The duo, who were both previously Travel Counsellors, started operating under their own Case Travel brand in January and the business has been quick to take off.
“We had a very good peaks and smashed our targets by around 30% - we matched what we did as Travel Counsellors,” Ally shared with TTG Luxury. “It’s gone much better than I’d expected. Everybody has been so supportive.”
The pair currently run the business from the same room in their Bournemouth home and have been joined by a third member of the team, Sue Smith, who was formerly with Deluxe Cruises and also lives in the Bournemouth area.
Ally, who has been in the travel industry for nearly 40 years, started her career at tour operator Travelbag before spending 12 years as a Travel Counsellor.
Meanwhile, Danielle spent several years as an admin assistant to her mum before also joining Travel Counsellors for 18 months after completing her university degree.
Ally said the decision to become independent was taken because they were “looking for more flexibility”, as well as being able to keep more of their commission.
“Travel Counsellors was excellent – it’s a great organisation,” added Ally. “But we started talking about becoming independent and going out on our own.”
Case Travel works with Protected Trust Services (PTS) to protect its customers’ money and also has its own Atol, with around 80% of its bookings being dynamically packaged.
Working together
“We live together and get on really well, although we work very differently,” said Ally. “We’ve done some personality profiling and found that we’re at opposite ends of the scale, but we work very closely together.”
Mum and daughter’s knowledge and skills dovetail nicely with Danielle taking care of European, city breaks and beach holidays, and Ally using her experience in the long-haul market.
Danielle also takes the lead on social media with Case Travel having a presence on Facebook and Instagram, as well as its own website.
“The website is really a face for the business,” said Danielle. “We get more interaction on Facebook although we have more followers on Insta, which is really there to make the company look nice.”
Case Travel promotes itself as “redefining luxury”, although this isn’t just about the product they sell but also the concierge-style service they offer to customers, explained Ally.
“Luxury doesn’t have to be about booking a luxury hotel or flying business class, they have to pay for our service,” Ally added. “We do everything for them including checking them in, arranging car parking, and booking restaurants and lounges.”
As for the future, Case Travel is actively looking for an office, although Ally stressed they “did not want a shop front”.
“We’re looking for an office in the Bournemouth area,” she added. “Clients could come and see us on an appointment-only basis. Going forward I would like to create a little team based around quality rather than quantity. When we’re ready I would like us to grow very gradually in the next three to five years.”
For the time being, the pair are concentrating on building their business, as well as enjoying the increased freedom to hold their own events for clients and choose which fam trips they go on.
After successfully holding a launch party in December, they are looking forward to taking eight clients to an Oceania Cruises event as well as going on a Crystal Cruises trip from Barcelona in the near future.
