Starting yesterday afternoon, a large number of our customers (most of which cancelled their travel packages over the last 7 days) contacted us (Director’s Choice Tour & Travel) with hopes of rebooking their trips for this weekend. As we rely heavily on our systems to guarantee product integrity, here is what followed:

• Customers were asked to submit requests in writing for verification and to initiate the change process
• Original registration files were pulled from file room
• Changes were walked to our conference room (now setup as mission control) and reinstatement started in our system
• Performance times were rebooked on a first-come first-served basis
• Each vendor was contacted to confirm availability and details (festivals, hotels, coaches, etc.)
• Customer itineraries were created/updated
• New maps, directions, performance site information packets, etc. were sent to rebooked customers
• Completed files were returned to file room

So the kicker is that this process was run successfully for the dozens of customers that were ready (read – finally allowed by their administrators) to reinstate their packages.  Thanks to our outstanding team and some very cooperative vendors, we were able to meet 100% of our customer requests as of 9:00 PM this evening.

Looking back, this is the highest 24-hour workload that our company has dealt with since we opened.  We essentially contracted the same number of groups today that we normally handle in about 2 months, knowing that departures begin on Thursday morning.

The beauty is that we all kept a smile on our face throughout the day.  You see, it has been indescribably depressing the last seven days – cancelling group after group – knowing that nobody was going to be happy with the final result.  Today, we got to prove what we say and believe – we will do everything within our power to provide students with positive travel and performance experiences.

So, to my friends that found irony and humor in my post from a few weeks ago suggesting that this is our best travel season ever, I must say…

NOW, EVEN MORE THAN BEFORE, THIS IS OUR BEST TRAVEL SEASON EVER!!!!

Our relationships with customers and vendors are stronger than ever, our team has a new level of unity that is almost scary, and even the “Novel A (h1n1) Swine Influenza” can’t break our spirit!