ArrangeMY Escape celebrates record booking worth nearly £100k

ArrangeMY Escape’s Chloe Grove has secured the agency’s biggest leisure booking to date with a multi-generational trip to Barbados worth nearly £100,000.

Grove, based in the Worcester store, spent about three weeks on the booking for a group of nine staying at the Colony Club over Christmas and New Year.

“It was definitely a huge achievement for me – I felt over the moon,” she said. “It shows hard work pays off.”

Grove, a former hairdresser, joined the business about four years ago.

Jennifer Lynch, general manager of the two-branch agency, said the £99,483 booking was the biggest she had seen in her career.

The business typically secures a booking worth between £30,000-£40,000 every six months or so, she said.

“It just so happens that in the same month [as the Barbados booking], I did a £45,000 booking for four couples to Borneo, so we were buzzing already, but this trumped it,” she added.

She said she was “really proud” of Grove for booking the Barbados trip, a 10-night half-board stay via tour operator If Only.

The lead booker’s son and daughter-in-law were previous ArrangeMy Escape clients, having booked a trip to the Maldives several years ago.

The family’s latest booking will be a surprise trip and will mark a return to the Colony Club for the lead booker.

“It was quite an easy sale,” said Grove, adding the lead client “had his heart set” on the Platinum Coast property operated by Marriott International under its Luxury Collection brand.

She said booking such a high-value trip would give her greater confidence to take on similar challenges in future.

Asked how she celebrated her achievement, she said: “I had a drink when I got home but apart from that it was back to work. It was a great achievement and I’m really chuffed.”

She praised If Only for its help with the booking, singling out Lauren Dudley for her “great” support.

“She helped get the booking across the line,” Grove added.

ArrangeMY Escape opened its Worcester store under Lynch’s management in 2017, before opening in Malvern, Worcestershire, in 2023.