Hays Travel, Gateshead Metrocentre

Hays Travel, Gateshead Metrocentre
One of TTG’s Top 50 Travel Agencies 2020

Branch manager Johann Little, affectionately nicknamed Mrs Bleach by her team, ensures Hays Travel’s Gateshead Metrocentre branch is a tightly run ship, with the store given a thorough clean every evening, and consultants primed to greet every customer within 15 seconds of entering the shop.

The store features large TV screens on several walls, which have been recently fitted to help showcase destinations and entice customers in.

Once they are inside, clients will be impressed by the team’s product and geography knowledge, which is nurtured through multiple educational trips each year and regular tests during training.

This workplace culture is clearly a successful tactic, with two former apprentices recognised in trade awards: Rebecca, who was nominated in the Young Travel Agent of the Year category in the TTG Travel Awards 2019, and Alex, who was named Apprentice of the Year by Hays in 2018.

The agency strives to make itself as available as possible to customers, and stays open until 9pm most days. The team successfully obtained special permission from the shopping centre to open extended hours from 7.30am to 11pm in the aftermath of the Thomas Cook collapse.

Additionally, a client was left very grateful after assistant manager Vanessa worked to renegotiate his holiday dates a week before departure – without charge – so his 90-year-old mother could recover from a broken shoulder.

The shop also hosts charity coach trips every year, last year raising just more than £3,000 for Cash for Kids and the North East Homeless with trips to Christmas markets in York and Edinburgh.

The branch has also increased its turnover by 18% year-on-year and became the second-highest seller across the Hays network.

Additionally, the shop is implementing a successful social media plan and has seen its Facebook page grow by thousands of likes in three years.

All this has combined to make Hays Travel Metrocentre a jewel in the brand’s crown.

haystravel.co.uk/metro-centre-branch