Your Stories: How personal service helped Once in a Lifetime Holidays founder ride out the pandemic

Once in a Lifetime Holidays founder Joan Jones talks to Samantha Mayling about her career in travel, the pandemic and winning an Atas award

Q. How has your career evolved?
A. My first job, at 17, was with a miniple in Essex called Intatravel, where I became area manager. I moved to Going Places and worked on a homeworking initiative until we were taken over by Thomas Cook. I’ve also worked with homeworking teams at Designer Travel, 360 Private Travel, Haslemere Travel and Spear Travels. Reaching a milestone birthday, I didn’t want to just make money for other people – and I love booking holidays. I saw Once in a Lifetime Holidays was available as a domain name, so I bought it and started the business in May 2019.

Our best booking was just before Covid – it was a multi-centre trip for a couple who went to Atlantis Bahamas, a private island and then to Paws Up in Montana

Q. How has Once in a Lifetime Holidays developed?
A. I thought it would just be me at first, but now we’re a team of six – an ex-colleague joined me and then others I knew. Three of us are in Essex, one in Rugby, one in Reading and one in Lichfield. We get on very well and share the same values of service over price. Now is the chance for travel agents to reinvent themselves as professionals. Our best booking was just before Covid – it was a multi-centre trip for a couple who went to Atlantis Bahamas, a private island and then to Paws Up in Montana. It cost £65,000. The lady had Googled ‘once in a lifetime holidays’ and found us. We had two weeks’ notice to sort it. We were really revving up before the pandemic started.

Our business has grown through referrals and loyal clients. You add value by giving peace of mind; clients can contact us 24/7

Q. How is the business coping with Covid?
A. We continued to book holidays throughout and now have lots of people travelling. Lots of bookings need changes – it’s hard to find time for everything. There are still restrictions in most countries, it’s almost impossible to keep up. It’s been like a very expensive marketing exercise, as we’ve been able to prove how good we are in times of adversity. Our business has grown through referrals and loyal clients. You add value by giving peace of mind; clients can contact us 24/7. We worked tirelessly to give our clients amazing service but we’ve never been through a time as stressful as this. Now, we’re making a profit each month as people are travelling again. My partner works as a builder, so we managed, and my colleagues had partners who could support them, so we did not have to get second jobs. We met up face-to-face in summer 2021, when we went to Venice for the weekend, and at Christmas.

We worked tirelessly to give our clients amazing service but we’ve never been through a time as stressful as this. Now, we’re making a profit each month as people are travelling again

Q. How do you market yourselves?
A. Mostly on Facebook, we make posts personable and always positive. We’re not a social media community, we’re a travel community, with people relating to us and recommending us. We have pictures of our pets on the website, showing we are professional but real people who care about our clients’ holidays.

Trying to get responses from tour operators is painful at the moment – it can take weeks to change a booking and it makes us look bad

Q. What trends are you seeing?
A. People are taking a week here or there, to dip a toe in the water, then they have more confidence to travel. Trying to get responses from tour operators is painful at the moment – it can take weeks to change a booking and it makes us look bad. Another challenge is testing in other countries, especially in Europe. It’s a big mess and a minefield for travel agents – these barriers put people off. Other countries are easier, such as Dubai, Mexico and the Maldives. I am very positive for 2022; it’s been a good year so far. This is my third year of trading and I’ve never given up.

I will launch Once in a Lifetime Adventures in September as people seem to be booking more adventurous holidays. We need more experience in those kinds of escorted tours

Q. Have you managed to travel lately?
A. In 2020, we went to Dublin and Majorca to see what flying was like when restrictions eased so we could explain it to clients. Last year, I went on two UK seacations and visited Menorca and Mauritius. I’d forgotten what it was like to be on holiday; customers have forgotten too, so we can remind them. Three of us saw Virgin Voyages’ Scarlet Lady in Miami in February and I’m going to do the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu. I will launch Once in a Lifetime Adventures in September as people seem to be booking more adventurous holidays. We need more experience in those kinds of escorted tours.

What helped you win the Atas Sustainable Travel Award?

We won one of seven Recognition Awards during the Association of Touring & Adventure Suppliers conference in Birmingham last October. We are not sustainability experts, but if we all make changes we can make a difference. It would have been easy to just say ‘£1 for trees per booking’ but that would be a cop-out; we felt our role was bigger. Our main strategy has been our Sustainability Sundays, when we post about sustainable hotels or initiatives, to plant the seed in people’s minds.

We are not sustainability experts, but if we all make changes we can make a difference. It would have been easy to just say ‘£1 for trees per booking’ but that would be a cop-out

We will give branded water bottles to clients. We also do a monthly e-shot and talk about sustainability issues.

Operators and airlines are excellent but consumers generally don’t seem bothered, although recently, for the first time, someone said they wanted an eco-experience on honeymoon.

It is a slow burn. I’ve been to all the Atas conferences. Agents at last year’s event in Birmingham were full of enthusiasm. I was even featured on the front page of Travel Weekly when it covered the conference.