Trailfinders Reviews

Pros

Intresting job sometimes people come up with some intresting destination ideas , also you have a travel fund to go towards your own travels which is pretty handy.

Cons

longish days and some things are regimented and could be done better , but not a bad place to work at all

Pros

Free lunch, staff are great on the level you are working on, ok travel perks (getting worse) fun training in London. Uniform so don’t have to think what to wear. Travel fun for your own trips.

Cons

Management in my travel center were awful!! Never taught how to be a manager and was only hired as had been there a long time. Would get angry and argue with staff, was out to get you if numbers weren’t great for one month, didn’t support you if you had personal stuff going on (got told couldn’t go to aunts funeral, still went). Targets are getting higher and higher compared to a few years ago. Upper management turn... a blind eye and don’t listen when you try and express concerns, blame goes back to you. People in other travel centers can ruin your bookings or refuse to help. Literally little to no time in your personal life and almost impossible to take shifts. Have to book your annual leave nearly a year in advance, not everyone know what’s they’re doing that far. Can’t take annual leave on a Sunday! So regimented, if you’re off the phone more than ten minutes a manager is on your back. Have a stupid sales wheel you have to follow which doesn’t work with everyone’s selling styles, if you’re still selling and not following that wheel, you can get warnings.

Advice to Management

Train your managers correctly like you do for frontline staff. Take front line staffs advice! The know what’s happening more than the people looking at statistics from a desk in Kensington. Be way more flexible with rosters, this is 2019, people can easily go somewhere else with a happier work life balance, which I am seeing as pretty high turnover

Pros

Intensive well structured training. There is a lot to learn. Colleagues are one of the best things about the job. Fun, outgoing and everyone loves travel. Wide range of product to deal with and customers are mainly interesting well travelled people who are excited about their own travel. Perks include chances to travel to lots of places and stay in 4-5 star resorts often paid for by the company or suppliers.

Cons

Working in a 7 day a week retail job means weekends and some evening work but that is the nature of the role. More flexibility has been allowed recently to help balance this off.

Advice to Management

Many changes over the last 12 months in particularly have seen good improvements in working for you. Staff are being listened to. Lots of technical improvements to systems are also making a big difference to staff and customer experience.

Pros

Industry leading salary, promote from within which leads to job progression faster, like minded colleagues, get the travel, good social life and get taken out by suppliers. Always learning and being trained on new things, no day is ever the same so never bored!

Cons

Long hours and weekend work (but you are explained this from day 1), could do with a longer lunch break ( you do have your lunch delivered to your office each day free)

Advice to Management

Keep up the good work of praising staff when they do a good job, this means alot to all staff at all levels.

Pros

Great travel perks, industry leading pay, like minded work colleagues, great possibilities for progression.

Cons

Working weekends and a little more than the conventional 40 hour week but compares favourably with other retail environments.

Pros

Great travel perks and even better people.

Cons

Treat staff like children, short breaks and people may struggle with the work-life balance.

Advice to Management

Give staff a bit more freedom and trust instead of having them on a leash.

Pros

The consultants you work with are great. Most people have come in for the love of travel. So in general you all have a lot in common. They’re the ones the keep you coming back day to day. Some good perks such as ETF, educational travel fund, which you can use to pay for some or all of your trips. Some very good staff rates on hotels etc. Good training both at the start and through your time there. Sales... coaches are there to help you improve on your sales. At senior level, the pay is decent. Good annual leave. All management have come up through the ranks in TF (there are also cons to this)

Cons

Trailfinders have actively asked staff to write good reviews for Glassdoor so be mindful of what you read. CEO approval has gone from the lowest in the UK (somewhere around 2%) to 76%. It’s a a miracle. Its the 21st century. Not the army and Trailfinders seem to have forgotten that. If you want to be dressed like a school kid and treated like it, this could the place for you. Now a days, modern... companies try to help their staff stay motivated and give them more autonomy. When it comes work / life balance, Trailfinders has been left in the dust. Your day is constantly monitored. How long have to been on calls today? How many calls did you take? How long have to been away from your desk? How many bookings did you make today? As above, all management have come through the ranks in TF but this means they only know TF. Unfortunately this means they only know the TF and nothing else. They don’t know anything about creating a positive culture in the workplace. Far too many restrictions. Sales process is too scripted and if you don’t follow it, you will suffer if you try to go for new roles. They say they want to see your personality on your calls, but if you don’t phrase sentences a certain way, or ask questions a certain way, this is frowned upon. Taking holidays is a nightmare as you cannot take Sunday’s as a holiday day. Too many late shifts being snuck into the roster. Computer systems are outdated. Awful uniform that does t even match the rest of the company colours. Even with staff travel. Not allowed to do things that every other travel agent can do. Such as contact reps or avail of offers they have. Unless it is approved by staff travel. Staff don’t feel valued in any way. Just a staff number.

Advice to Management

Do yourself a favour and get yourself invited to one of the offices in London like Google, Facebook, AirBnB and the like. I’m not saying this is what you should aim for, but there are a lot of things that could be learned. Look how happy the staff are, listen to the buzz in the office as you walk around, look at the facilities they provide for their staff to keep them happy. At the end of the day, happier... staff will be more productive staff. Also, get a HR team! As you can read from other reviews, people are t happy but TF don’t seem to care. They’ll happily wait for you to leave and replace you.

Pros

Your colleagues paired with the great travel perks and travel stipend you receive are the best parts of the job.

Cons

The work life balance isn't great. You can often go 2 weeks without having back to back days off.

Advice to Management

Create a better roster plan where employees are never given schedules that do not give them at least 2 days off in a row together each week.