Complaints about new travel agent Diversity Travel: ‘I don’t see how this can be fixed’

“I had my whole trip prepared through NS International and Booking.com, and then I realised: oh right, I need to do this through that system.” Assistant professor Melissa de Roos is referring to Diversity Travel, the university’s new travel agent. “I had to enter everything repeatedly. The Airbnb I had chosen wasn’t supported, so I ended up with a rather expensive hotel.”

At two faculties, a list of complaints regarding Diversity Travel have already been compiled. They contain complaints from twenty different employees. These complaints include practical inconveniences (‘the site loads very slowly or crashes’), pricing issues (‘the company promises to match online prices, but not for the prices listed on Skyscanner’), lack of information during travel (‘people are not informed if their flight is cancelled’), and the booking fees charged by Diversity Travel.

Searching for a hotel in big cities also sometimes yields zero results; only when you search for specific neighbourhoods do hotels suddenly appear. This bug is soon to be fixed, says a spokesperson for Diversity Travel. According to the company, part of the other complaints is unfounded, and they are working on the technical issues.

Since January, employees have been required to book all their travel via Diversity Travel. According to the Executive Board, there are three reasons why this had to be centrally managed. The travel movements had to be tendered at a European level due to the overall costs. Also, it allows for better monitoring of whether employees are travelling sustainably. Additionally, the university has a duty of care towards travelling researchers, for instance, through a 24-hour emergency service, which it does not currently provide. Diversity Travel offers that. However, since its introduction, complaints have been pouring in.

For Nick Koning, the situation has reached a breaking point. “Everything is worse: we spend more time, incur higher costs, the quality is lower, and we have less control.” The assistant professor at the Erasmus School of Economics has calculated on the back of the envelope that the ‘borderline unusable’ website, the outages, and the back-and-forth communication regarding booking errors cost ESE staff an additional 4,000 hours per year. “How does that compare to the minimal benefits, such as having more insight into CO2 compensation and whether people adhere to the train policy?”, he wonders.

Koning wanted to book a trip to India. Diversity Travel only offered an option for a 30-hour flight, while Google Flights showed a 14-hour option. “It was the same initial flight, but the site failed to recognise the correct connection.” A colleague of Koning had to pay 3,000 euros for a flight to Japan that was available online for 1,000 euros. “With a worse layover.”

The travel agent offers significantly fewer hotel options compared to well-known sites, several employees noted in their complaints. To the dismay of Koning and others, Airbnb is excluded by the university because it disrupts the local housing market. “Airbnb might account for half of the market, meaning many options are lost, especially apartments. Certainly, when travelling with several people or for a longer duration, it is now much more expensive.” A PhD candidate of Koning wanted to go to Boston, and Diversity Travel only offers options for a minimum of 7,500 dollars per month. “Whereas the university he is visiting offers options around 2,000 dollars, but it has to be booked through Diversity Travel.”

During a trip to Dublin, Melissa de Roos (assistant professor at ESSB) also encountered various practical problems. Typing ‘Dublin’ as a search term resulted in zero hotels. If you enter more specific terms like the conference location, it sometimes works. According to a spokesperson for Diversity Travel, this bug will soon be resolved. De Roos is travelling with a colleague, and they don’t mind sharing a hotel room to reduce costs. However, they would both prefer their own separate beds. “On the platform, you can’t indicate that anywhere. It just says ‘double room’ and nothing else. No photos, no explanations. In the end, I had to compare what the room types meant on Booking, and I saw there were indeed twin rooms. But that consumes a lot of time for research.”

De Roos’s frustrations escalated further. When she wanted to finalise her booking, it turned out she was not allowed to take a trolley suitcase. “Normally, you can take such a trolley as hand luggage with Ryanair, which is enough for me. But with Diversity Travel, you could only choose between a small backpack or a checked in suitcase for 100 euros.” When she attempted to use the chat function for assistance at half past eleven on a workday, it was closed. When it finally worked the next day, ‘I ended up booking that 100 euro suitcase’, she discovered her flight and hotel had become more expensive in the meantime.

Several employees claim that Diversity Travel charges a booking fee, something the company itself denies. De Roos: “They don’t seem to have special deals, no discounts or additional options.” Also, hotel discounts arranged by the conference organisation cannot be booked through the company. Diversity Travel let EM know that this should be possible through a staff member of the service team.

One argument in favour of Diversity Travel – aside from monitoring sustainability – would be that employees no longer need to advance money for their travels. For Koning, this is not a convincing argument. “We still have to advance various costs and apply for an advance for those. Only the amount is lower.” De Roos: “Not having to submit claims might save some time, but it doesn’t compare to the time you spend on the slow system.”

If there are issues, the university advises contacting the helpdesk of Diversity Travel directly. A real person will then arrange the booking. However, there will be a surcharge for this service, even if the employee could not complete the booking due to a technical issue. Diversity Travel denies that it charges a fee if a EUR employee requires assistance from a Diversity Travel employee.

What should happen now with Diversity Travel? “No idea”, says De Roos. “The easiest would be to just book it yourself, but that wouldn’t be approved. Or let Diversity Travel handle it, but I hear they charge extra costs for that. Moreover, you would have no control over your trip at all.” Koning is more adamant. “Pause it immediately. Or stop. I don’t see how this can be fixed. Everyone is encountering these problems. It’s a disaster.”