Lynch said she decided to open the agency’s second shop on 5 May ahead of the coronation bank holiday to give her newly hired staff a “soft, slow opening” despite already scoring a few bookings.
“It was quite tactical because I thought it would be a little bit quieter with the coronation, so I could ease my team into starting freshly at their store,” she said on Friday (12 May). “I knew we weren’t going to be too bombarded.”
Just like the agency’s other shop in Worcester – which has won a number of TTG Top 50 awards in recent years – all three members of staff in Malvern have no previous experience in the travel industry.
“It is painful in the beginning as you have to have to train the team and it does take a bit of time but once they are trained, they are trained to your standards and they know no difference,” Lynch added.
“We had that success with Worcester so I decided to go down that path again.”
Despite the gradual opening, Lynch is still planning to have an inauguration party on 1 June to put the shop on people’s radar.
“We’ll invite all the important people, get them in and have a bit of a celebration and introduce the team as well,” she said.
Revealing plans to open the Malvern branch to TTG in March, Lynch said she also has her sights on entering the homeworking market, as well as expanding ArrangeMy Escape’s presence on the high street even further.
"We would love to open more stores. The goal is to open six or eight stores at a maximum, as I don’t want to grow too big as I would like to keep it independent and we want to make sure we stay personal and not lose the beating heart of what we do," she said.
