Organising a Large Group/Stag Do
Need help booking a large group or stag do? Then let me see if I can help…
Working in the travel industry automatically gives the following responses when you meet someone for the first time;
Oh I bet you get to go to some lovely places…
Can you get me a cheap deal…?
The latter is becoming harder and harder these days, even for us travel industry folk, however one thing that has become cheaper is travelling to Europe. With the introduction of low cost (budget) airlines such as Jet 2, and Easyjet, travelling has become so much easier and more importantly affordable!
I will be posting various blogs over the coming months on cities I have visited, however I wanted to start my blog off with some top tips for organising a large same sex groups/stag do’s.
This year my best friend got married, and being the travel person I was charged with organising a trip. So, please use the following tips when you are in the same position:
• Book your flights in the sale periods – sign up to email alerts from the airlines. This will give you advance warning of any impending sales!
• TOP TIP: Jet2 offer a low deposit scheme of £25pp, which means you only need to collect a small amount of money to book the flight, with the remaining being payable 8 weeks before, and free name changes up to 2 weeks before! Check out the details here: Jet2 Groups
• Get everyone’s interest early, get an idea of cost and ask for money up front… you will soon sort the time wasters.
• Create a list of all people travelling, along with contact information such as address details, passport information, email address and contact numbers. This will help you in the long run when booking things.
• Research hotels using tools such as Trip Advisor… There’s nothing worse than taking the flack for a poor hotel once you’re in resort!
• Email hotels direct, sometimes they will offer better rates for groups.
• Price everything up within the quote for the group; flights, baggage, transfers, Hotel, estimate of meal costs and any trips/activities you are going to do.
• TOP TIP: Book with an ATOL protected company such as the Co-operative Travel www.co-operativetravel.co.uk
• Research places to go see when your in resort… you’ll be amazed how people want to see things when you go somewhere. Obviously this will differ from group to group, but the internet is great thing, use it.
• Ask the hotel your booking with where to eat/go out
• TOP TIP: Make sure everyone has adequate travel insurance. Prices start from as little as £3 for a European short breaks!
• Open up a bank account which everyone can pay in to. Ask them to reference payments with their name, which makes things easier for the organiser.
• Keep up communication… Be aware of anyone is not really interacting, they might drop out, so make sure you keep talking to everyone
My best advice I can give is to make sure you book with ATOL Protected company such as the Co-operative Travel. In these uncertain times, you need to book with someone who you can trust. Have a look around, find your flights and hotelm, then give us a call to book!
22 October 2010
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