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Holiday pricing is a quagmire – but the public is becoming used to the new ‘haggle’ culture that we are mistakenly creating

Noel Josephides

I RARELY look at other operators’ prices. At Sunvil we cost at margins which we consider reasonable. Within the trade we are thought to be more expensive than those operators who constantly pile on the numbers.

On Saturday it was quiet so I was idly flicking through a Cyprus specialist’s brochure that carries tens of thousands of passengers there every year.

I confidently expected our prices to be well out of line but I nearly fell off my seat when I saw we were cheaper, and cheaper by far.

Not only that but we part charter on a scheduled flight with individual taxi transfers. So, on mainstream Paphos hotels like the Alexander the Great and the Paphos Amathus this volume specialist was often £100 to £150 per person more for a 14-night holiday.

I know why of course – such tour operators are forced to pay 18% to 25% commission to multiples and consortia so they have to build a huge margin into the price to cover their generous payout.

Therefore, any agent who doesn’t give a customer discount on such prices is hardly doing their clientele a service – they are not researching what they are selling but simply pushing the operator giving the most commission.

So, what discount has to be given to justify the higher price? It has to be at least 10%. Does this mislead the client?

Well, in my opinion it does, because the deal that is being offered is hardly what it is made out to be. No wonder the public feels confused.

Holiday pricing is a quagmire and the industry is pulling the wool over the public’s eyes.

The trouble is, that our clients are catching on to what is happening.

Many now recognise that the brochure price is initially higher so as to enable a discount to be given.

We may as well be operating in a souk where the stall holders expect the customer to beat them down on the price.

Of course, what we do not know is what proportion of the higher-priced holidays are sold at a discount at the last minute.

Some holidays may be more expensive but many thousands of others are sold at knock-down prices very close to departure.

So, we have directional selling, the marketing of overpriced holidays in order to facilitate discounts from seemingly generous agents, the lack of transparency and so on and so forth.

Pricing has to be straightforward and reasonable otherwise the travelling public becomes very wary of dealing with travel agents and as well as tour operators.

At the moment, instead of simplifying what we do, we are making it more and more complicated and hope to make money from incidentals like insurance, the sale of excursions abroad and the odd couple of pounds from pre-allocating flight seats.

Then you have the big sales push on board the aircraft.

We are getting more complaints from our clients regarding the selling tactics on board the charter aircraft owned by some of the vertically integrated companies.

More are saying to us that the cabin crew are more interested in selling than in giving a good service.

All this does is pushwould-be clients away from us and into the arms of the scheduled carriers that are increasingly beginning to look cheaper than the charter airlines.

Packages are starting to look unattractive and it’s our fault.

“We may as well be operating in a souk”