 | |
|
Holiday Extras® by David Cowell
[March 2006]
I don't do regret as I consider it a debilitating emotion that causes more pain than pleasure.However I would make one exception and that is on that day in 1983 when Gerry Pack walked into the office we shared at Saga Holidays and said I've had an idea.
That idea was Holiday Extras® (Apple Booking Company as it was then) and my regret is that, instead of sinking below an ever-growing tower of an in tray muttering Not another idea (or words to that effect). I should have said Count me in.
Gerry took every opportunity to speak to the travel trade – an entrepreneurial characteristic – gaining a total view of a market where a niche opportunity was evident.
He saw travel agents who dreaded being asked by their customer to book them an overnight hotel. It would cost them money to phone around and invariably they never were paid a commission by the hotel - not because hoteliers were wilfully depriving them of their earnings but there was just no system to cater for such payments.
He saw half empty hotels around the airports and he saw customers sleeping in the terminals; a familiar sight on the news programmes of the time.
He identified price as the critical, unifying factor and launched his first scheme at Gatwick - Holiday Extras was born and it was an idea whose time had arrived.
Hoteliers were able to utilise their perishable stock of rooms, customers received a beneficial price and the travel agents took their earnings before paying Holiday Extras and used free phone and post facilities to ensure no costs were incurred.
Gerry recognised that if the company was to grow as he envisaged he needed to bring on board the necessary skills and in the early 1990's he did three things that were to prove inspirational.
- Firstly he invested a five-figure sum in training first line managers. Within a few years all those who were trained were performing management functions.
- He also took on experienced managers from outside particularly in the areas of contracting and sales and marketing
- He looked to the electronic automation of the booking process.
These actions meant that when a profit hungry travel trade decided to sell 'extras' in a big way, Holiday Extras was in a fit condition to meet that demand.
Year on year in the '90s the company grew consistently at about 30%. The pain often associated with such meteoric growth was minimised because of the vision that Gerry had and his insistence in building a structure that could cope with such growth.
The company one sees today is significantly different from the company back then but its philosophy remains the same.... Every stakeholder, internally and externally, must win. Internally, people must feel that they are in an environment where hard work and endeavour reaps its reward. Externally suppliers must feel that they have had a fair deal and customers must get great value for money. With such a sound footing, it's an idea that's here to stay.
by David Cowell
