Mystery Shopper: Guildford travel agents sell Umbria

The brief: Mystery Shopper wants to hire a villa with a pool in Umbria for an extended family holiday for 10 people. She isn’t worried about booking flights yet, just wants cost estimate for 10 days next summer.

Budget: Around £5,000 for the villa.

Verdict: Finding a creative solution for a client looking to book before brochures were available gave our winner the edge.

Thomson

41 High Street
No score

The two staff members were busy when I entered the shop, but they made no acknowledgement of my presence. It was 20 minutes later when one gave me a warm smile.

Both were taking time with their clients, and a queue of four people built up. One agent made a comment to the customer she was serving that they were short staffed, but it was 45 minutes until anyone apologised to those of us who were waiting.

After an hour of waiting I left, as the staff members were still going strong with their original customers.

Any agency that keeps Mystery Shopper waiting for more than 15 minutes without acknowledgement receives no score.

Flight Centre

23 Swan Lane
Score: 55%

I was served straight away by a friendly lady who seemed keen to help me. She apologised at the outset for being new and asked for her colleague’s advice.

This agent explained that villa brochures fly off the shelves and they only had one copy of one of this year’s brochures left, which meant they didn’t have much to show me.

They also explained that next year’s brochures weren’t out yet, and took my details so they could call me when they came in. Despite their pleasant attitude, I felt they lacked initiative. Couldn’t they have looked online to give me an idea of what villas might be on offer?

Thomas Cook

46 High Street
Score: 63%

The manager immediately directed me to a free agent when I entered. She recommended Citalia, Hoseasons and Meon Villas, and gave me a Cottages4you brochure to take away.

She searched very patiently on her computer, but kept suggesting options that were in Tuscany, not Umbria, and did not ask about my budget.

However she was enthusiastic, showed me online reviews, thought carefully about child-friendly aspects like a raised pool and managed to find a suitable villa on the system that was taking bookings for 2011, for £5,780 for two weeks.

The whole experience was enjoyable and I felt the agent would have found me a good and appropriate villa, had there been a few more available.

Lown Travel and Leisure

5 High Street, Bramley
Score: 76%

The way this agent dealt with my accommodation needs was superb. She took down lots of details upfront, like the ages of the children, and then seemed to look at villas as if she herself was booking them, so nothing short of perfect would suffice.

She used brochures the other agents hadn’t come up with – we had a nice selection of CV, Cottages to Castles, Villas4you and Inghams – and had clever ideas the others hadn’t, like calling the operators direct for advice and to ask if she could advance book the villas before the new brochures came out.

She found excellent options, and though our favourite, which had a tennis court too, was over-budget – £5,000 for one week, with CV – it was a good benchmark.

She truly seemed to care, breathed life into the idea of my trip and made me feel like I couldn’t wait for my holiday. The only downside was a slightly odd window display with a stuffed lion!

Winner

Johanne Wishart, Assistant Manager

“In my 29 years in travel I’ve never been to Umbria, but we do lots of training, and Kirker had come in to talk us through different areas of Italy. I take villa holidays with my family and am very particular – so I’m the same when booking for clients.”

Tips

1. Plenty of villa operators offer Umbrian properties. As well as CV, Cottages to Castles, Villas4you and Inghams, try Interhome, Ilios Travel and The Villa Book. Most are in rural locations though there are some city apartments.
   
2. Don’t forget to add car hire into the mix – it’s a must for any client staying in a rural villa and is the best way to sightsee.
   
3. Ryanair flies from Stansted to Perugia, Umbria’s airport, but Rome and Pisa have a wider choice of options and are little more than an hour’s drive away.
   
4. Umbria is famous for its beautiful scenery, great food and wine and hilltop towns, including Assisi and Perugia, where clients can see historic architecture and works of art.
   
5. For more information on villa holidays and Umbria visit Gazetteers.com