35,000 – 40,000 per annum dependent on experience
Destination Services Lead
35,000 – 40,000 per annum, dependent on experience
Folkestone or Crawley Hybrid (at least 3 days a week)
At Saga Travel, we’re passionate about creating exceptional travel experiences for people over 50. As our Destination Services Lead, you’ll play a key role in making that happen by leading the team that supports our Tour Managers and Hosts, ensuring they have everything they need to deliver exceptional service across our collection of escorted tours, resort stays, and worldwide destinations.
You will act as the link between our Head Office and overseas teams, driving high standards, championing continuous improvement, and using guest insight to shape every stage of the holiday experience. Whether our customers are exploring the cultural highlights of Europe, discovering long-haul destinations, or enjoying one of our carefully curated touring holidays, you’ll help ensure every journey reflects the personalised service and care the Saga brand is known for.
This is a varied and rewarding leadership role where you’ll combine people leadership with operational excellence, supporting teams across our destinations, improving performance, and helping launch new holidays and experiences. If you’re passionate about developing people, enhancing the customer journey, and creating unforgettable holidays for our guests around the world, we’d love to hear from you.
This requires you to be working from our either our Folkestone or Crawley office a minimum of 3 times a week. There will also be an expectation to travel overseas to resorts based on seasonal demand and operational needs.
Role Responsibility
As our new Destination Services Lead you will be responsible for leading, developing and inspiring the Destination Services Team, ensuring they effectively support Hosts and Tour Managers.
Other accountabilities will include:
Deputise for the Destination Services Manager when required
Provide coaching, feedback and structured development to drive performance and capability
Alongside Duty Office, act as the escalation point for complex operational or people challenges
Ensuring a consistently high-quality, personalised guest experience across all holidays
Working with the Quality team to analyse guest feedback, reviews, and NPS, identifying trends and driving improvements
Sponsoring initiatives to enhance the end-to-end holiday experience
Overseeing the end-to-end recruitment and selection process, ensuring the most effective sourcing and hiring strategies are applied.
Designing, reviewing, and delivering comprehensive training programmes for both new and existing hosts and tour managers to ensure consistent service excellence.
Overseeing the smooth delivery of all in-destination operations
Ensuring adherence to company standards, processes, and health & safety requirements
Working cross-functionally to resolve issues and operational challenges impacting the guest experience
Leading resource planning activities with a holistic approach, evaluating current structures and implementing improvements to enhance key guest experience touchpoints
Ensuring full compliance with overseas employment legislation, seeking guidance where required to maintain best practice and risk mitigation.
Analysing performance metrics (guest feedback, KPIs, cost, service levels) to drive improvements
Identifying opportunities to enhance efficiency while maintaining high service standards, supporting the Destination Servies Manager to implement improvements to enhance both efficiency and quality
Championing the effective use of technology within resort operations, supporting the implementation of new systems and digital solutions to enhance efficiency and guest experience.
Building strong relationships with UK-based teams including Product, Operations, Quality and Customer Experience
Developing effective partnerships with local suppliers and partners
Planning and executing annual events for hosts and tour managers to enhance engagement
Being responsible for creating regular engagement opportunities with both communities
The Ideal Candidate
As our Destinations Services Lead, you will have proven leadership experience within travel, tourism or hospitality, with the ability to lead and develop both UK-based and overseas teams
Due to the global nature of our stays and tours you will with flexibility to travel regularly.
You will also need to demonstrate the following skills and experience:
Strong people management capability, including coaching, performance management, and driving measurable improvements
Passion for delivering exceptional customer experiences, with a track record of achieving high guest satisfaction and quality scores
Confident and resilient decision-maker, able to manage operational environments and resolve issues effectively under pressure
Strong stakeholder management and communication skills, with the ability to influence, align and build trusted partnerships
Commercial awareness, balancing customer experience with operational efficiency and business performance
Target-driven and accountable, with a focus on delivering against KPIs and business objectives
Analytical mindset, using data and insights (e.g. feedback, MI, KPIs) to drive continuous improvement
Highly organised with strong attention to detail, able to manage competing priorities in a fast-paced environment
Proactive and forward-thinking, identifying opportunities to improve ways of working and enhance the guest experience
Saga Values: Make it Happen, Do the Right Thing, Customer First, Excellence Every Day, Our People Make Us Special
Package Description
At Saga we recognise that our people make us special. We believe our colleagues deserve rewards for the excellence they demonstrate every single day, that’s why we have put together an amazing benefits package for all colleagues.
BENEFITS AVAILABLE FOR THIS ROLE:
- 25 days holiday + bank holidays
- Option to purchase additional leave – 5 extra days
- Pension scheme matched up to 10%
- Company performance related annual bonus – Up to 5%
- Life assurance policy on joining us, 4 x salary
- Wellbeing programme
- Colleague discounts including family discounts on cruises, holidays and insurance
- Range of reductions and offers from leading retailers, travel groups and entertainment companies
- Enhanced maternity and paternity leave
- Grandparents leave
- Income protection
- Access to Saga Academy, our bespoke learning platform
About the CompanyOver the past 70 years we have become the UK’s specialist provider of products and services to people aged over 50 in the UK. The Saga brand has become one of the most recognised and trusted brands amongst UK consumers in this demographic, recognised for its high quality products and exceptional standards of service. These include cruises and holidays, insurance, personal finance and the Saga Magazine.At Saga we are committed to treating all employees fairly and to offering equal opportunities in all aspects of employment and advancement. We value diversity not just because it is the right thing to do, but because diverse teams perform better.Fair consideration is given to applications from all applicants, including those with disabilities and those over who are over 50 as we are champions of age inclusivity. We are an official Disability Confident Committed employer and ensure that our recruitment process is inclusive and accessible and we will make reasonable adjustments as required. For more information on our DEI policies please visit our Saga Careers page.Saga does not accept agency CVs unless specifically engaged on the role by the Talent Acquisition Team. Please do not forward CVs to our recruiters, employees or any other company location. Saga will not be responsible for any fees related to CVs received in this unsolicited manner.Job Reference: saga/TP/56250/3508…