Matt and Ashley Phillips, whose background is in hospitality, joined the travel industry during the pandemic, setting up their agency – Travel Chaps – with Not Just Travel.
Now, after a couple of years of homeworking, the duo have taken on two employees and set up on the high street, opening their first store in Lincoln’s Bailgate area last week (17 June) with two more launch events to follow later next month.
"More and more of our clients wanted that in-person experience, to be shown the itineraries and to spend more time talking to us,” Ashley told TTG. “Having taken on two members of staff, it makes sense now to have that space because being together will help us as a team and foster more collaboration.”
Ashley said he believes having a bricks and mortar presence will boost Travel Chaps’ business thanks to the footfall and further establish their agency’s reputation in the area.
However, despite the business now running from the shop, he insisted the agency’s clients would still enjoy the flexibility they’re used to. "The principles we had as a homeworking business are not going to change,” he said. “But the perk of having a shop versus being at home is a separation of church and state.
"Rather than going from the bedroom to the kitchen to the home office, now we have to commute to work, and that has brought us a bit of mental separation.”
Ashley told TTG the shop will initially open six days a week, Monday to Saturday, with one late closure a week. “We’ll have one late night a week so any clients who work longer hours have the opportunity to come in,” he explained.
Matt and Ashley, who have been together for 20 years, joined the travel industry in early 2022 having worked most of their careers as restaurateurs, and have quickly built up their business despite being relatively new to travel.
"We sold our restaurants in December 2021 after surviving the pandemic and we thought we were going to retire and spend some time travelling,” Ashley revealed. “But after a couple of months travelling, we decided to turn our passion into a business.”
Asked for the secret to their success, Ashley added: “We’ve been together for 20 years now – we complement each other very well. What he’s good at, I’m not, and vice versa. Ours is a very well-oiled machine at this point."
