Thomas Cook, TUI and First Choice perform badly in package holiday survey
Thomas Cook, TUI and First Choice have come bottom in a survey of more than 8,000 customers who were asked about their package holiday experience.
The survey, by consumer rights group Which?, asked consumers to rate 11 leading package holiday providers on a range of criteria, including value for money, accommodation, organisation and quality of reps in their resorts.
It also asked holidaymakers to rate companies based on whether the holiday description matched the reality.
Only companies with more than 30 responses were included in the results.
Thomas Cook performed the worse of the 11 companies with an overall score of 69%. It was given three-star ratings, out of five, for accommodation, customer service and value for money and a poor two stars for its reps.
One in four Thomas Cook customers said they had encountered a problem on holiday with the most common issues relating to the reps, travel delays and poor customer service.
Travellers also complained the Thomas Cook reps were often unhelpful, or simply non-existent.
One customer said: “We never saw a rep the whole time we were there…all there was, was a number on a noticeboard,”
Another said Cook’s customer services operation on the ground ‘seemed to be in disarray’ as reps failed to show up at the airport or hotel to assist travellers.
TUI and sister company First Choice performed slightly better, receiving three and four-star ratings across the board and a satisfactory customer score of 74% and 75% respectively.
But they still finished at the bottom of the table, just above Thomas Cook.
Top of the table was Trailfinders, which had an overall score of 91% and was the only company to get five-star ratings for any category, achieved for both customer service and holiday organisation.
The survey noted that the average price of a Trailfinders package is more than three times that of Thomas Cook, TUI and First Choice.
However, second in the table was Jet2 Holidays, with a similar average package price to the three lowest performers but scoring a much higher of 87% overall and four-star ratings across all categories.
One holidaymaker said: “Jet2 is well-managed and consistently excellent on all fronts. Take note Thomas Cook, Tui and others.”
Which? Travel’s Naomi Leach, said: “Whether it’s disappointing accommodation, incompetent reps or a holiday that doesn’t live up to the glossy brochure, choosing the wrong package holiday company could leave you wishing you’d stayed at home.
“Our hard-earned holidays are too precious to be ruined by second-rate accommodation or shoddy customer service. If your package is not as described, don’t be afraid to make a complaint.”
Click here to see the full results
(travelmole)
