The UK’s largest independent agency ‘regrettably’ puts some suppliers on


Hays puts some suppliers on stop-sell over refunds cash


H


ays Travel has begun putting suppliers that still owe it money for holidays cancelled due


to Covid-19 on stop-sell. Managing director John Hays said


these suppliers were making it hard for the agency to pay refunds to its customers, but that he had made the decision “with a heavy heart”. Hays Travel was ranked second-


best in a MoneySavingExpert league table of travel companies’ handling of holiday cancellations and refunds during the Covid-19 crisis. John Hays said: “We’re really


sympathetic to all of our staff in the firing line between clients and their refunds. And it’s not just our staff – it’s every agent around the country. They’re getting abuse day in, day out because of refunds not happening, and it’s not a nice place to be.


We know everybody


is in a tough place, but this isn’t sustainable. Eventually patience [for money owed] wears thin


“We’ve always prided ourselves


on looking after our staff and valuing the relationships with suppliers. “However, we feel we’re having to


draw a line in terms of sympathy with our suppliers, many of whom we’ve had really good relationships with over many years. But it’s been more than six weeks now. You reach a point where we want to do the right thing by our customers – and to protect Hays Travel – and eventually patience wears thin.” John Hays said some suppliers still owed the company “very


Hays IG agents turn away from risk of multi-contract packages


Hays Travel Independence Group members have been “disproportionately affected” by the Covid-19 pandemic, resulting in their appetite to sell multi-contract packages to “virtually vanish”. John Hays said only a minority


of the IG’s 112 members were still dynamically packaging, but that the pandemic had caused them problems and “hit home” the risks. He said: “For quite a while in Hays


Travel, virtually everything that’s Hays Travel-branded – the vast majority [of what we sell] – has always been a full package, either acting as an agent for another tour operator, or through


8 4 JUNE 2020


our own tour operation – and that’s kept things simple.” He said many members stopped


selling multi-contract packages when changes to the Package Travel Regulations in 2018 classified them as a ‘package’, meaning the agent putting it together took on the obligations of a tour operator. Hays said: “The world’s now


changed again and the few members we have in this category really had problems because of what’s happened, and have been disproportionately affected. We’re finding the appetite of our IG members to take that risk has virtually vanished.”


considerable sums of money”. He added: “We’re having to say


we’re not willing or able to continue like this. Regrettably, and very reluctantly, we’re starting to have conversations saying, ‘We’re going to have to take you off sale’. “It’s with a very heavy heart. We


know everybody’s in a tough place, but this isn’t sustainable.” “In times like this you learn who


your good partners are. We’re doing really well for our good partners and, for obvious reasons, less well for our less good partners.” He added that the stop-sell


decisions would have a longer-term impact on the suppliers Hays Travel chooses to work with in the future. Irene Hays said playing “hardball


“is not our style” but the agency had felt like “piggy in the middle” between customers and suppliers.


‘We furloughed staff too quickly’: Hays admits decision had been rash


John Hays admitted furloughing thousands of staff soon after the scheme became available had been a rash decision. The agency brought 3,000 furloughed staff back to work in early May,


about a month after putting the “majority” of its 5,000 employees on the government’s Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme. Hays said: “For every company in this situation, your first instinct


is to cut costs to try and survive. And we did do that. But really, really quickly – within a couple of days – I said to the board ‘I don’t think this is right’. We’ve built the business on looking after our customers and, when we’re through this, our customers will remember who’s looked after them, and we need our people to save the sale. “Overall, in terms of sales saved, and independent


results from Martin Lewis’s MoneySavingExpert showing satisfaction rates of over 70%, it was the right decision.”


Martin Lewis


travelweekly.co.uk


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