Analysis: Escorted tours that start from your front door

Whether it’s called ‘home pick up’, ‘VIP-door-to-door service’ or ‘private airport transfers’, the end result is the same – a transfer service will arrive to pick your clients up from home, and deliver them back there at the end of their holiday. The differences are in the small print, but – as always – these are key.

Titan Travel offers complimentary door-to-door transfers from every UK address except the Scottish Islands and Sark, on every tour except Essential Collection holidays.

Vehicles carry up to six people, but most operate with four or fewer. For those who would rather drive, airport or port parking is included instead.

Saga also offers a car service – shared with up to five other passengers – for home collection. Free on all long haul holidays to destinations except Egypt, and on selected European tours, but with a 75-mile limit for the latter, the service is available from addresses in mainland England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, the Isle of Wight and the Channel Islands.

Trafalgar, Insight Vacations and Luxury Gold include private car transfers for addresses in the mainland UK within 150 miles of the departure airport, with a charge of £1.80 per mile outside this limit. Trafalgar guests who would rather travel under their own steam get £75 off their trip instead.

Collette’s complimentary home pick up service is the same, with private transfers available at addresses in mainland UK and Northern Ireland covered within a 150-mile radius of the departure airport.

Cosmos limits its free service to a shorter distance – private airport transfers are included from addresses within 50 miles of the departure point, with a charge of £1.85 per mile outside this.

Things work a little differently at Leger. The complimentary service involves clients making their own way to a local joining point, with hundreds of these throughout England, Scotland and Wales. To avoid journeys becoming too long-winded, there’ll be no more than five stops before the transfer joins the tour coach. A door-to-door service is available within 20 miles of a local joining point on trips of seven days or longer, and on Single Traveller itineraries, from £35 each way for bookings of up to four people.

Shearings operates a similar system, where travellers can either be picked up free from a local joining point or make their way to the coach interchange themselves. Home collection is available from certain postcodes – check your client’s at shearingsagent.com – and is free on Grand Tourer itineraries.