In its annual report, the OTA’s chairman Richard Pennycook said On the Beach had done its best to refund customers but “in a number of cases” had let them down.
Pennycook said: “This was particularly the case where airlines failed to refund our customers for flights which had been cancelled. Only when we had secured our liquidity were we able to start refunding our customers for that portion of their holiday even when the airline had not in turn refunded us.
“As a consequence, we – along with the rest of the industry – incurred reputational damage.”
The report for the year to 30 September 2021 said the UK government’s behaviour had led the OTA to adopt a cautious approach to marketing, with a campaign encouraging customers not to book a foreign holiday in July or August, “at the precise time most in the industry were marketing holidays”.
“The frequent and unpredictable changes in government guidance over the summer months caused further significant chaos for many who had chosen to travel. We believe we were seen as a responsible company helping customers to avoid major disruption to their annual holidays.”
Pennycook added: “Alongside that unusual marketing campaign we called the industry to account for its behaviour towards customers with respect to refunds. Our white paper, based on You Gov research, exposed consumer damage caused by misuse of refund credit notes and called upon the industry, regulators and government to take action to protect consumers.”
Chief executive Simon Cooper added there was an opportunity to work more with agents with the development of Classic Collection and Classic Package Holidays (CPH).
“Significant” progress was made in activating agents to sell CPH holidays before the pandemic, he said.
“Partly as a result of the pandemic, there are some challenges for new entrants and smaller independent operators but with Thomas Cook exiting the market in 2019 and other tour operators focusing on direct sales, there is an opportunity to drive both number and usage of high street and independent travel agents that sell CPH holidays.”
The Classic Collection brand has made major strides in long-haul, he said. “The proportion of CCH booked holidays that are long-haul has increased from 1.4% in September 2019 to 16.4% in September 2021.”
He put the total long-haul market at four million and said On the Beach handled 10 million searches a year for long-haul destinations.
“There is a significant opportunity post pandemic to drive a growing share of bookings to longer haul destinations in Classic and the core On the Beach brand,” he said.
