Meet Janine Jegers | Owner of a luxury travelagency

We had the good fortune of connecting with Janine Jegers and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Janine, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
My husband started a luxury concierge service years before that, from his workpast at the football indrustry. He got more and more requests about travelling and searched for a travelagent to provide for this. He found a women who let him believe she had years of experience and was a trustworthy party for his high end clients. After ceveral problems with clients, violation of privacy, withholding money such as payed deposites and bragging about his clients, he stopped their collaboration and there even was a lawsuit against her. That summer, clients still needed to be provided with the services they booked, so I decided to help him out. I quickly found out that the travellingindustry is more complex then it may seem, so I followed trainings, affiliated with a professional travellabel connected to a guaranteefund and made sure everything was discrete, transparant to the client and well arranged from beginning to end. I was always good at arranging things like parties in my familie, trips or surprises for friends and loved ones. So this fitted me like a glove.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
Designing a trip is a creative and sometimes difficult and timeconsuming process, that’s why it’s important to ‘get to know’ your customer (sometimes even better than they know themselves). When you listen carefully and gather all signals, ask good questions you will be able to put the pieces of the puzzle together. What makes our service different from others is ‘me’, as your personal travelagent, your travelbuddy, I’m treating my clients how I would like to be treated.

One thing I’m struggeling with is when you have famous clients, it would be an easy way of marketing to post about them on your socials. It’s the way it works nowadays that people value you on the way your Instagram looks and who seems to have booked your service. But anyone can create a fantastic account, a great website and share the most beautiful content, but what counts is expertise and commitment. When you are stranded on the airport at night on Christmas, that Instagram doesn’t count, it’s me who is behind the computer trying to solve your problem as quickly as possible. It’s me who you have on the phone to reassure you it’s all going to be fine. So that’s why I’m staying me and let people value my service based on their own experience. That’s the way, in my opinion, to build a longlasting and real relationship.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Oehhh, that’s a difficult one.. because it would depend on the person who I’m taking with me. What makes them tick, what makes them relax during time off, what do they label as ‘fun’. In my opinion, all places in the world have something beautiful! Why? Because they all have a story.. you just have to listen. Look around, really look, try to be open to new things, absorb the environment, the smells. Immerse yourself in the culture. And what I like most is.. take something from all places with you in your heart and addapt it to your own life. Travelling is really the only thing you buy that makes you richer.

Another advice I would give you is, plan some activities.. whether it’s a visit to a vineyard, a cookingclass, guided tour trough a city, painting your own souvenir, take a dance class, go to a concert or climbe that mountain.. That are the moments we will remember forver, not the time we fell asleep on the beach.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Besides the support of my husband, who I work together with for almost 6 years now and the trust shown in me by the travellabel Mijn Reiskennis that I’m connected to, I’m really gratefull for the chance we got from our clients. The best compliment we can receive is clients telling their friends and family and for us to welcome them as our new clients.

Website: www.instatravelservice.com

Instagram: www.instagram.com/instatravelservice

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/janine-j-972b341a0/