Your Stories: Not Just Travel’s Ben Casey on why he decided to set up two separate brands

Not Just Travel agent Ben Casey tells Harry Kemble why luxury brand Out of this World compliments Great Escapes

Q. When did you join Not Just Travel?
A. I joined in July 2019. I was working at retirement home developer McCarthy Stone as regional marketing manager at the time. My partner and I decided we were going to adopt a child. The plan was to set up the travel agency business behind the scenes and let it tick along but I would continue working at McCarthy Stone. However, within three months of joining Not Just Travel I had handed in my notice at McCarthy Stone. I was so busy with the travel job that I ended up taking a leap of faith after a couple of months.

I felt Not Just Travel, compared with some of the other homeworking firms, had real passion and their growth plans really stood out

Q. Why did you choose Not Just Travel?
A. I settled on Not Just Travel for a couple of reasons. I felt Not Just Travel, compared with some of the other homeworking firms, had real passion and their growth plans really stood out. But one of the biggest reasons was the company’s Money Back Challenge, whereby businesses receive their £15,000 sign-up fee back if they meet certain sales targets. I managed to achieve this and my thoughts went straight to what I’d spend that money on. I was torn between booking an incredible holiday as a reward for all my hard work and investing it back into the business to achieve further growth. In the end I settled for a bit of both.

Gold Medal is my number one operator; last year I was the top seller of Gold Medal at Not Just Travel

Q. What was it like when you started out?
A. We did a week’s training not long after joining. I thought it would be a good idea to go into the training week with some enquiries from friends and family, so I posted on Facebook about my plans to become a travel agent. I started the training with about 10 enquiries, which was great. When you start it takes you a long time to draw up a quote, but now I can do it really quickly. My first booking was an £8,000 trip to Reethi Faru in the Maldives with Gold Medal. Gold Medal is my number one operator; last year I was the top seller of Gold Medal at Not Just Travel.

My background is in marketing, which is a big asset when you run your own business

Q. Why do you sell so much Gold Medal?
A. I have a good relationship with one of the in-house sales agents at Gold Medal. I can message him at 9pm and he’ll log on and do something for me. I don’t know many operators who will do that for agents.

Q. Did you have any apprehension when you set the business up?
A. I wasn’t nervous at all; I believed I was doing the right thing. My background is in marketing, which is a big asset when you run your own business. If you don’t have that skillset you might not know how to get the word out there.

I created Out of this World in October 2020, which sits alongside Great Escapes. Out of this World Travel is my luxury brand – it’s my baby

Q. You now also have a luxury brand. How did that come about?
A. When I first started the business a lot of my customers were in their 30s and 40s and were booking four-star-plus trips in Europe, so I wanted to build on that. That’s why I created Out of this World in October 2020, which sits alongside Great Escapes. Out of this World Travel is my luxury brand – it’s my baby. I want to combine them one day, but I don’t want to alienate either customer base. Currently, 25% of my customers book through Out of this World. I’ve got about 290 customers across the two brands. Out of this World customers receive certain benefits depending on how many bookings they make. There are three tiers – gold, platinum and diamond.

After the first booking customers receive a subscription to Condé Nast Traveller magazine as well as lounge passes and fast-track security for their next eight bookings. They will earn secret surprises for each booking after they make their 10th booking, which makes them a diamond-tier member. One diamond-tier member who went away to northern Thailand on his honeymoon received some artwork to commemorate his trip. I commissioned the artist to paint different scenes and I delivered it to him in person.

After the first booking customers receive a subscription to Condé Nast Traveller as well as lounge passes and fast-track for their next eight bookings

Q. What plans do you have for the future?
A. I would like to run online customer-facing events with suppliers. I also want to set up a reward scheme for Great Escapes, but it will be more value based.

How do you make it work with two brands?

I employed my friend Sarah Rushforth who focuses on both brands. We’ve been friends for about 12 years. She joined me two years ago when she saw first-hand what I was doing. I needed someone to come and help me with the two brands. In September 2022, the business was growing so rapidly I needed to expand my capacity to quote holidays, so I moved Sarah to a travel consultancy role and brought in Karen Davies as my full-time concierge manager. In 2020, I knew it was the right time to set up the second brand as I could see that people wanted something that was high end.

A lot of Not Just Travel agents use the company’s branding but for me it is easier to visualise what I want to do before I do it. I wanted to create something that reflected my personality and style and be able to bring my marketing expertise into the business. I want my Out of this World website to be inspirational and easy to browse by destination and the type of traveller, while on the Great Escapes website there’s more information about me rather than the destination.