Designer Travel: a veritable force in the luxury travel industry

Scooping two accolades at The TTG Top 50 Travel Agencies 2017: Top Luxury Agency of the year and runner-up in Top Homeworking Agency of the year, proves Designer Travel is a veritable force within the industry. Comprising a 60-strong team of homeworkers, a store in Ramsbottom and an extensive client database of which 85% are repeat customers, Designer Travel aims to provide clients with a 24/7 high-end concierge travel service.

Established in 2008 by Karen Pocock and Amanda Matthews, former directors of The Co-operative Travel, Designer Travel began to trade in luxury due to the market’s robust nature.

Matthews elaborates: “I think it’s a good niche because it’s a part of the market where it’s a little bit more resistant to changes in the economy and it’s absolutely still a place where clients value good service. As a good luxury travel agent that is the one thing that you have that separates you from anybody else.”

Standing out from the competition isn’t just as easy as beginning to sell luxury, says Matthews, adding that presentation is important too. Designer Travel’s Ramsbottom store has been designed to exude a high-end feel, with chandeliers, slate floors and a window display that never promotes cheap offers, choosing more inspirational images instead.

When it comes to the website design, Mathews explains that it was created with a similarly high-end feel.

“We do not put anything on the website that’s not deemed in our eyes to be good-quality accommodation. If it’s four-star it has to have amazing reviews and we have to know it well. We’ve designed it so it doesn’t look like a cheap and nasty ‘pile it high, sell it cheap’ website – it’s been designed to look more aspirational.”

Outstanding service

The agency has an arsenal of savvy marketing techniques including its Wise Owl campaign, which sees clients receiving a fluffy owl with a handwritten card to say thank you for booking with an agent and an online referral scheme, where customers are rewarded with cashback on their next holiday for recommending Designer Travel. However, the agency relies most heavily on its network of homeworkers to shout about the business.

“We promote ourselves via our network of homeworkers, who in turn will do anything from wedding fairs, travel and country shows. However, the biggest thing we use to promote the business is our service – 85% of our clients repeat book because they get to know the homeworker who is on call 24/7 for them. You end up making friends with a lot of your clients and therefore they have loyalty to you as an agent.”

To ensure the company’s exemplary standards are upheld, Designer Travel only recruits agents referred through recommendation. And for those already employed, continued support takes the form of one-to-one meetings, weekly conference calls and a yearly overseas trip with the entire team.

On the subject of luxury trends, Matthews reveals that the family market is performing particularly well with groups seeking more adventurous experiences, while predicting a rise in the popularity of luxury cruising looking towards 2018.

“I think that luxury clients are looking at the high-end cruise lines now to see whether they should do something at sea rather than a land-based holiday. If they haven’t cruised before I think there is definitely some interest in six-star cruising.”

However, it’s the enduring appeal of luxury travel’s excellent service from its agents that will ensure market growth well into the future, says Matthews.

“People who are buying and spending a lot of money on a holiday want to be looked after. They want to feel as though they have someone that really cares about what they are spending their money on and who goes the extra mile to get the best table in the restaurant or to make sure they have the best room in their room category. That is why they use people like us.”