How Caroline and Nick built Keys Trips from newsagent sideline to 2,500+ members

How did it all start? 

We ran two newsagents and introduced the trips initially for our customers - we wanted to create a community atmosphere. It started to bring more people in, and grew from just day trips to all sorts including European holidays and cruises.

It got so big, to the point that you would be queueing to book a cruise behind somebody who wanted a lottery ticket! We decided to sell the two newsagents and opened up an office two doors away. That was 12 years ago.

How do you promote your trips?

We send out a hard copy of the brochure – we find this far better than emailing people. We also put fliers in a goody bag for people on all of our trips – they get a bottle of water and a bag of sweets too.

What do you love about what you do?

It’s lovely to have so many single people travel with us because they feel safe and enjoy themselves. Some of them aren’t very confident before they come but they meet people on the coach and make friends – we’ve even had a few romances that way too! We get feedback like ‘you’ve been a lifeline for us’ which is just wonderful. Our office is covered in thank you cards from people.

Are there any trips more popular than others?

It’s such a variety but ABBA Voyage is our top seller. Our coaches are always full and West End shows sell out too. We recently went to see Just For One Day which was fantastic.

Our Fred. Olsen cruises are hugely popular. People love trains and boats – we do Henley with a boat trip which is popular as well as Camden Market and Buckingham Palace. The Mountbatten Festival of Music always sells out quickly too. Some of our trips this year have included Lake Garda and the Keukenhof Gardens and Dutch Bulb Fields.

What’s the key to your success over the years?

We focus on the whole experience. So, for example if people are going to see a show, it’s not just about the show, it’s about the journey there as well. We always do a quiz on the coach, have entertainment and we have extra things for people to enhance their experience, including celebrating any special occasions, we keep our travellers busy on the coach! You then have a captive audience, and we can talk to them about the other trips that we’re doing. We also do a raffle on the way back and we have raised an incredible £53,000 for a local charity over the years.

What other feats have you managed with your group?

We did a Mekong cruise earlier this year and we had a wonderful time. We visited a village where the people were so lovely, but they had nothing - we wanted to do something for them. We got talking and decided to raise money to buy them 34 bikes to help the children travel to school – it was amazing.

What are your favourite types of trip to organise?

It’s so difficult to say – we love all of them. As they say, variety is the spice of life. We’ve been to some amazing places abroad but then the UK has some beautiful places as well.

We focus on the whole experience. So, for example if people are going to see a show, it’s not just about the show, it’s about the journey there as well.

What’s the biggest challenge that you face?

Probably coming up with different things. It’s trying to make a tour unique too – our mystery tours are so popular – we never repeat them, it’s always somewhere different and people love to try to guess where we’re going. We also pick up ideas from your magazine.

How has group travel changed in the time you’ve been doing it?

People are definitely more adventurous. Sometimes you think the older people aren’t going to be up for something and they are. They love something completely different. Maybe we’re more adventurous too with what we’re organising.

You must have faced some difficult scenarios over the years too?

We’ve had all eventualities including people falling and breaking their hip, and you just have to deal with things in a professional and calm way.

One of the reasons we started doing a goody bag with a bottle of water and sweets in for travellers was to stop people getting dehydrated – we had a lady on a theatre trip who was severely dehydrated. We carry a defibrillator with us too for emergencies.

Where’s on your bucket list?

Australia and Canada!

What helps you as group organisers?

Having brilliant contacts in the industry. We work a lot with Fred. Olsen Cruise Lines and Norman Allen and they are fantastic. You can ask the teams anything and they get back to you so quickly which is paramount with what we do.