Location: Home-based, with at least one day a week in our Cotswolds office (more if you can)
Hours: Full time or part time
Reports to: Indian Subcontinent Sales and Service Manager
About Red Dot
We’ve been designing private trips since 2000. We started with Sri Lanka and stuck with it for years before adding India, then the Maldives, Bhutan and Nepal, each one only once we were sure we could do it properly. We’re still small, and that’s deliberate. It means every client is looked after by someone who has spent real time in the country.
Clients often tell us they couldn’t have found their trip anywhere else. Our Feefo, Google and Trip Advisor reviews say it better than we can.
We’re members of the Conscious Travel Foundation, and every Sri Lanka booking helps fund the Tea Leaf Trust’s education and skills programmes in Sri Lanka’s tea estate communities. We choose small, characterful hotels and local partners over international chains, so more of what our clients spend stays in the places they visit. You won’t find elephant rides in our trips, we want to see wildlife in the wild. Women make up only around 10% of Sri Lanka’s tourism workforce, so we’re proud of how many women we employ there. There’s more we want to do, and we’re working on it.
Working at Red Dot
Kindness matters more to us than almost anything. We look after each other, and we treat our partners in India and Sri Lanka as people we’ve known for years, because many of them are. With clients, we’d always rather be honest about what will and won’t work for them than sell them the wrong trip.
Our UK office is on a working farm in the Oxfordshire Cotswolds. Plenty of us have young families, so flexible hours are simply part of how we work, and nobody gets a funny look for leaving early for a school pick-up.
The UK and Colombo teams work as one; people cover for each other when someone’s stretched or away, and we’d much rather hire someone kind and hard-working than someone who’s only in it for themselves.
The role
This is the most important job we have. You’ll spend time with clients working out what they want from India then design the trip from scratch. A private astrologer to read the stars in Ladakh, or flying kites over Jaipur’s rooftops with the children: that’s the kind of thinking we’re after.
You’d join a small, and very experienced team split between the UK and Colombo, and we’re happy for the role to be part time or full time.
Most of our India partners have worked with us for years. Getting to know them yourself is one of the best parts of the job, and it’s where the good ideas come from. We want someone who enjoys the product side, whether that’s tracking down a new hotel or a guide nobody else uses, and then working with our DMCs to build it into a trip.
India comes first, but it doesn’t have to be the only thing forever. As we grow there’s room to take on other destinations if that’s where your interests lie. And because we’re small, you’ll have a genuine say in how India develops and how the team works.
Day to day
Talking to clients, designing itineraries and turning enquiries into bookings. Costings, reservations and all the logistics that go with them. Keeping up with what’s changing in India. The odd client meeting in the UK, plus fam trips to keep your knowledge very current. Working with our Content and Communications Manager on marketing, and helping out elsewhere in the business when things are quieter.
About you
First of all, we need someone who can curate and sell brilliant holidays. You should enjoy the conversation and enjoy converting it.
India should be a country you know well, probably from living there or going back many times. The parts you love most are likely the smaller ones: a regional dish, an owner-run hotel, a corner of the country most people skip.
Clients should come away feeling understood, so expect to ask a lot of questions. Trust should come quickly, with partners as much as clients.
Detail matters hugely in bespoke travel. Being organised and quick is essential, as is getting on with things without being chased.
Responsible travel should matter to you. You’ll want every trip you design to leave the places and people our clients meet better off, and you’ll enjoy finding ways to do that.
Personality counts for a lot. We’re looking for someone warm and kind and naturally motivated, who’ll get stuck in, look out for colleagues and want the whole team to do well, not just themselves.
Ideally you’ll have at least two years’ experience designing trips to India, but a broader background in bespoke travel is fine too. Knowledge of Egypt, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Japan or Indochina would help, and so would an interest in marketing and product.
What we offer
A competitive salary with commission and benefits, which we’ll talk through with you. Good annual leave, plus time set aside to learn more about positive travel and how we can have an impact.
One last thing: this description won’t cover everything. We still work a bit like a start-up, so the role suits someone who’s comfortable without everything mapped out.
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