Holiday Best has installed a new trade-facing website and booking system in order to start selling through agents shortly.
When it does, new Head of Trade Nicky Bird says it will offer price-parity for agents, adding that it was ‘key’ to the operator.
It is already taking direct bookings, having launched in the UK in 2023, but plans to sell through agents have been repeatedly put on hold.
Nicky, who joined the tour operator two weeks ago, said the delay was due to the need for better technology.
“We had planned on launching last year but the website and functionality we were using for consumers wasn’t trade friendly,” she said.
“We have get a full new booking system and website for agents, we are just waiting for a live date, it will be anytime now, but I don’t want to put an exact date on it.”
Nicky said that once Holiday Best is ready to sell through the trade, it will be looking to ‘work with everyone’.
“I will be contacting all my connections and the people I have worked with previously,” she added.
Holiday Best specialises in fully inclusive packages to 36 destinations, mainly in the Mediterranean but also to long-haul destinations including the US, Canada and Asia, plus it sells flights and accommodation-only.
It uses various airlines including easyJet, Jet2, TUI, Ryanair, Sun Express and Coredon.
Nicky said some of its best rates are on holidays to Turkey, where its Turkish owner Ramazan Akpinar, has been operating holidays for a number of years and owns four hotels.
Its UK operation is being led by CEO Hakan Kavalci, and Nicky has taken over its trade relationships following the departure of Chief Marketing Officer John Milburn last September.
Its Brentwood-based calls centre will handle agent enquiries initially, led by Tony Hurst. Its reservations team is led by Manager Volodymyr Perunov, who transferred from the parent company’s operation in Ukraine two years ago, but Nicky said she would be recruiting a trade team within the next six months.
A Facebook trade page, Holiday Best Trade Partners, will be launched at 9am on Monday (27 January), featuring all the latest offers, incentives and updates from the operator.
