Careers with Journey Beyond

• 7-10 years of previous experience in the tourism industry
• Excellent knowledge of luxury properties and tours in Southern and East Africa
• Proficient in the English language, additional languages beneficial
• Computer literate and proficient in Microsoft Office and Outlook
• Excellent knowledge of Tourplan and Safari Portal
• Excellent Product/Destination knowledge of South Africa, Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Namibia, and East Africa
• Ability to multitask and assist with additional projects when needed by Team Leader, GM or MD
• Prepared to work extra hours, weekends, and public holidays where necessary
• Excellent leadership and delegation skills
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Passionate about service delivery
• Organized and good time management skills
• Solution driven and detail orientated
• Self-motivated and constantly looking for opportunities for growth

Day to Day

Quoting

• Know who your client is/study profile in Tourplan or ask a senior Team Leader (who knows the client/agent)
• Understand the time zone in which the client/agent is based
• Quote clients as per their initial request
• Offer alternative quotations to be competitive or if you feel the client’s initial request is not suitable or practical
• Quotes must be presented in a manner that is informative and easily understood by the client. Explanations of any changes or improvements to the itinerary must be given
• All quotes must be checked and signed off by a senior colleague or team leader prior to being sent out
• Provide the client with a 12-24 hour turnaround depending on the complexity of the quotation
• All quotes and booking requests must be acknowledged on the day of receipt of your client’s initial request If unable to provide a final quotation on the same business day you need to communicate with your client/agent on the same day explaining why there is a delay/where you are at.
• Follow up with agents/clients on quotations sent of a weekly basis so they can be confirmed, or the file can be closed
• If, for any reason, you cannot go back to a client/agent on a given day giving them a complete answer, itinerary and quote then you need to advise the client and/or agent why and prioritize getting this complete response out the next day

Reservations

• Follow all the necessary procedures that are required in making a reservation, correspond with suppliers timeously regarding provisional bookings, waitlists, reconfirmations, rooming lists, and cancellations
• Always consider deposit, full payment, and cancellation deadlines
• Correspond with the client in a factual, informative, and easily understood manner, especially in the case of group bookings where there are payment deadlines and penalties
• Double check your reservations immediately upon receipt from suppliers for accuracy to make sure they have been made correctly and update booking statuses in the reservations system
• Check visa requirements
• Adhere to airline e-ticketing deadlines
• Reconfirm airline bookings
• A copy of all correspondence (received or sent out) must be put on file
• Ensure that all supplier invoices are received timeously and forwarded to the accounts department upon receipt of same
• Check supplier invoices very carefully to ensure all the information pertaining to the booking is correct

Invoicing

• Once a booking has been confirmed an invoice must be issued reflecting the deposit amounts, date due and date of final payment being due.
• It is not acceptable for invoicing to be left to the last moment

Communication

• Clients must be communicated to in a clear, precise manner to avoid possible misunderstandings and misinterpretation
• To communicate information received from suppliers and agents to the relevant parties within Journey Beyond to ensure we are aware of specific events that may affect the smooth running of the business and can learn of new products and solutions

E-Filing

• Assuming responsibility for all your own filing
• Clearing out your quote files monthly
• Clearing out your emails from the Journey Box and making sure it is filed accordingly 

Documentation

• Ordering airline tickets timeously – a copy of the e-tickets must be kept on file
• Ensuring documentation is sent out to suppliers and clients. Allowing enough time to ensure the documents arrive prior to the client’s first date of travel. This may be prior to the date your client commences his or her travel with Journey Beyond. Documents should go out 6 weeks in advance – when files are meant to ALL have been handed to the Quality Controller (See new paperless procedure attached)

Assisting the Accounts Department

• By checking that deposits have been received and paid by the due date and ensuring team members do
• By checking supplier invoices are correct
• By checking that final payments have been received and paid by the due date
• Assisting with supplier and client accounts queries

Support

• Assisting the junior and intermediate reservations consultants with itinerary planning, product selection and costing of itineraries

General

• Maintain your quote and reservations files in the manner laid out by the company
• Any quote or booking problem must be brought to Management’s attention as soon as it is discovered. This will give Management time to assist with sorting out the problem well in advance of the client’s date of travel
• Generally, assist your colleagues in checking of quotes and taking over bookings during periods of leave, educational trips, or sickness

• Minimum 5 years previous experience in a managing and mentoring position.
• 7-10 years experience as a senior reservations consultant in tourism industry.
• Excellent knowledge of luxury properties and tours in Southern and East Africa
• Proficient in the English language, additional languages beneficial
• Computer literate and proficient on Microsoft Office and Outlook
• Excellent knowledge of Tourplan and Safari Portal.
• Excellent Product/Destination knowledge of South Africa, Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Namibia, and East Africa
• Ability to multitask and assist with additional projects when needed by Team Leader, GM or MD
• Prepared to work extra hours, weekends, and public holidays where necessary
• Excellent leadership and delegation skills
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Passionate about service delivery
• Organized and good time management skills
• Solution driven and detail orientated
• Self-motivated and constantly looking for opportunities for growth

Managing / Mentoring /Support

• Assisting the reservations consultants with itinerary planning, product selection and costing of itineraries
• Monitoring of quotes and standards of responses
• Monitoring timeous completion of allocated work by reservations consultants
• Handover of files when consultant/s leave the company or go on leave
• Planning and implementation of reservations consultant training on processes, products, Tourplan, administration and mentoring
• Drawing up and monitoring reservations staff leave, weekend duty and public holiday rosters
• Ensuring Journey Beyond standards and procedures are maintained
• Taking responsibility for, and looking after, inboxes and files when consultants are ill, on leave or on educational trips. Utilising members within your teams to assist
• Performance appraisals with consultants in conjunction with HR
• Recruitment of reservations consultants as required
• Identify anomalies in the processes and business areas that needs evolving
• Ensure anomalies identified have a workable solution

 Day to Day

• To ensure that all consultants hand in confirmed files to Quality Controller (See new procedure for paperless Quality Control attached)
• To ensure that consultants invoice their confirmed bookings timeously
• Preliminary checks of invoices and confirmation to be checked before being sent out (buddy system)
• Qualification and distribution of all new quote and booking requests
• Responding to complaints in conjunction with General Manager and/or Managing Director
• Maintaining and building customer relationships in conjunction with Sales Department
• Managing accounts queries between reservations, administration, and accounts departments
• Pulling reports as identified and monitoring individual staff performance
• Identifying and planning staff educational travel in conjunction with Managing Director
• Mentoring and guiding reservation staff on day-to-day duties
• Ensure that the team is kept in high spirit, have a common goal, and is motivated and performance driven
• Ensure that the ‘buddy’ system is in place
• Pulling of reports that include Weekend duty reports.
• Ensure New staff is training on TEAMS.
• Assist and monitor bookings loaded in TEAMS, ensure that consultant update the bookings status according to Tourplan.
• Ensuring that consultants clear out of their emails in the Journey inbox and that it is filed accordingly.

Reservations

• Know who your client is/study profile in Tourplan or ask a senior Team Member (who knows the client/agent)
• Understand the time zone in which the client/agent is based
• Offer alternative quotations to be competitive or if you feel the client’s initial request is not suitable or practical
• Ensuring that the consultants respond with a 12-24 hour turnaround depending on the complexity of the quotation. If unable to provide a final quotation on the same business day the consultants need to communicate with your client/agent on the same day explaining why there is a delay.
• Ensuing that the consultants follow up with agents/clients on quotations sent of a weekly basis so they can be confirmed, or the file closed
• All quotes and booking requests must be acknowledge on the day of receipt of your client’s initial request.
• If, for any reason, the consultants cannot go back to a client/agent on a given day giving them a complete answer, itinerary and quote then the consultants need to advise the client and/or agent why and prioritize getting this complete response out the next day
• Ensuring the consultants follow all the necessary procedures that are required in making a reservation, correspond with suppliers timeously regarding provisional bookings, waitlists, reconfirmations, rooming lists, and cancellations
• Always consider deposit, full payment, and cancellation deadlines
• Correspond with the client in a factual, informative, and easily understood manner especially in the case of group bookings where there are payment deadlines and penalties
• Double check your reservations immediately upon receipt from suppliers for accuracy to make sure they have been made correctly and update booking statuses in the reservations system

Communication

• Clients / agents and suppliers must be communicated to in a clear, precise manner to avoid possible misunderstandings and misinterpretation.
• To communicate information received from suppliers and agents to the relevant parties within Journey Beyond to ensure we are aware of specific events that may affect the smooth running of the business and can learn of new products and solutions.

Documentation

• Ensuring documentation is sent out to suppliers and clients timeously.
• Allowing enough time to ensure the documents arrive prior to the client’s first date of travel. This may be prior to the date your client commences his or her travel with Journey Beyond. Documents should go out 6 weeks in advance – when files are meant to ALL have been handed in to the Quality Controller
• Updating Journey Beyond booking documentation in Tourplan system

General

• Managing accounts queries between reservations, administration and accounts departments.
• Assisting with supplier and client accounts queries
• Responding to complaints in conjunction with the Operations and Administration Manager, Accounts Department and Managing Director
• Generally, assist your colleagues in checking of quotes and taking over bookings during periods of leave, educational trips, or sickness