Be Excellent To Each Other

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011 ... sfeed=true

I have a holiday booked with Thomas Cook.

I work for the cunts.

Thomas Cook top trumps, eh?

Ok, you win.

So do I, indirectly (as you know Z) -- my employer gets around 1/3rd of its income from TC, and they directly pay for the team I work for (of about 15 people). Ulp.

You should be fine. When is it booked for? Worst case scenario you get refunded by that ATOL thing, but I reckon you'll be fine (though these things are inherently self-perpetuating.

Oh, I missed this. If it's a normal package holiday (and almost everything TC sells is), as Curio says, ATOL will have your back.

It's not even that bad. We've just paid a £100 deposit so far. Just adds to my miserable week of woe, is all.

It's only fucking Tuesday.

Well at least you job is safe... not like they are doing redundancy again is it?

Well the peak time for us is January so we'll see how things look in the new year.

If there is a new year

We're debating this in the office. Thing is, it doesn't take much to shake consumer confidence in a holiday firm -- some non-zero number of people just went "fuck! No way am I booking with Thomas Cook this year!". We're going to do a booking numbers report later and see if the bookings are dropping off a cliff.

That's what the e-commerce team are doing right now.

Hopefully everyone is now booking with Netflights, Gold Medal and Pure Luxury.

*imagines Zardoz as an air hostess*

*Shudders*

I hope it's all fine for everyone tied into them, employment wise.

You got it, mon! In fact, severely-reduced pay all around! Come on, wife, let's blow this joint!

Amen to that (the software I write is what powers Netflights...)

God help us.

That's what powers me.

It's quite alarming, the knock on effects must be huge, abroad as well. I didn't realise that travel operators existed on such a tight rope when it comes to confidence in the branding.

This is a cashflow problem because this is always a quiet time of year and things have been especially tough in the travel industry recently, which lead to TC going to the banks for relaxed covenants on their lending. This lead to the share price tanking, which means feck all in the real world. It's not "confidence in the branding" that's the problem, although of course this may lead to it as people read too much into share prices.

TC will deal with the cashflow problem by shutting a load of shops, as they're one of the few (only?) remaining travel companies to have a load of them, and they have maybe 200. So they have a large cost base that none of their competitors have. They'll get rid of some of the staff at the TC outlets and bring everything into call centres and online.

Or so the bloke on R4 told me. He sounded quite relaxed about it.

Anyway - fingers crossed for you Zardoz. I'm pretty sure if you're not working in one of their shops you'll be fine. Also fingers crossed for DocG.

The economy's shite, isn't it? I'm beginning to wonder if going to work for a consumer goods company was a brilliant idea.

...and all the Co-op travel shops they bought this year

No, I'm locked away in a warehouse Design Studio in Preston.

R4 bloke is an idiot. First Choice / TUI are the second biggest travel firm in the UK and have tons of shops too. Also, TC know bloody well that there are plenty of customers who simply won't shop online for holidays -- or they'd have shut those shops years ago.

Preston... oh that is harsh...


Last time I was there I was putting a computer system in the Court...

Given some of the inside stories I've heard about senior execs here making business decisions so belmingly stupid that they even lost their jobs over them (no mean feat working in the energy industry), I do wonder what the entry qualification is for management. Is it having been dropped on your head as a baby?



Well, fingers crossed, chap.

And yes, share price tanking begets poor consumer confidence begets crap sales. That's the danger.

Hahahah! What an absolute retard he was then. I did wonder about that - as I was sure I'd seen other travel agents still on the high street. Still, the guy was said to be an expert so I assumed he must be right and my memory was broken.

I'll try and find out his name so he can be duly castigated.

I'm a gambling man, admittedly, but had I some spare cash I'd be tempted to have a sneaky invest in TC right now.

Yeah, true that. It's still daft though.

@Curio - yeah, me too. My dad does a bit of trading so I'll ask him if he's taking a punt.

Why can't they just panic buy, like with petrol?

Shares are slowly recovering. A few people in the office are buying some.

How much? Link me up.

It's stuff like this that sometimes makes me wonder if we can't in some way ban public share trading. It's more trouble than it's worth.

I'd also like a flying pony and a money tree.

Official interview with TC guy http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-15832438

YOU SWINE.

Err *tugs collar* turns out our holiday was booked through Thomson.

I love The Prodigal Dimrill more than Dimrill, and that was a lot.

I bet it was your Wii that got hacked too.

Cunt.

Dimmers is back.....

*does Happy dance*

Twat.

WTF

I nearly did this with Northern Rock on a similar price fall.

Serious answer to jesty post: it turns out that the July or August week in Spain or Greece is pretty sacrosanct to UK consumers. Sales in travel went down, to be sure, but less than you'd think. It appears people cut back on almost everything else first before giving up their annual holidays.

On the other hand, more discretionary holidays -- like longer trips, long haul, and weekend city breaks -- went down more than the classic week-in-the-sun package stuff. Of course, the former are more profitable.

How likely is the government to bail out Thomas Cook?

Zero.

Really? Who's doing that then? All the middle class people I know are swapping to UK vacations, many of them (including us) going camping for much of the year's holibobs, with a week at a cottage as the "big" holiday.

Then again everyone we know has kids.

We booked out holiday last year over the net...

I know, snark.

Kissyfur - do the middle classes go on holiday to Spain anyway?

I dunno. At the end of The Other Guys it said that the US government bailouts of the banks cost each and every citizen $2500. Which would pay for a round-the-world trip for every man, woman and child in the country. They've got to book those imaginary trips somewhere.

I believe that some do, yes.

I have done well. Shares in Bradford and Bingley, Woolworths, Jarvis and Thomas Cook. Anyone need any advice?

Was it Thomas Cook or TUI (or even both) that a couple of years went for utter cuntery, and wrote to all the hotels that they book with a couple of years back, saying, we're arbitrarily cutting the amount we pay you by x% (even for bookings that we have already received payment for from the customers in full) because there is a recession, and we're passing it on to you, and you need us, swines, and we're utter scum?*

Ah yes, it was First google hit, better articles may be available

Also, one big tour operator also told all their greek hotels that if they leave the euro, then they will not stand by their contract and will settle any bills in vastly devalued new currency, rather than the euro amount specified in their contract.

*letter may have been worded differently

I dunno. But I have access to sales for the UK's biggest ecommerce travel site and you're asking your mates, so I know who's data I put more faith in

The domestic holiday thing is a factor, sure. It even has a horrible jargon term for it -- "staycation". But the whole industry braced for a total collapse in 2008 and instead we got a slump. A few smaller guys went under but the bigger firms have been getting buy alright (Cooks ecommerce business had (by a wide margin) its biggest peak trading season ever last year).