NEWS 1
YOU NEED TO KNOW
Customers can reserve sunbeds at three Cook-branded hotels from the end of the month
Twitter quips
t Have I Got News For You @haveigotnews Frustration for British holidaymakers as Thomas Cook’s plan to allow them to reserve sunbeds is thwarted by German company launching the same service two hours earlier.
t Dom Carrick @travelchief Any hotel where you have to scrap for sunbeds is not the hotel for me. Now a suite with a private pool would do the trick!
t Derek Jones @Degsycom Let’s hear it for Thomas Cook and their sunbed PR stunt. Resurrecting a raft of anti- German puns in the press that weren’t funny 20 years ago.
An end to sunbed wars? Cook’s plan splits opinion
Juliet Dennis
juliet.dennis@
travelweekly.co.uk
Is it a publicity stunt or a genuine attempt to personalise the package holiday? Thomas Cook’s decision to trial pre- bookable sunbeds provoked a fierce debate this week, with some branding the service a “PR gimmick” while others said it would end “sunbed wars”.
The Choose Your Favourite Sunbed service allows Cook customers to pay €25 per sunbed, per stay to secure a spot by the pool before their holiday. It will be trialled in three Thomas
Cook own-brand hotels – Sentido Aequora Lanzarote; Sunprime Atlantic View, Gran Canaria; and Sentido Buganvilla, Fuerteventura
– from the end of this month ahead of a planned rollout to 30 Cook hotels this summer. Cook said the service was part of
a strategy to “personalise” package holidays and allow families to spend more time together. The service is not bookable
through agents. Instead, Cook will email holidaymakers six days before departure to ask if they wish to book a sun lounger. Between 10%-20% of all the sunbeds in any resort will be available to reserve in advance. Agents’ reactions were mixed.
Spear Travels managing director Peter Cookson said: “It made the national newspapers, so great PR for Cook, and it’s a cheap option if it works, but I think it’s a PR gimmick. How are hotels going to operate it?”
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travelweekly.co.uk 1 February 2018
“The whole premise is bonkers. I believe there will be fights over sunbeds”
Elite Travel Group chief
executive Neil Basnett added: “It’s a good publicity stunt but a non- starter; it’s almost encouraging people to argue on holiday.” Bailey’s Travel managing
director Chris Bailey said: “The whole premise is bonkers. I genuinely believe there will be fights over sunbeds.” Others welcomed the service as
a way to placate families desperate to get pool-side sunbeds together. The Travel Network Group membership service director Lisa Henning said: “Anything that
t Martin Lewis @MartinSLewis I find it bizarre that Thomas Cook levying a new charge to book sunbeds keeps being reported as an unmitigated positive ‘towel wars over’. Its PR department must be dancing.
enhances the customer journey and reduces negative feedback is a good thing. It’s similar to paying to sit together on an aircraft.” But she said Cook may need to
allow agents to book the service in future if it is a big success. Others suggested Cook’s
“differentiated” hotels should have space for sunbeds for all guests. Kuoni managing director Derek
Jones said: “Surely having enough pool-side sunbeds to go round is a core design requirement?” Thomas Cook Group chief
executive Peter Fankhauser said: “It’s just one part of our aim to make our holidays as individual as possible, so we can give a better service and every customer has a fantastic time. It’s about being a
real innovator; being disruptive.” › Talk Back, page 19
PICTURE: THOMAS COOK/MATS HOGBERG
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