All posts in Holiday complaints

Let’s pretend that you have booked a family holiday at a recently opened 5 star resort. You take a visit to Trip Advisor after booking to find that despite being informed by the tour operator that the resort is open and complete, that they’re reviews from travellers who say that a lot of the facilities are still closed.

The consumer calls the tour operator but they deny that there’s a problem with the resort. Meanwhile more travellers are leaving comments and reviews about the resort. If the consumer cancels, I suspect they will not receive a full refund, so they continue to pursue the tour operator or go on the holiday and hope the resort is what they expect from the brochure.

It’s not a nice situation to be in, but it’s a scenario that I am starting to hear more often from consumers.

Just a few thoughts:

» I would never check a hotel review site after booking a holiday
» Don’t rush into booking – go home and research the resort
» It’s probably not a good idea to book a resort which has only just opened

The most recent case I received, was a consumer who booked to stay in the Grand Palladium Lady Hamilton resort in Jamaica with Thomson – no status of the resort was provided by the tour operator at the time of booking, other than it was open.

This makes me ask if the resort is not ready by a specific deadline then surely the tour operator should not take bookings.

Thankfully the consumer persisted contacting Thomson and sent them links to the forum posts and reviews on Trip Advisor, and in the end they arranged alternative accommodation in another resort. This means that the consumer won’t have the worry of potentially being transferred on arrival or staying in a resort that is only partly open.

I’d be interested to hear from any consumers who have had a similar issue.

Last week I wrote about the dangers of DIY holidays. To be completely frank I can understand why over 20 million consumers want to go it alone and organise and book their own holiday. Last week I received a few complaints about agencies that charge for sea views which are not guaranteed.

One consumer booked to stay in the Rafalet apartments in Menorca with Travel Republic, they wanted sea views so paid the extra £140. When they arrived at the hotel all of the rooms with sea views were booked and the hotel confirmed that they do not charge, it’s first come, first served.

Travel Republic dealt with the complaint quickly and professionally but the consumer only received a part refund. How annoying though – if you pay for sea views then you should receive exactly that and the agent should check availability before you pay.

Another consumer booked a hotel in Benidorm through You Travel paid £250 for sea views, on arrival the hotel informed them that they were no rooms available with sea view. On the invoice it did not state that they have paid for sea views even though the extra payment has been added in to the amount paid.

Holiday advice

My advice is if you have paid for sea views make sure that it’ is itemised on your invoice, and take the invoice with you on holiday. If the hotel cannot give what you have paid for, then make sure you get a letter from them confirming this and make sure you apply for a full refund.

I’d be interested to hear from any consumers who have come up against the same problems.

Maybe I expect too much from tour operators and travel agencies but I would expect to find somewhere the companies complaints procedure. To me it makes sense to have a process that a customer has to follow to complain.

It’s not like us Brits complain enough, but today I visited a few online booking websites including Thomas Cook and Kuoni Travel to find their complaints procedure, and after spending a while searching around I could not find any mention of what the process is.

As a customer I would want to know who to send the complain to, how long they will take to respond, and what channels you can go down should the company not be able to deal with your complaint to your satisfaction.

Here’s some advice from my own experience filling a complaint:

It’s important that you mention any complaints to the tour representative before you depart as you may have to fill in paperwork, and other holidaymakers might have had the same problems which will back up your complaint.

• Collect evidence, i.e. photographs and videos of your complaint.
• Find the companies head office address and write a letter, send it recorded delivery
• Send photocopies of your documentation
• Be clear about exactly what happened
• Give them two weeks to respond.

Hopefully, the company concerned will deal with your complaint.

ABTA have a code of conduct ensures that their members have to respond to any complaint within strict time limits. If you can’t resolve a dispute, the next step is for you to contact their consumer affairs department who will be able to assist.

The Travel Trust association works with independent travel agencies and like ABTA has a customer complaints procedure should you not be able to resolve the complaint direct with the travel agency. The website has tons of useful information about how to complain.

I’d be interested to hear consumers experiences with complaint procedures or any additional feedback from any travel agencies reading this blog. Feel free to leave any comments relating to the content of this blog post, as it’s important that it is accurate.

Apparently a couple have been banned from booking another cruise with Royal Caribbean due to their constant complaining. It seems that the couple have taken six cruises with the company since 2004, and have claimed compensation after every cruise.

It’s important that you complain about any issues and speak with the travel company as soon as the incidents occur, not after you depart but in this scenario would you have booked with another company after having bad experiences on the first or second cruise.

I understand that some of the complaints raised were genuine and the couple were compensated, but the company suggest that they disagreed with the majority of complaints. I keep asking myself did Royal Caribbean make the right decision to ban the couple.

It’s been suggested that the couple are serial complainers, if this is the case, then yes, I agree with the ban, but it depends on the complaints raised. What is your opinion, should consumers be banned for complaining too much, or would you simply not use the company again.