4 Reasons To Tell Us Early If You're Thinking Of Joining A Trip
The Early Bird Gets The Worm...
You know that feeling you get when you’re just about to pull into a great parking spot and the car ahead of you nicks it? Or that person in front of you at the supermarket nabs the last of your favourite snack off the shelf? That, ‘Oh damn, if only I was 10 seconds quicker!’ feeling?
Well, here at Patch we don’t EVER want you to miss out, so here are four reasons why you should get in touch with us the minute you start thinking about joining one of our adventures…
- Our trips sell out quickly – even we’re a little stunned at how fast our trips have been filling up. This year we’ve had a record number of returning Patchies book trips with us again, (some are even up to their 4th and 5th trips with us!), but this time ‘round, they’re bringing a friend. In some cases, ‘friends’, plural! This means that spots are getting snapped up extra quickly because our repeat Patchies already know what you don’t – ‘The early bird gets the worm!’, and the way to get that juicy worm is…
- To get personal advice from our Booking Managers – nobody is more knowledgeable about the adventure you’ve got your eye on than our BMs – except our Trip Design team of course! We totally get that you might only be thinking about joining an adventure and would like us to reply to your email enquiry first with some info so you can ‘sleep on it’ – but the light-of-day-truth is, whilst you’re thinking about it, another guest is calling… and snapping up a spot! That’s why scheduling a 15-minute phone call with one of our super-friendly and very knowledgeable BMs is the bullet train to helping you figure out if it’s the right trip for you.
Justin, Claire and Courtney will serve you a feast of delicious details during that call to help you understand if it’s ‘the one’ as chances are, they’ve been to the destination and can share personal insights that you just can’t glean from reading the itinerary alone.
Our BMs LOVE a chat because it means they can get to know you and can make suggestions based on your personal preferences/interests, or give you options that you may not be aware of to consider like; an extension you could add on, another trip that you can chain before or afterwards, or even help you to decide if you’re torn between two adventures. We get that last one A LOT!
One little phone call and our BMs will also be able to let you know how quickly your dream trip is filling up and they’ll share ways to help save you money on your booking too. And who doesn’t love that?!
Hot Tip: Having a phone chat with our BMs when you first start thinking about joining a trip means you…
- Get The Inside Scoop – besides all of the above, letting Justin, Claire and Courtney know that you’re interested in a trip (even if it’s ‘Booked Out’ or isn’t until 2026) means they can pop you on their ‘Inside Scoop List’ to receive advance notice before a new trip goes live on our website. Kinda like ‘insider trading’, but all joy and no jail sentence. As soon as a new trip or a new date is ready, they’ll send you an email to let you know a few days before it’s posted on our website and socials, giving you the ‘heads up’ for first dibs on booking a spot before we let it loose in the wild. Remember how I mentioned earlier that our trips sell out fast? Well, sometimes new trips and trips with new dates are already half filled by our ‘Inside Scoop’ Patchies within hours of that email going out! You’ll especially want to receive our ‘Inside Scoop’ email if you’re looking for a private supplement. There are only a few private rooms per trip, and those things go faster than the last piece of bacon at a breakfast buffet. Letting our BMs know early that you’re after one and keeping a hawk’s eye on your inbox for that ‘Inside Scoop’ email might mean the difference between happily snoring away to your hearts’ content in a room to yourself or… being waitlisted for one! (Just remember to add us to your ‘Safe Sender’ list so it doesn’t end up in your spam folder).
- Join A Waitlist Early – on occasion, unexpected events mean booked guests must pull out of going on a trip which is why it’s important to tell us you’re interested as soon as you can! Claire, Justin and Courtney will happily add you to the waitlist if it’s a private supplement you’re after, or if you’re hoping for a spot on a booked-out trip (more on that in a sec). The sooner you let us know, the closer to the top of the list you’ll be. Fingers crossed! It might just be you we’ll be calling to share the very exciting news with! Don’t be disheartened if you see your dream adventure is showing as ‘Booked Out’ on our website either. This is adventure travel and things can change quickly. Too quickly sometimes, for our website to keep up – bless its little online soul! There are lots of dynamics at play here in the back channels at Patch which is why being on the waitlist for an adventure has made the travel dreams come true, for more than a lucky few. And, I can tell you – we LOVE making those calls! Nothing makes us happier than the sounds of excited screaming on the other end of the phone.
Now that I’ve shared some of the reasons why it’s so important to book a chat with us the minute you start thinking about a trip, here’s some of the benefits to booking and paying for your trip early:
- You’ll save yourself money – inflation is nobody’s friend and each year our prices have to increase too. Paying early and before final payment means you can lock in the current price of your trip and avoid FX surcharges, (you can learn more about prices and surcharges here in our T&C’s on our website), but the nitty gritty is – paying early helps save you dollars. Which means more spending money for souvenirs!
- You’ve a better chance at getting a deal on a flight – with a spot on your adventure squared away well in advance of your departure date, you’ll be perfectly positioned to pounce on a flight deal. Start researching your preferred flight routes/times, sign up for those early bird sales alerts and let your prey come to you. Hot tip from Claire: Flights with the best connection times sell out the fastest and some travel agents have price drop protection meaning if you book a flight and a cheaper one is released, they will credit/refund you the difference. (Claire knows her stuff – she spent 15 years as a travel agent before she came to us in a shimmer of light!).
- You’ll have more time to get trip fit – we do adventures, not holidays! The earlier you book, the more time you have to work on your fitness for your trip. By starting early and maintaining regular exercise you’ll be feeling fighting fit by the time your departure date rolls around and will happily be able to do all the amazing activities that are waiting for you! You know what they say, ‘A summer body is made in winter!’
- ‘YOU’ will be, ‘The early bird that got the worm.’ – if there’s a spot available on your dream adventure when you’re chatting on the phone with Justin, Claire or Courtney and you’ve both decided it’s the right trip for you, then our advice is… book it whilst you have it. We don’t want you to miss out! By booking early, there’ll still be time to think about it, (you can read more about paying your deposit and our cooling off period here), but chances are if you leave it, even for a couple of hours, that spot might be snapped up by someone else.
And, who knows… they might even have your parking space and favourite snack too!
Got a question about one of our adventures? We LOVE questions!
Book a chat with Justin, Claire or Courtney here and they’ll be only too happy to answer it for you! (Just remember to add our number to your contact list so you’ll know it’s them when they call).