Location:Swindon, Wiltshire
Wanted: A family of four with children aged five and seven would like to go to Disneyland Paris in the summer holidays next year.
Budget: £2,500 but flexible.
Cannon Travel
Borough Fields
82%
It was a very friendly and homely-looking agency making it inviting and I felt comfortable inside. The agent was exceptionally thorough, asking me for all of the details, such as the ages of the children, so she could get the right holiday for me. She recommended four nights’ room-only at Disneyland Hotel with British Airways flights from Heathrow on July 24 for £2,618. I was also given prices for the New York Hotel in a standard room with flights for £1,807 and the Sequoia Lodge in a Golden Forest Room on bed and breakfast basis for £1,874. The agent was very knowledgeable and spoke at length to Disney, but a few of the other suggestions were well over my budget.
Thomas Cook
Regent Street
74%
The agent was friendly and helpful, but it felt a little corporate. They asked the right questions and recommended four nights’ B&B at the Disneyland Hotel in a Classic room from July 26 travelling by Eurostar for £3,012. I was also offered Newport Bay Hotel for the same dates with easyJet flights for £2,541. I would recommend this agency as the agent was helpful and she was able to easily obtain the information.
Co-operative Travel
Newport Street
60%
There was a used coffee cup on the desk and the window display was cluttered, but otherwise the inside was in good order. The agent quoted four nights, including two nights free, at the Sequoia Lodge for £2,158 on a half-board basis with British Airways flights from Heathrow on July 24. The agentkept recommending me to comeback in the new year for better deals with easyJet and Eurostar.
Winning agent
Caroline Fenech, store manager
“I have worked in travel for 34 years and have never been mystery shopped so I am chuffed to win. We get a lot of repeat business so I know our customers. However, it is important to ask as many questions of new customers and not make assumptions.”
Verdict
The winner was very knowledgeable and attentive and offered a variety of suggestions that fulfilled mystery shopper’s needs.
Top-scoring agent each month will win use of a car for 10 days.
The winning agent must be at least 25, for insurance reasons. Winners under 25 will win a week’s all-inclusive holiday at an Elite Islands Resorts property. The prize is non-transferable and the car must be driven only by the winning agent. The winner must not have any serious driving convictions. Elite Island Resorts will endeavour to supply the car to the agency but reserves the right to request the winning agent to collect and return the car from Essex or a central location