Helping small tour operators and niche agents with travel ecommerce
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Murray H
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- Gerrards Cross
- United Kingdom
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Murray H's Discussions
A History Lesson About Bonding.
8 Replies
Started this discussion. Last reply by Dee Edwards Feb. 9, 2009.
Murray H's Page
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It is a fine, though distinct, line. If one starts taking money for a combination of accommodation and other elements then there is a package and all sorts of regulations come in. So, Fred down the pub starts taking money off people and then books s…
From a tour operator perspective, yes. I thought Chrissie was a travel agent! You can insist on anyone going having insurance - they can get it from where they wish but they must have it. This is based on the premise (notwithstanding any legal stuff…
If you can buy flights for yourself, you can do it for others. A method I use is to pretend that it is myself travelling. Looking at where I need to be and take myself through the itinerary. Am I happy with this arrangement? What time do I need to b…
You cannot force someone to take travel insurance - it's up to them.
What you must do is make sure that you have told the client that they should have it - that where they get it from is up to them and you can tell them that you sell travel insuran…
Decline the booking. People do not have a "right" to a booking. After all, you are talking about 1 person and there are a few 100 million of us about. Don't ruin your business and always, I have learnt, follow you gut feelings (despite what all thes…
Quite so, as Dee says, I don't think for what is essentially "accommodation only," you need to worry to much about affiliations.
Website setup seems daunting, but it isn't. Do not think "OMG I have to get a website designer and it's going to cost th…
You can be US based, Oz based on even based in a small, remote Nepalese hillside village - if you sell travel to UK (cf also EEC) residents then you have to have appropriate UK/ EEC cover/ bonding/ licences. In other words, it is who you are selling…
Interesting! If one is on a really tight budget, you do not need a web designer. People are frightened that the internet seems very complicated and well beyond a mere mortal but opne can get online with a website with a fair few bells and whistles f…
Are you sure a homeworker is what you really want? Homeworkers, like myself, generally sell a fairly wide range of products (and services) rather than specialise in one area. We generally have a small circle or network and rely essentially on word o…
"kept incompetent"? You cannot be "kept" incompetent. You either are, or you are not. Singular and plural, one can understand, even "there" and "their" but mis-use of adjectives? This is the sort of English, up with which, I will not put.
Pins - Plenty of pins. You cannot run a travel business without the humble pin. Coffee (black) a sense of humour and a very, very thick skin.
I do not see where you are going with travelocity - it is not, I would suggest, the right medium for what you are trying to do. Travelocity (part of Sabre) are excellent, it's just that I cannot see how a massive online agency will really give you w…
I am trying to understand a bit about what you want to do. Let me see if I am right. You see a gap for niche tours (be thay what they may) in the sense that the country is a niche or a specfic demographic is the niche. (Or both, it could be). You no…
Trading Standards are the people to tell. Advise ABTA that you are telling trading standards. It is important that this is reported as we are just lining up for another tabloid headline about someone or the other walking off with clients money. The…
Before I say anything, what does one mean by a "host agency"???
By the way, if an agent has gone into administration then any ATOL ABTA IATA and everything else goes out the window. You would NOT pick that up from the administrator. You would have…
Nope, there isn't. It's called being a travel agent. By the way, I assume that you have taken required steps re: customer protection of money - aka bonding. I get a bit concerned when I hear of people moving into travel from other spheres (welcome t…
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- Business travel agent
Comment Wall (4 comments)
- At 10:08am on February 9, 2009,
Paul Hunt said… - Good morning Murray ...well at least I hope you did finally get to bed last night after all that posting ! Great post you've started and am pleased that at long last there appears to be somebody on SFBO who can can crystalise how things are supported by a great grasp of the historic facts.
Thanks for all your comments responding to my questions.
I will certainly review our own website but would really welcome opening up an exchange of emails with you as there are a number of angles that I'd like to explore further with you. What is not evident from our website is that we operate a Trust Account, the Trading Standards were one of the first people we spoke to (as indeed I've recommended Anna Marie to do) and it is based on their comments that we used the text on our web site !
I feel as though I've got a challenge to try and persuade big agents like yourselves (and ABTA) that small operators feel that entry requirements and costs collude against us in the start up stage and this is the time when we need as much help as possible. I am sure other small operators are like ourselves and are working towards bonding, as you suggest, but feel it is a hurdle that has been put in front of us through the mishaps and nature of the tourism industry as you have outlined. What makes it difficult to swallow is that many new operators see themselves as offering "experiences" and because we provide two components ( activities fall under the loose term "tourism services" plus accommodation ) we must comply with the Package Holiday Regs which as you've explained was intended to protect consumers from the swamp of the traditional package holidays. When our primary reason for being/objective is to provide activities, tuition, expert knowledge etc and we simply want to provide accommodation to facilitate the customers enjoyment of their time "doing their thing" (and no flights) there is a school of thought that says that the Regs were not intended for this. Also evidence the hundreds of accommodation providers who lay on activities, the residential type establishments providing courses, special interest groups who go away on trips ... should not the Package Regs apply to them ?!
As a a former Chartered Surveyor I have learned that customer service comes first and professional & financial integrity must be upheld at all times. We have adopted a strategy to keep within the established tourism/travel regime but I can't help but think that the Package Regs have not kept pace with the the way tourism is developing and at the same time I would like to think that Agents and ABTA could morph their points of view and policies to embrace ALL operations that have to comply with the Package Regs and to provide an alternative scheme to bonding for new entrants to the industry.
If you will indulge me in my personal challenge I would like to take up email communications to learn more from you and to assess just how much of a challenge its going to be ! I do want to use the travel agents route to the market as I believe tourism is a "Peoples industry" and I would be grateful to continue the connections with you in the hope of building a mutually rewarding working relationship .... or buying you a calendar for mentoring me !
I also promise that communications will be at your speed and convenience but hopefully at civilised hours! My email address is paulhunt@skylarkholidays.co.uk
- At 6:32pm on February 8, 2009,
Paul Hunt said…
- Apart from wanting to know if our special interest holidays could interest agents as a new product to sell I'm looking for guidance on what level of protection for customers money we'll need to give.
The holidays and breaks are home-grown using our local tourism assets of expert tutors and leaders and great places; and we're only running them in the UK (Derbyshire and The Peak District). We provide two or more components and hence a Package. We're not involved in flights or trips abroad and feel membership of ABTA is both expensive and elusive due to the entry level requirements. I'd like to hear what we protection we need to offer Agents to sell our product ?
- At 6:21pm on February 8, 2009,
Paul Hunt said…
- Yep. You've got it.
- At 4:35pm on February 8, 2009,
Paul Hunt said…
- Hello Murray
I liked your plain English comment on the "New website..." thread specially the view you gave from the customer perspective. I am looking for a similar view for the products we sell and wondered if you could spare a few moments of your time ? Its not really an issue of interest within SFBO. We are a new start up operator and I am trying to learn the ropes quickly and would really welcome hearing an Agents view so that I can understand what we must do for Travel agents to sell for us and this will help us gauge the merits of using the agent route in our marketing and sales plan.
regards.
Paul
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