Jerry Pack, founder of Holiday Extras, had spent the last 14 years working at Saga Holidays. He had a grammar school education and no formal qualifications, so he knew it would not be easy to find another job. He wondered what the future had in store for him.  He needed something to be passionate about.

One day Pack’s boss at Saga Holidays asked him to find out how the company handled customers who needed overnight stays in airport hotels. Pack discovered that the existing system was costly and didn’t work very well. His company has been selling holidays since 1955 but still had a terrible system. He decided to find out how his competitors handled overnights.

This was the beginning of his inspiration. The travel agents he spoke to all hated doing overnights. They had to make lots of calls before they found a room, and customers were dissatisfied with the bookings because the prices the hotels charged were always different. On top of that, the agents hardly ever received commissions.

With help from NZ Business Coach, Pack saw an opportunity and went for it. His passionate idea was to become the hotel room wholesaler, getting advanced allocations of rooms at hotels at a large discount and selling them to travel agents at a higher price. The hotel would benefit with new business, the travel agent would benefit with the commissions, and customers would benefit with cheaper hotel rooms

He and a friend set up the business, Apple Booking Company, in the offices of the publishing company, Apple Communications, so the staff could answer the phone for both companies with the same name. Pack paid his friend 50c for each booking made. The great thing was that there was no expense if they didn’t do any business he was able to start the business with just $160 which he paid for printing some leaflets and a marketing plan.

The idea was successful from the start. A few days after he sent out leaflets, the lady in the office said they had six bookings. He knew it would be a hit. In the first year the Apple Booking Company sold 4000 hotel rooms. Pack took a risk and decided to have a free phone number. It cost a lot but was worth it because he could tell travel agents that when they make bookings it would not cost them anything. Even so, Pack said it was not easy to get travel agents to change their habits in the first year. The two would go back week after week just to remind them that they were there.

Over the years Pack added more hotels and travel insurance, airport car parks, and airport lounges to the extras it sold. Pack made some expensive mistakes along the way including an expedition to Africa. He was organizing tropic expeditions to Africa and wanted to use new Mercedes trucks. It cost him $1,600,000 in two years before he had to shut the expeditions down. He thought he was doing the right thing, but he learned that not all business models can sustain the same costs. His competitors were operating on a shoestring and he couldn’t compete with them.

The core business however thrived and in 2004 the company, renamed Holiday Extras, celebrated its 21st birthday. At that point it was selling 400,000 rooms the year, with sales of $1,600,000) and profits of $11,270,000 annually.

Pack sold the business in 2005 for $48,000,000. He reinvested $32,000,000 into the business for 47% stake. He is currently a nonexecutive director of the business, and spends much of his time sailing.

Hacks philosophy is to “Make the most of every opportunity. Remember that your destiny is the result of your actions. When you have a mortgage and children you are driven by money in the sense that you must have a job. But if all you think about is money, your business is never going to work. You have to be passionate about what you are doing – and you have to want to win.”