a4uexpo Don’t Panic?

17 days to go. Quite honestly, I’m terrified. When we first decided to exhibit at this years expo, it was a no-brainer. We’re an affiliate orientated company, it’s the place to set out your stall, literally!

Then we badgered Matt into letting us launch our Top Secret Project as one of the sessions. We had to convince Matt it wasn’t just going to be a self-advertising puff piece, that we actually had something valuable to show the conference attendees. I’m pleased to say he obviously thought we had something interesting, as there we are, Platinum Room 4, Day 1 at 2pm.

Never mind an unreasonable aversion to public speaking (I assume I won’t like it as I can’t ever remember having cause to do it before), our Top Secret Project has grown several limbs since we first started it. I’d like to tell you it’s 90% finished at this point, but it seems to be always 90% finished at any given point. Whenever we settle on something, another opportunity to improve/radically alter something else pops up and off we go again. While I’m sure we’ll have some kind of finished product at the Expo, it’s now slightly terrifying that it might not go down well with our audience. Call it paranoia, but suddenly the doubts are creeping in!

On top of all this is the ever increasing number of deadlines involved in being an exhibitor and speaker. Today I spent most of the afternoon going over drafts for our stand design. “Put a big logo in the middle” was my KISS approach. Apparently simple isn’t always best, our designer reassures me. At some point next week we’re to hand in a first draft of our “launch” presentation. The week after, our final draft. At this point I have zero words and can barely open Power Point.

We’ve also to decide what furniture / fittings to have on our stand. Daily emails from various suppliers offering desks, laptops, plasma TV’s and much more only serve to confuse this Expo virgin. If you come by our stand and we don’t even have a chair, my apologies!

Like Fraser, this year really is my first Expo, having similarly missed last year’s event due to the birth of daughter #2, Lilly. I’m mostly looking forward to it, but it feels like I’ve got an exam half way through, so I may look much happier come 3pm on Day 1.

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One Song, You’ve Only Got One Song!

Got back from Louisville on Tuesday morning and have been sleeping mostly since! The Ryder Cup is by far the best sporting event I’ve ever attended, even though Europe did eventually lose out.

Our hotel was actually in Indiana, with Valhalla an hour and 20 minutes bus ride each way, so other than having a lie in on Sunday, we were up at 5am most days and returned to our hotel around 9pm most nights. Add walking several miles a day in 86 degree heat it’s the most tiring holiday I’ve ever had!

The highlight for me was the Saturday afternoon session, where Europe gained some momentum and 3 of the games finished on the 18th. I was standing about 10 yards away from the pin and the atmosphere was electric.

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XL - Dealing With The Aftermath

I noticed the first headline on my RSS reader at 12.32am from the BBC website - “Fears for package holiday firm XL” it read. Within a few hours it was announced that the XL Group had gone into administration. Here’s how our day has gone so far.

8.40am First thing this morning we added a page with information on the administration linked from our homepage. We also compiled lists of customers in resort and customers with advance bookings. At this point we’d already received half a dozen emails from customers. Numbers - we currently have a total of 122 customers who are in resort and had been due to fly back with an XL flight. Over 700 have advance bookings with either flights through XL or accommodation bookings with Medlife.

9.30am As soon as we received relevant information from the CAA we emailed all affected customers. Our customer service team are already fielding calls and helping customers re-book/cancel and providing information to those currently abroad, although we have no actual details from the CAA as to getting them home yet!

10.30am Everyone is working on the phones, answering emails and working on some technical changes to our admin system to allow us to rebook current bookings with new suppliers. Necessity is the mother of invention!

11.41am We receive our first notification from one of our accommodation suppliers that they are going to waive any cancellation fees where possible. Well done to hotels4u!

12.30pm We email all our unaffected customers to reassure them their booking(s) aren’t affected. This is pre-emptive as we’ve fielded a few calls / emails from customers generally worried about bookings. Still nothing from the CAA about getting those abroad back home, and having watched the CEO of XL’s press conference he thinks it could have been handled a lot better.

1.30pm The majority of our advance bookings have now been contacted. Most customers are now looking for new flights around the dates of their previous booking and we’re sorting out their new accommodation dates and transfer amendments. The sunshine.co.uk office will be open late this evening (Simon says he isn’t leaving until the phones stop ringing, that’s dedication) and open a full day tomorrow and possibly Sunday. There’s an article on the Travolution blog saying how this is going to be good for business for some companies, I’m pretty certain it won’t be for ours!

1.46pm Ryanair have provided the CAA with a spare plane to help rescue XL customers. It wouldn’t be Ryanair without also sticking the boot in -

This is proof positive that passengers should not book their holidays with flaky, financially stretched airlines such as XL. Passengers should only book reservations with financially strong airlines such as Ryanair whom they know will be here for the long term.

Spare plane? I bet those who’d booked their flights from Edinburgh will be pleased to hear that!

2.05pm Phones still pretty hectic, but customer service emails are now going down in volume! While a few airlines and tour ops are releasing PR’s that they’ll help get XL’s customers home, it’s worth noting anyone trying to book a flight in the next few weeks is going to be hit in the wallet. Some crazy prices out there. 

Also, since I haven’t mentioned it already, we won’t be cancelling any affiliate commissions affected by the XL situation. We have no intention of taking advantage of our customers during this time, so we certainly won’t be doing it to our affiliates either! 

3.00pm Spoke too soon, emails on the up again. Our customer service peeps are getting their first break of the day, rotating for ciggies, cuppas and whatever else they need to do! Everyone is working hard and will be working well past their normal hours tonight and in again tomorrow. Can’t wait to see the bill for ordered-in pizzas! All of our suppliers have confirmed that they’ll waive canx charges where possible, it’s good to see no-one trying to take advantage of the situation. 

4.25pm Phone calls and emails still coming in. While the numbers of holidaymakers affected are staggering, you can see the human faces of the saga in a few interviews on the BBC website here and here. 

5.45 pm Pizzas ordered in Fleet, still manic. 

6.45pm Pizzas arrived! Phones quieting down.

7.05pm CAA update: imminent Repatriation flight details released

8.14pm Working our way through the mountain of emails, phones still ringing. 

9.22pm Closing the office, everyone going home to come back and do it all again tomorrow.

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Maz Watch - squeezeholidays.com

 

Maz is back! This week saw the launch of Squeeze Holidays, an Online Travel Agency, nestled under the wing of Neutron Ventures. Squeeze currently offers hotel search and book, with flights to follow.

I’m sure an affiliate programme will be along in the near future and wish him the best of luck! Stay tuned for more Maz Watch!

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House Price Spy - An Affiliate Cooperative

If you’ve read Clarke’s post you’ll know that House Price Spy just relaunched, now with several as yet unnamed shareholders involved from the affiliate community. Shane Robinson has already put his hand up and now I’m doing the same. Both Chris Brown and I are shareholders, since he doesn’t have his blog up yet, I’m outing us both!

When Clarke first approached, I was quite excited about the project as an investment, however when we found out who else was involved it took the excitement to a whole new level. You, of course, are going to have to wait and see why we got all giddy as schoolgirls, as the rest of the team reveal themselves over the next few days.

 House Price Spy allows you to view how much properties are sold for, whatever your motives for looking for house prices, be it in research for selling/buying or just being nosey! While there are other sites out there offering this, HPS is one of the few with prices from England, Wales and Scotland.

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