The travel industry needs to work together and speak with one voice on consumer refunds, according to the chief executive of The Advantage Travel Partnership.
The travel agency consortium’s boss Julia Lo Bue-Said said customer refunds on cancelled holidays remained the “single biggest issue” facing the trade and meant agents nationwide were in the firing line, having “difficult conversations” with clients.
In a Travel Weekly webcast, Lo Bue-Said called for the industry to give a unified message to consumers.
She said: “We all need to be honest and transparent; the tone of voice and PR [public relations] are really important right now. We are all feeling pain. When you are dealing with individuals who have spent money with your business and need that money, you have to be compassionate.
“What we have seen in the last four or five weeks is that we’ve gone from having vibrant businesses dealing with consumer holidays to all of a sudden dealing with customers who are very angry because they are unable to have their travel plans filled and are waiting for refunds. We are trying to give our members as much collateral around the refund issue to explain it clearly to customers.”
Refund credit note backing
Her views were echoed by industry lawyer Jo Kolatsis, director of Themis Advisory, who backed Abta’s move to issue guidance on financially protected Refund Credit Notes to give consumers peace of mind that they will not lose their money if their travel firm fails.
Abta has asked government to back its call for travel companies to be given longer than the 14 days legally required under the Package Travel Regulations to refund consumers.
She said: “As an industry we have an opportunity to self-regulate in a very fair way, pending a change to the PTRs. If we all come at it in different ways, it is going to force regulators to take action. We don’t want that.
“What Abta has proposed is fair and reasonable. If everyone follows it we can give a very strong message to consumers that is still customer focused and that doesn’t take away the right to a refund.
“It’s just about customers understanding that because of the process we have to follow, they need more time to process refunds or find alternative arrangements. It’s about working together. The more divided voices we have the harder it is.”
Lo Bue-Said added that some tour operators were not communicating well with agents to help their clients, which she said was unrepresentative of the industry in normal times.
Sad to see travel agents being ‘tarnished’
She said: “If you [the travel agent] cannot get through to someone [a tour operator] or they [the operator] say you will not get a refund [for your client], that is not what our industry stands for. It’s sad to see us [agents] being tarnished.”
She added that agents will remember which partners have let them down and which have supported them when they decide who to work with in the future.
Agents were finding it particularly hard, she said, that operators they have booked through were now refusing to refund their clients and were “not even engaging in the conversation”.
“At the other extreme are the ones being fantastic and supporting our members. We will all remember these partners. It will not be forgotten. Those who are really supporting the trade will be the ones we will be engaging with in future. Members are building up lists [of who they will work] already,” she said.
