Agent to boycott luxury Greek resort

A travel agent has accused a Greek holiday resort of poaching one of his most loyal customers by under-cutting his price by almost £2000.

Nick Harding-McKay of Clapham-based Travel Designers said he booked his client of 11 years into the Sani Resort in Halkidiki last year, but this year the customer booked direct with the resort after being offered the same holiday for a price he couldn’t match.

Harding-Mckay said: "Even without my commission and with an operator discounting, it was still £700 cheaper.

"I called around and no one could get it anywhere near that price."

Sani Resort’s website, www.sani-resort.com, has a link on its homepage giving customers the chance to book flights and hotels, which apparently links through the saniholidays.com, a trading name of Freedom Travel Group member Miss Ellies Travel.

"Sani Resorts must be giving preferential rates to one direct sell operator who is fulfilling its website but it’s us who recommends the resorts in the first place," said Harding-McKay.

"It doesn’t leave a nice taste and they’ll never get any more clients from me."

Sani Resort denied it had any particular relationship with Sani Holidays, claiming there is no common ownership or shareholder relationship.

It said it has standard contracted rates with Sani Holidays and always operates 100% rate parity pricing.

"It is impossible that the travel agent lost the client to us," it said. "Sani Resort is operating on an approximately 38% occupancy from the UK market, 85% of which derives from the Travel Network that we have dedicated people (UK based) looking after and we are supporting with significant marketing contributions.

"We have no reason, policy or motive to jeopardise all this for a booking."

TravelMole has contacted Sani Holidays to clarify how it was able to offer the lower price and its relationship with Sani Resort, but has not yet had a reply.

Harding-McKay said he would no longer recommend the resort to clients. "I can’t suggest they go away and look at the website for more information about the hotels if there’s a button on there where they can book the package for so much less," he said.

"It’s the only resort I know of that does this sort of thing; I’ve never come across one that undercuts the agent by so much."

Have you encountered similar problems with hotels? Have your say by posting a comment below.