i am really suprised to read about reps not getting time to eat the last 2 holidays i have been on i saw the reps in the resturant at breakfast and dinner.maybe it depends on who they work for

Of course Reps get something to eat, and the time to eat it. They are always to be found in Hotel Dining Rooms and Restuarants. It comes with the Job. I simply cannot believe that they cannot find half an hour to grab a bite to eat. That is preposterous.

I've seen the same Reps at breakfast, lunch AND dinner. If they accompany you on trips they also get fed in local cafes etc. There is NO way they could work the long hours they supposedly work without eating something.

The majority of reps I have had the pleasure of meeting didn't look like they had missed any meals

i am not sure.. i do think it depends on the company and the hotel.. but i think i mentioned in an earlier post about the diving guy at our last holiday hotel and we had to sneak food out to him ..and he was literally skin and bone and got a day off when it suited the hotel and was paid so poorly he could only afford to eat one meal a day.. the rest was mooched off people like us that took pity on him.

i am sure there would be some sort of human rights law being broken if the reps were never allowed to eat...

What I don't understand is surely if the rep's show they are prepared to put up with the low pay, lack of food etc then the holiday company's will continue to get away with it

It might be low pay, although I do not believe it is as low as .80p per hour. I would have thought that would be illegal, but lack of food.....no way. Reps are well fed. I've seen that with my own eyes.

Whenever we've stayed in hotels we've always seen the reps eating in the dining room and a few years ago we holidayed in France for 4 years running on campsites, the reps there always seem to do well for food and seemed to get loads given to them from holidaymakers when their holidays came to an end. When we were in Crete last year we were AI but fancied a meal out for a change, the rep recommended which restaurant to try and he was there himself that evening wining and dining with another rep, they always seem to have enough money also to get rather merry on their night's off from what I've seen

Hmmmm this topic which i started has amazed me with some of the replies and comments posted

I can not comment on any other rep only on what i have seen and heard from my daughter and the other reps she works with
this is an average week working 6 days ( because of shortages of reps none of the reps working with my daughter has had a day off in over 3 weeks

9 -12 1st hotel
12-1 travel to next hotel
1-4 2nd hotel
4-4/30 travel to 3rd hotel
5-8 3rd hotel
2-8 1/2 day a week in office doing paperwork and training

Airport days (generally 2 a week possibly 3) same as above but transfers to and from airport can start at 8pm and finish anytime up to 7am depending on plane arrivals..... you may get a day off if your lucky

As you can see it is a lot of hours so next time your rep is looking tired maybe just maybe they have not been out partying all night long but working there socks off

Of course Reps get something to eat, and the time to eat it. They are always to be found in Hotel Dining Rooms and Restuarants. It comes with the Job. I simply cannot believe that they cannot find half an hour to grab a bite to eat. That is preposterous.

Only if a rep works in a 5* hotel all inclusive will he/she eat at the hotel dining room/ restaurant that also depends on if he/she has got half an hour spare to eat, most of the reps would love to have half an hour to eat without being disturbed with guests complaints, advice etc ,trust me i know i experienced this when i went to see my daughter she had just picked up a plate when a guest came over. my daughter then spent over an hour and a half dealing with this, hence she ended up having no dinner that night.
Yes you are right they can eat at the hotel but lets be honest would you like to be sitting there trying to eat and get people coming up to you each time you put a mouthful of food in your mouth, but again this depends on if they have the time to eat and depending on how far they have to go to there next hotel thats probably why reps try to eat anywhere else bar the hotel they work in, yes your probably going to see reps eating in other restaurants or fast food places generally on there night off (if they are lucky to have one) but then again surely they are entitled to eat elswhere

It might be low pay, although I do not believe it is as low as .80p per hour. I would have thought that would be illegal,

Regarding 80p an hour..... they are paid a basic pay no matter how many hours they work then following deductions for tax, insurance and living allowance the pay left equates to 80p an hour i should know i have seen my daughters wages im sorry if you dont believe it but thats the truth.They do not get paid a minimum wage like they would here in the UK

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Just come back from Bulgaria, and we had a fantastic rep called Paul who was really helpfull even when I'd had no sleep (and was REALLY grumpy!) and filed a bitchy complaint about the noise levels outside the hotel...

We ended down the pub together for the last England match and were shouting and jumping together. I'd love to be cynical about the reps, but he really knew his stuff, put up with grumpy passengers (we'd had a really crappy delay the night before the meeting resulting in us arriving at 3am instead of 11pm) with really good grace, and was basically a really nice guy.

Respect to the Thomas Cook reps, they did really well by us.

Really glad you had a good rep. reps have to be trained to deal with any problems, advice and local knowledge of the resort (even having to learn the language) before they can begin working with guests.I was amazed to see my daughter having a full on conversation in turkish

laticsontour thanks for your posting you understood what i was on about yes i am a mum who cares about my daughter and some of the things she has had to put up with ( without getting into it i went to see her because she had been involved in a car crash) i was shocked and disgusted that the day after she was allowed home from hospital she had to work a 14 hr shift even some of the guests were horrified to look at her all bandaged, battered and bruised
You may all ask well as a caring mum why then didnt i make her come home after seeing her in a bad way also the hassle she would have to deal with the work and living conditions she has to endure? well as a caring mother i decided it was not my decision to make ( i wanted her home asap) but to let my daughter make her own decision her decision was to stay no matter how hard the job was how offensive or aggresive people could be how little sleep she would have and how little pay she recieved, she is not a young girl straight from school wearing the uniform and going out every night on bar crawls ( she has never done one bar crawl) she will stay because she loves the job she has met some fantastic guests who she keeps in contact with, she has made some brilliant fellow reps and most of all she loves to wake up in the morning with the sun shining and on a plus side its not your average 9-5 job, each day is a new day with different problems and different needs and for that reason she has chose to stay

because she loves the job

Thats the most important thing, to be happy in your work, because she loves the job, that's what makes her a good rep

Only a 5* hotel lets them eat?

I've seen them eating in plenty of 3 and 4 star hotels!

only if a rep eats in a five star hotel

Excuse me, I have never stayed in a five star, but can say in 2,3 and 4 star's I have stayed in the reps had breakfast and an evening meal, every day! What tour company does she work for?

Brit5Alpha wrote:

Only if a rep works in a 5* hotel all inclusive will he/she eat at the hotel dining room/ restaurant

Forgive me but that is simply not so. I have stayed in TWO* Hotels in Greece and Benidorm and Cyprus and the Reps are seen in the Dining Room at meal times.

Only a 5* hotel lets them eat? I've seen them eating in plenty of 3 and 4 star hotels!

Excuse me, I have never stayed in a five star, but can say in 2,3 and 4 star's I have stayed in the reps had breakfast and an evening meal, every day! What tour company does she work for?

a rep can usually eat for free in a 5* hotel ( looks good to the guests seeing a rep eat at the hotel, hotel managers and travel companies want this) only if thats the hotel he/she will be based at i dont know what other companies and hotels offer to there reps i am basing my opinions on where my daughter works and the company she works for
but i can tell you this... some reps she works with are not based at 5* hotels and they have to pay a reduced amount of money to eat at the hotel so in fact some reps do have to pay for there meals and may choose to eat at the hotel where as some reps choose to eat somewhere else
Also if you look at some of my postings i have said other reps have left and gone back home, so my daughter and the rest of the reps she works with have to work in more hotels which find themselves without a rep also more travelling time to and from hotels thus generally giving them no time to grab a meal

Excuse me if I have misunderstood you, but you clearly stated

Brit5Alpha wrote:

Only if a rep works in a 5* hotel all inclusive will he/she eat at the hotel dining room/ restaurant

which implies that if the Rep works in a Hotel with a lower Star Rating then they do not eat at these hotels, which is simply not true. Whether or not the Reps have to pay for their meals in the hotels as they have them, or whether or not the Tour Operator has something in situ whereby the Tour Operator is billed by the Hotels for the meals the Reps consume and then the cost of these meals deducted from Reps wages, I have no idea. But I DO know what I have seen, and I have seen Reps dining in 1, 2, 3 and 4 star Hotels.

This thread let me into some more research and I stumbled across this thread on another forum:

http://www.careerintravel.co.uk/CareerInTravelForum/viewtopic.php?t=26&highlight=pay

Read the post by their member *Stace* - it is totally the opposite of what your daughter is experiencing

Mark (with mod hat off )

Interesting reading Mark

Well theres no way if I were a rep that I'd PAY to eat at the hotel if I was only getting 80p per hour!
It'd be sandwiches and pot noodles!

Thanks for that Mark

Actually it was me, not Sanji who posted the comments on the reps WE had (I wasnt commenting on any other rep!!!!!!) getting perks and backhanders!!!

I knew this to be an absolute FACT, as when we returned I discovered that my cousin had actually worked with the same reps earlier in the season. (Wish Id known before I left, Id have saved myself a load of money getting it exchanged at the cheapest place, not the one they advised!)

I think "Stace's" comments on your link MORE than bear out my comments.

I would think that your daughter is working so hard at the moment because they don't have the full allocation of staff so the circumstances may not be the norm. I know reps work very hard but from what I've seen they reap the rewards and the perks. Everyone knows there's not much money involved, but then when you've got accommodation provided you don't need it - and it's true about free or cheap meals/drinks from places they might recommend or visit frequently themselves.

My friend is an onsite manager for a travel company at a french campsite and she and her team work incredibly hard, there's no doubting that, but they also have time out. She has her hard core of regular staff but she has to sack people every season for not pulling their weight. It means the remaining staff have to work that bit harder while waiting for someone new to be appointed, but that's just par for the course. Even when she was a rep rather than manager she managed to save a lot of money over the season because they just don't spend much - free accommodation counts for a heck of a lot! She ends her season with a holiday usually somewhere like Thailand and then off for the ski season for the winter. She loves it and won't ever come back to live in England.

So it seems that your daughter does seem to be in a minority so far as her workload is concerned, maybe she might want to try a different company and start to see the lighter side of being a rep, though as she enjoys it as it is, she may be just fine staying put.