DU you know how to choose a DMC?

Friday, 07 January 2011 10:20

‘Family’ is a very apposite word. David, though retired, is still accessible for advice; his wife Maria Buse looks after the company’s accounts, whilst the Managing Partner of dU is their daughter, Nikki. Furthermore, the whole team of half a dozen people plus all 50 DMCs see themselves as a family enterprise, assisting, recommending and advising each other to the general welfare of all.
Nikki can already claim 18 years experience in the business and has been heading it since 2007. It is this in-depth knowledge vested in dU that is its main asset for its DMCs and client organisers alike.
Every experienced event organiser will confirm that a good DMC is vital for the success of any type of event being held abroad. But how do you select a DMC? And what criteria do you use?
There are the obvious approaches, such as a list provided by the relevant National Tourist Office or a recommendation from a fellow organiser who has used a DMC. This method only scratches the surface and it is more and more important nowadays to delve further.
As Nikki points out: ‘A DMC can only join our family if they comply with a long list of criteria. To begin with we ask for two client references, which help in evaluating their efficiency and flexibility. But then the vetting starts. We ask, for example, to see a copy of their liability cover, for bank references and accounts.
Where possible, depending on the laws of each country, we examine their Health & Safety policies. How do they carry out Risk Assessment? ‘
Of course, in many areas of the world, there are no equivalents to the legal requirements of the UK, but that doesn’t mean that British organisers can take chances with the safety of their clients and their finances. 
That kind of vetting is an important benefit to clients and it costs them nothing. ‘Destinations Unlimited’, explains Nikki, ‘charges each DMC an annual fee to act as its sales and marketing representative. This has no effect on the price paid for services by an event organiser. We are more likely to save the client and the DMC money, because the costs of marketing and client liaison are shared amongst so many principals.’
The contract is between the organiser and the DMC, but we are always there to help and advise if a problem should ever arise. We very quickly become aware, for example, if a DMC has not met its guarantee of providing a response to an enquiry within 72 hours; or if a client has failed to provide urgently needed information to finalise a hotel booking. We are sometimes piggy in the middle but it means that a project is progressed to everyone’s benefit’. 
Generally dU represents one DMC per country. Often, of course, a DMC will have several offices in different regions of a destination such as, say, Spain. But there can be exceptions. Destinations Unlimited has one DMC for south Germany centred on Munich and a separate one for the Berlin region.

Tweet