Holiday representative : Salary and conditions

• Typical starting salaries are between £450 and £500 per calendar month.
• Salaries can be considerably enhanced with commissions from selling excursions and other services. Experienced representatives often earn between £700 and £800 a month.
• Basic salaries and commission structures steadily improve once you have taken on more responsibility and progressed to a more senior role such as team leader or resort manager.
• Benefits vary between employers but typically include accommodation, free flights to and from the resort, free uniform and sometimes free meals or a food allowance. Other benefits include discounted or free excursions and holidays, use of company cars in leisure time, use of hotel swimming pools and tennis courts, discounted prices in bars and restaurants and cheaper accommodation for family or friends who visit. These are usually arranged on an ad hoc basis within the resort and at the discretion of management.
• The majority of employers provide free accommodation, either in the form of a rental apartment which may be shared with other staff, hotel accommodation or alternatively a living allowance to find your own accommodation. This varies between employers and between individual resorts.
• Working as a holiday representative is not a nine to five job. Representatives often have to work very long and unsocial hours. Working 12 or more hours a day, six days a week, is not uncommon especially if there are long airport delays, which can occur on a regular basis.
• Holiday representatives are required to wear their uniform at all times whilst on duty and may have to change several times a day depending on whether they are undertaking hotel visits, welcome meetings or airport duties. Appearances must always be smart.
• The role is not office-based but increasingly there is more paperwork involved. Most of the time is spent with clients in the hotel, on excursions or at the airport.
• Most of the larger tour operators employ holiday representatives on seasonal contracts: the summer season is generally from April to September; the winter season is split between October to December and January to March.
• Some of the smaller, more specialised operators may offer the possibility to work freelance.
• Jobs are based at specific holiday resorts. Some companies start the holiday representatives in European countries for their first three or four seasons, with possible progression to the Caribbean, Asia and the Americas after that. It may not always be possible to be placed in your country of choice.
• The work is highly demanding and challenging. Clients often have very high expectations and holiday representatives have to deal with the issues when these are not being met. Representatives have to get used to working in a new country with a different culture, but it can provide the opportunity to learn a different language. The job can also be hugely rewarding, build confidence and provide great job satisfaction.
• Holiday representatives can be away from home for months at a time. Often, they work two seasons back-to-back before returning home for a break.
• Holiday representatives may need to move resorts every season so there may not be consistency with the location.

Salary data from People 1st, 2011.