The Discerning Collection has bought failed Turkey specialist Elixir Holidays from its administrators. The Turkey specialist operator has taken on Elixir's 309 forward bookings, some assets, its database, intellectual property rights, trading and domain names. The deal does not cover the operator's staff, five of which were based in London,...
The Demise of Elixir Holidays
The sad demise of Elixir Holidays shows, once again, how tour operators need to operate with Trust Accounts. It also shows that committed accommodation and flights, where the hotels and flights are guaranteed, must be a thing of the past. If Elixir had operated with a trust account, all the...
The Demise of Exclusive Escapes – Trust Accounts
When I set up our Trust Account last year it was with some trepidation as fundamentally it meant that we could only trade with the money that we invested into the business. It was going to be tough in that we could not use client’s monies to pay for anything...
Greece … How it really is!
With so many of our guests calling for up to date information with regards to the situation in Greece below is a unedited report from Barbara, our host in Crete, who looks after all our arrivals on this lovely island.: ‘Hello from Crete The situation at the moment is as...
Why reviews are so important?
Last week I was on a panel of so called experts and the subject of the presentations was the relevance of reviews and feedback from customers. Two review platforms, Feefo and Reevoo were present and I was speaking on behalf of Feefo, the review company that we are proud to...
New Logo for a New Season
Now that The Discerning Collection is completely owned by us I thought it would be a good time to redesign our logo to reflect the new optimism and feeling of wellbeing within our lovely, small but perfectly formed company! Over the years we have owned Tapestry Holidays and part owned...
Strong Pound sends Turkey resort costs tumbling
As we enter the Summer season there is more good news for all travellers to Turkey. For those who have already booked your holidays to our lovely resorts of Kalkan, Gocek, the Bozburun Peninsula, Islamlar and Istanbul then good news awaits you. The Turkish Lira has dropped even more against...
Amazing value for your money and the sun’s out!
This time last year the Turkish Lira was 3.4 to the pound. Today it’s an amazing 4.14 to the pound, the highest it’s been for decades! This means that your hard earned cash is going to go miles further in Turkey this year. And Viv, our Operations Director, has just...
Sampling our new Poseidon hotel in Selimiye
Here we sit in the evening sun, sipping an ice cold gin and tonic looking across to the pretty Turkish bay of Selimiye watching the local fisherman as they come in from their day...
A truly quality addition in chic Gocek
Ever since our Tapestry days we’ve always had a soft spot for the lovely little resort of Gocek. Only 30 minutes from Dalaman airport this chic marina town has always attracted not only the well healed ‘yachting’ crowd but also the more ‘discerning’ Turkofile. With only a handful of hotels...