Travel Village Group boss calls for ‘buffer’ on final balance payments

Travel Village Group boss Phil Nuttall has called for consortia to come to an agreement with suppliers to give “a day’s grace” on deadlines for final balance payments from clients.

Nuttall, who raised the issue during a panel debate at The Co-operative Travel Consortium conference, said clarity was needed on what to do if an agent could not get hold of a client on the final day a holiday balance was due to be paid to an operator.

As a rule, agents collect balances well in advance of the final due date set by the operator but Nuttall pointed out there were times clients did not respond to an agent’s payment requests, for example if they were away, and the agent was forced to chase right up until the end of the day payment was owed.

Nuttall urged consortia bosses to agree with suppliers to allow “a day’s grace” so that agents could wait to see the following day if the client had paid before cancelling the holiday if necessary, rather than cancelling at the close of the working day on the final payment date.

“It doesn’t happen a great deal but it’s something that happens to us about once a month when we cannot get hold of customers. We want the consortium to talk to operators to get something into the agency agreement where we have not been able to collect the funds to give us a buffer.

“In this climate now there must be an opportunity to look at this so where we cannot collect funds we can cancel the holiday on the day it enters cancellation charges, not the day before.”

Agents incur cancellation fees from midnight on the final payment date but Nuttall said clients could decide to pay just before midnight – after the agent has cancelled the booking at the end of the working day.

“At what point can the agent legally cancel the holiday before it goes into cancellation charges at midnight?” asked Nuttall, who believes most operators would be “sympathetic and understanding” of the situation this leaves agents in.

He said: “This is about agents and operators working together and it would take the pressure off agents in that situation.”

If a client decides to go online to pay at the last minute and discovers the agent has already cancelled the booking, this can cause an additional headache for agents the following day, added Nuttall, particularly if the client wants to rebook and prices have risen.

“Emails start flying around and we have to rebook the client at huge cost,” he said.