Unit 15 - Working as a holiday representative P1

Introduction:

I will be describing the roles, duties and responsibilities for different categories of holiday representatives, highlighting changing roles and working practices

Resort representative: 18-30’s 

• Key roles, duties and responsibilities to the customer, organisation and suppliers

• Main duties to the customers are: meet and greet welcome meetings, selling of excursions, problem solving, organising activities and managing groups  

Club 18-30’s reps have many responsibilities to the customers as they spend most of the working day with the customers between the age range of 18-30. They look after guests on the holiday and arranges activities for the holidaymakers to participate in. Also the organisation they are representing which is Thomas Cook. finally the suppliers, for example: hotel will hire them to be the holiday rep, pubs, clubs and will give them packages 

The duties they have are:

Meet and Greet: 

Sometimes the holiday rep’s meet the groups from the airports and introduce themselves to create a positive relationship with the holidaymakers from the start. 

Transfers & Coach Commentaries:

Occasionally the reps go on the coach for taking the groups to each hotels and on the coach, the holiday reps talk about what there is to do is the holiday destination and what attractions the coach drives past on the way to the hotels. 

Welcome Meetings and Selling: 

These are massively important to the reps as this is where they talk about what excursions they can book and pub crawls/ going into clubs. They also talk about what the hotel rules are, the company they are working for and their name. 

Noticeboards: 

To promote the activities they are pushing or to show how to contact the reps for information either wanting to complain or asking about an excursions before, during or after. 

Information Booklets: 

To let the holidaymakers know any emergency contact numbers, what to do in an emergency and some other booklets show brief information about the excursions that are on offer. 

Health and Safety Checks:

The reps have to do checks on places they are visiting and the holiday makers visiting the host destination. 

Property Visits: 

Sometimes if there is a big group of 18-30’s, they may go to a villa but still want a holiday rep to take them on bar crawls and on activities. 

Calculating Payments:

The holiday reps have to work out how much they get from selling each excursions and working how much commission they will get and how much to give to the supplier and also sometimes they give money to the hotel companies if they use a room to do welcome meetings. 

Administration and Paperwork: 

Sometimes the reps have lots of paperwork to complete mainly about the guests they will be looking after, any new information they have to sign off, 

Problem Solving:

Sometimes the reps come across problems such as other people in the hotel complaining about the 18-30’s being rowdy and making their holiday horrible and ruining it, the reps will have to deal with it appropriately and professionally. 

Non-routine Incidents: 

Sometimes when the reps are faced against incidents that they cannot plan such as: the group they are looking after, maybe one of the party members has to be rushed to hospital for a medical reason, another holiday rep within in the same group maybe off ill for a day meaning the rep that isn't ill will have to find a substitute to help for that day. 

Organising Activities: 

One of the main jobs of  being a holiday rep is organising the activities for the groups to go, the activities can be planning nights out, excursions or just activities around the swimming pool and hotel complex. 

Managing Groups:  

When the reps go out on a night, they have to manage groups and control them to not create any hassle whilst out in the clubs.

Category Specific: 

They may also have to do cleaning such as: clearing up from the welcome meetings, cleaning up from the groups if they make a mess whilst out.

Transfer representative: Thomas Cook

• Key roles, duties and responsibilities to the customer, organisation and suppliers

A rep who accompanies people from airport to hotels, they do a welcoming speech which is about the basic information of the host destination (temperature, local time) they talk about the activities and attractions that are on the way to the hotels. They kind of do a little tour guiding but whilst staying in the vehicle. The health and safety checks is that making the coach is up to standards and making sure the customers on the coach behave and obey the rules. They solve the problems and incidents such as the coach breaking down.  The payments they have to calculate are the transfer fees people pay to get to their accommodation and the petrol charges.

administration and paperwork - working out who the coach drivers are, making plans of each journey and planning a timetable

non-routine incidents - wrong hotel or overbooking meaning the reps have to try to sort it out or bring the guests back onboard.

Children’s representative: Input youth 

• Key roles, duties and responsibilities to the customer 
• Key roles, duties and responsibilities to the organisation 
• Key roles, duties and responsibilities to the suppliers

Meet and greet & Transfers & Coach Commentaries:

They meet the guests and the families at the airport, and taking them to accommodation via coach and talk about the attractions that appeal to families.

Welcome Meetings and Selling:

Soon after arrival to give out information on health and safety and departure details, and on things to do and see during their stay. 

Noticeboards:

To promote the activities they are pushing or to show how to contact the reps for information either wanting to complain or asking about an excursions before, during or after. 

InformationBooklets:

To let the holidaymakers know any emergency contact numbers, what to do in an emergency and some other booklets show brief information about the excursions that are on offer.

Health and Safety Checks:

When there are children involved, lots of safety checks need to be done everyday to insure maximum safety, the checks could be making sure they are no sharp edges and corners on table and counters, check the wires are not out on display and the children cannot trip over them. 

Calculating Payments:

This could be working out how much each child has to pay for trips and activities they do if they have to pay in the hotel.

Administration and Paperwork:

Sometimes the reps have to fill out paperwork that are about CBR checks to work with the children, doing a safety assessment on all of the activities and excursions they have on offer. 

Problem Solving: sometimes the children create problems which may need to be resolved with  by an older person (rep)

Non-Routine Incidents:

In extreme cases, children may break their arms and have to be taken to hospital, the reps will need to get in contact with the parents.

Organising activities:

This is the main thing for reps to do when working with children as the children like to be entertained at all times. 

Managing Groups:

The groups of children may be sorted out by ages or by gender.