Tui has insisted it has not prioritised direct clients over third party agents’ customers in the refunds process, but admitted that some of its promotional deposits for new bookings are not available via the trade.
It has also denied reports that it has increased prices for 2021 to such an extent that some customers cannot rebook their cancelled holiday, like-for-like, next year.
Responding to suggestions that agents were having to wait longer to get refunds to pass onto their clients, commercial director Richard Sofer said: “No, I don’t believe so. Obviously, there’s a slightly different route for communications. But I don’t believe that there’s been any real delay in either the agents, third party or otherwise, getting those refunds.
“Again, at the early stages, it was very challenging just because the volume of calls that we were dealing with, but that’s settled down now, so that shouldn’t be an issue.”
Speaking on a Travel Weekly Webcast, Sofer explained that some promotional deposits were only ever available to direct customers online, or from key partners.
“From time to time we have some promotional deposits. Most recently, we’ve had a very low or zero deposit, but that’s been based on our direct debit payment facility,” he said.
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“That’s only been available online, so unfortunately our own stores and therefore [third party] agents wouldn’t be able to access that. So that could be causing one of those differences.”
He added: “We do have key partners and they would have access to the very low deposit scheme, which would be in the £50 region previously. If agents weren’t one of those key accounts, then they would have been just on the standard deposits. But there’s not been any change in that treatment. That’s always been our distribution model.”
Responding to reports by some agents that Tui had been more proactive towards third party agents during the Covid-19 pandemic, Sofer said: “It’s great that they’re feeling positive about the contact that they’ve had with our team. We will always aim to deal very professionally and practically with all the key partners that we work with.
“But I don’t think there’s really been any different treatment for those agents and those partners than there otherwise would be, it’s just the teams have hopefully dealt with them in a very professional way.”
Sofer also said he didn’t forsee any change in consumer behaviour and therefore Tui’s distribution model post-pandemic.
“Going forward, from a distribution point of view, obviously we have a very successful direct-sell model. But third-party agents have always been, and always will be, a very important part of that distribution.
“Your distribution really is driven by customers. Customers want choice and want different ways by which to access and buy their holiday. So I see third party agents and our key partners for a long time being a really important part of our businesses, as they always have been. It takes a long time for consumers’ behaviour to change, and that’s really what drives those differences. I don’t suspect there will be a huge change, post the coronavirus, but we’ll have to wait and see.”
Responding to claims that Tui’s price increases had made it impossible for clients whose holidays had been cancelled to rebook the same holiday next year, Sofer said: “Some of the comments from Which? were misleading. They had data from us that showed the real comparable pricing.
“Unfortunately, some of the examples that Which? used, compared different room types and, of course, there can be quite a price difference from a standard to a deluxe room etc. There are also some differences where they’d gone from an infant to a child, so of course, you didn’t have an airline seat in the first booking and then you have to pay for one in the second, so they were not comparing like for like.”
He added: “In terms of general pricing, there’s been no specific price hikes; the team are working very hard to keep our holiday prices as low as they can for customers, obviously, taking into account the accommodation cost inflation and changes in foreign exchange rates.
“I think on average, if you look at where we are August [2020] versus August [2021], so the peak month, you’re talking about only a five to six per cent increase in prices – and the incentive that we’ve given to customers where we’ve had to cancel their holidays more than covers that.
“We’ve got a programme of maybe 30 million package holidays on sale, when you look at all the combinations, so it’s clearly very complex, so there may be the odd one or two examples, but the team is working very hard to try and keep these prices as low as they can.”
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