One job, as it ran
One Booking, Start to Finish
The sequence below is a single job as it actually happened. The names and the dates are changed and nothing else is. Beside each moment is what exists on the record at that point, which for most of it is nothing.
The job
| When | What happened | On the record now |
|---|---|---|
| Tue 9:12 | Three lines arrive: October, two people, somewhere warm, no idea where | Nothing. No file, no reference, no obligation on either side |
| Tue 11:40 | Two questions back: how firm is that week, and is there a figure you would rather not pass | A written question, and still nothing binding |
| Tue 15:02 | The answer: the week is fixed, and a ceiling that rules out two of the four bands | A written answer |
| Wed 16:05 | Three trips priced, in two bands, each with the argument against it | A written quote, live for the number of days it names |
| Thu 10:20 | You ask what the middle one costs a week later | A second quote. The first is dead the moment the second exists |
| Thu 16:41 | The week cannot move, so the later quote is set aside | Two quotes, neither binding on you |
| Fri 09:02 | Written instruction to proceed | Your instruction, and still no booking |
| Fri 09:48 | The operating company confirms and issues a reference | A booking. This is the first line on this page that is one |
| Fri 10:15 | Deposit date and balance date sent to you in writing, in bold | A payment schedule that belongs to them, not to us |
| Mon | One document: every address, every time, every reference, in day order | The deliverable |
Where it could have gone differently
- If the week had been able to move, the second quote would have won and the trip would have cost less. We would have said so, because the alternative is selling somebody the worse of two things they asked us to compare.
- If the deposit date had passed, the booking would have been released by the operating company and re-quoted at whatever was available that day. That date is theirs and it is not negotiable by us.
- If you had decided against it, nothing would have been owed. That happens regularly and it is a normal ending, not a failure.
The money
You pay the supplier, never this desk. The operating company that runs your trip takes the payment directly, on its own schedule, and its name is what appears on your statement. This office is paid a commission out of their margin, after you travel.
- What you pay booking direct
- the operating company's price
- What you pay through this desk
- the operating company's price
- What this desk adds
- nothing, on any trip, in any band
- Where our money comes from
- their margin, after you travel, and only if you do
- Who your payment is made out to
- them. Their name appears on your statement
- What this office ever holds
- none of it, at any point
The obvious objection: margins differ, so why not steer you to the fattest one. Because the steering shows. A traveler who was sent somewhere that did not suit them does not return, and a two-person office in Washington runs on people returning.
While you are away
Your document carries the operating company's own emergency line, and at two in the morning theirs is the one that can move something. Then tell us, and we take it up in writing when the office opens.
In the arrival band we do more than that: telephone or write from wherever you are and we will hold the next bed ahead of you, at no charge and at no markup.