they paid you there commisson?

Yes, I could have booked it online direct with the airline and the hotel for the same price he gets as an agent.
He did the lot for me through his agent's system as a favour, the airline and Hotel then paid him £300 commission, which he gave back to me.
Not sure if it still works but back in the day there used to be all sorts of small travel agents operating from home or shoeboxes. Because they were so small they didn't have an ABTA (agents account code) number and would simply call airlines and hotels and say it's x calling from 'Bobby Bob Bob Travel' could I get a ‘small agents rate’ for x dates.
They would then charge you the best commercial rate minus 25% for your commission.
Anyone could do this and you simply paid by credit card as you would there and then. Some of the Hotels would even give credit of the back of claiming to be a small agent and invoice with payment due AFTER the date of stay.