Specialists identify group bookings and longer lead-in times as biggest challenges

Fiona Charrington, chief executive of cultural touring specialist Martin Randall Travel, has told delegates in Thessaloniki that more and more hotels and restaurants in destinations visited by the operator’s tours have stopped accepting group bookings in a bid to diversify their clientele.

“Restaurants, particularly in the upper-end, are saying, ‘that’s not the market we want to be cultivating any more’," said Charrington on Friday (24 November). “Hotels we’ve worked with for years are now saying, ’sorry, we no longer work with groups’."

The problem is amplified by the time it now takes to finalise bookings. “There is a huge demand out there, but we are constrained by our ability to get things on sale long enough in advance,” she added. “I would say there’s a whole new way of operating post-pandemic that takes longer – everything takes time.”

Charrington said managing clients’ expectations had also emerged as a significant issue for travel companies due to people wanting more value from their holidays amid the cost of living crisis.

“We’re spending a lot of time making sure our clients understand what it is they have booked and what they pay for, so they don’t come back and complain about the level of service or how hotel standards have now slipped,” she said.