OLD, NEW, BORROWED AND BLUE COMPETITION
clients, has been inundated with stories of incredible efforts to make special occasions even more special. What we didn’t expect was agents going out of their way to help other people’s clients, and even the hotels they work with. But then we didn’t know about Sheila Cooper from Designer Travel, who clinches the second of four spots in our contest to win a luxury weekend in Venice.
K
Sheila had visited her favourite resort, the Royal Palm Hotel in Mauritius, several times. She knew the staff in the reservations department well – they even sometimes contacted her for advice. So when the little matter of
100 red roses came up – ordered in from Switzerland for an elaborate wedding – Sheila bloomed into action, even though she was on holiday at the time. “Knowing I was from Europe,
the hotel events manager, who only really knew about tropical flowers, asked me the day before the wedding if the roses would last in the heat of the day,” Sheila recalls. “I told him ‘no way’. The next
day, as I was sitting on the beach enjoying a glass of Pimms, I saw the boxes of flowers arriving at the resort in the midday sun, and I knew at once the hotel was going to have
uoni, in its drive to celebrate agents willing to go above and beyond for
BLUE
BORROWED OLD, NEW
dead roses if I didn’t do something.” Sheila asked the staff to bring her some buckets of iced water. She then clipped the stems of the roses, wrapped them in serviettes and plunged the flowers in the water to try to revive them. Her quick thinking was rewarded and the roses came back to life. But Sheila didn’t stop there. The
SHEILA COOPER
BUSINESS ASSOCIATE, DESIGNER TRAVEL
guest relations manager was busy showing round a group of travel agents, so Sheila stepped in to help arrange the flowers. She decorated the staircases with garlands of roses, interwoven with greenery she had cut from the hotel garden the night before, and placed flowers around the wedding couple’s chairs. The strong relationship that Sheila had built with the hotel, as well as the hands-on approach she demonstrates as a luxury agent, helped ensure that the couple had the luxurious and beautiful wedding they had been dreaming of with minimal fuss – a true bed of roses for everyone!
It’s not too late to enter for your chance to win an incredible trip to Venice. Simply tell us what you or a colleague have done to provide clients with extra-special treatment for their special occasion. Email
aspire@travelweekly.co.uk
The Royal Palm, Mauritius
in association with
98 — aspire september 2014
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100