UK Ferry Tickets

A very interesting email from Fung-Yee, on the subject of complaining, reminded me to impart some advice on how to approach travel companies.

Fung-Yee poses lots of questions in her correspondence, but I think her point is that we’re not necessarily a nation of complainers, but rather that we have a right to expect the holiday we pay for.

Of course, Fung-Yee is correct, but it is also important to approach a tour operator in a certain way.

As I’ve said before, most companies do actually care about their customers and are prepared to rectify a situation if a holiday has gone badly wrong.

Unfortunately, many holidaymakers do not do themselves any favours in their dealings with tour operators and tend to blame them for everything from poor weather to the fact that some locals in resort don’t speak English.

If, for example, you do not get the accommodation you were promised, try to sort it out while you are on holiday by speaking to a company representative. Do not fester while you are abroad. All that happens is that you get the problem out of proportion and ruin your holiday.

If the problem is not sorted out to your satisfaction, on your return write a calm and rational letter explaining the problem. Do not muddy the waters by complaining about a raft of other minor issues, for example that the holiday was made worse by the fact that the cabaret singer had a sore throat and couldn’t hit the high notes and the brochure said it would be 26 degrees, but it was only 24 degrees on two of the days, blah, blah.

Honestly, I’ve seen many complaint letters that are beyond belief.

One major operator told me that there are lots of ‘domestics’ on holiday because couples are simply not used to spending a fortnight together. He had letters from women (and men) complaining that it was the operator’s fault that they had not got on with their spouses, because they were in the company’s hotel at the time!

Be reasonable with a travel company and you will usually find that they will be reasonable with you. We’re all human beings after all (well, most of us are!)

Guest Article by Jeremy Skidmore

Thursday, March 30th, 2006