A homeworker has secured a £76,000 last-minute booking to the Maldives on day one of a fam trip to the destination.
Shehryar ‘Shez’ Awan, who owns Exquisite Escapes, part of the Merlin Travel Group consortium, is currently staying at Soneva Jani on Medhufaru and secured the booking after he shared details of his personal fam trip on social media.
After seeing the posts, a family of three decided to book a last-minute Christmas holiday to the Maldives on Shehryar’s recommendation. They are staying for 10 nights at the Raffles Maldives, in Meradhoo.
Shez told Travel Gossip: “I’m currently in Soneva Jani – I was kindly invited by the resort’s Director of Sales as I have sent a handful of clients here, so have built a great relationship with the property.
“I am staying for seven days, two of which are complimentary and five I have paid for at an agent rate. This is my fifth visit to Maldives. It’s a yearly thing for me.
“The client is a relatively new client of mine, who previously did an accommodation-only booking of £45,000 earlier in the year.
“These clients called me at 2pm and by 5pm it was booked and paid for. I really wanted to get them booked into Soneva Jani, but it was not possible because, with the departure just over two weeks away, there was no availability. They trusted my recommendation and Raffles Maldives is a stunning property, which I have also visited.”
Merlin Travel Group Operations and Product Director Garry Butcher said: “We encourage our members to travel as often as they can and we’re happy to arrange personal fam trips like this because it’s great for our agents’ business development and product knowledge. Sales usually follow quickly, but I wasn’t expecting such a quick result!
“We believe that travel can be very much a lifestyle business and our model supports our members in their aspirations to travel and make bookings at the same time.
“This model seems to be working well for us, in fact we have a destination specialist who is on a trip to Japan at the moment and making bookings while experiencing the theme parks there.
“Another member went on her first Africa safari a couple of years ago and has since escorted three of her own small group safari trips since then and has more in the pipeline.”
