The booking giants of online travel have dominated holiday planning in recent years but with holidaymakers now demanding a higher level of service and looking for specialist information, there is a growing trend for the boutique and niche travel companies to take centre stage.

Holidays are an important purchase, so with so much at stake, discerning travellers are increasingly looking for specialist advice and personal recommendations from the experts rather than going it alone, wading through the abyss of online travel reviews and booking through the vast holiday-supermarket style sites.

Alternative Aquitaine and Alternative Portugal are prime examples of this smaller, specialist style of booking agent that are thriving despite the perceived change in holiday selection habits in recent times.

Operating for over 13 years, the Devon-based company present a portfolio of 200 holiday homes and beach villas in the Aquitaine region of France, launching another arm of their business last year with Alternative Portugal. With their strong focus on regional specialism for alternative destinations, they are so much more than a booking site as at the end of the phone or email they offer a community of people who are genuinely passionate and knowledgeable about the areas they cover. 

The team at Alternative Aquitaine and Portugal have personally handpicked, visited and vetted all of their properties so for each client are in the position to suggest a selection of locations and properties depending on their needs.  Over the years they have also built up a local network of friends and suppliers so can also help with all the little extras on the ground and able to suggest anything from chefs to surf schools - basically by tapping into their knowledge, all the hard work is done for their clients.

Online browsing and booking is still a vital element of their business model so their site and the function of this is of high-importance but more and more it is the conversations with customers looking to tap into their personal knowledge to plan their best holiday experience which makes them stand out. They are dedicated to their core values and ethos of offering a highly personal service, but believe this can go hand in hand with a modern approach to booking habits. For added peace of mind, Alternative Aquitaine and Portugal have recently been accepted into the ABTA bonding scheme, giving extra assurance of a positive holiday experience. 

For Alternative Aquitaine, their customer loyalty speaks volumes for the personal service and traditional values that the brand represents, and it seems that these factors are increasingly appealing to a generation who is now tired of spending hours browsing the internet trying to work out if a holiday rental property will be right for them. This groundswell of support from customers old and new sends a powerful message – the specialist booking agent is still relevant in the age of the internet booking portal.

www.alternative-aquitaine.co.uk  / www.alternative-portugal.co.uk