Travel Designers, Balham: London's Top Agency

Customers are always offered a drink from the prosecco bar, and invited to take a seat on the new sofa for a relaxed chat with a “travel designer”.

Those booking a wedding or honeymoon receive a personalised white chest to put keepsakes in. The dog-friendly agency’s managing director, Nick Harding-McKay, has even turned his childhood suitcase into a toy box to keep the kids entertained, including a tablet device for games – part of a recent technology push by Travel Designers. Further updates have included new laptops for the staff to enable them to work more flexibly in meeting clients’ needs, as well as their own.

The agency’s outstanding rating of 5/5 on independent review service Feefo is backed up with anecdotal evidence of extraordinary customer service.

When the agency had two customers flying to St Lucia on the day the drones struck at Gatwick last year, director James Whitaker-Sheppard, who knew the couple were nervous flyers, headed down to the airport, bought them a coffee and a snack and calmed them down. James even went to British Airways’ customer service desk with them and made sure they had the seats they needed.

The agency strives to offer as much consistency as possible, too, with the same agent assigned to a customer all the way from enquiry to posting tickets.

The team of six has extensive knowledge of the options available to holidaymakers, with Nick having set the agency up 18 years ago because of his “pure passion” for travel. He believes his team should have visited as many destinations as possible.

Travel Designers loves to hold events that help embed it in the community. In the last 12 months, it has hosted a client wine-tasting at a local merchant, exhibited at multiple street fairs and summer fetes, manned the annual fireworks at Dulwich Cricket Club and hosted a client cocktail-making class among other fresh ideas. Family holiday shows are also a big hit.