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Resort Reps Thrown On The Slag Heap
Just come back from a package holiday booked through a brochure and Thomson TUI had a notice in the hotel saying they had done away with reps, is this true, throughout the company?? I suspect without the welcome meetings they will sell less excursions, car hire etc. Their rivals, like Thomas Cook still have reps.
RE: Resort Reps Thrown On The Slag Heap
| Quoting Orion737 (Thread starter): I suspect without the welcome meetings they will sell less excursions, car hire etc. |
Tour reps are a legacy from when people travelling abroad needed assistance and reassurance dealing with the scary "foreign-ness" of the whole thing. Nowadays everyone is used to travelling abroad, the Tour Reps had to justify their existence by selling tours and services. If people want tours and services, they are perfectly capable of organising them themselves through the hotel or local tour operators.
Young and beautiful and thin and gorgeous AND BANNED ! Cya at airspaceonline.com, losers
RE: Resort Reps Thrown On The Slag Heap
| Quoting Orion737 (Thread starter): I suspect without the welcome meetings they will sell less excursions, car hire etc |
I went to SKG with Thomson in 2005 and there were no reps then - we were just given a phone number as there was 1 rep for the whole of Southern Greece. The resort I stayed in subsequently burnt to the ground in 2006, but that's another story.
"Our 319's are very reliable. They get fixed very quickly."
RE: Resort Reps Thrown On The Slag Heap
Funny how TUIs rivals still offer a in resort rep service and welcome meetings where I ssume they sell a fair few excursions. This smacks of cost cutting, once again from TUI
RE: Resort Reps Thrown On The Slag Heap
| Quoting Orion737 (Reply 3): This smacks of cost cutting, once again from TUI |
Clearly the reps aren't selling enough of the excursions to pay their way.
I'm not hugely surprised. With the internet being popular, people can book their own transfers, excursions and car hire, without the intervention of a rep. Many more book their own holidays independently. For the vast majority, the rep is not required.
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RE: Resort Reps Thrown On The Slag Heap
I think TUI should at least make this clear BEFORE at the time of booking and not in resort. I had to switch rooms in the hotel and found it difficult as they spoke little English. This is where reps are useful. Also I am surprised a large company like TUI is not tapping into ancillaries like excursions and car hire.
If reps are so much of a waste why are all rival tour ops still making good use of them??
If reps are so much of a waste why are all rival tour ops still making good use of them??
RE: Resort Reps Thrown On The Slag Heap
| Quoting Orion737 (Reply 5): If reps are so much of a waste why are all rival tour ops still making good use of them?? |
Someone has to do it first?
Have you ever felt like you could float into the sky / like the laws of physics simply don't apply?
RE: Resort Reps Thrown On The Slag Heap
| Quoting Orion737 (Reply 5): I had to switch rooms in the hotel and found it difficult as they spoke little English. |
They're not English. Did you try talking to them in their language ? What would you have done if you were staying in the hotel on business by yourself and not on a package tour ? No harm in being a bit self-reliant.
Young and beautiful and thin and gorgeous AND BANNED ! Cya at airspaceonline.com, losers
RE: Resort Reps Thrown On The Slag Heap
| Quoting Orion737 (Reply 5): I think TUI should at least make this clear BEFORE at the time of booking and not in resort. I had to switch rooms in the hotel and found it difficult as they spoke little English. This is where reps are useful. Also I am surprised a large company like TUI is not tapping into ancillaries like excursions and car hire. |
If things like the ancillaries matter so much to you, have you considered travelling with a higher quality operator? Thomson/TUI are a mass-market operator, and are priced accordingly.
Plenty of operators do have local representation in resort, though not usually someone there all the time, which is hideously expensive in a business on extremely tight margins.
She's as nervous as a very small nun at a penguin shoot.
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- sunshine79
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RE: Resort Reps Thrown On The Slag Heap
| Quoting Orion737 (Reply 5): I think TUI should at least make this clear BEFORE at the time of booking and not in resort. |
If you read the brochure it tells you in there. I wish would not keep constantly slagging off tour operators and reps and it is getting boring now. In the brochure it states if you have a rep visiting the hotel/apartment. A What's On Welcome is held the day after you arrive, and you have the holidayline which is open 24 hours a day. The units with the highest number of arrivals have a rep based in there, and the smaller ones don't, as a majority of the time, the reps are there twiddling their thumbs. People are grown up, and we are not there to hold their hand anymore, which is what we are trying to get away from. Travellers are more independant nowadays and don't really need a rep, that's why some units have a rep and some don't, but they still have access to all the services through an alternative method. Here in Benidorm, over the winter, Thomson used to have about 110 reps, now they have 12. It's not just about reducing the wages spent every year, but making better use of them. When I was working in hotels, I used to see a handful of customers a week, in fact, in one hotel, I didn't see one customer for two weeks. There was absolutely no point to me being there, I could have been better use doing other work.
Formerly alcregular, Why drive when you can fly?
RE: Resort Reps Thrown On The Slag Heap
i travelled with Thomson A La Carte which is very much an expensive operator on short haul.
I liked most holiday reps and I thought they fulfilled a role, assisting holidaymakers, particularly elderly ones who enjoyed a chat or might need help with everything from where the nearest chemist is to how they use the tin opener in their apartment as well as pushing excursions and selling car hire and also in later years, pre-booking seats on the aircraft for returning holidaymakers, again more revenue.
So far TUI seems the only British, sorry german, operator to throw reps away.
I liked most holiday reps and I thought they fulfilled a role, assisting holidaymakers, particularly elderly ones who enjoyed a chat or might need help with everything from where the nearest chemist is to how they use the tin opener in their apartment as well as pushing excursions and selling car hire and also in later years, pre-booking seats on the aircraft for returning holidaymakers, again more revenue.
So far TUI seems the only British, sorry german, operator to throw reps away.
RE: Resort Reps Thrown On The Slag Heap
| Quoting Orion737 (Reply 10): i travelled with Thomson A La Carte which is very much an expensive operator on short haul. |
You can do better.
If you want a quality holiday, why on earth would you pick a Thomson product? Use a specialist.
She's as nervous as a very small nun at a penguin shoot.
RE: Resort Reps Thrown On The Slag Heap
| Quoting Orion737 (Reply 10): how they use the tin opener in their apartment |
Hehe ! Are these holidays for the terminally gormless ? If you can't use a wierd foreign can-opener, you're better off staying at home
Young and beautiful and thin and gorgeous AND BANNED ! Cya at airspaceonline.com, losers
RE: Resort Reps Thrown On The Slag Heap
Indeed there are many of these taking holidays abroad, they are not all masterminds. Go to Tenerife, particularly Las Americas and see them at this time of year.
RE: Resort Reps Thrown On The Slag Heap
Ha. ha. A wise decision there from my old friend JGPH1A. All those Aspro and Sunset late booking yobs and chavs are all over the place. Many funding the trip by flogging contraband cigarettes they fetch back home.
RE: Resort Reps Thrown On The Slag Heap
| Quoting JGPH1A (Reply 14): *shudder* No ta. |
JGP in Playa de Las Americas!
I can just imagine you going into the "British" fish and chip shop there and asking if you could try the avocado dip...
She's as nervous as a very small nun at a penguin shoot.
RE: Resort Reps Thrown On The Slag Heap
| Quoting Banco (Reply 16): I can just imagine you going into the "British" fish and chip shop there and asking if you could try the avocado dip... |
Eeuww - avocado dip
. Mexican snot. But if they have a nice home-smoked Alaskan salmon on an onion bagel, with cream cheese...Young and beautiful and thin and gorgeous AND BANNED ! Cya at airspaceonline.com, losers
RE: Resort Reps Thrown On The Slag Heap
| Quoting Orion737 (Reply 13): Las Americas |
Yes, I stopped in Las Americas for a novelty visit between bus journeys (Canarian buses aren't bad, bus lovers!); there was nothing of interest there, so I thought I'd go to McDonalds - how else is one supposed to kill 20 minutes in Las Americas? I ordered in Spanish, but the person serving only spoke (estuary) English!
There are things I dislike about package holidays, having taken a few of them in the past; I don't like the airlines, the transfers are always chaotic, the brochures and pricing schemes are unnecessarily confusing for something that markets itself as a holiday without the stress you traditionally associate with independent bookings, and furthermore I have found that some of my fellow travellers can be at times irritating...
I wouldn't worry too much about not having a rep on site; if there's travelling to be done it can be booked more easily independently. As for sorting problems with the hotel, I've found that quicker service can usually be obtained by getting out a phrase book and speaking to the reception staff; if your grasp of the language is good they will appreciate it, and if it is laughably bad (that is, like mine) they'll chuckle and take pity on you!
Have you ever felt like you could float into the sky / like the laws of physics simply don't apply?
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- sunshine79
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RE: Resort Reps Thrown On The Slag Heap
| Quoting Orion737 (Reply 15):
All those Aspro and Sunset late booking yobs and chavs are all over the place. |
Aspro does not exist anymore, when the 'merge' went through, Thomas Cook decided to do away with chav holidays.
[Edited 2008-01-30 13:31:24]
Formerly alcregular, Why drive when you can fly?
RE: Resort Reps Thrown On The Slag Heap
Aspro was part of MYTravel and I thought they were still doing a brochure full of cheaper properties.
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- sunshine79
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RE: Resort Reps Thrown On The Slag Heap
Aspro WAS a part of MyTravel. As of May 1st, Aspro will cease trading and all hotels and apartments will be in Thomas Cook, Airtours or Direct Holidays. Unfortunately they are keeping the Scumset brand, and have done away with JMC (eventually)
Formerly alcregular, Why drive when you can fly?