Luxury Travel Consultant

Grape Escapes is a leading tour operator, specialising in luxury tailor-made trips to the premium wine regions of France, Spain, Italy and Portugal. Due to unprecedented demand, we are looking to expand our team as we continue to provide unforgettable experiences as well as superb customer service. Our customers are primarily high-end travellers with varied travel requirements, ranging from couples wanting a gastronomic European tour to groups of friends celebrating special occasions and corporates rewarding their top performing staff.

This is an exciting opportunity for passionate, customer-centric, highly motivated individuals to join our small and friendly team. You will be planning, perfecting, selling and delivering bespoke wine holidays for your clients, being their main point of contact throughout their Grape Escapes experience; from their initial enquiry to providing feedback upon return from their trip.

To thrive in this role, it is vital that you are very organised and detail focused with the ability to manage a complex and varied workload.

Your key responsibilities will include:

• Taking enquiries by phone or e-mail from customers looking to explore the possibility of booking a wine holiday.
• Researching and designing tailor-made itineraries, considering budget and practicalities, as well as your client’s dreams and desires.
• Producing detailed itinerary quotes using our booking system.
• Following up with potential clients to ensure their proposed itinerary is perfect and amending it as necessary.
• Managing the complete administration of your clients’ bookings, including sending reservation requests to suppliers, juggling specific availabilities and logistics, and issuing client booking confirmations and travel documentation.
• Helping to resolve issues which may arise whilst your clients are travelling.
• Requesting and obtaining feedback after your clients have returned from their trips, and encouraging repeat business.
• Responding to out of hours enquiries from customers currently travelling with Grape Escapes (on a rota basis).
• Representing Grape Escapes in meetings with clients and suppliers, and at trade/retail events.
• Visiting and assessing new hotels, vineyards and restaurants on familiarisation trips.
• Any additional duties as may reasonably be required.

Essential:

• Customer-focused outlook and attitude.
• Highly motivated and driven to succeed.
• Meticulous attention to detail demonstrated from previous experience.
• Proven ability to multitask.
• Computer literate with the ability to learn new systems.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills (English).
• High level of numeracy and literacy.
• Full passport and free to travel within Europe.
• Permission to live and work in the UK.
• Passion for travel.

Desirable:

• Experience working within the travel industry.
• Experience in a customer-facing role (ideally within the luxury market).
• Sales experience.
• Ability to communicate confidently by phone and in writing in a second European language (preferably French, Spanish or Italian).
• Interest in and knowledge of wine.
• Previous use of Outlook, Word and Excel.

To apply, please contact mark@grapeescapes.net with your CV and a cover letter explaining why we should consider your application. Applications made solely via LinkedIn will NOT be considered.