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From daily essentials like managing utility bills, household costs and the mortgage, to redecorating or even moving home, or from the repetitiveness of the weekly food shop to the sheer inconvenience of servicing, insuring, taxing or maybe renewing the car, and from the joy of buying the comfiest soft furnishings to the latest ‘must-have’ flat screen or surround sound home entertainment: the list is endless, and it’s down to you to decide which one you want, where to get it from, what colour you desire and, of course, how much you’re willing to pay!

Everyday life doesn’t come cheap and when there are children to ‘help’ you make those extra unplanned purchases you weren’t quite expecting, it can often become a real challenge for even the most financially astute of us.  

Take the family holiday for example, or maybe those precious short breaks and weekend ‘escapes’. For many, annual holiday expenditure can be one of the most, if not the most, significant one-off spend in a year. Equally the actual time you are spending relaxing, recharging the batteries or discovering places new has got to be amongst the most priceless days you are likely to spend in that same year – quality time with yourself, the family, friends or loved ones.

Yet, many people do not take as much care in spending their holiday budget as they might with other expenditures. Is this partly because it has become very difficult nowadays to know exactly when and where to turn for genuine value and good advice? There have certainly been mixed signals from within the travel industry over recent years, mainly from the tour operators. Book early and get a great deal, or book late and get a bargain, so when is the right time and what happens to all of those people who book in between, you might ask?

The travel industry has been through a sea of change and substantial turmoil during the last few years. The explosion of the Internet, low-cost airlines, teletext holidays and interactive TV shopping has given rise to a fresh consumer perspective on making holiday and travel plans. Global events such as 11 September, the Iraq war and the SARS virus have all taken their toll. Needless to say, all of these events have in turn translated into very mixed messages for the normal holiday booker.

Despite this speed of change and confusion there is some good news amongst it all for the consumer. More competition, lack of demand and over capacity can make for great holiday savings. That’s all very well too, but what’s the best way to go about finding these deals and booking them?

The answer to that really can depend on how much time you may have on your hands. With the UK emerging as the European nation which has embraced the longest working week, paired with comparatively few public holidays, the chances are your time is very precious. Where some are prepared to trawl the Internet for hours every evening or are brave enough to commandeer the TV remote all weekend, most of us just have better things to be doing. How about all those indecisions, the worries, the advice, the frequently asked questions – ‘where do I find the best beaches?’ and ‘which hotels have the best kids facilities?’.

The best way to go about finding deals and booking them is, or at least should be, your trusted travel agent – the trade professional with all the technology and knowledge at their finger tips .

Let’s be honest, who is brave enough to join the masses and make the trip to the local travel agent, especially on a Saturday? When you get there, how can you be sure you are being given reliable advice? Do you have any guarantee that you will not be paired with either of the two trainees on duty that day?

What about choice? Is the high street agent totally ‘impartial’ when it comes to recommending a certain destination or programme and are they truly taking your needs into account? Well, you can make up your own mind. Lunn Poly is owned by the Thomson holidays group, Going Places are run by MyTravel (who own a vast array of operators) and, of course, Thomas Cook who has it’s own well-known brand name to sell along with others (such as 18–30 and JMC). Could it be possible that these shops would prefer to sell you a holiday of their own brand rather than anything else? You have to concede, it’s just possible.

HolidaySaver is a product that has been designed to help simplify many of the current issues referred to so far and put all holiday and associated needs, advice, expertise and value all in one place. The concept is the brainchild of Colin Snook, managing director of Travel Clubs International Ltd and the result of two years’ related planning and research. Having run travel businesses for the past 30 years, Colin has experienced many advances within his trade and has been at the forefront of maintaining that pace of change by adapting and re-adapting his own business. Well-known and respected within the travel industry, last year Colin joined Sky TV’s Money Channel for a season of regular weekly insights and valuable holiday advice on this popular consumer programme.

Colin explains: “HolidaySaver is a unique package of holiday benefits, savings and services. The result is a hassle-free way of booking your holidays and breaks, but most importantly the aim is to ensure you make genuine savings, find value for money and get all the expert help you need to make the most of your annual holiday budget.

“People can be little bit confused at first as to what HolidaySaver is, but that’s because there is nothing else like it in the current marketplace, despite the idea itself being very simple. We have gathered together all of the elements associated with making a holiday and then created great ways to make savings with each.

“Take travel insurance for example, last year 46 per cent of UK holidaymakers purchased their travel insurance at the same time they make their holiday booking, either from the travel agent itself or the tour operator. As an example Thomson holidays currently charge £245 for a family of 2 adults and 2 children taking a 2-week holiday outside of Europe. HolidaySaver ‘Global’ costs half that amount providing unlimited trips over a whole year, and that’s before you even begin to add up all of the other savings HolidaySaver provides.”

Other benefits include: the first 24-hour airport parking or car hire free every time you travel, commission free currency delivered to your home, half price photo processing, discounts of over 50 per cent on skiwear and equipment with great savings on travel guides, luggage, and over 600 different travel accessories. Customers gain year-round access to all of these savings and services by paying a modest annual subscription and are able to use all the benefits time and time again.

“Our call centre staff have an average of 12 years’ experience each and we are part of the fiercely independent consortium of travel agents, Midconsort,” says Colin. “Therefore we can freely offer expert and independent advice and are not aligned to any of the high street name tour operators, we can of course make a wider selection when it comes to finding the best deals and offering the most choice for the customer. We have invested in leading travel web technology enabling us to search over 50 holiday companies simultaneously, as well as compare ‘no frills’ air fares with literally millions of IATA fares and those from specialist consolidators.”      

The Independent newspaper has worked closely with HolidaySaver, promoting it as a ‘reader offer’ over the last 12 months and several thousand readers have become subscribers as a result.

“Over recent months we have worked to further enhance benefits and amongst several new additions we now provide every subscriber with over £500 of free holiday vouchers, as well as an option to use a 0 per cent interest holiday loan to spread payments over 6 or 12 months. In the future we hope to provide a HolidaySaver cashback scheme, further recognising and rewarding customers for the money spent on their holidays,” explains Colin.

Colin continues: “HolidaySaver is capturing people’s imagination because it brings together great holidays and saves money, which are both past times close to everybody’s heart. As a result, a lot of interest has been shown, by companies and membership organisations, in the HolidaySaver subscription as an employee or member benefit. We are currently in discussions regarding cust-omer campaigns and negotiating group discounts of 50 per cent or more on normal subscription prices. There are also opportunities for group customers to generate new revenue streams for their organisations by promoting HolidaySaver in-house, we have adopted a very flexible approach in this regard.”

To find out more or to discuss how HolidaySaver can work for you, your customers or your employees tel: 01277 314314, email This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or visit www.holiday-saver.com

(This article was originally published in Director of Finance 2004 edition)