Monarch admits to problems with trade website
Monarch Travel Group has admitted it needs to improve its agent portal, Travelbox, following complaints from retailers that they’ve had problems with the site since its launch last summer.
Several even claim to have given up booking holidays with its main package holiday brand Cosmos, preferring to switch sell to other operators instead, because of difficulties accessing the site.
The new travel trade portal was launched last June, bringing together Cosmos Holidays, Avro and somewhere2stay into one website for the first time. Since then, MTG has retired its Viewdata connections for summer 2015 bookings, although winter 14/15 availability will remain on Viewdata it says ‘for a short period’.
However, agents took to social media this week to call on MTG to switch its Viewdata back on, saying the new website had never worked well.
Problems appear to have escalated this week, with several agents saying they have been unable to access the site at all for several days.
One agent took to the Facebook site Travel Gossip to vent her frustration after failing to get on the site for a second consecutive day – or through to anyone on the phone – and others said they had faced similar problems. One said the site had always been ‘very hit and miss’ and ‘temperamental’ and others said they had given up on it.
"Haven’t been able to use for weeks," wrote one user, "rubbish site bring back viewdata please"
One said he never tried to the Cosmos site anymore because it was ‘too time consuming’ especially as it has no general search facility. "I think their figures will be way down," she wrote.
An MTG spokeswoman admitted yesterday there had been connection errors during peak times over the past couple of days, which she said had been caused by ‘exceptional traffic to the website’.
"We are working with our web partners to resolve this and we anticipate a return to normal by tomorrow (Thursday) morning, but we would ask any agents experiencing this to call our Stockport Contact Centre on 0843 227 0962 option 1 for any quotes or to make any bookings for any of our products," she said.
She said agents had booked almost 30,000 customers via the site since its launch in June and it had received ‘a good deal’ of positive feedback.
Responding to complaints that there was no general search facility on the site, she said this would be added, but didn’t give a specific date. "We have also taken on board suggestions with regards to development, and a ‘wide search’ facility is on the list," she added.
"Our aim is to make it easy to book with us, and the website complements our contact centre in Stockport and agent specific connections as a key booking channel for Cosmos Holidays, Avro and somewhere2stay."
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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