-
WHY SHOULD I BOOK THROUGH ORIGINAL TRAVEL, RATHER THAN BOOKING THE TRIP MYSELF?
We believe there are five broad benefits to booking through us; (i) our first hand knowledge of the holiday you plan to book, (ii) the leverage we wield with our suppliers, (iii) having one point of contact for all arrangements, (iv) financial protection, and v) our commitment to avoid surcharging clients with FX risk.
The Original Travel team has spent several years sourcing and selecting the very finest hotels, airlines and activities from around the world and has first hand experience of everything we offer.
Apart from saving you huge amounts of research time we would like to think that our relationships with suppliers are built on very strong foundations and give our clients the very best of what is on offer. Our relationships with hotels, guides and ground handlers have been built up over many years and they depend on us for large chunks of their custom. We are therefore able to wield a certain amount of leverage on them to give our clients the very best service, upgrades where possible etc.
Having one source to arrange everything and one point of contact to make changes is central to your peace of mind.
Our ATOL licence and AITO membership offer financial protection to you the consumer that you wouldn’t receive if you booked direct.
Finally we manage our FX positions incredibly closely and are, as far as we know, one of the only tour operators, big and small, to have said (live in BBC earlier this year) that we won’t surcharge clients post booking. We are hearing endless stories of clients being approached for four figure surcharges on relatively small bookings because the companies in question have not managed their FX requirements properly. Believe it or not, these operators are legally allowed to do this.
-
WHAT IS ATOL BONDING?
ATOL - which is short for Air Travel Organisers’ Licensing - exists to protect the public from losing money or being stranded abroad because of the failure of air travel firms. In the highly unlikely event of our insolvency, the CAA will ensure that you are not stranded abroad and will arrange to refund any money you have paid to us for an advance booking. ATOL was first introduced in 1972 and it gives comprehensive consumer protection to 28 million people in the UK who buy flights or air holidays each year.
The air hoildays and flights in this brochure are ATOL protected by the Civil Aviation Authority. Our ATOL number is ATOL 5922.
-
WHAT DOES ORIGINAL TRAVEL DO TO COUNTER THE ADVERSE EFFECTS OF AIR TRAVEL ON THE ENVIRONMENT?
Air travel is a major source of atmospheric pollution. Original Travel is committed to reducing this negative impact as much as possible.
We have teamed up with Climate Care to help our clients offset the environmental cost of their trips. Original Travel clients will be offered the choice of paying a small surcharge in order to offset the CO2 emissions of their air travel. (We have worked out the ‘climate cost’ of each of our destinations - long haul obviously costs more than short haul).
The money raised is then passed to Climate Care, which works as a repair service for the climate - it runs a variety of projects that reduce the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere, thus making your trip ‘climate neutral’. The charge will be on an ‘opt-out’ basis, i.e. the Climate Care surcharge will appear on your invoice, but you have the option not to pay - rather like the service charge in a restaurant. We are delighted to say that since we introduced the scheme in 2006 only three clients have asked to opt out. Climate Care’s projects are located in the developing world.
This means that all the emissions reductions that you pay for go over and above the cuts in greenhouse gases that the UK government is already committed to making. The projects avoid, reduce or absorb greenhouse gases by either: promoting renewable energy (cutting out fossil fuels); promoting energy efficiency (applying technologies that use less energy); or reforestation (absorbing and storing CO2). All projects are monitored and verified by a third party to ensure the highest standards of environmental integrity.
-
WHAT IS ORIGINAL TRAVEL STANCE ON SUSTAINABLE TOURISM?
As you’d expect from a company that came about because of its founders’ love of exploring the world, experiencing different cultures, and admiring foreign landscapes, Original Travel feels strongly that tourism can and should benefit countries and peoples. Original Travel is a member of the Responsible Tourism scheme of the Association of Independent Tour Operators (AITO), from which we have gained two stars for our practices.
With a range of destinations as wide as ours - from ski slopes to sand dunes, from Madeira to Mozambique, France to Franschhoek and Lamu to Lima - come a wide range of conservation and community-related challenges, many of which are being addressed locally, for example: in Morocco, the Kasbah Du Toubkal in the High Atlas mountains was restored in conjunction with the Berber people of the nearby Imlil valley, using local labour and traditional methods, and is now run by staff from the Ait Mizane tribe in the surrounding villages.
In the Amazon rainforest of Ecuador, Huaorani EcoLodge offers visitors the chance to see the tribe living harmoniously in the rainforest, and the management of this venture will be handed over to the Huaorani people themselves once they are ready to take on all aspects of the conservation and tourism programmes. Benguerra Lodge in Mozambique works closely with the World Wildlife Fund and South Africa’s Endangered Wildlife Trust to ensure that the National Marine Park in which it is located is well maintained and remains unspoiled.
In Kenya, Elsa’s Kopje provides seeds to local farmers to farm specifically for the hotel, meaning that the hotel avoids having to buy and transport produce from Nairobi. Handcrafts made by the indigenous Tharaka people are for sale in the hotel shop, and the building of a local school was financed through client donations. Hacienda de San Rafael in Andalucia recycles all waste water from the hotel and uses it for irrigation, makes its own compost, and has installed energy-saving insulation and lighting systems.?Family-run ski hotel St Antoner Hof in Austria serves regional and organic ingredients in its restaurant, and the power that heats the hotel comes from a biomass plant that serves only the town of Lech itself.
We have given every hotel, lodge and camp we offer an ‘eco-rating’ so you can make an informed decision on where to stay in a particular region. In the destinations we feature, we prefer small, locally-run operators and properties where possible, and our trip dossiers are full of recommendations based on our favourite local restaurants, shops and activities. Closer to home, we cycle (we are part of the government’s excellent Cycle to Work scheme) or walk to our Battersea offices, recycle our paper once there, and use Fair Trade products in our kitchen and bathrooms.
-
HOW 'ORIGINAL' ARE ORIGINAL TRAVEL?
In the last couple of years we have organised holidays as diverse as a trek to the North Pole, altitude marathon training in the High Atlas, a polar bear safari in the Arctic, a club cricket tour to Sri Lanka, honeymoons into the heart of Uganda, Namibia and Patagonia, and an annual 80-person bobsleighing trip for a leading UK company. We relish a challenge, so if there’s something special you would like to organise, let us know and we will do our best to make it happen.
-
CAN ORIGINAL TRAVEL ARRANGE CORPORATE AND INCENTIVE TRIPS?
We see our Big Short Breaks as ideal corporate and incentive territory. We are constantly putting together corporate trips from simple six people weekends to far more innovative trips for larger groups. Please see the Corporate section of the website for more details and ideas of the sort of trips we have organised to date.
-
WHAT PARTNERSHIP RELATIONSHIPS DOES ORIGINAL TRAVEL HAVE?
Original Travel work closely with several companies. We helped develop the immaculate best-selling dive hotel book Dive in Style and were instrumental in putting together the destinations listed. The 26 trips that ultimately made the grade are grouped under the heading Diving in the Experiences section on his site. As one of the few BA preferred tour operators we have access to all the best flight deals, which we then pass on to clients going on our bespoke trips.
-
WILL I NEED A VISA, AND/OR VACCINATIONS FOR MY HOLIDAY?
We will inform you of any visa and passport requirements, and will offer advice on vaccinations required. We do however recommend that you seek a qualified opinion from your GP for further inoculation advice.
-
IF I GET INSURANCE BY BOOKING AN ORIGINAL TRAVEL HOLIDAY USING MY CREDIT CARD, OR ALREADY HAVE AN ANNUAL INSURANCE POLICY, SHOULD I TAKE OUT ORIGINAL TRAVEL INSURANCE AS WELL?
Credit card companies’ insurance coverage often offers the very lowest cover on the market. Furthermore several of Original Travel’s holidays involve activities that you are unlikely to be covered for under your existing policy. We will not sell a holiday to someone who is not sufficiently covered. We can issue policies that provide the very highest level of insurance cover for your holiday and for the activities you will be enjoying.
-
ARE ORIGINAL TRAVEL HOLIDAYS CHILD-FRIENDLY?
We recently sent an extensive survey to all the mums and dads we know and asked them what makes or breaks a family holiday and what Original Travel could do to make the whole experience easier. As a result of those responses and our own experience, we have created what we think is a portfolio of the best trips - be they R&R beach holidays or more experience-led adventures - from around the world. All the hotels featured have completed rigorous Original Kids FAQs and fact sheets that we will send out with our detailed quotations so you have all the information in front you to make a properly informed decision on where to go and what to do.
When you book an Original Travel family trip, you will receive one of our family-friendly dossiers. In addition, the young ones will be sent a goodie bag - a stylish rucksack for the trip itself and containing gifts from a Mi-Vox’s audio player preloaded with a classic children’s book to a mini kikoy; Ambre Solaire Factor 50 suncream, a travel book from Dorling Kindersley and most importantly of all, their very own Otie mascot, complete with passport.
And finally, above and beyond all the other bits of advice for families stands one…. BOOK EARLY!!!
-
WILL I BE JOINING A GROUP ON MY ORIGINAL TRAVEL HOLIDAY?
Almost every single one of Original Travel holidays is tailormade and entirely private. They do not involve you joining groups on set departure dates. This leaves you with the freedom to do as much or as little as you would like, for as long as you want and indeed whenever you would like to do it. There are, however, some occasions – for example to see a specific festival - where the benefits from set group departures (cost, logistical ease, inclusion on the tour of an expert guide to the area/subject) outweigh the relative lack of autonomy, and we will advise where this is the case.
-
WHAT IS ORIGINAL TRAVEL'S POLICY ON HOLIDAYS THAT HAVE BEEN BOOKED TO COUNTRIES THAT HAVE SUBSEQUENTLY BEEN PUT ON THE FOREIGN AND COMMONWEALTH OFFICE'S 'WATCH LIST'
Original Travel will either a) refund your holiday in its entirety subject to any cancellation charges as set out in the Terms and Conditions or b) offer you an equivalent holiday to a different destination either refunding or charging you any difference in cost with the original holiday. Original Travel can bear no responsibility for those who insist on going ahead with their travel plans despite the Foreign and Commonwealth Office advice, and you will almost certainly risk being uninsured as well.
-
HOW DOES ORIGINAL TRAVEL MANAGE ITS FOREIGN CURRENCY AND WILL I EVER HAVE TO PAY MORE THROUGH SURCHARGES?
Original Travel manages its foreign currency requirements very closely and follows a prudent hedging strategy designed a) to protect our clients from the horrors of surcharging (more on that later), and b) to protect ourselves from any nasty shocks on currency movement. We are, as far as we know, one of the only tour operators, big and small, to have said (live in BBC in mid-2007) that we won’t surcharge clients post booking. We hear endless stories of clients being approached by other operators for four figure surcharges. Believe it or not, these operators are legally allowed to do this. By protecting the downside we don’t have to and can therefore stand by our statement on BBC. As you can imagine we have not made many friends in the industry as a result!
-
HOW SAFE IS MY MONEY?
Since our launch in 2003 we have built up a strong balance sheet which we hope provides us with the financial strength to weather a fairly lengthy period of downturn should this occur. At the moment however bookings are holding up very strongly with more people travelling with Original Travel than ever before. However, in the extremely unlikely scenario that we were to enter financial difficulty it is important to know that by booking through Original Travel you are entirely protected by our ATOL licence and membership of AITO (details below).
We hold ATOL (Air Travel Organiser’s Licence) number 5922. ATOL is a protection scheme for holidays sold including flights and is managed by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA). All tour operators and travel firms selling holidays including a flight are required by law to hold an ATOL. If you book with a licensed tour operator, ATOL protects you from losing money or being stranded abroad if the tour operator goes out of business. If a licensed firm goes out of business, the CAA can give refunds to people who can’t travel and arrange for people abroad to fly home. There are many requirements for us to hold an ATOL however probably the most relevant at these times is that we must maintain a certain level of free assets on our balance sheet.
While an ATOL covers for those holidays sold including a flight many tour operators leave it at that and, because they are not obliged to, fail to protect those clients travelling who might book their own flights for whatever reason (air-miles etc). Not us! We cover all our clients. We are member of a body called AITO (the Association of Independent Tour Operators). AITO is an invitation only group and represents 150 of Britain’s best specialist tour operators. Members are all independent companies, most of them owner-managed, specialising in particular destinations or types of holidays. The common aim of all AITO members is to provide the highest level of customer satisfaction by concentrating on Choice, Quality and Service. Companies admitted to AITO are all vetted and fully bonded for client’s protection. The protection comes from payments made into the AITO Trust. Approved by the DTI, the AITO Trust (which is available exclusively to AITO members) offers full financial protection to customers of AITO-bonded companies. The arrangements exist solely to provide bonding for non-licensable holidays, i.e. those holidays not covered by ATOL. Quite simply, if an AITO operator goes out of business for any reason, you will (depending on your holiday dates) either receive a full refund or will be able to complete your holiday as planned, with repatriation arranged at the end of your holiday. You will not be required to pay anything else and all arrangements will be made on your behalf. John Gillies, AITO’s current Deputy Chairman, is also a non-executive director of Original Travel.
….in short, you can relax and enjoy your holiday from the moment that you book it safe in the knowledge that you are protected.
-
DOES THE ACQUISITION OF TIM BEST TRAVEL CHANGE ANYTHING?
We’d like to think that if at all - for the better. The tie-up brings together two market-leading companies, both of whom take pride in the quality of their experience-led travel portfolios and also their culture of offering exceptional levels of customer-service. The enlarged company now becomes one of the best tailor-made choices for clients at the luxury end of the market. Combining portfolios offers an exceptionally wide array of destinations to both sets of clients. Bringing the two teams together will form a group of consultants with in depth knowledge and unparalleled experience in tailor-made travel world-wide, particularly to Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Latin America and the Indian sub-continent
A few facts on OT for TBT clients o Founded in 2002 o Team of 17 – original team still very much with the team o Multi-award winning – have won best Tour Operator and Best Short Break Tour Operator at last 2 years of Guardian Observer Travel Awards o Repeat & referral rate of over 70% o We send clients to 86 countries worldwide o Average spend on an OT holiday is £8,500 (largest booking taken in 2008 was £170k)
A few facts on TBT for OT clients o Founded in 1994 o Team of 11 o Repeat & referral rate of over 80% o We send clients to 30 countries worldwide o Average spend on a TBT holiday is approx £10k (largest booking taken in 2008 was £230k)
Myths o OT is NOT just an adrenalin holiday provider and DOES offer more than just short breaks o TBT doesn’t JUST sell Africa
What is the rationale behind the Tim Best Travel tie-up?
o Knowledge and Service – We believe that combining the knowledge base and sense of service at both companies will result in an even better service to clients o Better rates – Combining the buying power of the two companies creates a compelling volume argument for reduced supplier rates and consequently better rates for you o Fit – The product and cultural fit between the two companies is very strong o Systems – We hope that the investment made into Original Travel’s systems will bring gains in efficiency to TBT o Cross-selling – Large parts of Original Travel’s portfolio are currently not sold to the TBT database e.g. Middle East, Europe and skiing. Original Travel can also learn a lot from the extensive TBT portfolio in Africa, Latin America and India particularly. o Quality Databases – both companies have incredibly loyal databases and as such we are constantly thinking of ways in which we can better look after clients
Aren’t the two companies all about very different things and have totally different client bases? On the contrary, both companies have the same culture and priorities, and above all, emphasis on quality in everything we do. We see the tie-up as being entirely complimentary for both companies, as we will now be able to offer a broad range of additional destinations to both sets of clients sure in the knowledge that the way we do things is true to the same values
Will the range of destinations change? Yes and no. While our portfolios are similar there are many differences as well. The ability to cross sell each other’s destinations and experiences will inevitably feel like a change, while at the same time each team will continue to sell the destinations and experiences for which they already have the expertise and knowledge. A concerted effort will be made to teach each other all about our respective areas where knowledge gaps exist at the earliest opportunity. At the very latest by mid March the enlarged team will know the full array of what is on offer and to whom a call should be directed to discuss these areas.
Will customer service change in any way? We would like to think that the customer service will get better. Harnessing the knowledge and experience of two such exceptional teams can only improve the service enjoyed by our client bases. On no account will customer service be allowed to decline. The best of the best will be compiled together post the learning process with both teams.
