hi ..sanji....i think your comments are spot on.
regards.............john-doe ..a member of the older generation and proud of it......................

Youve got some real issues havent you.

Nope...none at all.

at the end of the day yes what the ex rep did was wrong and petty but dont tar every rep with the same brush.

I wasn't...that's why I said SOME

Sanji x

I merely said reps CAN cause you an inconvenience, not that they should, nor should restaurant staff tamper with customer food.

However, in all walks of life you sometimes come across those people who treat others like tat whether they are holiday reps, shop assistants or whatever. It's not right to play tricks on people, and I don't condone it, but nor is it right to treat others with disdain. I sometimes feel irritated by call centre workers if I am trying to sort out a problem, but I always remember that they are only a form of contact and it is not their personal fault that I have a problem.

Having said that I do agree that some reps are not helpful in the least. We can't tar all with the same brush.

And I also disagree that respect has to be earned. Respect should be given to everyone you come across until such time as their behaviour causes you to lose that respect. Treat others as you would be treated yourself.

While some aspects of the rep's job look glamerous.. in reality we know they are not ( i think this thread started originally with a post from Brit5alpha about her daughter) and we have gone round in circles many times since. The fact that there is yet another programme ( cleverly edited) on TV has brought the subject into the open again.

I would like to say that in no way do i think i could do a reps job. In no way would i want to be a rep. I have been lucky on various holidays not to have the misfortune to be in a bad situation where i would be heavily reliant on one. If i was, i would hope that i would get an experienced rep who would be able to sort things out in a calm and professional non confrontational manner. I would expect (and hopefully i am not stereotyping here) that an older more mature rep would be more suited to dealing with crisis management as they would have more life experiences. Equally, i am sure that certain younger individuals may be capable of dealing with traumatic situations in a compassionate manner as everyone has to start and learn somewhere. (after all, no one knows what they are capable of until they have to do it ).

In every walk of life there are scumbags. In every profession there are those people, no matter how much training and supervision they recieve, are not up to scratch in that job. From a professional point of view, it would be difficult to respect them. From a personal/human point of view, every person is deserving of respect. Not everybody is capable of achieving great things or high standards. They may be working to the best of their ability which may not meet up to the standards or expectations somebody else has. This does not mean they are not worthy of respect because they haven't "earned" it. Just for the record, i am able to separate things from a personal and a professional point of view.
I have to as my job depends on it.

Ex Airtours rep

As Val says comments on here cannot be judged by facial expression etc. so sometimes it is hard to judge wether things are being said tongue in cheek.

As Sanji says it was still not very professional of you to send his case to Stansted. If you were a true professional you would have dealt with the assualt in the correct manner and reported it as just that, not played kids games with his suitcase. To take the retaliation that you did shows that although probably good at some areas of your job i.e. when things got very serious as in the case of the deaths, there were obviously other areas that you were not too good at when dealing with customers.

Regarding your comment telling me to lighten up - I can lighten up when the need arises; I don't feel however that there was a need to lighten up after reading your comments. It seems to me that you felt you had a little bit of power and it went to your head. Regarding my attitude and me not making a good rep anyway. I am sorry you feel the need to insult me in this manner but for your information I deal with people every day of my life in a professional status, and would not be running my own successful business that I am today and have been for the last 20 odd years if I dealt with clients in the way that you dealt with your holiday makers.
There are True proffessional and those that think they are Professional.

I've been thinking about this since my last post and I worked out that I have been going abroad since approx 1975/1976.
Since 1980/1981 we have gone abroad on average 4 times a year, and certainly in the last 15 years 4 or maybe 5 times.
So, a rough under estimate would be 20 years x 4, which equals 80...but probably more like 90.
That's 80 reps with the various companies, and I can say with my hand on heart that I can count on ONE hand"¦"¦
The ones that have been competent in their job
Able to handle a difficult situation.
Cope with pressure and keep cool.
Speak the lingo
Have knowledge of the resort, customs, and traditions.
Have knowledge of the police, consular/embassy procedures.
Have a basic knowledge of the package/travel regulations and be forthcoming with information that will be beneficial to you.

Above are just a few points that can be quite disturbing, when you think that these people are employed as a representative of a company to act on your behalf and part of a company working within the legislation that has been put into place, which holds these companies responsible and to protect you the customer, from the moment you step off the aircraft steps in the resort, until you step on to the aircraft at the end of the holiday .
.frightening thoughts"¦quite frankly.

In all those years of travelling, 3 reps stand out like a beacon, 2 of them worked for Thomson and the other one was employed by Direct Holidays....and whether it is coincidence or not...all 3 of them were between the age of 30 to 40 years old.....and they knew their stuff.

So, what about the other 70 odd reps.? probably 30 of them were OK, I wanted nothing from them and they didn't bother me.

The other 40?....a total waste of space, immature, giddy, couldn't cope, hopeless with information, but good at selling excursions and directing people to certain pubs, and what is more dissapointing is the fact that when I have wanted the rep for advice (not very often) about issues that were beyond my control, like wanting to get home because of family problems or arriving in the resort in the early hours to be told that your accomodation is overbooked and being fobbed off with a load of tripe, then they have never been "there" when I needed them...
Not very good statistics, 3 reps out of 80 that earned my respect.
Respect as per the dictionary.....to treat with esteem.
Esteem.....to think highly of.
Not to be confused with politeness, courtesy and civil manners.

Sanji x

So what you're saying is that roughly 50% weren't up to the job, 45% may or may not have matched your job spec, and only 5% knew their stuff As a seasoned traveller, just curious why you keep faith with these TO's?

As a seasoned traveller, just curious why you keep faith with these TO's?

That's a very good question and one that I would have loved my OH to answer.
No, I'm not passing the buck because if I could answer it then I would and considering he lets me do all the leg work and says yeah or nay when the deal is put in front of his eyes"¦then I can't answer your question.
We are both in the fortunate position were we can go on holiday anytime of the year and this means that with a bit of research, then we can usually pick up the bargains, with the exception of the last holiday we have just had .that cost us an arm and a leg, but it was a "one off " for a very private reason"¦and whilst I didn't like paying it, I wanted to go more than anything at that time.

DIY, can sometimes work out just as expensive or saving very little with all the hassle of arranging things, like transfer to/from the resort and not being clobbered for under occupancy in apartments"¦in comparison to a package holiday for 2 adults with flights, food and transfers taken care of, plus the savings from booking a deal off the internet instead of the brochure at the right time, at the right price.

Probably because we have done DIY a few times and it hasn't really saved us a considerable amount of money, then he probably thinks it's not worth the hassle, but there again, he don't like change.

I dunno...convenience maybe and everything sorted on the booking form in one process.

Edit...He has just come in and I have put the question to him
Quote: If you book a package holiday through a TO, then by law they are responsible for your health/safety and welfare during your holiday....

Which brings us back to reps being the representatives of the TO`s.

SanJi x

Saw an advert in The Sun yesterday looking for reps for Thomas Cook..not alot of credentials were needed. Didn't say anything about needing abilities such as speaking a foreign language, ability to stay calm in a crisis and think on your feet etc.. what does that tell you?

It tells me all the TO's are looking for is someone who can sell expensive trips and nothing more.

Wow I see this one is STILL going.

And I also see that my early comments are more than bourne out by ExAirtoursRep when he said he did deals with hotels/bars etc and sold excursions to make up his wages.

When I posted those same facts earlier I was jumped upon from a great height.

Great to see that Im not as green as Im cabbage looking

I do agree with Sanji that the very few reps who did more than sell me excusions were "locals" for example a Portugese gentleman in the Alvorferious Complex who would have been in his 40's................he was invaluable.............

But by and large we havent missed them at all by doing DIY the last couple of years!

And yes, we did have a problem, but the lovely hotel receptionist translated our complaint into Spanish so we could produce it at the local Police Station

As I said before one lot (In La Manga) deliberately gave us misleading information so that we would get our money changed in the reception area of the complex................why would they do that............out of the goodness of their own hearts.............methinks they were getting something in return.

Im not arguing that there are some really professional ones out there................but in our experience we didnt come across a lot of them!

Sorry but thats the truth.

In my experience, that is because the majority of Reps are very young....nothing more than teenagers in most cases, and they have no intentions of making a career out of the Travel Industry. They simple want some money to help with student fees and the like. If they were dedicated to the role, they would at least make an effort to learn a little bit of the local lingo and do a bit of research on the resort they are repping in.

I often find that I know more about the Country and Resort than what the Reps do. And at least I make an effort to speak the local language if I can, whether that be Spanish, Greek, or something else....I will at least learn some basic phrases, something a lot of Reps are not prepared to do.....and why is this?

Can I just say that I've always found the reps on campsites (France with british companies) to be excellent. This might be because they live on site, the nature of the work means they do different things than a hotel rep who looks after a number of places and guests. But every time they have always been most helpful and are on call at all times. They have a personal (as a company) responsibility as the reps are employees of the owners of the caravans or lodges so granted it's different.

But just as much hard work and they might grumble to themselves if they are on call and someone decides they want a new gas bottle at 1am but they do it regardless. That and all the cleaning on top of the normal rep duties of trips/airports/coach coordination.

Hi Sanj

Just for the record, I think you'll find that alot of reps live and work in the propertys that they look after, thus making the jobs slightly harder than someone who is working on a caravan site . I think most people who holiday on in a caravan don't need no guidance as they make there own fun on holiday and don't need a rep to point them in the right direction as I thought that was the whole fun bit of that kind of holiday, you know like exploring etc, not my cup of tea but whatever floats your boat I suppose. You also said that a rep gave you a gas bottle at 1am , In the seven years that I was repping if giving someone a gas bottle at 1am was like a massive achievment then it must be a very boring repping on a camp site. The job of an overseas rep (I know France is overseas) is much more demanding than that of a caravan rep, why don't they just get a job at Blackpool or Skegness.

Gas bottle, that really has made me laugh

well thank god you've never been a rep for my family. I thought the whole point of being a rep is that you are there to offer help and assistance to YOUR PAYING CUSTOMERS and if that involves getting a gas bottle at 1am and being perfectly willing to do that- boring or not- that is the job WE ARE PAYING YOU to do. Thank goodness you are an ex rep!!!

Ex Airtours Rep you aren't doing yourself any favours. This thread is supposed to be telling us how much harder it is to be a rep than people think so you dissing those who work on caravan parks rather than for hotels is not doing your ex industry any favours.

I only used one example of customers being a bit awkward asking for gas bottles at stupid o clock when talking about caravan sites. The staff DO all live there and whilst their work might differ slightly to that of a hotel rep it's still hard work. For instance did you have to clean rooms? Caravan site workers have to clean vans on leaving days - some leave them spick and span but others do not. They also start the season before guests arrive by clearing their areas of the parks - say 6 'lanes' of 12 or so static homes. This includes cleaning, mending curtains/cushions, gardening, clearance etc.

They are on site at all times and face the same problems that any other rep does, for instance dealing with injury, illness, death, drunken shenanigans etc. plus they have coaches/drivers to deal with and airport pick ups as well.

The only reason I would say it was easier is that they don't have to go from site to site looking after different places as a rep does with her/his allocated hotels. (though my friend had to spend a season managing two sites so going back and forth the 30 or so miles between them) But being on site at all times means they are helping out with small things all the time rather than for one hour per day.

So, no, one gas bottle is not the worst thing a caravan site rep will encounter, just one of the more trivial things they are called upon to do which hotel reps are not because they are not on site.

Can I just that on the whole I do agree that MOST reps are just there to a) look pretty and b) sell as many excurions as they can. However, some are really helpful and willing to assist the best way they can.

We have just returned from holiday with Thomas Cook and the rep where we were staying was brilliant. He didnt try selling any excursions to us. In fact, he advised us that we could probably get a lot cheaper if we looked around the resort with local companies and booked independently. He joined in with the kids, mucked in at the poolside bar, visited the rooms of the older guests who couldnt make the rep's meeting due to disabilities etc (and still didnt try and sell anything). I couldnt fault him. He was well liked by the adults and the kids loved him and I think that by not plugging or selling any of the excurions did himself more favours than not.

He was the best rep we have ever come across. Incidently, he has been at the same hotel/resort for five years running. I think that speaks for itself.

He was the best rep we have ever come across. Incidently, he has been at the same hotel/resort for five years running. I think that speaks for itself

Totally agree, but unfortunately good Reps like this one are few and far between. Would I be correct in assuming he was, shall we say, of the more 'mature' variety?

right.. the rep thing..

the thomson rep was average at our hotel. Think his name was Derek. I didn't really require anything from him but the one question i did ask..he did not know the answer to..said he would find out and then gave me what turned out to be remarkably inaccurate information that cost us 50 euro's!!! He was pleasant enough though and not at all pushy..hardly ever at his desk though...

The animation people at the hotel were totally different..remarkable in their dedication and totally abused...we found out they work 10 hours a day for 6 days a week and get no pay..just their board and lodgings...we found that astonishing and i really hope this is not true and that they get some pay. There were 3 girls, swiss, dutch and i think spanish and they were on 3 month stints before being moved on somewhere else. We were unable to ascertain if they worked for thomsons or for the princess hotel group...in fact the whole animation team were totally dedicated, very enthusiastic and very very good at what they did ( she even took it in her stride when my brother in law chucked her in the pool fully clothed!)
The dutch girl was only 19 and really missed her mum..