Rebooked, not refunded.
A 24/7 rebooking desk for a European holiday company that kept refund requests under 2% through a summer of airport strikes.
| Sector | Travel, package holidays |
|---|---|
| Team | 64 agents, 5 team leads |
| Studios | Cape Town and Cebu |
| Services | Customer support, voice-first |
| Client since | 2022 |
Refunds that were really wait times.
Wayside Trips sells flight-and-villa holidays to families in the UK and Ireland. When a flight is cancelled, a customer can be rebooked or refunded, and every refund is a holiday Wayside loses.
When we listened to their calls, most refund requests came from customers who had waited over twenty minutes on the phone and given up, not from people who wanted their money back. Their contact centre closed at 8 pm, and cancellations do not.
“Our flight to Faro is cancelled, we have two kids with us and the villa starts tonight.”
Rebooked via Porto at 9:15. The car is moved too.
Thandi Mokoena, Cape Town · replied in 7mWhat we set up.
One desk that answers around the clock and can fix the whole trip in a single call: flight, villa and car.
| Team | 64 agents, 5 team leads, 3 QA analysts and an account lead |
|---|---|
| Studios | Cape Town (38 agents) and Cebu (26), overnight |
| Hours | 24 hours, 365 days |
| Channels | Phone, chat and WhatsApp |
| Languages | English, with Dutch from Cape Town |
| Tools | Wayside’s booking system, Amadeus and Zendesk Talk |
| Authority | Rebook, rehouse and move car hire up to €400 a traveller |
Week by week.
From the first call to where the account stands today.
- Week 1Listened to 300 calls
We found that most refund requests followed a long wait, and that half of all cancellations landed between 8 pm and 7 am.
- Weeks 2–4Hired 32 agents
Cape Town for UK mornings and evenings, Cebu for the overnight phone line. Training included two days on Amadeus.
- Week 5Rebooking desk live, 24/7
Agents could rebook flights, move villa dates and car hire inside one call, without a supervisor.
- Strike day 1Four times the calls by 7 am
We opened the Cebu night team early and moved our trainers onto the phones while the first new class was hired.
- Day 9Team doubled to 64
Agents from our trained bench and two fast-track classes, each certified on Wayside’s rebooking rules before taking a call.
- AutumnRefund requests under 2%
Across the summer, 1.9% of disrupted bookings asked for a refund, against 7.8% the summer before.
What changed.
Before: Wayside’s contact centre figures for summer 2021. After: June to September 2023, from the weekly report.
- Refund requests on disrupted trips
- 1.9%from
7.8% - Average wait on the phone
- 2m 40sfrom
23 min - Rebooked on the first call
- 83%from
41% - Satisfaction on disrupted trips
- 86%from
62%
“During the airport strikes we doubled the team in nine days. Customers never knew anything had changed behind the scenes. What I remember most is the first morning: they called me with a plan before I had finished reading the news.”
Two more client stories.
Need a desk that never closes?
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