Popular holiday complaints revealed
By Darren Cronian on Monday, September 5th, 2011

You often read PR-led surveys in the national media which highlight popular holiday complaints but I wanted to find out what the real common complaints were amongst my readers, so, since April 2011 I have been logging details of the complaints received in my inbox from consumers.

Popular holiday complaints revealed

I have received 486 holiday complaints in my inbox between April – August 2011.

Let me break this down a little. These complaints were due to:

17% – lack of assistance from airline when flight delayed/cancelled.
13% – lack of assistance with lost baggage.
12% – inaccurate information provided by travel agency.
10% – inaccurate travel insurance advice.
9% – lack of help when ill abroad.
9% – parking at airports, both pick-up and long stay.
8% – changes to accommodation on arrival at resort
8% – issues with airport transfer, i.e. coach not arriving etc.
4% – issues with booking holiday online.
2% – issues around banking charges abroad.

The remaining complaints were difficult to group.

Airlines and airports have the most complaints

Looking at this information I could then see that 39% of the complaints were due to issues within the airport or with the airline. 63% of the complaints were relating to poor customer service. From September I plan to log information like the companies and airports involved so that I can provide more in-depth information.

Have you had the need to complain about your holiday this year? Any surprises in my stats? Are they stats I should try and catch for next time? As usual let me know in the comments section.


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12 responses to “Popular holiday complaints revealed”

Nick | 5 September, 2011 at 8:24 pm

Darren, Pretty much what I would of expected…. except not one complaint against any Tour Operator? Or have you placed them as Travel Agents? If so there BIG differance.

We recently have had 5 people complain about us because of poor information in a brochure. But as a Travel Agent we do not print any brochures the Tour Operators do and that is out of our hands. (In each case the booking was not placed via us, just the brochure collected from us).

Placing Travel Agents in the same group as Tour Operators is like placing IFA’s as High Street Banks.

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Darren Cronian | 5 September, 2011 at 8:29 pm

Hi Nick

Thanks for commenting.

I suppose tour operators could have been involved in a mixture of the groups, i.e. accommodation changes, inaccurate information by travel agency (info probably supplied by tour op) etc. From September I am going to keep a note of the companies concerned, so I will have a better idea if it is travel agency/tour operator etc.

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Lily | 13 September, 2011 at 12:17 am

We recently did a similar analysis of our client satisfaction/surveys and found that a lot of the complaints were actually about things that we were not considering our responsibility, but have since implemented plans for. An example is local doctors/hospitals, a connection at the airline that helps customers with paperwork for lost baggage and partnering with a shuttle company to bring guests to and from the hotels. Great article; like to see what others are experiencing.

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Dan | 13 September, 2011 at 12:22 am

It was interesting to read this post. I work for an airline company and we are constantly trying to improve our protocols so that our clients and guests are happy. This feedback is very helpful to see for our end as well.

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Nick | 14 September, 2011 at 10:02 am

Lily, your finding what most Travel and Tourism Companies do, that a large part of the complaints are about things that are not under control. Restaurants, Weather, Pick Pockets, Attractions, Time Share, local bus services, etc. These make up quarter of complaints and are part of at least another quarter.

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James Coke | 15 September, 2011 at 2:17 pm

Its a interesting post, i think there is others issues to discuss

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Matt | 17 September, 2011 at 2:28 pm

You haven’t seen anything about complaints until you visit the Philippines. I started a blog off to try and fill in some of the gaps but what happens is people started emailing me about how to book a hotel as they couldn’t get them to answer the phone, email or any other point of contact except in person (which isn’t doable from abroad). At the same time people start asking “can you book it for me?” which is obviously a no answer. A lot of these problems are getting worse due to outsourcing as often the the call centres or agents lack the authority to put things right and won’t go to a superior who can. Sad state of affairs that’s likely not to improve anytime soon.

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tom | 17 September, 2011 at 2:54 pm

“13% – lack of assistance with lost baggage.”

I am also a concerned, in this area is still very much to do…
Thanks for the interesting post!

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Lee Harrison | 17 September, 2011 at 3:47 pm

Totally agree with Nick, It is important to differentiate between Agent and Operator, mind you it doesn’t surprise me that consumers get confused, Quite often we have people in front of us who take a mobile call and explain that they are in the Estate Agents!!

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Nick | 19 September, 2011 at 8:52 am

Lee, lol. So true or even in a building society

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Rob | 23 September, 2011 at 9:41 am

Great post. I work for an tour company and we are constantly trying to improve our protocols so that our clients and guests are happy. This feedback is very helpful to see for our end as well.

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Steve Robertson | 13 October, 2011 at 6:10 pm

Being prepared is critical when travelling anywhere. By doing as much research as possible prior to any travel you’ll make things run alot more smoothly. Travel insurance is another goodie to add it to your personal checklist and if you’ve got the right coverage you’ll avoid many of these complaints. When visiting any new location, especially one in a foreign country there are times when you are forced to call off, change, or even interrupt a well-planned trip. You can’t plan for everything. Sometimes life takes over and your travel plans go out the window. Just make sure you are always covered, its really as easy as that!

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