Travel agent wonders if her business will ever recover
BROOKHAVEN » After receiving a letter from famed businessman Donald Trump 32 years ago, Mary Moody opened the doors to her dream: Having her very own business. Now, it’s impossible to see through the uncertainty ahead.
On April 1, 1988, Moody opened In the Mood to Cruise, a travel agency in a Middletown house that had been converted to offices across from the old Denny’s on Route 352.
“I knew I had some interest in travel,” the former American Airlines ticket counter employee said. “Back in those days, we had great travel benefits. I was able to travel a lot. I was always fascinated by travel and air.”
After reading Trump’s “The Art of the Deal,” she was inspired to open her own business and wrote him a letter.
“I was just very amazed that someone at his young age, very much my age, that he was very, very much in what the future could do,” Moody said. “That’s what really impressed me and how he was handling the business that he went into ... He was very young. He was brash, he was new and he went up against powerful people.”
In a couple of weeks, he responded.
“Congratulations to you!” the future president of the United States wrote in a letter dated Oct. 10, 1988. “It is very gratifying to know that I have contributed even mildly, to the success you are enjoying. If I helped to ‘fertilize’ your plans by inspiring you to launch out and expand to a better location, then so be it.
“I am delighted and happy for you,” he continued. “I think you have a great logo, and wish you all the success in the world.”
Although she didn’t have a lot of walk-in traffic, she did have success booking groups. Then, when the Internet emerged, she decided to make the business homebased and moved it to her place in Brookhaven. “It didn’t make sense to pay a monthly rent,” Moody said.
At the end of February, she noticed a change.
“The calls were not coming in,” Moody said. “I knew something was not right.”
By the beginning of March, she questioned why. Once news of the Grand Princess cruise ship broke, her industry was in serious jeopardy.
Normally, Moody said cruises won’t refund trips within 90 days of sailing. Then, major lines began to offer 100 percent refunds even within that timeline.
“That was my first indication that things were going to get worse before they get better,” she said.
Moody said she had a client reach out to her the second weekend in March. They were nervous as they were planning to take their family and grandchildren on a cruise the end of March. She intervened and got him a full refund.
“That was the beginning of what I call a run of cancellations,” she said, adding that approximately 40 people who have nixed their trips. “I have no business past August. Nobody has booked through the end of the year ... In 75 percent of the cases, you don’t get your commission until they return.”
She worries about what this part of the travel sector will look like in the future.
“It’s really affected the industry I’ve loved so much for all of these years,” Moody said. “I don’t see it coming back this year and every day, I wonder if it will come back the way it was. I don’t think it will.”
The travel agent said more should have happened sooner.
“The United States is known worldwide for being so up to date,” she said. “For some reason, this was just ignored for how serious this was until that ship could not get into port ... You knew how it was working and coming to the United States. The borders and the airlines should have been stopped very, very early in the game and they were not. It’s like a domino effect.”
Her last family group is a family of eight brothers who has been planning a trip to Hawaii for the last two and a half years. It’s still booked and they leave July 8 with the schedule to board the ship on July 11.
“They are still so hopeful that they’ll be able to do it but I’m getting my doubts,” Moody said. “People are coming from Australia. One person has never been on an airplane in the group - that’s how much they want to see their family from Australia. I don’t know.”
She anticipates changes to her industry.
“(There will be) much more emphasis on your health when you get on board,” she said, adding that the cruise lines have dealt with infectious diseases previously, although they were not as fatal as this. “The cruise lines have always been conscious of those getting on.”
Moody said she guesses that people boarding will have to be screened and have their temperature taken, buffets will have to be arranged so that there’s people to serve guests their food, rather than self-serve stations and large crowds will have to be minimized.
“I don’t see it happening any time before the fall,” she said.
The sole proprietor, who’s been on 125 cruises herself, said she doesn’t want to end her career because of the virus but the future is uncertain.
“I don’t want to see the industry destroyed,” Moody said. “I love the business so much ... You make dreams come true for people and families. Never would I thought I would have to go through this. It’s not under my control anymore.”
“I don’t want to see the industry destroyed. I love the business so much ... You make dreams come true for people and families. Never would I thought I would have to go through this. It’s not under my control anymore.”
— Mary Moody, owner of travel agency In the Mood to Cruise