Bed bank anticipates 25% increase in sales
Trade-only bed bank Bedswithease expects to carry 25% more passengers this year, boosting its total to over 200,000.
It claimed 2017 will be its best-ever trading year in its 15-year history. ‘Whilst we still have the peak selling period ahead of us, we are confident that in 2016/17 we will return our best ever results, both in passenger numbers and profitability," said sales director Paul Riches.
"This will be an excellent performance against some of the toughest trading conditions the industry has seen for many years."
Speaking at a lunch for over 30 of its key agents, Riches said over 60% of customers now stay in its own directly contracted hotels.
"We predict this figure to grow to 75-80% over the next few years, as we continue to expand our number of direct contracts and overseas buyers’, he added.
The Greek Islands, Portugal and mainland Spain have seen the biggest YOY % increases so far. Turkey has also ‘bounced back’ after a difficult couple of years, said Riches. "Emerging markets such as Croatia, Bulgaria, USA, Mexico and the UAE have all seen substantial increases, versus the same period last year."
Bedswithease recently announced plans to double its team of five European destination managers over the next two years to increase the number of contracted hotels from 2,500 to over 5,000 by 2019.
‘We are on target with our three-year plan to expand both our product range and our distribution network in the UK, Ireland and across Europe. We have concluded some important new distribution deals over the last few months and we should be announcing new strategic partnerships, which will increase our distribution into other key European markets," added Riches.
‘We continue to receive excellent feedback from the trade, as we offer a UK-based trade support team. We will be looking to improve our trade support over the forthcoming months, as we make technical enhancements on our XML feed and launch of a ‘new look’ agent website, following extensive feedback from our trade partners."
Linsey McNeill
Editor Linsey McNeill has been writing about travel for more than three decades. Bylines include The Times, Telegraph, Observer, Guardian and Which? plus the South China Morning Post. She also shares insider tips on thetraveljournalist.co.uk
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