The personal travel consultant has set up as a homeworker as part of Greenstar Travel and says she is in a better place after a tumultuous year. By Juliet Dennis
Q. Why did Village Travel, an Advantage Managed Services agency in Cheam, Surrey, shut?
I was manager and we closed the shop at the end of August 2020. It was heartbreaking. Our rent was due in September but it was money we didn’t have so we made a decision to shut. I had been there for 16 years. We had spent the last year refunding all the money we had taken in the previous six months. We were having to pay back tour operator commissions. You earn money and pay the bills, but you don’t necessarily have extra money available.
When the travel corridors opened [last summer], I thought ‘I have to give this one last push’, but all the bookings I did ended up being refunded. I was devastated we had to close. I loved my job there and I miss my clients. I still meet up with Tara who worked with me at the shop, although she isn’t working in travel now.
Q. Did you consider leaving the travel industry?
No, I was desperate to stay in the industry. It’s what I love. After 16 years of working in that branch I didn’t want to go elsewhere. I was there for so long and clients don’t just disappear. I felt I had to give homeworking a go. Even if it doesn’t work out I will know I have tried, but so far everyone has been so supportive. I am hopeful that it will work out.
Q. How’s it been working from home?
I work every day, but it might not be for a full day. I have enjoyed doing Zoom training and meetings, and seeing people virtually. When I started I produced a letter for all my clients so they had my details. I delivered them, mostly by hand, to tell them where I had gone, what I was doing and explaining why the shop had shut. I put a business card in each letter and got a lot of feedback, including dozens of emails. I have also given local shops my details.
Q. How has business been?
I am still refunding or rebooking some of my clients. My first client to travel in six months went away last month on a 19-night, £40,000 holiday to Barbados. He could have cancelled, as the airline cancelled and we had to rebook him, and his kids had to isolate once there for five days, but he didn’t – he went ahead with the trip and he sent me a lovely email after he got there. He had a PCR test at the resort two hours after arriving, with the results five hours later, so he could go straight to the beach in the morning. I was so chuffed he stuck by me.
Q. On a personal level, are you in a better place than a year ago?
I can’t say just how different I feel to last year. It sounds dramatic but my other half thought I was going to have a breakdown. Now I feel a lot happier and so much more positive. At Christmas, I got Covid from my mum after she caught it in hospital. I brought her back from hospital on December 27 and started feeling ill on New Year’s Eve. I had no energy and I remember I had two enquiries to do. I did both of them even though I felt terrible; one was for New York and the other was my first easyJet holidays booking. The beauty of working from home is that I could go and have a lie-down afterwards. The result of Covid was a tiredness I had never felt before.
I also had constant nausea and backache and I was ill for 10 days. I went into isolation with my mum. Now, I work at the dining room table and if the weather is nice we have the doors open. Because my mum is poorly it really helps working from home; just being able to be there for her has been amazing as there have been a lot of appointments to take her to. This pandemic has challenged everyone. I lost the business.
On top of that, my partner and I had been due to get married on December 19 last year but we had to postpone it. I should have been feeling happy on New Year’s Eve, but that sums up last year. Hopefully, we’ll get married this year instead; it’s all been rebooked for December 18 and I have bought a dress!
How did you set yourself up as a homeworker for Greenstar Travel?
I spoke to Advantage [Travel Partnership]. As we were AMS members, I could still look after our bookings as a homeworker. I bought myself a laptop and am still managing the Village Travel bookings. After we closed, I had so much paperwork to sort out I didn’t set up properly as a homeworker until November, when I rebranded as a personal travel consultant under my own name.
I am self-employed but work as a homeworker under Greenstar Travel and come under their Abta number. I joined their team after Greenstar’s owner, Martyn Fisher, reached out to me during the pandemic to see how I was doing and gave me advice. I felt loyalty to him and said if he was willing for me to work as a homeworker I’d love to do that.
It’s worked out well; I’ve had support with my social media and I’ve been added to the agency’s website as one of their team. I’m their only homeworker.