House or holiday hiccups? Let Ten come to the rescue while you enjoy your break
Members use Ten to deal with emergencies when they travel because:
• Our team speaks 19 languages and our services are available 24 hours a day, so we can deal with emergencies wherever, and whenever, they arise.
• Ten offers a key-holding service so that we can tackle any emergencies that crop up at your home while you're away, whether it's a leaky tap or a broken burglar alarm.
• We have insider information on everything, from where the best spa is in Tuscany to how to get a battery for a laptop in Moscow.
Ten's travel expert Hélène Falandry says:
Things that can go wrong while travelling range from the aggravating (you know there's a lovely spa in that Tuscan village, but can't remember its name) to the serious (finding a hotel room for your whole family near a snowed-in airport). Members of Ten call us to help them sort out all of these, as well as emergencies that may arise in their own homes – our key-holding service has been used to fix burst pipes and send in pest control while members travel.
The personal, 24-hour service gives members access to lifestyle managers that speak 19 languages, so we can help members go further in countries than they can on their own. We've helped stranded members by conducting conversations with taxi drivers in Istanbul, rung round and found the last club open for a stag night in Paris and placated an irate policeman in Moscow.
Sometimes we help by contacting people at home: during the Asian tsunami we drafted in extra staff to help some members fly home and we also let their friends and family know they were safe. Another member was due to speak at a conference in Düsseldorf and, on arrival, discovered that she had left her favourite shoes at home. She called Ten and, as we had arranged for someone to hold the keys to her home, we picked up the shoes and couriered them to her overnight.
Our team loves sorting out the little things as much as dealing with the bigger issues, and we can offer more peace of mind than hotel concierges because we know our members better and they trust us to be independent in our advice. Business travellers have called for a laptop battery in Moscow (with an hour's notice), a BMW garage in Mexico City and clean shirts in Kabul.
• At Ten, global knowledge is local knowledge. Our language experts are native speakers, so have first-hand experience of different cultures worldwide. This means that any advice we dispense is always from someone who's in the know.
• Ten exhaustively vets all suppliers before we use them and already has a relationship with the hotel or resort that a member has been booked into.
• Ten books trips for thousands of members. This buying power gives us considerable leverage to make demands on behalf of our members when things go wrong.
• Key-holding can also avert disaster on the home front while members are away. Ten's home specialist Victoria Connolly says: 'We have dealt with everything from removing a wasps' nest from a member's empty house to arranging a food delivery or a spring-clean to members' homes before they return from holiday.'
