Virgin Holidays pledges to put full product on agent site

Virgin Holidays has pledged to make all products available through its dedicated trade website, after agents complained the operator undercuts them online.

Speaking at the Global Travel Group conference, Virgin Holidays sales and distribution director Chris Roe said the company did not differentiate direct and trade prices.

However, agents claimed the operator was offering discounts online on some products not available through the trade site. It usually offers 5% discount for booking online and is currently offering 10% off holidays for summer 2011.

Newell’s Travel partner Helen Hawke said: “If I give customers the same discount, I have to give up some of my commission. We are just a brochure distribution service for Virgin.”

Roe said the full product would be available online by the summer.  “Our Florida, USA  and Caribbean products are available through the call centre, the trade website and Viewdata. At the moment though our Worldwide product is only available through our call centre but in summer 2010 we will have this product added to our vhols4 agent site giving agents more choice of where they can book."