Try and try again
If patience is a virtue then the most virtuous reservations clerk I have ever dealt with must surely be Ed of the Hayes and Jarvis reservations team.
Ed’s ordeal began when a middle-aged lady came into our shop. I recognised her as a client who had held an option with Tabitha at Hayes and Jarvis on a week’s holiday in Barbados over a month ago.
As the details of the booking came back to me, I recollected that the holiday took in the Christmas period and she’d requested two single rooms as well as one double.
Breezily she told me she was now ready to go ahead and book the holiday. I looked at her wearily and explained that companies do not hold options indefinitely and it was highly likely that somebody else had by now booked that holiday.
I assured the woman I had taken steps to notify her of the imminent expiry of the option, leaving messages on her answer phone; these apparently had failed to reach her as she had been away visiting her daughter at the time.
At this point the client did not appear perturbed. She informed me she knew for a fact from what she had read in the national press that a great many companies had been caught out over bookings for Christmas and the New Year period and they all had vast numbers of unsold holidays which would be dropping in cost. By now, I could feel a migraine coming on.
Steeling myself for a challenge, I phoned Hayes and Jarvis to see if, by some remote chance, the booking might still be available.
Sure enough, it wasn’t, but Ed was and thus began the trial of his patience.
Ed worked his wizardry and even surprised himself by finding flight seats departing on the right day, before turning his attention to the almost impossible combination of requirements for accommodation.
By this point the possibility of having to break the news to the other members of her party that their Caribbean Christmas break was off, had started to dawn on my client. Where before she had stayed rather calm, she was now flushed and fidgeting nervously.
She turned to Nigel and pleaded with him to join the quest for a holiday to suit. Needing no further prompting, Nigel picked up the phone to Kuoni to see what they could do.
A triumphant Ed returned to my telephone to tell me he had managed to secure appropriate hotel rooms and had the original holiday back. As I announced with some glee that all was well, Lee at Kuoni told Nigel he too had conjured a rather different holiday but with the right accommodation at a slightly higher price.
What a dilemma! The client who thought she would have no choice in the matter now had two options, and with £12,000 to part with, she didn’t know which to choose.
The dithering lasted 38mins – both Nigel and I counted. After the 38th minute she plumped for the more expensive Kuoni holiday. Poor Ed! After all his hard work I couldn’t have felt more guilty if I’d betrayed him myself! I thanked him for his tolerance – such cheerful industry and perseverance deserves a better reward!
Is it on the level?
I wish today’s consumer didn’t want more and more for less and less, but I suppose that’s what comes of living in a market economy.
An old lady rang me to ask for a holiday to Rhodes. “Nothing too expensive, mind,” she said. “My daughter lives there so I just need somewhere to sleep.”
I found a couple of possibilities, the cheaper of which was £199, and rang her back.
“What time are the flights?” she asked. My heart sank as I guessed what was coming next.
“I can’t have a night flight and that’s a lot more money than I paid last year,” she complained.
I tried again and found cheaper studio accommodation with day flights courtesy of Argo Holidays.
“That sounds better,” she said. “Tell them to hold it while I get my daughter to pop round and see if it’s suitable.”
The next day I received the phone call we all predicted. The accommodation was not desirable on the grounds it was situated on an incline. It was ‘no good what with my back’ and ‘not close enough to town.’
“I don’t want much,” she went on. “Just those flights with something close to town on flat ground! I’ll take anything on those lines as long as my daughter sees it first!”
Have you a last request?
As I was musing on how much easier life would be working in Woolworth’s refilling the pick ‘n’ mix jars, another client phoned with a confident request for Disneyland Paris for two families. The brief seemed comprehensive enough as she had named the accommodation she wanted.
I phoned back to tell her the hotel she wanted, the Davy Crockett, was available, and picked up my pen ready to take her credit-card details.
“Mmm, I should have asked you to check the Newport Bay as well.
“No problem,” I said, and got on to Katrina in Bridge Travel who told me that too, was available.
“But what about the Santa Fe hotel?” asked the client.
“I don’t know,” I replied. “You didn’t ask me for that one, but I’ll check for you,” I said through gritted teeth as I prepared to phone Bridge Travel for a third time.
Courteney checked all the availability for me and I wearily relayed all the information to my client. Something told me not to bother picking up my pen.
“Strange, isn’t it?” said the client.
“What is?” I replied.
“That it’s all availableÉ makes you wonder.”
Which left me wondering whether she really wanted a holiday to Disneyland Paris after all, or if she was just taking the Mickey!