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Overbooking
Club 18-30 reps had to deal with their fair share of overbooking in the 1980s. “I started off as a rep in Ibiza at the Hotel Neptuno where we had 200 beds and regularly got 230 people in there by removing the wardrobes,” said Tidy.
Knopek offered some of his clients a free bar all week if they slept on the roof of the hotel. The next night six other blokes had joined him on the roof. “While other reps would get perplexed by overbooking it was not a problem for us. We would deal with the situation.”
There was also the concept of Male Shares which enabled single travellers to get around the usual under-occupancy supplements.
Talbot said: “We would couple up male and female clients travelling by themselves. But occasionally we would get it wrong. Sometimes you never get to hear about it. You would have a skinhead from Wigan wake up to find a prissy little madam from Primrose Hill had arrived from a night flight. He thought he was in heaven.”
Talbot also recalls Operation Cram which was used to sell lates holidays. “We did things you would not even dream of doing now. We asked lads and girls in the second week of their holiday who had run out of money if they wanted to share rooms. You could put four beds in a twin room at a push. We would offer them incentives like free trips or cash so we could create a spare room to sell lates.”
Home to Civvy Street
When the reps did return home from their stint overseas, many found it very difficult to adapt to UKlife. In the late 1970s many reps made an extremely good living through operating scams in resort. It was not unusual for some reps to make £20,000 to £30,000 a year in the 1970s.
One scam involved selling tickets for excursions and then pocketing the money when clients didn’t turn up.
Typically, a rep might sell 50 places on a trip. The coach would leave early in the morning and the previous evening, the rep would ensure their clients sampled large quantities of the local beer.
Inevitably, some failed to turn up the next day and there were no refunds. If, say, 30 turned up, the rep could pocket the cash of the other 20 who were still in bed. But the acquisition by Intasun put a stop to all that. Ivie recalls one problem rep on his return from overseas. “This guy had made a fortune in resort. He kept coming to me for a rise but he had three houses in Hertfordshire and was far richer than I would ever be. I knew he was not leaving his house even though he was a sales manager. I sacked him after I caught him out.”
Ivie recalls the Club 18-30 reunions. “You would have 4,000 people there and some guy had done a raffle charging £1 a ticket. But nobody knew who this guy was.”
While the reps were worshiped in resort, they found it hard to find jobs back in the UK. Many started off in sales support roles for The Club, which was not popular with everyone.
“We were like lepers,” said Riches. “We would visit travel agents and the minute we said we were Club 18-30 we could not get our foot in the door. But it made me more determined. Nothing upsets me now.”
Riches conveniently forgot to put his Club 18-30 career on his CV when he initially started looking for another job. He found it hard to find a job where people appreciated the valuable work experience he had gained as a Club 18-30 rep.
But none of the ex-reps regret their time with the Club. Knopek: “I am 43 and I did not have a proper job until 1990. If Ihad my time over I would do the same again.”
Other travel industry figures who have worked for Club 18-30:
Denis Wormwell, Tony Hickmott, Andy Mitchell, Rob Campbell, John Bond, Andy Claridge, Simon Williams, GrahamBedford, Alan Potts, Debbie Potts, Steve Diederich,
Alan Smith, Colin Parsons and Claire Harrold.
Name: Kevin Ivie
Joined: poached from Thomson in 1983 to become marketing director at Club 18-30.
Now: managing director of specialist business.
Name: Keith Byrne
Joined: began his career in summer 1978 at Lido di Jesolo, Italy. Later based in Greece.
Now: head of sales for Cresta Holidays.