A Day in the Life: Managing an Accessible Holiday Agency on the Move

Laptop on a drop down tray on the back of a coach seat

My day began earlier than usual, preparing for a journey to Gatwick Airport. As someone managing fibromyalgia, I made the conscious decision to travel by coach rather than drive. Driving would require multiple stops for movement and pain management, increasing journey time and ultimately impacting my ability to work effectively over the next few days. Before leaving, I took a quick photograph of our urgent board ensuring I could keep track of priorities while mobile.

Once settled on the coach, I transformed my seat into a mobile office laptop positioned, phone charging, and ready to tackle the day’s challenges. My first task was addressing an ongoing situation from yesterday regarding accessible room availability at an Egyptian hotel.

What should have been a straightforward enquiry spiralled into an hour long saga that perfectly illustrates the challenges in accessible holiday planning. The hotel, a TUI property, refused to confirm accessible room availability, requiring me to contact TUI instead, while TUI maintained their policy of only confirming after booking. This created an impossible situation for our client who, quite reasonably, needed confirmation before committing. The time spent on this single enquiry, over an hour, would have taken minutes for a standard booking.

The situation intensified when I raised concerns about their approach being potentially discriminatory, as other clients don’t have to go through this process. After pointing out that their and TUIs practices probably didn’t align with UK legislation, I found myself having to carefully explain the difference between advocacy and threats. My response emphasized our role in informing the disabled community about hotel accessibility while maintaining professional relationships, a delicate balance we often need to strike.

A quick pivot was needed when one of our partner suppliers chased for flight availability information for Uganda, an enquiry from a previous day that I hadn’t had time to address yet. After handling this now urgent request, I turned my attention to a New Year Safari booking. This particular enquiry requires verification of wheelchair compatibility with local aircraft from Cape Town to the safari location due to height and weight restriction variations across aircraft, plus coordinating multi trip flights. Given the detail required, I made the decision to postpone detailed planning until I reached the hotel.

By early evening, after checking into my airport hotel, I took a much needed hour break before diving back into work. The safari planning resumed, now requiring two distinct options. I completed and sent the first accessible safari option, along with suggested alternative dates for the lodge. The alternative dates were needed as the lodge was fully booked for New Year. This option included a creative solution to the aircraft accessibility issue – since the local aircraft couldn’t accommodate the wheelchair, I proposed a split journey with overnight stays at a hotel to break up the 6 hour drive from Johannesburg. The suggested safari itinerary included careful planning of transfers, game drives, and rest days to ensure the best possible experience despite the transport constraints. We are glad to work with Vumbua Africa who helps us create these unique accessible safari experiences.

Although it was getting late, I needed to move on to a World Cup 2026 Miami quote as the client was expecting it tomorrow. With my travel schedule, this evening was the only time to complete it. The World Cup booking presented its own unique challenges. While pre sale economy flights from Heathrow were available, our client requires Premium seating for medical reasons highlighting another barrier disabled travellers often face.

Despite the late hour (20:16), I pressed on with pricing accessible accommodation we have in our database for South Beach. This proved fruitful as I found a great option that would suit our client’s needs. However, further options need to be looked at tomorrow somehow as the need for 2 beds in an accessible room was illusive. I sent the one option over and promised further options the next day. Let’s hope the itinerary allows for it. I also coordinated with our local suppliers for power wheelchair options and WAV (Wheelchair Accessible Vehicle) transfers essential components for any accessible holiday package.

By 21:00, having completed the safari options and sent one potential World Cup accommodation option to the client, I headed down for a much needed dinner. Tomorrow brings an early 6:15 AM start for a 7:15 check in, and somehow between meetings and site visits, I’ll need to find time to source those elusive two-bed accessible rooms.

This day perfectly encapsulates why specialised accessible holiday services are essential, even if they shouldn’t be. Every booking requires careful consideration of multiple factors, constant advocacy for our clients’ needs, and the patience to navigate systems that often seem designed without accessibility in mind. Yet this is exactly why we exist – to handle these challenges so our clients don’t have to. After all, everyone deserves a holiday that’s memorable for the right reasons, not for the obstacles they had to overcome to book it.

Search for your perfect holiday

Scroll to Top