TravelMole Secret Agent
What an odd start to the year l have had.
January calls – non-existent; February not much better; March – Hallelujah the calls have finally picked up.
I was really starting to think that the calls would never arrive. How the booking trends have changed.
Even though the calls have picked up, l am still struggling on bookings.
I still have the problem with certain tour operators, namely First Choice and Thomas Cook group. Their online discounting is killing me.
It really riles me when l do all the work on a enquiry, check out all the reviews, make sure that there is a TV in the room so dad can watch the footie, a shopping mall for mum, water sports for the first born and smoking areas for fag-loving nan, and then customers go online, see that they can get massive discounts, or extremely low deposits, and then expect me to better the price! Which l can’t do without losing all my commission.
So at the moment there are a few operators that l refuse to quote, and will only book if the customer specifically requests them.
I am all for a bit of competition but to try and destroy the agent completely?
I am a big advocate of independent operators. They give much better service and if they do offer discounts direct to customers, they are normally low enough for us to have a fighting chance of matching it.
This month my bookings have been a real mixed bag.
A lovely repeat customer, whose husband told her the budget was £2,500 not a penny more, but ended up spending £4,000 and thanking me for getting him a bargain!
My 18-30 girls going on their first holiday abroad. They were so excited and it took me ages to book as they couldn’t all to agree on dates, but we got there after six days. The booking value was very low but the excitement and gratitude from the girls was priceless. Watch out Malia 7th June!
And then what has been my easiest booking for a long time.
A lovely gentleman with this request: ‘Me and the wife are poor grumpy old pensioners, we want to go to Cyprus any time in June for two weeks but will not spend anymore than £300 each, if you can find me something now l will book it straight away.’
I did, and he booked, total length of phone call from answering it to taking is credit card details……….15 minutes. I love those kind of bookings, only wish l had more.
So roll on April, and let’s see what the calls bring me.
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Phil Davies
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