Wish You Were Here . . . . Erm, no, not really.
Now, I’m no stranger to holiday complaints. I have on my travels had cause to ‘kick-off’ several times, but hey-ho, if you found pubic hairs – someone else’s I should add – in the bed, or another man’s soiled underpants in your wardrobe then who wouldn’t?
Things were so bad on one occasion that my complaint was only resolved with a refund. But I digress.
The usual complaint coming from returning British holidaymakers seems to be about the weather. Our national obsession, and something, which let’s face it, we can’t really do much about. Findings based on a compilation of data from ABTA (The Association for British Travel Agents), Telegraph Travel and Thomas Cook, however, suggest that some Brits take complaining *a little* too far.
The late, great Sid James summed it up perfectly in Carry On Abroad when he sarcastically commented to a whinging fellow holidaymaker, ‘You’re determined to have a good time, aren’t you!?’
So, to these findings. Amongst the top twenty OTT complaints received by British tour operators we have such gems as:
- Too many Spaniards. . . . in Spain.
- Grievances that a flight from Jamaica back to the UK took nine hours whereas Americans returning home only had to fly for three hours.
- The sand on the beach was too white.
- Too many fish in the sea.
- Restaurants in India served too much curry.
- The sight of an aroused elephant made one man feel inadequate.
- A pair of ‘Ray-Bans’ purchased on the street for £3.50 turned out to be fake.
- Mosquitoes bite, and the tour operator should have told people this.
- Water trunks were needed for a trip to a water park, and the travel agent should have notified people of this.
- A one bedroom apartment was smaller than a three bedroom one.
You really couldn’t make it up. . . .
