Hi Everyone,
I’m Leonie Spencer - Founder and Owner of Lifestyle Travel Ballarat coming to you from home on Day 5 of 14 days of self-isolation after returning from overseas last Tuesday. I am also the proud, strong and determined Captain of ‘Ship Lifestyle’ with the best crew ever by my side.
We are all facing unprecedented times that we could never have imagined we’d find ourselves in. It’s like watching the most scary Hollywood fiction sci-fi movie - except it’s real. Who would have ever imagined a Virus would in just 2 weeks, shut down the entire world and yet we’re all doing the best we can to take the necessary precautions to keep safe and well.
For us here at Lifestyle, our capacity to create amazing travel experiences for you all has been catastrophically affected - indefinitely - until Covid-19 is contained and our Government feels it is safe for us to travel again.
As a team we are coming to terms with our current reality, we are all shattered, have shared our fears and shed many, many tears together. We are well aware of the personal and financial impact facing us all and I have committed to them - Lifestyle Travel is up for the fight. Over the coming weeks I will advise some details of our first 100 Day ‘Survive to Thrive’ Plan. We are in this for the long haul and be assured we’re not going to let a nasty, slimy virus bring down everything we’ve worked so hard to create over the past 19 years.
Where We Stand As Travel Professionals
Any family, friends and long time clients of a Travel Professional/Agent know just how hard we work, the long hours involved and the stress when things go wrong with airlines and tour operators, when natural disasters occur. Throughout September 11, the Bali Bombings, SARS, bird flu, GFC, Zika Virus and now COVID-19, we’ve here to advocate for you all, have always got your back and will do whatever it takes to help get you to where you need to be or safely home in times of distress.
We chose Travel as our career because we love it - we are all passionate travellers ourselves but more than that, we love people and love crafting and creating amazing travel experiences for all our clients. We genuinely care - many times staying up all night sorting through the challenges all over the world, across different time zones. Travel (like nothing else) brings deep true joy to our souls through the people we meet and the experiences we have as travellers and we are blessed to share that same joy over and over every time we see you enjoying your travels knowing we have helped along the way.
Help Us, Help You
To you our amazing, loyal clients and friends - we are doing everything in our power to secure the best possible outcomes for your cancelled or postponed travel arrangements. As you know, many airlines and tour companies are offering refunds and/or credits for future travel. In both cases the amounts will vary and we will work with each of you as these credit balances and refund amounts are returned to us.
To help clarify how travel businesses like us get paid, it’s important to explain the process in this unprecedented time, as you may have noticed that we don’t charge a separate fee for our time and work on your invoices.
Airlines and tour companies pay us a commission for facilitating and booking their products and these amounts vary depending on the product. This ranges from 0 percent with some airlines (hence the need to sometimes charge a booking fee) to 10% for various tours and hotels. Whether you purchase a flight, tour or hotel directly or whether you book through us – you pay the same price regardless as we receive a wholesale rate (which is the full price less our commission).
The decision is always yours where you book your travel these days and we understand many people choose to book directly online. Yet as travel professionals, we have access to exclusive industry specials not available online that save travellers hundreds of dollars. We believe our knowledge and expertise is second to none and know the experience and benefits of booking with us will far outweigh any DIY experience. We are very proud that our clients are the best prepared and supported travellers in the universe and for anyone who has chosen to book their travel with us, we thank you for appreciating the value we add to your overall travel experience.
This leads me to implore your understanding particularly in this turbulent time, that we do need to retain some of our costs from your credits and refunds as we recoup the work that has been completed from our team over many months. This means, we are not charging any additional money for our time to amend your bookings or process your credits and refunds – it means that once it’s determined what final figures you’ll receive back individually, your travel specialist will be in touch to discuss the breakdown of what you’ll receive back. We thank you for your continued patience as we navigate through the huge volume of bookings by departure date order.
If you have any specific concerns regarding this, please don’t hesitate to contact me on email: leonie@lifestyletravel.com.au
The Road To Recovery
For our first 100 days, we plan to be highly visible, pragmatically optimistic, action orientated and we will be listening to our Government, our Medical Experts, our Business Advisors and each other. We will continue to educate ourselves so that when the time is right, we can lead you, our loyal and amazing clients back to travel and we plan to not only survive but thrive and will be back as soon as we can to being the best in the business of travel.
Finally, I personally believe there are 3 things that really matter at this time that our families and our team will be focusing our energy on:
1. Health
2. Love
3. Supporting Each Other
I hope you agree that if we are blessed to have these things, we have everything we need to make it through these very uncertain times.
We will share further updates as they come and in the meantime - look after yourselves. I’m praying that you all stay healthy.
Best Wishes,
Leonie Spencer