'I'm a travel expert and I plan people's dream holidays from my office in Brewood'

She had also experienced the pros and cons of different ways of booking holidays from using online travel agencies and package holiday companies to compiling her own itineraries and booking all of the elements separately.

Using everything she had learned, Gilly decided to start a business offering a highly personalised service with support available 24/7.

“Our clients typically come to us for the customer service, they want to be looked after,” she says. The team books a complete range of holidays, specialising in tailor-made itineraries, bucket-list trips and honeymoons. They also cater for people who may have specific health or mobility requirements that need to be taken into consideration. At the moment, Canada, Mauritius and the Maldives are among the countries proving popular with travellers.

Planning a holiday that is perfect for each customer starts with a call or a face-to-face appointment at the office in Brewood.

Gilly will find out more about the type of holiday they are looking for from cruises and safaris to beach stays and road trips, any particular destinations they have in mind or experiences they want to tick off their bucket list.

She will also discuss the budget for the trip and will work with the customer to find the best value for their money. Using all of the information, Gilly, who works with more than 400 suppliers, will look at the different options available and make some recommendations.

The itinerary can then be tweaked as needed and once the customer is happy, they can book. There is no fee for the planning service and all of the holidays are ABTA and ATOL protected. The team takes care of checking and monitoring each holiday destination’s entry requirements, ensuring clients have the correct paperwork and any forms that need to be filled in prior to arrival are completed.

"There’s forms that come and go. We’ve got a new form for Thailand now. We’ve always got a form to fill in for the Maldives and one for Mauritius. If you go to Mauritius and you’re taking certain types of medication, you have to have it sanctioned by the Mauritius government. If you get caught out by that, it’s very stressful.

“For us, it’s about knowing the details for our clients and we always say ‘is there anything we need to know to make this trip smoother for you?’,” explains Gilly.

Since Brexit, the majority of EU countries no longer accept British passports that were issued more than 10 years before the date of travel, which has caught out many travellers in recent years. “What we do is we ask to see all passports,” says Gilly. “It’s not so bad now but post-Covid, a lot of people hadn’t travelled for three or four years. They think it’s not long since they renewed their passport but those years have evaporated.”

The team will also assist with airline seat and meal selection and liaise with the airline and hotel to ensure they are aware of any accessibility requirements, special requests, or celebrations. And they also offer a ‘travel ready’ video call or face-to-face meeting to answer any pre-travel questions and will check-in with customers when they return from their holidays for feedback.

To be a successful travel consultant, Gilly, who generally works from 10am-8pm and also offers out-of-hours support, believes it’s important to be “incredibly detail-orientated”. Multi-tasking is also essential as well as being prepared to jump into action to help customers who may have run into difficulties such as delayed flights.

Although it’s a job that can be stressful at times, it’s also incredibly rewarding, she says.

“I love travel, it’s interesting. The people are really nice that you meet, as in the industry people, but there is nothing nicer than having people in that you have helped, you’ve advised and guided and then you have a lovely call afterwards with them and they say ‘you know what, that was an amazing trip’,” explains Gilly.

“We are part of all sorts of things like honeymoons but also things like people travelling solo for the first time and sadder things like people travelling for the last time,” she adds.

Gilly is also passionate about encouraging more women to travel solo and, along with Katrina Lowes, has founded No Stopping Her, which aims to support and inspire women.

“Many women I’ve encountered have postponed their travel dreams, waiting for companions whose schedules never align. I understand how daunting that first solo trip can be.

“Since hosting an event for solo travellers in 2019, I’ve seen the long journey some take to muster the courage to take their first solo trip. My mission is to support and inspire more women to take the leap.”

For more information, see www.gillybachelortravelexpert.co.uk and www.nostoppingher.com