Travel with Katie Butler: easyJet holidays to launch Dad's Club

Katie Butler writes: I am guessing, like me, it is also a relief to employers as many parents, of course, need to take holidays in the main summer holidays.

We have all shared the holidays at Total Travel but it does mean that for the whole of the six/seven weeks school holidays we have worked with a staff member down. Now, ordinarily, we see the shop quieten down a little bit in this period, and so it counteracts with being short staffed. However, as previously mentioned, it once again has not been an ordinary year, with sales in July and August excelling previous years.

Karen has just returned from a mini-break in Benalmadena, and Kath is now in Tenerife with her son, whilst Leanne has spent some quality time at home with her husband and children.

September is generally extremely busy – kids back to school and parents ready to book for the following year and ensure they get sunshine and not rain. With staffing back to full capacity we are hoping for another fantastic month.

We love it when our suppliers and tour operators introduce a new destination or product. A few weeks ago I talked about Jet2 and their resort flight check-in. This week we hear of another new concept, this time from easyJet holidays and I have to say it’s a complete new one to me.

EasyJet holidays is launching on August 24 what it claims to be – the world’s first in-hotel Dad’s Club. Is this a cringeworthy idea or pure genius? I guess time will tell.

Dads staying at the Holiday World Polynesia in Benalmadena (in case you fancy it) can book into the club for one hour per day and activities on offer include dad dancing lessons, air guitar tuition and bad joke workshops to name a few.

Research among 1,000 British teenagers revealed that more than half (54 per cent) think their dads embarrass them on family holidays, by telling lame jokes, snoring by the pool, dodgy dancing and wearing socks and sandals (arguably now rated as pretty cool).

Almost a quarter of teenagers do try to avoid joining a family holiday to avoid cringey parents but of course us cringey parents don’t love the idea of leaving the teens home alone so us parents tend to win.

EasyJet holidays claim that 44 per cent of the dads polled on this new ‘club’ said they would be interested in attending the Dad’s Club and comedian Omid Djalili who counts himself as an embarrassing parent said: ‘It’s a rite of passage for us dads to embarrass our kids. It comes with the job. I am super excited to see how this works out and even more excited to ensure our next family trip is to this hotel, I am convinced my husband will fit in just right.”

August and September departures accounted for a combined 31 per cent of our sales last week and a slight change in the top two destinations with Turkey claiming number one and Majorca bagging number two from Tenerife.