Check Safety First, a travel risk management company, has this week advised tour operators and agents to check hotel safety procedures before sending customers to destinations susceptible to hurricanes.
This led me to wonder how far agents and operators go to inform clients about weather or travel warnings – or whether they think this would jeopardise sales.
Whose responsibility is it to ensure customers are aware of issues that could arise on holiday?
There is plenty of up-to-date information available to travel providers: the websites of ABTA, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the national press, to name a few.
But would an agent volunteer any potentially controversial information to a client when making a booking, or would they only do so when asked?
There is an argument that independent agents fare better on this issue than those who work in multiples. The latter may be less experienced and more eager to move on to the next sale as fast as possible, to build commission.
Independent agents rely more heavily on repeat bookings and word of mouth. Far from being concerned about losing a sale by explaining that travel to a particular destination may include an element of risk, agents should recognise how they could damage their business by sending clients on a holiday that could prove a washout – in more ways than one.
From next April, it could become mandatory for agents and operators to give clear, comprehensive information on holiday bookings, when the European Unfair Commercial Practices Directive comes into force. This will prohibit misleading omissions and give the Office of Fair Trading powers to prosecute (Travel Weekly, July 6).
It is in everyone’s interest, therefore, to be as open as possible with clients.
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