Holiday representative

Working as a holiday representative is a fantastic way to travel and see the world, especially for those with lots of energy, dedication, and excellent customer service skills

As a holiday representative, otherwise known as a 'rep', you'll be responsible for looking after - and organising fun events for - groups on package holidays.

Your main priority is to ensure that holidaymakers enjoy their trip and that everything runs as smoothly as possible for them. As the public face of the tour operator you'll work for, you must create an excellent first impression and continue to provide outstanding customer service throughout the duration of everyone's stay.

As well as fun activities, the role will also involve holding welcome meetings, answering any questions, handling complaints, and resolving problems as they arise. Holiday reps are often also responsible for selling resort excursions and additional services, such as car or bike hire.

Responsibilities

Being a holiday representative will typically include some or all of the following:

• meeting guests at the airport
• escorting guests to their accommodation
• organising and hosting welcome meetings (sometimes for up to 200 people)
• selling and organising excursions and other activities, including car and equipment hire
• responding to clients' queries, which may involve being on duty for set times each day
• handling client issues, including lost luggage or passports, allegations of theft or other crimes, problems with rooms, health concerns, injuries, or even deaths
• dealing with unforeseen 'non-client' problems, like flight delays, transport strikes, or weather conditions
• resolving any conflict with or between holidaymakers
• establishing and maintaining relationships with local hoteliers, apartment owners, excursion agents, and travel companies
• maintaining an in-depth knowledge of the resort and the local area in order to answer any relevant questions
• accompanying customers on excursions and acting as a guide
• organising and supervising children's activities, ensuring they're safe but that they also have fun
• organising and taking part in daytime and evening entertainment
• checking hotel standards and safety procedures
• completing risk assessments and health and safety checks
• keeping basic accounts and records, as well as writing reports
• assisting in the support and training of new holiday representatives.

Salary

• Typical starting salaries are around £500 per month.
• Experienced representatives often earn around £800 per month.
• Salaries vary, but may start at £22,000, which can be enhanced with commissions from selling excursions and other services.

Basic salaries and commission structures steadily improve once you've taken on more responsibility and progressed to a more senior role, such as team leader or resort manager.

While pay can start off quite low, most employers provide free accommodation, either in the form of a rental apartment, which may be shared with other staff, or hotel accommodation. Alternatively, you could receive a living allowance to find your own place to stay. This varies between employers and individual resorts.

Benefits also include free flights to and from the resort, free uniform, and sometimes free or subsidised meals.

Other benefits take the form of discounted or free excursions and holidays, use of company cars in leisure time, use of hotel swimming pools and other sport and leisure facilities, discounted prices in bars and restaurants, and cheaper accommodation for family or friends. These are usually arranged on an ad-hoc basis within the resort and at the discretion of management.

Income figures are intended as a guide only.

Working hours

Working as a holiday representative is not a standard 9am to 5pm job. Reps often work very long and unsocial hours. Working 12 or more hours a day, six days a week, is not uncommon, especially if there are long airport delays, which can occur on a regular basis.

The busiest period is typically summer, between April and September, and winter (particularly for ski resorts) which runs between October and December.

Some of the smaller, more specialised operators may offer the possibility to work freelance.

What to expect

• While the job can be very rewarding, the work is demanding and challenging. Clients often have very high expectations, and holiday reps must deal with any issues. Representatives also have to get used to working in a new country with a different culture. Language lessons are sometimes provided by tour operators.
• The role is not office-based, but increasingly there is more administration involved. Most of your time is spent with holidaymakers in the hotel, on excursions, or at the airport. You may also have sales targets to meet.
• Holiday representatives are required to wear their company uniform while on duty and may have to change several times a day depending on whether they are undertaking hotel visits, welcome meetings, or airport duties. Appearances must always be smart.
• Jobs are based at specific holiday resorts. Some companies start their holiday representatives in European countries for their first three or four seasons, with possible progression to the Caribbean, Asia, and the Americas after that. It may not always be possible to be placed in your country of choice, and you will need to be prepared to be away from home, possibly for months at a time.
• It may be necessary to move resorts every season, so there may not be consistency with the location.

Qualifications

Working as a holiday rep doesn't usually require a degree, HND, or any specific qualifications. Relevant skills and personal qualities are more important, though some operators may require four GCSEs

Most employers seek candidates with experience of working in a customer service or travel and tourism role.

While formal qualifications are not vital, a degree in one of the following subjects may be useful:

• childhood studies (for a children's representative)
• hospitality and tourism management
• international tourism management
• leisure and tourism
• modern languages
• tourism business management.

Language skills aren't usually a requirement but many tour operators value them, so they may give you an advantage. This is particularly the case in countries where English is not widely spoken, where the holiday rep will often act as a link between the local community and tourists.

Skills

You'll need to show evidence of the following:

• communication skills (both oral and written)
• an outgoing, confident and energetic personality
• stamina and enthusiasm
• presenting, listening and negotiation skills
• a commitment to high levels of customer service
• good business awareness, especially when it comes to selling
• teamworking and leadership abilities
• a good sense of humour
• planning and organisational skills
• flexibility
• common sense
• a friendly and approachable manner
• a problem-solving ability, as well as lots of patience
• a passion for travel
• a hands-on and proactive approach.

Work experience

Experience of customer care, selling, dealing with large groups of people, and travelling overseas is desirable. Employers will look to see if candidates can work in a public-facing role, so any evidence of that is very useful.

Those who want to be a children's representative should have some relevant experience in childcare. To be a qualified rep, you should also hold an Early Years Educator (EYE) Level 3 (or equivalent) in childcare.

Employers

The major employers of holiday representatives are large tour operators. In the UK, the biggest company in the travel industry is TUI, with the likes of Jet2 and Olympic Holidays being smaller but still popular operations. Ski resorts are also noteworthy employers.

Other employers of holiday reps include:

• camping holiday firms
• overseas agents
• private villa or apartment owners
• sporting and sailing clubs
• coach operators
• hotels.

Look for job vacancies at:

• Anywork Anywhere
• Travel Weekly
• TUI Travel Jobs
• Leisure Jobs

Applications are usually accepted throughout the year, but it's best to apply between October and March to be considered for the summer season. For the winter season, it's best to apply between April and November.

Many tour operators recruit high-season holiday representatives to work during the busy summer months of June, July, and August. These roles are ideal for students looking to work abroad before returning to their studies in the next academic year.

Professional development

Tour operators provide new holiday representatives with training in the UK before they're sent out to their resort. They then complete their programme once they've arrived, where they'll live and work.

The length of training courses varies between operators. Sessions can be intense and are aimed at equipping new reps with all the guidance and preparation they need to work in an overseas resort. They cover topics such as:

• how to run a welcome meeting
• customer service
• sales techniques and best practice
• health and safety
• entertainment and excursions.

New representatives are also shown how to deal with common problems that may arise. The induction is an opportunity for reps to meet each other and start building a network of contacts in other countries and resorts.

You will usually have time in the resort to familiarise yourself with the local area, your accommodation, and excursions before the holidaymakers arrive.

Holiday reps who join partway through a season are still given training and induction sessions. There may be another representative who has been working in your accommodation who can complete a handover exercise, preparing you for the weeks ahead.

The rest of the training is on the job. Additional support and assessments are conducted by head representatives or resort managers. Usually, newcomers begin on a probationary period and have to pass certain assessments before becoming a fully qualified holiday representative.

Some tour operators encourage - or even require - relevant NVQ qualifications, in such areas as travel services, while they're working in the resort.

In-house supervisory and management development courses may be provided, and holiday reps usually receive ongoing training throughout their career. Sometimes, they may be brought back to the UK for refresher courses on best practice or training on new procedures.

Career prospects

Working full-time as a holiday representative is an intensive, demanding role, and often isn't very compatible with family life. As a result, most people don't do it for more than a few years.

Some representatives become head reps, resort managers, or regional area managers abroad. Others decide to move back to the UK and work at a head office or become involved in recruiting new staff.

Head representatives are responsible for training and supervising fresh holiday reps and usually act as the main point of contact for the tour operator.

There is also the opportunity to become resort managers, and some may be responsible for several resorts. Progression from here could be to regional area manager, where you oversee representatives on a group of islands or in a specific country.

You may be able to progress with your current tour operator, or you may need to move to a different or larger company to achieve promotion.

It may be possible to move into different areas of travel operations, including:

• consumer affairs - specialising in areas such as quality or health and safety. Relevant qualifications are needed for these positions, but most companies will support staff in acquiring specialist training
• guest services management, which relates to troubleshooting and solving any problems that arise
• specialist resort management, where you would be developing new ideas and innovations for specialist holidays, such as wedding parties.

Those who return to the UK often continue to work within the travel industry. Alternative opportunities include working as or with:

• travel agents
• tour operators
• tourist boards
• local authorities
• tourist information centres
• tourism consultancies.

Working as a holiday representative helps develop many invaluable transferable skills which are sought after in most industries, with former reps being greatly suited to roles in retail, hospitality, leisure, and entertainment.