For teenagers growing up in the 80s and 90s, a package holiday like a Club 18-30 trip taking young people to the Med’s most popular party resorts was a rite of passage.They were usually booked from a glossy brochure via a high street travel agent such as Lunn Poly or Thomas Cook – or even by using your TV to access deals on the now long defunct Ceefax or Teletext.For under £300, a peak season trip might include flights, coach transfers, a self-catering apartment in a resort with a pool and as much fun as Europe’s fleshpots could unleash.Such holidays almost always included too – as is often still the case today – the services of a rep whose job it was to ensure guests had as wild a time as was feasibly possible, following the mantra of ‘what happened in resort, stays in resort’.Alongside hosting an often boozy welcome meeting, there would be a raft of organised tours that guests could take part in, from boat cruises to bar crawls.Reps would be expected to greet guests at all hours of the day at the airport, deal with any medical emergencies, local hotel owners and unruly guests. Bring on the fun! Holiday reps in the 80s and 90s worked round-the-clock hours, partied hard and mixed business with pleasure, say those who worked in the industry at the time Cheap party deals to the sun – considered a rite of passage for teenagers – included accommodation, flights and transfers, and were often booked via a high street travel agent Booze-fuelled games, often sexually explicit, were a staple of the holiday rep’s weekThey would also lead rugby-style chants, which were often sexually explicit, on coach trips with guests.Reps would point tourists in the direction of the best fish-bowl cocktail venue, where you could share a washing-up sized bowl of drink – such as ‘sex on the beach’ or ‘blue lagoon’ – with friends. Several Facebook groups are now dedicated to holiday reps sharing some of their wildest stories, including Stories of a Holiday Rep and the Club 18-30 Holiday Memories 1980-1990.We asked some of those members to reveal their best tales…’I was so hungover at morning meetings, guests used to take photos with me asleep as a joke’ Michael ‘Mick’ Conran (centre) during his days as a rep for Skytours – he was 24 when his career as a holiday rep beganMichael Conran, now 63 and living in Spain as a retiree, was 24 when his career as a rep began. Working for companies such as Lancaster Holidays, Horizon and Crystal Ski, he fully engaged with the wilder side of the youth holiday industry. Michael, known as ‘Mick’, says he has a book’s worth of stories he can tell about his time as a ski and holiday rep in the 80s and 90s.He may be rich in anecdotes, but he certainly wasn’t well-off on a young rep’s salary – although he admits plenty of his colleagues found a way around that. ‘In those days, repping was a poorly paid job – I had £168 per month paid into my English bank account and then 7.5 per cent commission on any excursions I sold paid locally.’There was lots of mischief though – side earners and scams – that most reps don’t talk about… but the wages were very low so you had to find creative ways of making money.’ However, there were definitely perks with free drinks galore and some very memorable hangovers notched up over the years. Holiday reps looking sun burnt on a night out during Mick’s time working in the MedHis first night on the job in the Balearics made it pretty clear how things were going to play out, he says.’I got a message to meet my team leader in her room. I went up expecting some formal-ish business meeting. Mick now says his days as a rep were absolutely ‘the best years’ of his life’When I went in there were four people laid on a bed smoking a spliff. It was decided that we were going out that night to check out some of the bars for the upcoming pub crawls.’To this day I have no idea what I did on that first night in Majorca, but I must have been in every bar in the resort, fuelled by tequila and making lots of friends.’Mornings were spent manning the hotel desk.He would often arrive to find a ‘mob’ of frustrated tourists with a pile of complaints to get through – but the hangovers arguably helped. ‘One night I was out and bumped into some of my guests from the previous year in Mallorca. ‘I said, “Did you realise that I was asleep behind my sunglasses in reception every day?’ “Realise?” they said, “It was the joke of the holiday!”‘ Mick recounts: ‘Apparently while I was asleep people used to balance things on my head and take photos; one girl rested her breasts on my head for a photo and another put cigarettes up my nose and lit them! All the time I was blissfully unaware.’ How does Mick look back on his antics now he’s a retiree living a more sedate life? He tells the Daily Mail: ‘Absolutely the best years of my life. Although it was hard work with long hours – eight-hour flight delays were commonplace in the 80s – but we never wasted a minute of our spare time. We were always out clubbing till the early hours. Afternoons were for sleeping/recovery time.”We didn’t have mobiles and guests frequently used to do the “walk of shame”… often wearing the rep’s T-shirts!’ Craig Hogan (pictured bottom row, far right) took his first job as a rep in 1989 and spent 11 years working for ski and sunshine holiday companiesFather-of-three Craig Hogan, 60, who lives in Scotland, first landed a job in 1989 as a rep for holiday company 2wentys. After impressing at a London interview, the then 23-year-old found himself on a flight to Ibiza just as the rave scene was kicking off in earnest. He spent the next four years working as a rep in some of the Med’s biggest party destinations: Gran Canaria, the Costa del Sol and Benidorm.And Craig says his colleagues – the vast majority of them under 25 – found themselves to be the centre of attention.’Girls would literally throw themselves at the reps, at the doormen, at the DJ. It’s that old saying, “what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas”. People would let loose when they were away from home and behave differently. It doesn’t happen now in the same way because there were no mobile phones.’It wasn’t unusual, Craig says, for both reps and holidaymakers to have more than one sexual partner in a night.’Many tourists would end up doing the “walk of shame” wearing a rep’s T-shirt so people couldn’t see they were still wearing the same clothes as the night before.’ The former rep says holidaymakers would make a beeline for staff – with romantic liaisons…and no mobile phones…rife. Left, Craig on one of the boozy boat tours that the reps would sell to tourists. Right: Dressing up was par for the course He learned quickly he says, how to handle unruly lads’ holidays, saying he would work out who the ‘leader’ was and then tell them ‘You’ve got to calm your boys down, otherwise you’ll get prosecuted – and that’s not just you but the whole group, and you’ll miss your flights home. That normally used to work’. One of the most fun nights, he says, was the ‘tarts and togas’ parties, where women would wear the togas and the men would dress up in women’s clothes and wear make up before hitting the town as a group.Reps, who worked until 2am every morning – and would frequently be up for the airport runs the next day, were encouraged to drink as much as the guests they were shepherding.They were also encouraged to sell them ‘block booking’ excursions – be it a boat party, bar crawl, theatre experience or beach party.’It was normally six trips. You sold them the block booking, and that would guarantee they’re on the beach party, the bar crawl, the night’s adventure – they’d get a free t-shirts and free drinks. People wanted to be with the reps.”One angry guest grabbed me by the throat in the hotel lift and called me a “reptile”‘ As a 24-year-old, Louise arrived in the Gran Canaria resort of Puerto Rico and found herself faced with aggressive tourists in her first seasonFormer rep Louise, 52, from north-east England, has enjoyed decades of working in the tourism industry but her first season was a baptism of fire. After three decades of working for holiday companies, one moment stands out as the most memorable, says Louise – and not in a good way. During her first season as a rep in 1999, in the popular tourist town of Puerto Rico on Gran Canaria, the then 24-year-old was hospitalised with suspected meningitis. A fellow rep covered her hotel until she returned – but what happened on her first day back still gives her chills now. Louise tells the Daily Mail: ‘I went to the hotel notice board to replace the photo of the rep who’d been covering me and saw it had been defaced – someone had scribbled all over the details for tourists, such as duty times and excursions.’As I asked the receptionist if she knew what had happened, a Scottish man came around the corner, and started shouting and bawling at me, asking: “Where have you been?”‘Louise says she explained her illness but the man was still furious. She eventually got in a nearby lift to try and escape him. ‘He came at me in the lift, put his hands around my neck – I was literally dangling, and he called me a “reptile”.’The man eventually walked off, leaving Louise shaken. ‘I reported it to resort management but nothing ever happened. He didn’t apologise and I had to just carry on working as normal. That behaviour wouldn’t be tolerated now.’Young reps regularly faced situations that were often way beyond their experience, she adds, recounting another day where she was asked to go to a Spanish court after a guest faced an allegation of sexual assault, which was later thrown out. Generally, she describes her time as utterly exhausting but fun; she says learning how to handle 200 drunk people on a weekly bar crawl gave her skills that have seen her through other jobs since. ‘I knew that if I could get through that first season, then I could kind of get through anything’Those early colleagues became like family too. ‘I’m still in contact with some of those people from back in 1999 – I’ve been to one of their weddings. It was a very, very closeted environment, and we didn’t have anybody else but each other.”I always describe that time as the best life experiences I’ve ever had because it shaped me into who I am.”There were amazing highs and lows: my sales were incredible and I partied 24/7… but I was beaten up and one guest tragically died’ An 18-30s holiday in Corfu… as the holiday party industry used to thrive in the 80s and 90s Aiden Melling, 47, from Lancashire, says he was a ‘cheeky chappy’ in his youth, a personality that proved perfect for the five years he spent hosting tourists. He says he experienced every side of repping life. ‘You were basically paid to get drunk on nights out – it’s your job to get the guests drunk and giddy.’Aiden, who now runs his own financial company AM Solutions, was just 19 when he accepted his first repping job and went on to work in resorts across Spain and its islands between 1998 and 2003. The highs were ‘amazing’ and he says there were times when he felt like the ‘world was his oyster’. He was being paid – although admittedly lowly wages at around £800-a-month – to have a brilliant social life under blue skies. ‘You were trained by choreographers to dance and sing – it was amazing at times, a great laugh. I think any ex-rep you speak to will probably say it’s the best years of their life.’ His favourite jobs saw him with a car, nice digs in a posh hotel and, if he was lucky, just one airport run a week. At one point, he says he sported a Mohican like David Beckham, complete with blonde highlights, and wore a yellow polo shirt with checked shorts or trousers. Reps were encouraged to drink to ensure guests had as much fun as possibleHis look was, he reflects, ‘a bit shocking’ but says his excursion bookings went through the roof thanks to his easy patter: ‘I was a cheeky guy and my sales were incredible!’There was a darker side though. His worst gig? He worked at a resort in Fuerteventura that earned the name ‘the RAF camp’, because people joked it was ‘rough as f***’.’The most common scenario for me was wives who used to beat up their husbands after they’d had too much to drink.’It was also, tragically, where one guest died while staying in the hotel Aiden was looking after. After the tourist suffered a fatal heart attack, the young rep was asked to help stretcher the man’s body out of the hotel.Aiden was also badly beaten up while on a bar crawl in the same resort and almost quit. However, he decided to try another season in Mallorca which, Aiden says, almost broke him. ‘Magaluf nearly finished me off, you can imagine drinking 24/7 – it just takes its toll. It was too hedonistic and you’d be at the airport multiple times a day four or five times a week. In the end, I just came home. I’d had enough.’