We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Cari Miles. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Cari below.

Hi Cari , thanks for joining us today. Over the course of your career, have you seen or experienced your industry completely flip-flop or change course on something?

COVID-19 – I know that most industries were strongly affected by COVID-19. The travel industry faced a major U-Turn starting in March of 2019. When COVID-19 hit the US, it really affected and changed the travel industry. I will never forget it. Starting around Spring Break 2020 is when people really started to get concerned about travel and the trip cancellations started. My initial thought was this will affect us for a few months and then life will proceed as normal. Boy was I wrong.

For those that are not in our industry, one thing you may not know is that if people do not travel, we do not get paid. When we book a vacation package, we are banking on those people traveling and no payment is received until post travel. Miles In Style Travel is primarily focused on Mexico, Caribbean, and cruise travel. We do book a bit of US travel, mainly Universal and Disney packages as well.

Come April 2020, cruises, airlines, hotels/resorts all over the world started to shut down due to the travel mandates that were put in place. We literally cancelled all trips from April through July, but even then, when some things started to open back up, people were very concerned with traveling. During the shutdown, I can speak for most travel advisors when I tell you we were working on average about 16 hours a day cancelling trips, learning and adapting to new policies and procedures on cancelling our client’s vacations. From there about 80% of our clients had travel credits that we had to keep track of, making sure that their credits were what they were supposed to be, tracking when these credits would expire, spending countless hours on the phone with our suppliers to ensure we had all of our ducks in a row so to speak. During this time, the average hold time to even get a live person on the phone was 3-4 hours. We tried to stay as organized as we possibly could. Me personally, I would call in to my main supplier early in the morning with a list of tasks I needed to complete for the day. When I would get a person on the phone, I would then spend another 4-5 hours on the phone with the agent completing those tasks for the day. This process went on for a solid 3-4 months every day. I truly felt like I was living in Groundhog Day wondering when it was going to stop, at times thinking, ‘why am I still doing this?’. I did it every single day because of my passion for the industry. Also, because my clients have been loyal to me and my loyalty to them runs full circle. I would not be where I am without each and every one of them and I wanted them to know I would fight for them to make things right. All the while, not making a dime, with the what ifs of how, when, why is this happening and when would travel start again? What would our industry look like if and when the travel mandate was lifted? It was a very scary time for us. I know there were a lot of agents who gave up and/or went out of business because there was no income, and they could not survive. For that, I was thankful I prepared my business for the unknown future. It would have been simple to quit and wash my hands of the daily workload/stress that I was dealing with for free. But I could not even think about doing that to my customers.

We cancelled almost all of our revenue for the entire year of 2020. At the end of July 2020, I took my first international trip to Mexico, right after some of the mandates were lifted. What I saw that day was very sad. We boarded a plane in Houston with about 15 people on it. We arrived at the resort, and it was another world. Occupancy was extremely low, there was a shortage in staff, but you could almost see the smile and excitement behind their masks that they were back working. At this time, I took the trip to see what traveling during the thick of COVID-19 would be like. To see if I could see what our future was going to look like. It didn’t look promising.

Towards the end of 2020, travel was picking back up, but it was very slow to do so. It was an uneasy feeling not knowing what the future would hold but we kept trucking along trying to adjust to this new world we were living in. In about October of 2020, we started to see business picking back up for 2021 travel. It came with a vengeance, and we were excited that people were ready to get back to traveling. We were doing more stateside trips, but a lot of local international trips as well (mainly Mexico). Then here comes January 2021 and the CDC makes the announcement that all travelers who travel internationally must provide a negative COVID test to re-enter the US within 3 days prior to arrival. If they produced a positive test, they would have to quarantine in location for 10 days before being allowed back in the states. That sense of uneasiness weighed on our clients who had booked travel once again. The cancellations started again, weddings, groups, and vacationers cancelled pretty much through March of 2020. I felt like I was living in March 2019 all over again. It was disheartening and depressing for sure. But I could certainly understand the fear of travel. Client’s traveling without their children. What happens if we get quarantined? Who will take care of our children for 10 days? How will we pay for an additional 10 days abroad? What if we actually get sick in destination? How do these hospitals compare to those in the US? I got it …. It was scary. I did not try to convince anyone to travel. It was about each individual’s comfortability level. So, again, hours on the phone daily. However, our suppliers and resorts went into immediate action of how can we make this work? What can we do to help make travelers feel confident in their decision to travel? Majority of the resorts that we deal with started offering complimentary COVID testing on-site so our customers would not have to go to a clinic to get tested nor worry about the cost burden associated with the testing. On top of that, there were offering complimentary quarantine to guests should they test positive in destination. I was so intrigued that they were offering this after the year that the industry had been though. All the while offering some amazing rates to invite people to travel again.

Come about March 2020, once the new CDC testing requirement had been in place for a couple of months, we started to see the interest of travel picking back up again. We were on the uphill of that rollercoaster. Except this time, we had an influx of new clients. These clients had always booked their own travel through major online travel retailer sites. They were now coming to us because they too had spent countless hours on the phone cancelling their own trip, they were unsure of the new travel requirements, and they needed/wanted someone to guide them through the process’ of getting in/out of their destination. We, of course, welcomed them in with open arms. Many to this day have stated, “I do not know how or why I ever traveled without using a travel agent”. Their knowledge of using an agency was not there. They did not realize that when you use a travel agency, you can pay the same amount of money as you would with the major online travel companies, but you have a professional on your side. Someone who knows the destination in and out, has more than likely traveled to that exact resort that you are going to stay at, has personal connections in that resort or destination that you are traveling to, and will hold your hand every step of the way traveling during the pandemic.

Even though travel was cut short from January-March, our business boomed the remainder of 2020, and our production level was the highest it had ever been. I think everyone’s mindset was that they needed this sort of assistance while traveling during the pandemic and a major learning curve happened for our potential clients. The trend of using a travel agent changed, and again in 2021 our revenue almost doubled from 2020. It was an eye-opening experience, and I was so happy that those days I wanted to quit, my passion drove me to keep going. Our agency is continuing to grow to keep up with the volume of business that is coming in. If you are in need of a vacation, feel free to call Miles in Style Travel. We would love nothing more than to plan a fabulous vacation for you. We specialize in destination weddings, incentive groups, leisure groups, honeymoons, and family vacations.

Cari , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I started in the travel industry in 2005 where I worked for a well-known agency in Lafayette, Louisiana right after getting my Bachelor’s in business. I worked for this agency for a couple of years before moving to Houston in 2007. Upon my move in Houston, I began working in outside sales, which later lead me to oilfield sales. I have always loved to travel and have had a passion for experiencing new places in this beautiful world we live in.

While yes, I was making a good living in sales and happy with life, there was something I was missing. I left my last oilfield sales job in 2013 and decided to take some time off to really figure out what my next move in life would be. I pondered for a while … Do I go back into the oilfield, or do I take a leap of faith and shoot for the stars? With the constant support from my husband, friends, and family behind me telling me I could do it, I decided to go back to my passion. It was a very scary thought for me. Where do I start? What if I fail? Are travel agents going to even be in existence in a couple of years with the internet? So many questions and concerns. My last thought was if I don’t give it a shot, I will always wonder ‘what if I had tried’. I reached out to a fellow agent from Louisiana, who now ran her own agency, and we had several conversations. She convinced me to come on board as a consultant with her current agency as the accreditation process for a new agency is extremely extensive and takes time. So, I took the first step and went to work as a consultant in early 2014.

Life was good. I wasn’t making as much money as I was in previous positions, but I was so very happy and loved getting up every day to do my job. I was reaching for a lifelong goal, to have my own business in something I was passionate about; and that was travel! I worked through that agency while working on all of the requirements to gain accreditation and work on all of the other aspects of starting up a business. I have several friends who own business’ who helped me day to day.

My husband stood by my side through the endless workdays and all-nighters trying to achieve the goal that I set out for. There were many trying times, but I was bound and determined to make this work with my biggest cheerleaders by my side. Moving on, my business was taking off in a way I never thought it would and I thought, “wow, this is really working out”. I absolutely loved that I was seeking out my dream all the while creating lifelong memories from my clients. They have been a huge part of this too. They have no idea how much satisfaction they have given me by getting back from vacation and sending me pictures of their families, weddings, groups, etc, letting me know what an amazing time they had. In 2015, I started the accreditation process and was a fully accredited agency by 2016, which is when Miles In Style Travel started. Here in early 2022, it is so satisfying to look back and see where I have come in what feels to be a very short time. I am not here to just book my client’s vacations. I am here to help create lifelong memories that they will cherish forever.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

Building my reputation in the metropolis area we live in where there are major well-known travel agencies, was not an easy task. I have a lot of friends and family which is where most of my business started. I believe that two other things attributed to my reputation, which is service and networking. I try my very hardest to provide unmatched service. I travel out of the country about once a month, During these travels, while I do have some fun, I am always in learning mode. I am visiting new resorts, meeting with management at those resorts, and making other connections with transportation/tour companies. This allows me a step up when it comes to servicing my clients. I always let the management of the resorts know that I have a client traveling to their resort. I also ensure that if they are celebrating something special, that the concierge is aware of that. The resort will always receive a personal email from me requesting just a little something that will make their trip more special. While it may not happen every single time on the resort side, I will always go above and beyond to try and make my clients feel special during travel. I am also available 24/7 for my traveling clients, should they need with airfare cancellations/delays and should an issue arrive while at the hotel/resort. When clients’ have this tailored experience, the referrals are never ending. The sky is the limit from there. Whether it is a $2,000 trip or a $200,000 trip, I strive to ensure every client gets the same amount of attention that they deserve.

What’s been the best source of new clients for you?

Referrals are definitely the best source of new clients for us. I try to make sure that I have 100% satisfaction guarantee and with that, my service will speak for itself. This rings true 6 years later as 95% of my business stems from referrals. When a travel agent is needed or requested in our community pages, 9 times out of 10, Miles In Style Travel will appear numerous times on that post. When you have a passion for what you do and it is not just your daily job, it truly takes the service to another level. We make sure that anyone who joins the Miles In Style team, has that drive/passion and is a good fit within our travel family.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://milesinstyletravel.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/milesinstyletravel/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/milesinstyle
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/miles-in-style-travel
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcD-h5HaJhiP9cp7VpWUQFw