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Neilson accused of pinching clients in resort
Neilson has been accused of pinching clients from agents after a holidaymaker was offered 10% off if she re-booked in resort.
Worldchoice agent Jonathan Cunningham claims a regular client of more than seven years was offered a ‘friends and family’ discount by a resort employee at one of Neilson’s Beach Clubs.
The director of Key Holidays in Romiley, Stockport, said the £500 off a £5,000 holiday left him unable to compete.
He said: "It’s not an agent rant but we need these clients and it’s tough if someone is just going to dangle a carrot in front of customers.
"This is a regular client who would have booked again last week but because of Neilson’s tactics, I feel like I’ve had the carpet whipped from under my feet.
"We do heaps of work but no client is going to ignore this kind of discount."
When contacted by TravelMole, Neilson said it was not standard practise and staff were not incentivised in any way to encourage guests to re-book.
Pip Tyler, Neilson’s overseas director, said it was a disciplinary offence and would be dealt with internally.
"We’re very disappointed that one of our overseas team has made this offer and can assure you that this is not standard practise.
"As with any business we are naturally keen for our staff to enjoy our products and, as such, offer them a small discount when they book to assist them with the costs of experiencing our holidays. We extend this offer to our overseas teams to provide them with the opportunity to invite friends and family to visit them whilst working overseas.
"There are strict audit controls around the discount process and each one requires an individual PIN from the staff member involved. This allows us to audit all bookings and identify anyone abusing the system.
"We are sorry that this agent in question feels that their business has been threatened – but they can rest assured that our ‘internal’ discount schemes are well policed and we would not allow them to be used for soliciting business from any of our agents or from our own sales channels for that matter."
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