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The Group

Twenty years building one thing

A holiday where nothing has to be arranged twice.

Why the group exists

One country, one company, no loose ends

Evangelatos Group has worked in Greek tourism for more than twenty years. It began with a single car hire office and grew, one customer question at a time, into seven companies that between them cover a whole visit.

They were built to work as one system rather than as seven suppliers. The car is waiting when the flight lands. The room is ready. The table is held. The boat leaves at nine and somebody has already looked at the forecast. None of it needs chasing, because the people responsible for each part answer to the same family.

That is the whole idea: a visitor should spend their week on the trip, not on arrangements. Everything planned, nothing repeated, and no moment where a holiday is handed to a stranger who has never heard of you.

Twenty years is how long it takes to make something look that simple.

The flight lands

And it lands again

  • The transfer
  • The car
  • The room
  • The days
  • The table
  • The excursions
  • The way home

Sequence

In the order they happened

The order is certain. The years are waiting on the group to confirm them.

  1. —

    Mercury Rent A Car

    One office, and a fleet that fitted in a yard.

  2. —

    Carpe Diem Travel Services

    A travel agency licence, because customers were asking about excursions at the hire desk.

  3. —

    Argile Resort

    The first and only building the group put up itself.

  4. —

    Alaya Beach Bar & Restaurant

    The place on the sand acquired a kitchen, and hours that do not close at lunch.

  5. —

    Selecta Rent A Car

    A second fleet, for customers asking for something newer than the first.

  6. —

    Selecta Chauffeur

    Transfers became frequent enough to need permanent drivers rather than subcontractors.

  7. —

    Villas & Apartment Management

    Owners asked for the operation the hotel already had.

Structure

How they are tied together

( shared management, separate books )

Each company keeps its own accounts and its own manager. What is shared is finance, purchasing, people and the reservation systems. That is what lets a reception shift see car availability, and a driver know the table is already booked.

  • Finance
  • Purchasing
  • People
  • Reservations and systems
  • Maintenance

We did not set out to build a group. We answered seven questions, and they turned out to be the same question.

Vision

That a week here can be spent
without ever having to explain anything
twice.

Mission

What we do, in practice

We keep seven businesses running in a country with five real months of season, and keep them close enough to speak to each other without the customer having to ask.

We employ people from the places we operate in, as close to twelve months a year as we can manage. We buy locally wherever a supplier exists. And we leave every place in the condition we found it, which is not a marketing position but a survival condition for a business that sells those places.

Goals

Five goals, with a horizon

Each one carries the year it is meant to be true by. A dated goal can be checked; an undated one is a sentiment.

  • 2027

    A nine-month season

    March and November trading properly rather than merely being open. A longer season is what turns seasonal jobs into year-round ones, so this one carries the others.

  • 2028

    Most staff on annual contracts

    The share of people on a year-round contract rather than a seasonal one, carried by the companies that work through the winter.

  • 2029

    A fleet under five years

    Average vehicle age across all three fleets brought down and held there, with renewal in rotation rather than in one expensive year.

  • 2030

    One booking for the whole stay

    A visitor arranges the trip once, with one office, and everything after that is the group speaking to itself rather than to them.

  • 2031

    Served directly, further out

    More of the country covered by the group itself rather than handed to a partner, so the standard travels with the guest instead of stopping at the ferry.

Values

Six we are held to

  • We answer

    The telephone is answered by somebody who can decide, not by somebody who will go and ask.

  • One price

    Whatever is not included is written on the first page, in the same size type.

  • The same people

    Staff come back each season. That is a measurement of management, not of luck.

  • Local first

    The local supplier goes first when the quality matches, even when the price does not.

  • No gaps

    No company in the group hands a customer to a third party without knowing where they land.

  • Without raising it

    We do not advertise what we consider basic. We do it, and let it show.

Responsibility

Available, in condition, and answered

Responsibility here is the operational kind. A car when it is asked for, a room in the condition it was sold in, and somebody who can decide answering the telephone.

None of it is remarkable on its own. Doing all of it, on the same day, across seven companies, is the whole of what the group is for.

  • Always available

    A car, a room or a table when it is asked for, in season and out of it. Capacity is held back on purpose so that yes is the ordinary answer rather than the lucky one.

  • One standard

    Seven companies, one level of finish. A guest should not be able to tell which part of the group they are dealing with from the quality of it.

  • Someone answering

    Reachable through the whole stay, not only at the booking and the bill. The telephone is answered by somebody who can decide, not by somebody who will go and ask.

  • Cars kept right

    Serviced on schedule and prepared between hires, not when there is time. A vehicle that is not right does not go out, which costs a booking and saves a holiday.

  • Better than planned

    The job does not end when the booking is confirmed. It is to hand back a week that was better than the one the guest arrived expecting.

What comes next

What the group is building

  • More taken off the guest

    New services added where a visitor still has to arrange something themselves. Each one is meant to remove a step, not to add an option.

  • A newer fleet each season

    The fleets are renewed in rotation rather than all at once, so the average car in the group gets newer every year instead of older.

  • Rooms brought forward

    Hotel rooms and apartments are refurbished in the closed months, in rotation, so nobody ever stays in the one that is waiting its turn.

  • Quieter equipment

    Electric and low-emission vehicles as the charging network allows it, and the equipment in every property replaced with efficient models as it comes up for renewal.

And which companies are those?

Seven of them, across mobility, stay and experience. Each runs its own business and answers for its own numbers.

Companies