Agent Diary: ‘Lately we have noticed a big increase in demands from our clients’

Our role as agents has changed – clients require more hand-holding and the admin is off the scale, says Spear Travels Wolverhampton’s Kim Kent.

I have always loved working in travel, but these days it’s especially hard work and I have earned every bit of commission on my bookings recently.

Being a travel agent is not just about selling holidays any more, it’s about offering a huge amount of support to our clients and more administration than those outside the industry could possibly imagine.

Lately, we have noticed a big increase in demands from our clients, who don’t seem to want to take any responsibility for their bookings.

Challenging customers

On Saturday, my first call was from a lady who wanted to book seats on the plane. She was able to access the flight booking on the airline’s website and had all the information she needed, including the seat numbers she wanted, but said she couldn’t click on the seat map. Of course, I was happy to help and got straight into her booking to complete the transaction for her with no trouble.

He clearly hadn’t read any of the paperwork we had sent him, which stated what the procedure was

The next call was from a P&O Cruises customer who had a flight booked with Jet2.com. He was trying to book the seats on the Jet2.com portal, which of course wouldn’t work as the booking was with the cruise line. He clearly hadn’t read any of the paperwork we had sent him, which stated what the procedure was.

Later that day, I had to deal with an issue with a medical form that should have been straightforward. I had sent a customer a form to complete for a cruise booking eight weeks prior to departure, and each time I chased for it I was promised a reply, but nothing came back. With four weeks to go, I chased her for it once more and explained what would happen if I didn’t receive it. Eventually she completed the form and sent it back to me, just in the nick of time!

Insurance Oversight

And don’t get me started on insurance. All our clients are required to sign an insurance indemnity form saying they have made their own arrangements. But we found this was not the case recently, when three separate bookings had to be cancelled with no insurance cover.

One was for a £4,000 holiday to Madeira. The client came in to advise us that his partner was ill and didn’t want to travel. It was three days before departure when he asked if he could change the names on the booking. He wanted to give the holiday to his neighbours but the operator would only change the name of the second passenger and not the lead. The hotel would also not allow a name change. As is often the case, all of a sudden it was our fault and he gave us a hard time because he hadn’t read the terms and conditions.

Given we have numerous conversations about insurance with every customer, I am not sure what more we can do to highlight its importance

A similar story was a £10,000 booking for a wealthy gentleman, who clearly thought he didn’t need insurance. Again, he even tried to blame us, but we had the signed copy of our insurance indemnity form to prove he was incorrect.

Given we have numerous conversations about insurance with every customer, I am not sure what more we can do to highlight its importance. I’m sure I’m not the only one to wish customers would use their initiative a little more!

I’m now party to a client’s deceit

How’s this for an awkward situation? I recently booked a holiday for a businessman who has a beautiful young wife. The thing is, the holiday was for the businessman and his secret lover, not his wife! The pair met at the airport when he was travelling to Tenerife alone to buy a property there. It was all very cloak and dagger as I know both the man and his wife well. He comes in to tell me how exciting it all is and the details of what they have been up to. It’s all really embarrassing for me and, of course, I feel for his wife, but I don’t think it’s my place to tell her what’s going on. Perhaps I should rebrand as Illicit Travel Services.