OPINION

The art of complaining

Sometimes bypassing customer services and going straight to the top is the only way to resolve a complaint

DEREK PICOT A HOTELIER FOR MORE THAN 30 YEARS AND AUTHOR OF THE HOTEL DETECTIVE AND HIS LOVER

Ahotel manager’s mail is always a delight to read. Grumbling letters tumble through the letterbox at a rate of three complaints to every one compliment. It’s quite a ratio, and the petulant correspondence is the full spectrum; the food, the service, lost property, the bill, the room, the people, and even the weather.

Complainants can be very rude. For example, I once received a note which read: “Compared to your hotel in Athens – this place is a cowshed.” I replied by thanking him for his kind remark about the hotel in Athens and then added that I had visited many cowsheds and in my opinion, the particular one I was managing was the most luxurious cowshed I had ever seen.

Another correspondent complained about the programming on the local TV station a er the 9pm watershed, which included some inappropriate o erings. “Do you realise children are up at this hour?” he asked rhetorically. I did, but I wasn’t expecting his next line. “Mine weren’t,” he wrote, “but I got them up especially to see the sort of rubbish that goes on while they are asleep.” I couldn’t think of a reply to this, so instead arranged for his television to be unplugged.

Not all problems are so easily solved. One guest wrote: “Dear Sir, I wish to complain about absolutely everything…” And he went on to do exactly that.

Even praise can come with a sting in the tail. One guest wrote in glowing terms about the quality of the hotel linen and at the end of his letter added: “…and the towels were so u y we could hardly pack them into our suitcase”. I didn’t hear from him again, even a er we had levied a late charge on his credit card for sundry items stolen. CONTACT THE BOSS How should we express our comments good or bad to make sure that they get attention? Has customer relations o ered a real solution to your problems in a timely manner? If not, what should you do?

Well, I would suggest you skirt past the complaints department and vent your frustration directly with the head of the organisation. Marcus Williamson knows how to reach them. He is the founder and editor of CEOemail.com, a site that gives you direct access to the head o ces of a huge number of businesses together with the top man or woman’s email address and telephone number. He reports that CEOemail.com receives up to 11,000 hits a day from customers.

However, before you re o your email to the CEO, it is worthwhile considering what constitutes a well-structured complaint. ere are several key points to make.

Firstly, act quickly; strike before the iron goes cold. Know your rights and don’t exaggerate what happened. No one died, we hope, otherwise the police would be involved. Before writing, condense your story and list the points you want to make with the most important one rst. Getting everything onto one page helps with clarity and gives the recipient an immediate picture of your grievance.

Be as polite as you are able, avoid sarcasm and, most importantly, let them know how the experience a ected you (again, don’t exaggerate) and what you would like in compensation. It helps to let the organisation

know you are a valued customer. Tell them how much you spend with them, or why you chose them on this occasion. Set a deadline by when you expect a reply (for business people, time is of the essence). Finally, make sure you nish your letter correctly. You would be surprised about the number of times unpleasant notes to me have been signed o , “love”. Business travellers constitute an important segment of hotels’ and airlines’ business. If you receive a reply but you still don’t think your complaint has been Let the organisation successfully addressed, there is no point in know you are a prolonging an unsatisfactory valued customer. Tell correspondence. If you are them how much you clear on your rights, take the issue further, perhaps to an spend with them Ombudsman or similar authority where one exists. LOST AND FOUND Finally, here’s some useful information for those who complain about unreturned lost property. Customers cannot understand why a lost item is never automatically sent on when found. e reason? Hotels can’t be sure who was with whom in a room and what relation they have to one another. On a lighter note, an astonished room attendant once found a prosthetic leg in a recently vacated room. I immediately rang the client and asked if he was missing anything, perplexed as to how he could have le the hotel without noticing. “Oh!” he replied. “You must have found my jogging leg – I wondered where I had le it.” For once, one guest who wasn’t hopping mad with us.

Better bend than break

As airlines and hotels reintroduce non-refundable and advance purchase bookings, it’s time to challenge these restrictive practices

Just about the only silver lining to be found in the chaos of worldwide travel restrictions over the last two years has been flexibility – the ability to chop, change or chuck any travel plans in the face of the changing tide of government Covid regulations.

Airlines, hoteliers, Airbnb hosts and conference organisers have had to give the peace of mind required to stimulate us to book trips by offering the flexibility to change our minds and travel at another time or cancel completely. Holidays and business trips that might otherwise have been set in stone by advance purchase flights and non-refundable hotel rooms, have suddenly become changeable and refundable at the click of a mouse, or after two hours on hold.

Even now as travel restrictions to most of the world’s top destinations have been lifted, I am paranoid about committing large amounts of money to a business trip, conference or holiday many months in the future. It’s a kind of commitment phobia. As I click the ‘Pay Now’ button, I have an uneasy feeling in the pit of my stomach and my credit card is shaking in my hand. Will this trip ever happen? Will I ever see this money again? Even if restrictions don’t prevent me from travelling, I might get Covid the day before I fly. Does my insurance cover me if I do?

IS THE PARTY OVER? It appears that such gratuitous flexibility on the part of travel suppliers may be something that we have increasingly taken for granted, but there will undoubtedly come a time in the not-too-distant future when the party will be over and non-changeable will once again mean what it says. Flexibility will revert to being the preserve of those able to afford a full fare ticket, sizeable change fees or a rack rate room. On June 8, after two years of allowing customers to change their travel plans for free for any reason, British Airways followed Easyjet and Ryanair and ended its ‘Book with Confidence’ policy. Suddenly, any bookings made from that day forward was governed by the airline’s standard policies. In other words, expect to pay change fees unless you’ve booked a flexible fare and make sure that you are fully insured.

Most airlines are likely to reintroduce this policy if restrictions are reinstated by individual countries, but it is not clear what will be defined as a ‘restriction’ and you might be presented with a dreaded voucher, rather than a refund.

However, in a world of increasing uncertainty, has flexibility become a reasonable expectation of holiday-makers once happy to commit to a two-week summer holiday in Greece on Boxing Day or owners of small businesses once able to nail down a three-day sales trip to the Far East two months out? Has the pandemic, the conflict in Ukraine and the cost of living crisis taught us not to count on anything anymore? Or has it compelled businesses to adapt to the winds of change?

REVERTING TO TYPE In the context of an increasing need to be able to adapt to changing circumstances, what should suppliers in the travel industry do? I suspect that the vast majority will do as BA and others have done – revert to type and go back to loading their most competitive rates with the terms and conditions of the pre-pandemic world, and leave flexibility as a luxury for those who can pay for it. But surely there is a disrupter out there ready to turn the current business model on its head. An airline prepared to allow you to change your flight, and even your destination, a week ahead of travel or a hotel brand that will do the same. They might even be able to make a modest charge or introduce a small deposit scheme for this peace of mind. After all, even when the current surge in pent-up travel demand subsides and the reality of a wages squeeze hits us all, we will all still want something to look forward to, even if we’re not quite sure what.

We’ll perhaps want to book a wellearned break in the knowledge that we can postpone it if our wallet can’t take the strain. As we all feel less certain about the future than ever before, as the proverb goes, “Better bend than break.”

Surely there is a disrupter out there ready to turn the current business model on its head

RICHARD TAMS AIRLINE CONSULTANT AND EXECUTIVE COACH