In 2003 we first travelled with Thomson al Fresco to a caravan site on Lake Garda in Italy and were converted to this way of holidaying as a family.
It was the first year that al Fresco had invested and started in caravans like Eurocamp and Keycamp but what they did was they set themselves apart with the quality of their product and accommodation and service from reps. It was a brilliant holiday experience.
Since then, over 12 years, we have travelled to multiple destinations, some in Spain and some in Italy trying out different places but have settled on a place called Marina de Venezia which we have now been to 8 or 9 times, both with other members of our family and with friends. We have recommended countless amounts of people to this type of holiday and most people haven't been disappointed. So it was this year when on the first day of arrival someone tapped me on the shoulder and it was only one of my referring dentist colleagues from Nottingham who I had recommended some years before who was there for at least the second time!
Not the point thought - the point is that this is now the most disappointing trip to Thomson al Fresco holidays and probably the last one we'll have (not to the park which we'll almost certainly go back to next year with a different company)
Thomson invested well in 2004 and set up a really good system for a really good holiday with the reassurance of great reps, close attention, brilliant accommodation, air con, great inventories in the caravans and great facilities. Since then it appears they have spent nothing on any of it, have maximised their profits, reduced the quality of their staff and just 'sweated their asset' and 'wrung it out' as much as possible. It just reached breaking point this time, it was so rubbish. The caravan was poor, the facilities were terrible, the mould on the umbrella outside was awful. The reps had no idea what they were talking about and no interest in looking after us. It has got progressively worse over time and was demonstrated perfectly at the end of the holiday by there being no questionnaire to fill out on if you had enjoyed your time and the quality of their reps and accommodation. It's clear that they know it's terrible and don't want anyone else to tell them anymore. It may be that Thomson are on their way out of this and I suspect that is probably the case but the brand is damaged as a result of how they've done this.
The lesson for me is to continue to invest, continue to upgrade staff, facilities and experience for your customers. If you continue to do this then you'll continue to convert people to your brand and live to your responsibilities. If you stop doing this and it becomes an exercise to bring as much profit as possible out of the business with little regard to both your customers and your team then surely you are just on the verge of becoming extinct.
Blog Post Number: 1034
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