Shoptalk: When to fire a client (and how to do it without burning bridges)

The clients had booked four back-to-back luxury cruises. It had taken days of calls, coordination and back-and-forth with the supplier to get everything lined up.

Then the emails started.

A few days later, they wanted a better price on one of the sailings. Then came the cancellation request after they’d read negative reviews online.

Weeks later, they came back and asked to book the same cruises all over again.

“There was no respect for boundaries,” says travel advisor Renee Blokzyl, owner of Red Orchid Travel based in Oakville, ON.

For Blokzyl, the issue wasn’t only that the clients kept booking and cancelling. They were also contacting suppliers directly, negotiating pricing on their own and then expecting her to clean up the mess.

She said the behaviour undermined her role and showed a lack of respect for both her work and her supplier partners.

At that point, she knew the relationship was no longer workable.

Most travel advisors have a version of this story. The client who drains hours, second-guesses every recommendation or expects full-service planning without ever committing.

Letting them go isn’t easy. But at a certain point, the time, stress and lost revenue tied to a difficult file outweigh any potential commission. 

The challenge is knowing when to walk away and how to do it professionally.

Spotting the red flags 

For many travel advisors, the warning signs appear in the first conversation.

Mississauga, ON-based Monica Denison, owner of Truly Luxe Travel, remembers a client who sounded ideal at first. 

He talked about referrals and had a long list of trips he wanted to take.

Then the pattern emerged.

“Every time I tried to make suggestions, he always had a reason why, ‘Oh no, that won’t work,’” she said.

Even after she managed to book a trip, the process was exhausting. He resisted basic steps, questioned everything and turned simple logistics into drawn-out debates.

“He just turned everything into this big, dramatic issue,” she said.

When he came back asking about a new cruise booking, Denison opted out.

“I knew I’d be quoting him over and over again and he wouldn’t book,” she said.

When expectations & reality don’t line up

Budget mismatches are another common breaking point, especially when expectations shift during the planning process.

Katherine Poon, owner of Fun in Paradise Travel in London, ON, recalls a group booking for Spain where the clients started with a tight budget, then pushed for upgrades that made the numbers impossible.

“Initially, they said economy [flights] were no problem,” she says. “And later on, of course, it changed to premium economy.”

Poon says that change pushed flight costs to the point where they consumed nearly the entire budget. 

At the same time, not everyone in the group even seemed interested in travelling.

As communication became more strained and one client grew abrupt, she recognized the shift.

“That is one of the signals that I know this relationship is going to go sour,” she says. 

At that point, she stepped back, telling them there were no realistic options unless they became more flexible or increased their budget.

How to walk away

The key is to handle the exit clearly and professionally.

Sarah Boville, owner of Barefoot Travel in Grimsby, ON, faced that decision with a destination wedding client whose frustrations seemed to multiply as the planning went on. 

The issues started after the wedding was booked and, as Bowville tells it, it became clear the groom may not have fully understood what the trip was going to cost. 

From there, the complaints kept coming. 

The couple pushed back on her custom wedding website and questioned whether she was providing the level of service they expected.

“I could tell by the last conversation,” Bowville says. “This is just not going to get better.”

Instead of dragging things out, she framed the conversation around it.

“I just said: this is all about relationships and I don’t believe we’re connecting,” she said. “There’s a lot of other agents out there that might be a better match.”

From there, she handled the transition carefully, coordinating with her host agency and the supplier to transfer the booking.

It’s a business decision, not a personal one

For Beverlee Rasmussen, a Vancouver-based business coach and former travel agency owner, the decision starts with reframing the problem.

“It’s a business decision,” she says.“You have to look at the amount of time this individual is taking.”

When it comes time to end the relationship, Rasmussen’s advice is to keep the message focused on your own capacity rather than the client’s behaviour.

“Anything that puts the blame on you,” she says, is usually the safest approach.

In practice, that can be as simple as saying: “Thank you so much. I don’t have capacity. I don’t have the bandwidth to manage this work right now,” she says.

Rasmussen’s advice is to prepare for those moments before they happen. 

She says advisors should know the signs that a client relationship is going sideways, have a consistent response ready and keep the message centred on their own limits, not the client’s faults.

One tactic she likes is ending with a practical, open question, such as: “What do you need from me to wrap this up?” 

That keeps the focus on next steps instead of escalating the conflict.

Catch the problem early

By the time an advisor is looking for a way out, the client has usually already cost them time, energy and potential revenue. 

Several advisors say the better strategy is to catch the problem sooner, and one of the most effective ways to do that is by introducing fees early.

For Brigitte Viel of Voyageologues in Rosemere, QC, fees do more than cover research time: they also help shape the kind of client relationship that follows.

Fees, she says, have helped reinforce her positioning as a professional advisor rather than a source of free planning. 

“I show them that I am professional at what I’m doing,” she says. “They have confidence in what I can offer them.”

For some advisors who don’t always charge a fee, it can also work as an early filter. 

Nicola Radde of Mississauga’s TravelOnly with Nicola, says she introduces a booking fee when she gets the sense that she doesn’t want to work with a client.

“When I get that feeling, honestly, I’m charging a booking fee,” she says. “And then most of the time, I don’t hear anything more.”

For Rasmussen, it ultimately comes back to clarity around who you serve.

“We’re not here to help everybody,” she says.

That means setting expectations early, building systems that protect your time and acting on red flags instead of working around them.

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