If you book holidays for a living, this week’s Citizens Advice research is a story you’ll want to keep close. Not to alarm your clients… but to gently remind them why having you on speed dial matters.
TL;DR
- Citizens Advice says more than 4 million Britons hit problems with package holidays in the past year
- 34% of package bookers ran into a problem of some kind, and Citizens Advice takes around 14 complaints a day
- 42% of those complaints came from all-inclusive trips booked abroad
- Quality issues, hotels not as described, food, missing facilities, made up 33% of complaints
- 1 in 4 affected travellers reported stress, anxiety or upset, and 17% paid extra out of pocket
- The headline for your clients: a real human in their corner when things go sideways
What’s Happening at Package Holidays
Citizens Advice has published new research, picked up by The Independent on 7 June, suggesting more than 4 million people in Britain encountered a problem with a package holiday in the past year. Around 76% of UK adults have booked a package trip at some point, and of those who booked in the last twelve months, 34% reported an issue. The charity says it now receives roughly 14 complaints a day about package holidays, and logged about 3,500 complaints to its Consumer Service over the year.
A Closer Look
42% of the complaints came from all-inclusive packages booked abroad, the category travellers reach for when they want certainty.
Quality issues led the way at 33% of all complaints… hotels described one way and looking another, food that didn’t match the brochure, facilities advertised but closed. Customer service failures came next at 19%, with long phone queues, ignored emails and admin errors piling up while families were on the ground.
The human cost is where it bites hardest. 1 in 4 affected travellers reported stress, anxiety or upset, and 17% paid extra for day-to-day expenses to get through. Citizens Advice consumer spokeswoman Jane Parsons put it plainly: “Too often, people are left stressed and disappointed when their dream holidays are spoiled because they’re not getting what they paid for.”
Where This Shows Up in Real Life
The article tells the story of Zorana, a 66-year-old semi-retired NHS doctor from north-east England, who spent £6,300 on a seven-night all-inclusive trip to Lanzarote with her daughter. Torrential flooding knocked out electricity, water and food at the resort. When she sought help, she was told the travel company’s rep “doesn’t work weekends.”
“We were very angry,” she said. “Hotel staff told us our travel company was always a problem and never helped people.” Months later she was still chasing compensation: “I feel a victim twice over because I had the stress of our holiday being ruined, and then months of trying to get compensation.”
John Herriman, chief executive of the Chartered Trading Standards Institute, added that the research highlights the real impact poor practice in the travel sector can have on consumers, particularly for those booking online and through social media.
The Agent Angle
Right… so where does this leave you? In a stronger position than you might think.
This isn’t a story about package holidays being bad. Plenty of clients will have a brilliant week and book the same again. It’s about what happens when something goes wrong, and how lonely that gets when there’s no human on the other end of the phone.
Good news? That’s the bit you do brilliantly. You’re the call when the brochure feels off. You’re the message at 11pm when the room isn’t what was promised. You’re the one who knows which supplier picks up the phone on a Saturday. In many ways the Citizens Advice research is a gentle advert for your job.
For your chats with clients this week, a simple “if anything isn’t right, you call me first” is the difference between a holiday and a horror story… and clients remember it long after the suitcases are unpacked.
