A homeworking travel agent has made a £130,000 booking with a client from the football world she met at her son’s swimming lessons.
Lorraine Robinson, who runs Collective Travel, part of the Wanderluxe Travel franchise, secured her biggest-ever booking on Wednesday, June 19, with a safari trip to South Africa for seven over the festive period.
“Until they’ve gone, it won’t feel real,” she said.
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Oldham-based Robinson arranged the 14-night trip through Somak Luxury Travel. The group will begin with a four-night safari, before undertaking the Garden Route and then going on to Cape Town for New Year.
“It took two weeks from start to finish to book it and there was hardly any going back and forth – it was probably one of my best experiences,” said Robinson. “It was a really good, clean booking and Somak helped with that.”
She first got to know the client when they were both taking their sons to swimming lessons.
“I put my son Xander in a private swimming class and I was mixing with people who travel business class everywhere. I never really sold to them, but they would run things by me,” said Robinson.
Eventually, though, a fellow poolside parent asked her if she could look into a potential trip and she ended up completing the booking totalling £131,523.61.
The client is “part of a family who own a football club”, Robinson added.
In 2021, the former civil servant appeared on Ant and Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway in recognition of a lockdown project she created with a friend.
The pair ran a virtual pub which attracted thousands of participants, who formed strong bonds through quiz nights, karaoke and comedy.
“I’m really proud of it because I think it helped a lot of people,” Robinson said.
In her slot on Saturday Night Takeaway, she and her friend were awarded a VW camper van, took part in Catchphrase with Stephen Mulhern and helped people to win holidays.
Robinson said the experience of running the virtual pub ended up “opening doors” for her.
Asked about her ambitions for the coming year, she said she hoped she could continue to establish herself with high-end customers.
“The plan is to stay within this world where these clients come from,” she said.
Her previous record booking totalled £50,000, but the trip did not happen because of the pandemic.