Restricted I think is the word I am looking for here.

On a few occassions I’ve visited high street travel agents who haven’t been able to help me with my holiday plans. If your sticking to one destination, then that’s fine, but as soon as you want visit 2 or 3 destinations within your holiday, it all becomes too much.

I had a nightmare time with [company name removed] when looking for hotels in Bangkok, and I would never book with them again. I find online companies can be very poor at customer care.

Sorry Darren.

I booked an hotel with them, got the confirmation through, and then 3 days later I received an email to inform me that the hotel was unavailable and booked up for the period I had booked.

So, I booked another hotel with them and the same thing happened. I tried to contact the “customer care” section but no one returned my emails, so I gave up in the end.

I must of wasted 30 minutes of my lunchtime, going through packages I wasn’t interested in, and it felt like I was given the hard sell, rather than selling me the holiday package that I wanted.

No Darren, I’ve not emailed you.

I finally received a response this morning, apologising, and blaming the hotels not the company. I’ve now booked a hotel through a travel agent in the town centre.

My first venture into online booking was a time consuming and frustrating experience.

I hope that the internet does not make Travel agencies move away from traditional high street shops to call centre’s in Asia. I have no complaints with travel agents, and would prefer to speak or meet someone in person than deal with a computer screen.

Here’s My Rant Darren
A Customer has just been in and asked for a particular brochure by name, The Cosmos Villas with Pools brochure. We’re always suspicious when someone wants a named brochure, it usually means that Someone or a Friend has a holiday booked and wants to book the same, or in most Cases they have booked elsewhere and Can’t get the brochure from the Internet, and so ” Steals” our supplies
Or in this case Wanted to use her Tesco Vouchers, which can only be used at Tescos, but Tescos can’t provide the brochure and Tescos tells the Client to go and pick one up from their nearest Travel Agent.
I would gladly oblige if this customer had regular bookings with us. But No.
The Operators only supply us with Brochures depending on our sales, No Sales No Brochures.
It Really gets my Goat, that People have the cheek to Use us in this way, and get so Uppity when we try to explain our situation.
I’m seriously considering having only File Copies Only on our shelves?

I thought that brochures are like newspapers, they are printed in bulk, and many are taken, and holidays are not always booked from the brochure. Personally, I think with the environment issues that affect us, travel operators should be looking to reduce the amount of brochures and use other more environmentally friendly methods.

I prefer to deal with agents rather than online companies.

I booked a weekend break with Expedia, and could never get hold of anyone when I wanted to change my hotel after I had read bad reports on it. At least with a travel agent you have a shop to visit, or a human at the end of a telephone.

Alley 4.04pm:

Can a customer return to a high street travel agent AFTER they have booked their holiday and change the hotel because they’d heard bad things about it?

[Perhaps Lee can help us here?]

i would suspect you are absolutely right, Darren - of course a hotel can be changed, but at a cost.

i would also guess that any OTA would also change a hotel over the phone - at a price.

with consumers so fixated on price, however, this is why a perceived lack of service on some OTAs is considered “goes with the territory” because of the array of deals available.

there is a perception - very much like that of the low-cost carriers - that SOMETIMES because of the deal the OTA’s are much lower, therefore the easiest place to trim costs is on customer service part of the business.

So, they offer cheaper holidays, or more deals, does this mean that they can treat customers badly? Sorry but I don’t think that is a good enough excuse for a poor customer service.

I know Dazza doesn’t want us to mention the companies, but some of these OTA are raking in the money, so they should put more revenue into providing a better service.

p.s. I could get used to this ranting Dazza

it is no excuse whatsover. but a harsh reality of modern musiness, unfortunately…

i suspect Dazza doesn’t want companies being named and shamed, for fear of being subject to legal actions.

the harsh reality of being a blogger: you’re still subject to libel law…

I Think Tour Operators should be named and shamed!!
Take Manos for Instance.
A Client came in today and wanted information on The Esmerelda Park and Gardens Complex at a cost of £1,200 for 2 adults + a child, We suggested that they also look at something completely different and I spent more than an hour extolling Guess What Darren?
The Christina apartments in Mastihari, ( For those of you who may not know, it’s where we booked Darren of Travel Rants too last Autumn)
We Looked at Manos and found a Free Child Price and our Viewdata system showed with all of the discounts a Manos Price of £662.20
A Fantastic offer, if ever there was one.
The Client then goes home and goes on line to find that Manos Direct is Quoting at £601.10.
The Client then Phones me up and asks if we can match it and offer a lower price!!!!
The Tour Operator now offers us Lower Commissions and of Course we cannot offer them any discount otherwise we Would be booking at a loss.

It Is Scandoulous that Tour Operators have relied on Travel Agencies in selling their holidays for them, and then Treats us and their clients in this way.
I hope that Trading Standards look into this as We sholud be able to Quote on our systems the exact same price as if the Client was to go to the Tour Operator.

I Do not Charge my clients for my professional advice and it really Hurts when the service you are providing is undermined in this way.
I Know it’s going to happen and in the end it will be Manos and Airtours loss, as I Have removed all of their brochures from our shelves and Skipped them
We Won’t be recommending them and I’d advise other Travel Agencies to do the same.

At Least with good Independent Tour Operators, you know The Quote we give will be the same as the Operators

NAME AND SHAME MANOS !

what could Trading Standards do?? i suspect TS only intervenes when the consumer has been inconvenienced…

Wow theres been some ranting in here, love it

BBC Breakfast covered this issue this morning:

http://travolution.blogspot.com/2007/01/bbc-breakfast-tackles-online-travel.html

klm, ed, travo

hi i have been told by my travel agent that i will have to go to another hotel i looked at the reveiws and it is an appaling place .so many complaints have been made.do i have to accept this hotel.