In this video you’ll hear from Deborah Kelly, Head of Sales – UK and Ireland at thl, and TTG’s Content Writer Charlotte Cullinan.
Win a 10-day motorhome adventure
You could experience your own motorhome holiday with thl! Enter our new competition and you could win 10 days' free rental of the maui Ultima Plus in either Australia or New Zealand!
You'll be able to choose your route, staying in your choice of campsites along the way. What an adventure!
Video transcript
Charlotte: Welcome to our In The Spotlight video with thl. Debs, what would you say to agents who think that a motorhome holiday in Australia or New Zealand might be complicated to sell?
Debs: Yes thanks Charlotte. It's one of the biggest misconceptions that we hear. And the reality is that it is super easy. It's easy for you to sell, and it's super easy for your customers to enjoy. Australia and New Zealand were made for motorhome travel.
So, our countries are young, our roads are wide, our parking spaces are big, so it's easy to drive the vehicles. We drive on the left-hand side as well, which is cool. And there are thousands of campsites for people to stay at. It's really easy for your customers to be travelling in this way.
For you, for agents, it's a super easy product to sell once you get used to it. It is essentially the accommodation and transportation in one product. And our average rental length is 14 nights, so we do tend to have your customers for a long time, so one product is hosting them for quite a long time of their itinerary.
There's no day-to-day route planning from your side. The customers – that's the fun of doing a motorhome – is they get to make it up as they go along. And you get to lean on the expertise of the wholesale partners. They will guide you into which brand, which vehicle is right for your customers.
Charlotte: Fabulous, thank you. And you mentioned campsites, how easy is it for customers to find places to stay?
Debs: Super easy. So, Australians and New Zealanders absolutely love to camp. There’s loads of places to stay, so that's not an issue. And all of the campsites, there's lots of different, varying degrees of quality, so from the freedom camping sites, which are really quite basic, up to resort-style accommodation, which have playgrounds and swimming pools and laundries and amazing locations to stay.
So, my top tip is for you to download the thl Roadtrip App. The app is free for everyone to download – you don't have to be a customer. I'd recommend that you and your customers download it.
Now, go straight to the maps. In the maps function, you'll see the filters on there. The filters, you can filter by supermarkets or petrol stations, but my recommendation is to filter by campsites. And as soon as you do that, you'll see this sea of dots appearing on Australia and New Zealand. And as you zoom in, they just get more and more. And it's a great visual tool for you to use for your customers to have that real confidence. When they see that, they're like, "Oh, okay. We've got loads of places to stay, we're going to be totally fine."
And when they are on the campsites there, they can also book them. So, once they have booked their motorhome, they can either book the campsites at home before they go if they want to be planned, or if they want to keep that freedom and flexibility, they can just use it as they're travelling and book the campsites as they go.
Charlotte: Brilliant, thank you. And what support is available for customers before and during their trip?
Debs: Support is a huge part of what we do. We absolutely recognise that many or most of our customers are first-timers in motorhomes, and so they really want that confidence that they've got that support behind them to know how to use, or how to do a motorhome holiday. So, we do invest really heavily into our support.
The app again is a great place to go because the app houses our show-through videos. And these are great, whether they're planning and thinking about what vehicle they might want to take, or they've already booked and they want to see their vehicle. They can watch the show-through video. It will take them through gas stoves and electric hookups, all those bits and pieces. So, when they come to us, it's not the first time that they've seen these functions. And it gets them excited as well. When they watch the show-through video, they can start picturing themselves in the vehicle.
And then while they're travelling, the app also provides the support with how-to videos. So, those videos in there are sort of two/three minutes long. Look, they'll get to the campsite that first night and go, "Wow, how do we do the drop-down bed?" So, they can just look at this really quick video and it will take them through how to do that. And of course, we also do have our on-road care team who are available at any time on email or on phone, and they can have that support of our on-road care team as they're travelling as well.
Charlotte: Brilliant, that's really helpful, thank you. And who is a motorhome holiday best suited to, would you say?
Debs: Almost everyone! A lovely thing about a motorhome is that many people love to do this type of travel. We have families or retired couples, young couples, groups all travelling with us and enjoying this way of travelling. It's really fun.
We have four brands. So, we have Maui, Britz, Apollo, and Mighty. And we have, I think, 17 different layouts – I've lost count, a lot of different layouts! So, there is a brand, a vehicle layout, and of course a price point that is going to suit every single customer.
Charlotte: Fabulous, thank you. And finally, what would your key message be to travel agents?
Debs: Don't overcomplicate motorhomes. They're really easy. For your customers, Australia and New Zealand were made for this style of travel. There are thousands of campsites to stay at. We provide all the support that they need before they leave, as well as on the road. They don't need to be worried about that. And for you, our agents, you don't have to be an expert in motorhomes. It's really easy. We work with so many wholesale partners who are experts, so lean on them to give you the advice of which brand, which vehicle layout is best for your customer.
Charlotte: Fantastic. Well, thank you for sharing all of that brilliant information, Debs. It's so helpful. And thank you for watching our In The Spotlight video with thl.
