just in my personality to think, plane to car to ferry, whatever. And then they come back and tell me it all went like clockwork. I find it so gratifying.

In Washington politicians love to say “good policy is good politics.” A good agency correlation is “good service is good marketing.”