As a travel consumer blogger I receive a lot of emails from consumers asking how they complain about a travel company or airline, so I put together this guide so that I could help. Some companies are better than others when dealing with customer complaints.

Here are my tips on how to make a travel complaint.

Deal with the issues while on holiday

Some consumers wait until they arrive home before they complain. It’s important that you give the tour operator, airline or hotel an opportunity to resolve your issues. If it’s a package holiday then the rep from the tour operator should complete a complaints form and that will be sent to the head office.

I have heard of people sending in complaints months after their flight or stay at a hotel. This is much harder for the company or airline to deal with and will probably mean you’ll not get the complaint resolved to your satisfaction, so complain straight away.

Collect evidence of your travel complaint

Try and collect any evidence; if the hotel is not clean or is badly run try and take photographs and videos. Try and document the issues with dates, names of staff, because this will back up your case. The more information that you can give to them the easier it’ll be for them to deal with your complaint.

Read the complaints policy or procedure

Every company and airline should have a complaints procedure or policy. In this document it will tell you what you should do to make an official complaint. It should highlight the steps you have to take and how long it will take for them to respond and investigate your issues.

You should find this information available on their website but if you do not find it contact them.

Write to the head office

Write a letter to the head office detailing your travel complaint. Include all of the information and attach any evidence. If you have a video or photos then you could use services like You Tube or Flickr to store these photos and send the link within the letter.

Make sure you include as much information as possible. Keep a photocopy of any documentation and the letter, and make sure that you send it recorded delivery. This way you can track and make sure that someone at the company has signed and received the complaint.

Telephone or Email contact

I must admit that when I telephone a company to complain I always forget to take a note of the person’s name that I am speaking to. So make sure you do that. Also record the times you have called too. Make a note of what was discussed. If you are sending an email, keep a copy of it for evidence.

Where to go to next

Hopefully the company has resolved your travel complaint in a timely manner, but if they haven’t dealt with it to your satisfaction then they are other options you could take. This would depend on the complaint and type of travel company that you are complaining about.

The Air Transport Users Council will help deal with any issues to do with your flight, where ABTA and AITO, TTA would be able to assist with an issue with a travel agent, if they are a member. Other organisations include the Financial Ombudsman or Office of Fair Trading.

Leave your experiences online

The next place would be to leave any experiences on sites like Trip Advisor and Holiday Truths, but make sure you keep to the facts, don’t include staff names and certainly do not be libellous. Just share the type of experience that you have had with that company.

Hopefully you won’t have to complain online or to another organisation, but some travel companies are pretty bad at dealing with complaints in a timely manner. You will find some will try and sweep it under the carpet but as a consumer you do have rights so make sure you complain if you are not satisfied.

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