Agent Diary: A new Hays ‘branch’ on Corrie sparked staff character comparisons… but am I really Brian?!

We managed to find a character that suited every one of our own personalities, says Hays Travel Gateshead’s Colin Burns

Brian Packham from The Kabin! Are they having a laugh? Brian Packham! Of all the Coronation Street characters I could have been, the team have decided that I would be the local newsagent!

This banter came about after Hays Travel announced we would be ‘opening a branch’ on Coronation Street, which led to the team having a discussion about which character from the world’s longest-running soap opera each of us would be. Why could I not have been Nick, the handsome, successful businessman? Or Daniel, a bit of an intellectual but all-round good guy? I would even have accepted Ken, mature and wise.

We managed to find a character that suited every one of our own personalities, but the one that made me feel slightly better about being brandished Brian was that we decided Megan would be Gail Platt! I’ll say no more…

Betty’s hotpot

What was worrying about the “new branch” announcement, though, was that my whole team – and I’d like to bet lots of other agents around the country – went off to find the application form to get a position in this new outlet. “Imagine,” they all said, “we could go to Roy’s Rolls for lunch.” Who are they kidding? They are travel agents, so would almost certainly be in the Rovers for a Betty’s hotpot and a pint of Newton & Ridley!

Then of course there was the whole conversation around where each of the characters would go on their holidays. We imagined Kirk and Beth booking Benidorm, and Sally dragging Tim to some pretentious luxury spa hotel in the Algarve because it sounds posh. And imagine trying to book Daisy and Daniel’s hen and stag trips and honeymoon! I put a stop to this conversation by pointing out that we should never judge a customer by first impressions.

The team also had great fun decorating the window over the coronation weekend, showing off their artistic side, but what a nightmare it was cleaning the red, blue and white chalk off! I gave up and left it for the team to do while I was off for a couple of days…

Price rises

The extra bank holiday seems to have put people in the mood for a break. Footfall has been good and the majority of our enquiries have been for deals from June to September. As predicted, prices are an issue for some and we find ourselves discussing with them how operators are leasing extra aircraft to cope with the demand to discourage these customers from waiting until the last minute.

We have some customers who seem to think travel companies are somehow immune from rising costs. These customers are struggling to believe that the prices of holidays, insurance, parking etc have all gone up so much since the pandemic. Searches for these customers can take longer, but there are still plenty of holidays to be had, and it is great when you do find them one they can afford.

Anyway, I have to get back to The Kabin now as I have to count all of the unsold Weatherfield Gazettes and check on the stock of sherbet lemons…

Our Beth is still naan the wiser

Picture: Shutterstock/Elena Dijour

On a recent staff night out, we decide to go to a local family-run Indian restaurant for our meal. As we waited to be served, we discussed how nice the place was and what a lovely, family atmosphere they had created.

At this point, Beth piped up with: “Ee yeah, isn’t that nice, they’ve even got pictures of their grandparents on the wall.” As we all turned around to see the picture, we instantly realised the people in it were in fact Mahatma Gandhi and Mother Teresa.

When we pointed this out to Beth, she simply said: “I’ve seen Lord of the Rings and that photo is not the same Gandhi.” It was at this point we gave up and got on with the meal.