UK Ferry Tickets

Are you the type of person who is generally satisfied with your holiday or do you like to complain about the slightest little thing going wrong?

According to the Association of British Travel Agents, the number of complaints about holidays has gone up, to 17,196 in 2005 from 14,600 in 2004. Most of the moans have been about accommodation.

This is a genuine surprise because there is no question that, in general, the quality of holidays offered by tour operators has risen.

I say that not as someone who is writing for a tour operator, but as a journalist who has seen huge changes in the industry over the past couple of decades.

Travel companies who are in it for the long term have had to raise their game because of the intense competition that now exists in the industry. Give someone a bad holiday and next time they’ll book with a competitor. Every travel company wants happy, repeat passengers because it is a lot more expensive to find new clients at the beginning of every season.

So, what’s behind the rise in complaints?

ABTA blames television programmes like Package Holiday Uncovered, which often attacks holidays that are not even packages. There’s no doubt that they have encouraged people to moan about everything and anything.

I was once talking to a managing director of a big holiday firm who told me a story about his holiday. Apparently, he was lying by the pool at a hotel owned by his company when one of the other guests came up to him with a clipboard.

“Can you sign this to say you are unhappy with your holiday?” he was asked. “Why?” replied the startled managing director. “What’s wrong with it?”

“Oh nothing,” came the reply. “But if we all sign this piece of paper we might be able to get compensation!”

The television programmes might have encouraged people to complain, but they have also prompted a change of strategy by travel companies. Most will now look sympathetically at a claim by a holidaymaker who has a genuine gripe, but will not be held to ransom by people threatening to ring up Anne Robinson.

Guest Article by Jeremy Skidmore

Sunday, February 26th, 2006