My Booking Rewards said that UK agents had now earned a total of £166,000 in cash rewards for their forward bookings, which does not include non-cash benefits such as loyalty points and free hotel nights.
Darren Pearson, founder and chief executive of My Booking Rewards, told TTG that agents had logged $46 million in bookings globally in February after recording a level similar of sales in January.
“We’re delighted with peaks – it’s not just about January, it starts in December and ramps up through to March,” said Pearson. “We’re seeing strong demand today, although there are some peaks and troughs when it calms down.”
Pearson said its figures show that this year has returned to a “more traditional” peaks sales pattern after the turmoil caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
“2022 was a bumper year fuelled by ‘revenge travel’ when peaks started in September and October 2021,” he added. “Agents have realised that it’s a great place to be engaged with suppliers.”
In January, My Booking Rewards announced that UK agents had earned a record £131,000 in tangible rewards during 2022. Agents receive their cash or other rewards when their clients depart on their holidays. The trade also benefits from MBR being HMRC-approved to remove any tax worries.
Pearson said that they had used the pandemic period to invest in MBR’s technology including creating more sales tools and automation.
“It was a turning point for the positive, as although agents were not logging bookings they had a place to go to meet and engage with suppliers,” he added.
“They could keep in contact – they knew it wasn’t going to last for ever and when it was over they were ready to come out of the gate galloping.”
MBR now has more 70,000 agents signed up across all of its markets, which also include several European countries and the Americas region.
Pearson said they had added around 2,000 new agents per month globally in both January and February – a figure which had previously been around 500-600 agents per month.
Currently MBR primarily features rewards from hotel companies and tourist offices but Pearson hinted that it hoped to “engage” with more tour operators and agent consortia in the near future.
He added that they were also looking to create “more opportunities for agents”, including fam trips organised by partners and other prizes for top sellers.
“We’re making the life of the agent more efficient, easier to earn and facilitating sales,” said Pearson.
My Booking Rewards will host its annual Peaks Performance Awards in London in May for the 200 top-performing agents in the UK. Agents can log their bookings for these awards up to 31 March.
