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Independent agents struggle to match TUI’s online prices
Agents have taken to social media to complain about being unable to match online prices for TUI holidays as the peak booking season gets underway.
One agent said she was set to earn just £7.90 commission on a £3,000 holiday booked with the travel giant.
Others said they they were also finding it impossible to match TUI’s online prices and said loyal customers were reluctantly booking direct.
"The price TUI advertise on their site and the agent price should be the same and then commissionable like every other decent operator out there," said one disgruntled agent, adding: "Their own online price must still be profitable or it wouldn’t exist, so why not level the playing field and have hundreds of agents selling their product?"
But some agents on the Facebook forum Travel Gossip defended TUI, saying it was a business and was only doing the same as other operators.
"Just sick of seeing people constantly moan about how shocking TUI are," said one agent. "They’re a business, just like every other operator out there."
Another said: "TUI won’t change, why should they? They are the most successful tour operator in the UK and have a business model that works for them and looks likely to continue to work in the future.
"Agents need to make a choice what works for their own business model, and if that involves not selling TUI, then that is their choice. Jet2 and easyJet sell holidays to fill their airline seats, TUI sells airline seats to fill their holidays."
TUI has made no secret of its desire to drive more direct bookings to cut distribution costs.
It is currently running a number of early booking offers, including £200 off for bookings for £3,000 or more.
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Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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