Dynamic packaging can leave clients in the cold – TTA conference report
Travel agents are risking their reputation when they create packages for their clients, delegates at the Travel Trust Association conference heard.
Bryan Shear of Woody Travel in Wolverhampton said that many accommodation providers do not provide back up in resort to cope when problems occur.
Speaking in a debate entitled ‘Death of the Package Holiday’, Mr Shear said: “When it goes wrong, it goes disastrously wrong.
“We had people stuck in resort on Christmas Day without accommodation because the supplier had got the wrong name and there was no-one there to help them out.
“We don’t really get problems with flights, but we do with accommodation.”
Mr Shear said that although more people were putting their own holidays together, there had also been a swing back to buying traditional packages because clients know they will be looked after in resort.
Tim White of Trust Accommodation and Paul Moss of Freedom Flights, who respectively sell accommodation and flights through the trade, both said they had reps or contact numbers for people in resort.
They said there had been significant growth in their business as agents created packages for holidaymakers.
“People are getting more adventurous and do not just want to go to the Mediterranean,” said Mr White. “We are selling more accommodation-only in the Caribbean, Egypt and Tunisia.”
Dougie Hill, of Thomas Cook Signature, said demand for packages was buoyant because of the service offered. He said holidaymakers know that when something goes wrong, for example when the hurricanes hit the Caribbean, they would be looked after.
Mr Shear said his agency was now selling a wider variety of packages but he would not support operators which reduced their backing for retailers.
He said he stopped selling Thomson’s accommodation and flights after the operator announced it was scrapping commission on those products, as reported by TravelMole yesterday.
He has also dumped Bourne Leisure after the Butlin’s operator wrote to him asking for the name, address and utility bill of anyone wanting to go on its holidays.
*Look out for more TTA conference stories brought to you by TravelMole
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