Thought provoking Seminar at CTC
One of the seminars at the Coach Tourism Council AGM was regarding the relationship between coach holiday operators and hotels, and I was invited to act as mediator.
Before a packed audience I knew that not only were the vast majority of coach tours to the major chains very happy with the way their clients were treated, but that the hotel representatives would be to a certain extent gagged by professional etiquette, and towing the company line. Big companies like any public statement to come from their own PR people, not their employees.
I did try to draw them out with some pretty barbed comments, but all I got in return was some hurtful stares from old friends and colleagues, and the sound of gnashing of teeth. No names no pack drill, but there was a positive response to several comments made by the operators and other hoteliers, but in reality it is not the major international chains who were present that cause too many problems.
The independent hotels are the ones that can be either very good, or very poor. To my mind, any operator that books a hotel without even a visit is not giving full service to his clients, and is putting his – or her – reputation on the line. Of course it may not be possible to personally visit every hotel you offer, but there are Wholesalers who could have done it for you, or with a certain amount of risk, you could see where other operators stay. The latter gives no guarantee of course, but it is your company, therefore your choice. One of the benefits of being a member of the CTC is meeting and talking to other operators, and perhaps exchanging views on hotels and visitor attractions.
The joy, if that is the word, of booking a hotel which is part of a chain, is that you usually know what you are going to get. There are too many uncertainties to make every tour to a particular chain a guaranteed success, and many of these are down to the hotel staff’s attitude. It’s all well and good for the senior management of the hotel loving groups, but if that message doesn’t get down to the troops any tour can fall flat. Many of the chains are very aware of this, and are working very hard to remedy any possible shortfalls in staff training.
Whilst they are at it, they could have a look at their bar prices too! Many of those reading this will know it is one of my pet subjects, but only those hotels which appreciate the difference between a commercial guest on an expense account, and a leisure guest on a limited budget will have any chance of successful wet sales in their bar.
The question of travelling with low numbers was raised, and I made the suggestion that honesty is the best policy – at all times! Hotels are as aware as you are that late bookings are now common, not to mention important, so when you have been requested to send your rooming list 28 or even 14 days before arrival, get in touch with the hotel personally and confirm your numbers, but request you can keep some rooms – without penalty – to sell to late bookers. The hotel would have to be pretty short sighted not to agree to this, and if they don’t, change the hotel for future tours! Please remember to confirm any agreement by email or fax – just in case!
Likewise if you know a couple of months out that the tour will not sell, admit it to the hotel, and let them try to resell – or renegotiate if possible to offer a late sale special departure, transferring the few originally booked to get things moving.
Here’s a question I will answer later – if you had a tour returning from, say, Scotland that was infected with a sickness and diarrhoea air born virus, and you had an overnight hotel en route – would you tell them, or what would you do?
Payment. This was a really thorny issue, but I failed to understand why. You have a contract agreed by all to pay for services provided by a certain time, and that should be that. Easy – it would appear not. I think it very unreasonable for an operator to expect an international hotel company to change its terms and conditions of payment to yours, just because it suits you best. If you don’t like the system they use, opt for another hotel, but don’t expect them to change, because they can’t.
Problems can occur at even the best of hotels, and even the best of operators, but to create a war is not the way to resolve any situation. To quote Churchill, “Jaw jaw is better than war war”.
When it comes to book outs, no one likes them, and no one wins. It should be perhaps remembered that most hotels suffer about a 60% wash down in group bookings, and it is pure commercial common sense to allow for something near to this when taking any group booking. It happens to the best of operators, and to the best of hotels, and whilst a one nighter isn’t too much of a problem, anything longer does raise the hackles a bit – to say the least!
When at Wallace Arnold I have had several interesting ‘discussions’ with hotels over book outs, but I knew even then that at the end of the day, I may have to move a tour of three of four nights (never agreeing to split the tour between hotels for a couple of nights each – if I was out, I was out).
Oh I could threaten all types of things – the tour will arrive whatever, I will arrange for the local TV crews to be there, cut off future business etc, but it would make no difference, as every contract allows for book outs, and under the EC Package Holiday Directive they, the hotels, and us, the operator have set guide lines to follow.
The hotel alternative must be of the same or higher standard, and I used to insist in the same location too. No use being booked out of a city centre hotel in York to one on the outskirts. On top of the amount of compensation under the EC Directive that may be due, I also levied a £10 per person charge for the extra paperwork involved in letting the clients know of the change, and the extra staff costs. I was only getting away with this due to the size of the company, and to be fair it was always mentioned at the time of contracting. I would also go – where possible, for wine with dinner, room upgrades, a letter of apology in the rooms, and anything else I could think of, but I hasten to add again – much of this is only due to the amount of business I was giving the group, and it didn’t work all of the time either!
Book outs happen , we have to live with it on both sides, no one likes it, nor wants it, but it is a fact of life and business, and we have to live with it.
Back to my question about the virus. This happened to me when a wholesaler contacted me as he had booked a hotel in the north east, for an overnight returning from Scotland, but as they had the virus on board, they were going directly home, and would not need the hotel. The hotel was planning to charge full whack for the lost business, and could I help.
Eventually the hotel waived all charges, but would the operator have been held responsible if he had knowingly taken the virus to the hotel – and responsible for all costs relating to staff being taken ill, lost business, and special cleaning? If so, would your insurance cover it, or were you failing to show due care and diligence by knowingly taking people to the hotel who you knew were ill?
This problem was raised at the meeting by a Torquay hotelier, who had to close their hotels following the outbreak, and suffered a £70k loss through no fault of their own.
My advice? Check your insurance, allow for this in contracts and agree any differences, oh, and a quick phone call to your legal advisor might be a good idea too.
Air born virus’s are again, unfortunately, a fact of life. They spread quickly in any enclosed space, be it cruise ship, aircraft, hotel or coach. It is now common practice even on cruise ships to have to use a antibacterial hand wash before meals, or even when joining the ship.
This seminar was a great success and raised – as it was thought it might – a plethora of thoughts from both hoteliers and operators. However it has to be remembered that this is not a ‘them’ and ‘us’ problem, it is a ‘we’ problem. We are Travel Trade, we are in it together, and we are professional enough to cure any problem , and I do mean any, by using level and clear heads, and discussing it in a calm manner. At times no one will ‘win’, but if we remember the client is the most important component we may all have to swallow personal and professional pride to provide what is best for them, and not for ourselves.
It must also be remembered that book outs and air born virus’s are rare, and not the norm, and millions of bednights are provided by hotels every year with no problem whatsoever.
They provide a good, safe, professional and reliable service at very special rates for the group market, and together with the coach operators who use them offer the public fantastic holidays.
We, you, me, the hoteliers, and other members of the Coach Tourism Council were given a great opportunity to voice our opinions, and it wasn’t wasted. I suspect there will be more in the future too!
