Once upon a time, a young woman of French and Dutch parentage called Winnie Rinck started a small travel business, working out of a single room next door to “Harry’s Bar” in Antibes.  Her tools were a telephone, a biro and a passion to provide a good service.

Twenty-two years later, Winnie’s agency, “Rinck Travel” has become one of the leading travel agencies on la Cote d’Azur, boasting a large, international clientel, 10 staff and two offices; one in Antibes, the other in Lorgues.

How did she do it?  I went along to meet her and find out.

Looking back on those early days, Winnie smiles, as if she can hardly believe how far she has come.

“You know, I really was a complete debutante when I started out,” she begins.  “I had no training or experience in the travel industry and my first clients were mostly Yachties and day-workers on the boats in and around Antibes.  In fact, it’s largely thanks to their complicity and to the experience which I gained while I was helping them that my business is what it is today.

“Many of my first clients have since built up their own businesses and become successful captains and managers and so forth, so we really all grew up together and many of them still come to me to make their travel arrangements.”

The bulk of the work done by Winnie’s Antibes office is air travel.  She also offers a unique service to sailors whereby they can use a special password to log onto her website and make their seamans bookings - the special rates which are negotiated direct with the airline companies, to which sailors are entitled.

The Lorgues office meanwhile tends to have a greater demand for package travel deals.  The office is run by Laurence and Pamela and their clientele is made up mostly of local expats from all over the world.

The end result is that Winnie’s clients come to her from all walks of life and from all over the PACA region and abroad.  It is a testament to the service which Rinck Travel provides that many of their clients have been using Winnie’s agency for years, including some very rich and influential people.

What impact, the Internet?

It really is quite an amazing success story, but I can’t help wondering what kind of an impact the Internet has made on Winnie’s business?

“It’s true that many travel agencies have been forced to close down over recent years because of Internet competition and also because agencies can no longer charge commission,” Winnie admits.  “But what a lot of people don’t realise is that, most of the time, it really isn’t any more expensive to go through a travel agency than it is to make your own travel arrangements online.

“We do our best to charge Internet prices and keep costs down and when you use Rinck Travel, you have that added peace of mind of knowing that if anything goes wrong, we are not just going to abandon you, but will help you sort it out.”

So, you really do care about your clients?

Winnie nods.  “Very much so.  Client satisfaction is the most important part of it for me.  It often means working late in the evenings and over the weekend, but if a flustered client calls me from a foreign airport on a Saturday afternoon and says ‘I’ve missed my flight’, I’m not going to fob them off.  I’ll head for my computer and seek out the best alternative and make all the necessary arrangements.  In that respect, the Internet has made our lives a lot easier: now there’s no need for our clients to come to Rinck Travel, we can come to them, anywhere in the world!”

“Put yourselves in the client’s place”

It’s this personal touch which makes Winnie’s clients place their trust in Rinck Travel and is largely responsible for the agency’s success, although Winnie admits with disarming honesty that, a few years ago, they almost became too successful for their own good.

“We had business coming in from all directions,” she explains, “too much business to cope with as it turned out, and the quality of the service we were trying to provide started to slip.  Fortunately, I realised what was happening and we have learned from our past mistakes.  Ever since, I have never stopped telling my staff to always put themselves in the client’s place and to never lose sight of that - that’s at the heart of providing a good service and that’s what I want for my clients.”   RM

Article from The Var Reporter, issue March/April 2008.

Comments (1)

Subscribe to this comment's feed

Show/Hide comments

Show/Hide comment form