The number of people already booked on a tour is a very useful indicator of whether or not it will get the green light. I would be really upset  if i  booked and then found the tour wasn't going ahead. Conversely, I have often been spurred on to book by hearing only a few  places remain.

Good Morning SarahS,

If you request it, I will be able to tell you if a specific tour has been given the green light.

Kind Regards,

Mildred.

Does the new policy include TS holidays too.  As a single traveller I often use them. I'm not particularly bothered about being the only single on a trip but would have asked the question how many in total are on a particular TS trip.

Gill

Good Morning,

Yes this policy does affect Travelsphere holidays too.

Kind Regards,

Mildred.

JY is  my preferred  tour operator, but if maximum group numbers cannot be disclosed at time of booking I will have to rethink. At this point in time, other operators are happy to provide  this information.

Hi SarahS,

I am permitted to disclose a general group number that Just You takes on a tour which is around 30 people.

Kind Regards,

Mildred.

Hi Steve,

We are still able to tell you the age ranges on any holiday as we are aware that this is a big factor. We are just unable to share how many people are booked on a specific tour.

Kind Regards,

Mildred.

Hi Mildred

I have seen the announcement regarding this but Just You have not explained why you can no longer provide this information. This is not good communication.

Perhaps you can explain.  Does this also mean you will no longer put on the website how many places left on a holiday?

Regards

Eve

Hi Eve,

As far as I know, there has been no change to the websites functionality so I don't think there will be any changes as to what is displayed on the website. That might change but I don't have that information yet.

Kind Regards,

Mildred.

Hi Steve,

We are still able to tell you the age ranges on any holiday as we are aware that this is a big factor. We are just unable to share how many people are booked on a specific tour.

Kind Regards,

Mildred.

Hi Mildred

I have seen the announcement regarding this but Just You have not explained why you can no longer provide this information. This is not good communication.

Perhaps you can explain.  Does this also mean you will no longer put on the website how many places left on a holiday?

Regards

Eve

Hi Eve,

As far as I know, there has been no change to the websites functionality so I don't think there will be any changes as to what is displayed on the website. That might change but I don't have that information yet.

Kind Regards,

Mildred.

JY is  my preferred  tour operator, but if maximum group numbers cannot be disclosed at time of booking I will have to rethink. At this point in time, other operators are happy to provide  this information.

Hi SarahS,

I am permitted to disclose a general group number that Just You takes on a tour which is around 30 people.

Kind Regards,

Mildred.

Mildred,

You keep reiterating that tour numbers are "around" 30 , but there has been much debate on the community about tours with 38 and 40 people.

To consolidate comments, I've taken my post from another thread to add it to this discussion:

Hi Mildred,

 

I understand that you are required to issue the “it was a hard decision to make” and “it’s new company policy” position, but I’m still curious to know why – maybe who ever made the decision can give you a brief statement as to why JY has decided not to give out information that clearly customers want.

 

Is it maybe that without the glut of these type questions to answers you will have more time to give to your “wider roles” (as Julia described recently) rather than to moderating the community?

Sandy

JY is  my preferred  tour operator, but if maximum group numbers cannot be disclosed at time of booking I will have to rethink. At this point in time, other operators are happy to provide  this information.

Hi SarahS,

I am permitted to disclose a general group number that Just You takes on a tour which is around 30 people.

Kind Regards,

Mildred.

Hi Mildred, I'm sorry but that information is of no use whatsoever as that may well be the average capacity but we all know it varies from tour to tour - with some of the more specialised tours having only 20 places, whilst some of the US tours can take double that - so giving a general figure of 30 is no help at all as it is inaccurate!

Best wishes,

Bob

Thanks for the response however we have still not been told the reason why this information is not provided. I get the impression that it is too time consuming for Just You to dig out this information.

I agree with others that you will lose business as a result of this. I have used another smaller singles company in the last couple of years who provide this information.

Regards

Eve

I also have to book travel, hotels etc and would like to add my objection to the new rule which seems nonsensical. Not having a go at you Mildred, I know you are only the messenger but please pass my concerns on to the power that be, thanks. Rose

Good Morning Rose,

Thank you for your understanding. It is really appreciated.

I have already passed your concerns to the managers- they are monitoring all the feedback regarding this new policy.

Kind Regards,

Mildred.

For me there is another issue - the holiday experience.

My holidays fall into two categories.

The first is a trip to somewhere I really want to go  e.g. Canada Winter Rockies (booked) and probably the new New England trip next year. The group composition is not so important.

The second is just because I want a holiday. For that I like a large group with a good M/F ratio and a good spread of ages.

If you can't tell me all these three things including group numbers when I phone to book, then I will go elsewhere.

Rob

- we still haven't been told why JY have introduced this policy.  Personally I think its completely unhelpful, not to say disgraceful.  If we could see any logic behind it we may have some sympathy but .............

I have to say that it will definitely affect my booking something with JY in the future, as I would not like to be part of a group of 40, among other things.  As others have said, it is also good to see how bookings are going - so that you can make a decision on whether it is sensible to book the arrangements you make pre and post holiday.

I did in fact book with another tour operator yesterday (10 days in Iceland next year), and the lady on the phone happily gave me the numbers going, including the number of singles booked before I did so.   Obviously, I will now be looking at this tour operator who have trips to Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam - which is the next trip I'm trying to sort out.

From what you say, if you want to book a Travelsphere holiday, JY would not tell us the number of single travellers already booked - from my point of view, that would make booking a TS holiday a complete non starter.  Is this correct?

I do like to see the age ranges (which I understand you will continue to provide).  It is also nice to see the M/F breakdown.

OK rant over.

Katy

If you want to go on the holiday, then book it, and if it has to be withdrawn through lack of interest then surely your insurance should cover any expenses you may have incurred through booking other incidental travel arrangements. If you are all hanging back waiting for someone else to book then the chances are that the holiday WILL be cancelled and you'll have only yourselves to blame ;-)

Best wishes

Sam

P.S. When you book a flight independently you don't expect the airline to tell you how many seats they have left, do you?

This sounds to me like another profit before people policy which All Leisure seem to be pursuing.  As has been previously mentioned, the number booked affects the "green light".  Age range, m/f ratio, does not bother me in the slightest, but group size does. Any more than about 30 and I feel overwhelmed.  If we ask the maximum numbers for a tour are we likely to be refused that information as well?

Moderators, may I suggest that you pass on to the powers that be that your forum members are not happy with this decision?

Sylvia

I didn't realise just how much the group size information meant to me until I read that it was to be taken away. As others have also noted, I care a lot less about age and gender ranges because once you meet the people age and gender become irrelevant on the holiday.

The group size information can determine whether or not I enjoy a holiday as, for me, a very large group has proved difficult to manage for the TM/hotels in the past - more people to cause time-keeping issues, and longer to get checked in/get luggage/use limited lift space at hotels. It's also fairly impossible to get to know everyone and in my experience larger groups are more likely to cause cliques to form.

Personally, I will never book a holiday until I know it has been confirmed (information which can still be found out) due to the cost of connecting flights and usually an overnight at LHR or LGW, so that's unaffected but I will be thinking twice now if I can't find out how many will be on the holiday.

I think Just You have disconnected from their customers on this one (this customer anyway). Odd really, when there are now so many operators catering for solo travel.

Caroline

I love the analogy of people looking through pub windows and going to the next one if there's no one in there!

If you want to go on the holiday, then book it, and if it has to be withdrawn through lack of interest then surely your insurance should cover any expenses you may have incurred through booking other incidental travel arrangements. If you are all hanging back waiting for someone else to book then the chances are that the holiday WILL be cancelled and you'll have only yourselves to blame ;-)

Best wishes

Sam

P.S. When you book a flight independently you don't expect the airline to tell you how many seats they have left, do you?  

Completely irrelevant - you are not sharing your holiday with those all those booked on the same flight as you. 

K

I love the analogy of people looking through pub windows and going to the next one if there's no one in there!

If you want to go on the holiday, then book it, and if it has to be withdrawn through lack of interest then surely your insurance should cover any expenses you may have incurred through booking other incidental travel arrangements. If you are all hanging back waiting for someone else to book then the chances are that the holiday WILL be cancelled and you'll have only yourselves to blame ;-)

Best wishes

Sam

P.S. When you book a flight independently you don't expect the airline to tell you how many seats they have left, do you?

Just for info - a travel insurance policy does not usually cover the fact that the tour operator has cancelled a holiday due to lack of commercial viability therefore if you independently book connecting flights/hotels, the insurer will not necessarily pay a claim (depends on your insurer and your policy, but I know because I had this situation happen a few years ago and they did not pay my claim for the flights - if you have just assumed you're covered, it's worth checking your own policy).  If you book your connecting flight via Just You then it would be in their T's & C's whether you got reimbursed if you chose the Refund option upon cancellation.  If you choose the 'Alternative Holiday' option, then you could be doubling the connecting flight costs if the dates/times don't tie in with the cancelled trip & you don't get your claim paid.  Whilst I totally take your point about everyone waiting for everyone else to book, some of us are in a different situation with getting to London so I will always wait for the trip's green light before booking.

Caroline

I will not book holidays with groups of 40.

Stating group size is " around 30 " is just not true or accurate is it !

I will not book any of your USA holidays , for instance , because of large group size.

Other companies state maximum group sizes in their brochures.

I do not worry about ages or gender but I do want to know maximum group size before I book a holiday.

I will not book holidays with groups of 40.

Stating group size is " around 30 " is just not true or accurate is it !

I will not book any of your USA holidays  , for instance , because of large group size.

Other companies state maximum group sizes in their brochures.

Agree absolutely re group sizes, for the USA I know many tours have 40+, but in fact on the 2 US tours I did the groups sizes were about 18-20 - I was aware of the numbers booked when I made my booking and because of the timing didn't expect the numbers to grow much, so went ahead and booked.  Did the Andalucia trip where it was a really large group and I decided then that such large groups weren't for me. 

I agree with everything that has been said regarding not sharing passenger information with us in the future. I have made my feelings clear on a post I had initially written regarding "missing posts". I stated that this is a big backwards step in terms of customer service for JY and certainly won't do the company any favours. Nor will it help TS. I booked the TS tour to Peru in 2014 only because I was advised that there were 7 other solo travellers. Had I not been given the information I certainly WOULDNOT have booked that!

Regards

Di

With regard to the minimum number for a trip to be viable, that's another useful bit of information, not so much when it comes to booking but keeping track of whether you need to keep tabs on the availability of an alternative choice if take up is low; having had a trip cancelled due to lack of numbers I then struggled to find an alternative trip that matched the dates I had booked as leave from work.

I have found of late a reluctance to give full information, my trip to New Zealand later this year returns a day earlier than when I booked, which is fine as the airline have changed the day for the weekly flight so I accept that is outside JYs control, but there is no information on whether that means we depart a day earlier, particularly when I questioned why the Manchester departure had moved a day earlier but not the Heathrow one, if the answer is you are still working on the dates or my holday is be cut a day short I'd rather know than be left wondering whats going on.