No matter what travel agencies tell you about the number of stars in the passport of the hotel to which you are sent, on the spot it may turn out that the food is islandish and the sea is dirty. Nevertheless, the quality of advice that a client can receive on his first visit to a travel company is very important for choosing the company whose services you want to use. As part of the joint project "Money" and the NEXTEP group of companies, mysterious buyers disguised as future vacationers visited the offices of ten leading travel agencies.

Offices on the way

Studying the level of service in the Moscow offices of leading travel companies, our mysterious buyers, according to routine, made 100 trips “to the field.” As a result, the analysts ended up with 76 questionnaires, in which our agents answered the most detailed questions in detail. This discrepancy in numbers is due to the peculiarity of travel companies compared to other companies operating in the service sector: in some cases, the address stated on the company’s website turned out to be invalid. There were different options: “these were here, but they moved,” “the office is closed for renovation,” or, finally, there are such queues that it is impossible to get a full consultation before closing, and employees generally advise calling early in the morning for this. We took into account only productive visits. As a result, there were nine of these in “Kuda.ru” and “Vell Beach Vacation”, in “Hot Tours”, “Master of Recreation”, “VKO Club” and “Grand Tour Voyage” - eight each, in “Sun Express” and Blue Sky - seven each, and Intourist and Global Travel - six each.

Based on the results of our research, another characteristic feature of the service in travel agencies was revealed: as a rule, outwardly these offices are not so remarkable - in comparison with, say, sparkling supermarkets, banks and car dealerships. But with the “human factor” - traditionally the weak link in client-oriented Russian business - in travel agencies everything is generally at a good level. One of the personnel-related indicators, his appearance and discipline, generally scored the highest among all the parameters assessed - 88% of the ideal.

Looking for a door

Travel agencies in the capital are often hidden so cunningly that it seems as if they have such a well-thought-out policy - so that only the most persistent sight-hunters get to them. Only in 43% of visits did our agents see something resembling signs to travel company offices. Most often, these signs reported the existence of nearby “Masters of Recreation” (6 cases out of 8) and “Hot Tours” (5 out of 8). On neither visit did the mystery shoppers see signs for the Blue Sky travel company. It is curious, by the way, that Blue Sky, the leader of our overall rating, turned out to be the worst in the “Search and Appearance” category, while in all other nominations the company did not fall below third place in the top ten. O Blue Sky: "The office is quite difficult to find, the big minus is that there are no signs." However, our agents also experienced geographic problems with other companies designed to send people around the world. About the “VKO club”: “Before going to the company, I looked on their website how to find them. The diagram was quite clear, and when leaving the metro I knew where to go. I found the house quickly, but turned into the courtyard according to the diagram , I was confused: not a single sign, pillar, banner, sign. I called this company by phone, and they came out to meet me.” About Global Travel: “It’s almost impossible to find the office, there is no street advertising or signs. I had to call and ask the employees.” Sometimes, even when it was possible to find an office, the front door itself inspired disappointment. About "Beach Holiday Well": "The door is kind of shabby." About "Grand Tour Voyage": "The door from the street is just terrible."

Advertising glitch

The premises of travel agencies themselves, however, were rated as clean in 97% of cases - only Kuda.ru and Hot Tours received isolated complaints about unwashed floors. At the Master of Recreation company, during three visits out of eight, agents noticed a mess on the consultants’ desks, although in general for companies this subcategory was rated highly - 91% of the absolute. Another thing is that clients often cannot sit down at travel agencies: in all visits, visitors only had enough chairs in the Blue Sky and Grand Tour Voyage companies.

An important thing in the office of a travel company is advertising brochures. On every fifth visit, however, our agents did not find any printed products with photographs of the places they were asked to visit. But even if the materials were available, their quantity in a quarter of the cases seemed insufficient to the mysterious buyers. Compared to competitors, advertising materials were more fully presented in Kuda.ru (7 visits out of 9), Master of Recreation (6 out of 8) and Global Travel (4 out of 6). But there were offensively few booklets in half of the visits to “Hot Tours” and “Grand Tour Voyage”. About “Hot Tours”: “There were no promotional materials in the office; even when I asked to leave a business card, the employee said that she did not have one.” About "Beach Holiday Well": "There were no magazines describing tours and hotels." About “Grand Tour Voyage”: “Advertising materials and magazines in the company are worth their weight in gold. They are given to look at only from the hands of a consultant.”

And finally, according to some kind of system, advertising materials were distributed in all cases only in the Sun Express company. About "San Express": "There were a lot of advertising materials. The consultant was well versed in them." In general, the offices of the travel agencies "Hot Tours" and "Vell Beach Vacation" seemed least attractive to the mysterious buyers.

Special Agents

In 88% of cases, travel company employees immediately noticed the client’s appearance. The indicator by the standards of the capital’s service sector is the highest. There is, however, one “but”: travel agency offices are often small, and our spy was often the only visitor. It would be completely strange not to pay attention to this. Taking into account the specifics of business, the categories of greetings and farewells are not as significant as the ability of staff to give clear advice on the product offered.

Mystery shoppers admitted that in 84% of cases, consultants identified or were more likely to identify their needs. This is also a good result. The best in this category were "Intourist" and "San Express". Could not identify any needs at all on two out of six Global Travel visits. About Sun Express: “The consultant asked me questions that allowed her to subsequently make an offer that satisfied me.” About Global Travel: “I told the consultant about my needs, but did not find a response.” About "Grand Tour Voyage": "The employee asked if I was interested in a beach holiday or an excursion, which country I prefer, which coast, whether I can swim, what food and star rating of the hotel I needed, whether I would leave the hotel for walks and shopping" . About the "Recreation Master": "A standard set of questions: where, with whom, for how long, budget." About the “VKO Club”: “The questions concerned, naturally, the type of vacation, duration, country, budget, time, age composition of vacationers.”

The most interested in the client - in 100% of cases - were the employees of San Express, Intourist and Blue Sky. And the company "Hot Tours" demonstrated the least initiative in creating an offer to the client - in five out of eight visits. About Intourist: “The employee was very proactive in communicating with me: he suggested, explained, told.” About "Sun Express": "The girl was very active in offering different options." About "Hot Tours": "The consultant was uninitiative and not interested in the client."

Travel agents discussed tourist routes with our agents in 70% of cases and in the vast majority of cases were able to share information about the sights and nature of the country they proposed to visit. Visitors to Intourist and VKO Club were most fully informed, while five out of six visitors to Global Travel were unable to find out the details. About the "VKO Club": "The entire consultation was filled with personal examples, examples of vacationing clients, and illustrations."

And finally, the issue of pricing. In 81% of cases, consultants calculated the final cost of tours for the client, which included everything from flights to excursions. In other cases, clients were informed of prices only for individual components, and most often the Beach Holiday Well company was guilty of all this. About Sun Express: “The consultant calculated the full cost of my trip, and only told me about the visa and insurance when I asked.” About “Hot Tours”: “The consultant only named the cost of the reservation, hotel and airfare.” About the “VKO Club”: “All the proposed options were calculated for me, even indicating the approximate amount that I needed to take with me.” About "Well Beach Vacation": "We separately estimated the amount of surcharge for fuel, for the view from the window (very expensive), for a regular flight, for a visa. The consultant gave general information about the options for hotels and resorts, gave an approximate cost, it seemed to me that this was not enough for decision making".

In general, consultants at travel agencies performed well: only in six cases out of 76 did they not help, and in 12 did they rather not help the mysterious buyers choose a tour. It is also noticeable that at all stages of interaction with the client, the level of personnel of the leading companies, Blue Sky and Intourist, was consistently higher than that of the outsiders in our rating - the companies Grand Tour Voyage and Hot Tours.

YURI LVOV

Rating of travel companies

Rating Blue Sky
1Intourist
2Master
recreation
3VKO club
4San
Express
5Kuda.ru
6Vell
beach
recreation
7Global
Travel
8Grand
Tour Voyage
9Hot
tours
10Medium
result for
assessed
parameter

1 Search and appearance	10 (54%)	6 (69.5%)	3 (79%)	9 (59%)	2 (80%)	7 (68%)	4 (73%)	5 (70.4%)	8 (67%)	1 (88%)	71%
2 Internal state premises	1 (87.2%)	4 (82.1%)	6 (81%)	8 (79%)	10 (76%)	3 (84%)	7 (80%)	2 (86.7%)	5 (81.7%)	9 (77%)	3 (82%)
3 Greeting	3 (68%)	10 (53%)	2 (71.9%)	1 (72.4%)	5 (64%)	9 (56%)	7 (62.5%)	6 (63.1%)	4 (65%)	8 (61%)	64%
4 Identification needs	3 (90.7%)	1 (95%)	5 (89.1%)	2 (91.3%)	6 (85%)	4 (89.4%)	7 (84%)	9 (74.3%)	8 (75%)	10 (73.7%)	2 (85%)
5 Offer	1 (83%)	2 (80%)	3 (76%)	4 (73%)	5 (68%)	6 (65%)	7 (64%)	8 (63%)	9 (60%)	10 (58%)	69%
6 Decision making	1 (95%)	2 (92%)	5 (78%)	4 (83%)	3 (84%)	6 (74%)	10 (47%)	7 (66%)	8 (55%)	9 (49%)	72%
7 Ending contact	2 (86%)	4 (83%)	3 (85%)	1 (88%)	8 (73%)	6 (76%)	5 (80%)	9 (69%)	7 (75%)	10 (68%)	78%
8 Appearance and employee discipline	1 (98%)	2 (96%)	5 (86%)	4 (90%)	6 (85.4%)	7 (85.2%)	3 (93%)	8 (82%)	9 (81%)	10 (79%)	1 (88%)
9 Subjective assessments by consultant and consultations	2 (85%)	1 (87%)	3-4 (82.6%)	3-4 (82.6%)	6 (77%)	5 (78%)	7 (75%)	9 (68%)	8 (71%)	10 (63%)	77%
10 General impression from the visit	2 (79%)	1 (83%)	6 (73%)	(5) 74%	(4) 75%	(3) 76%	(8) 58%	(7) 59%	(9) 53%	(10) 52%	68%
Average result companies	1 (83%)	(2) 82%	(3) 80%	(4) 79%	(5) 77%	(6) 75%	(7) 72%	(8) 70%	(9) 68%	(10) 67%	75%

Secrets of travel agents