We’ve investigated the complaint about the pilot who flew to the wrong country. And the one about the two-day car rental that cost $7,000. The cabin that was flooded when the ship’ s swimming pool emptied into it.
The airline that lost the priceless African gray parrots. Not to mention the nonswimmer who fell into the ocean through a hole in the gangplank, the couple wrongly accused of-and arrested for-having sex in the hotel swimming pool, the Hawaii cruisegoer who brought Iava onto the ship, which, because taking Iava from Hawaii is supposed to bring bad luck, meant that the vessel had to be exorcised…
But while the outlandish eomplaints never eease, what we mainly hear is the same old same old. Month after month, travelers tell us about the airline that lo st the suitease with their jewelry in it.
They complain about the resort that they prepaid but which turned out to be a dump and, when they tried to leave, wouldn’t return their deposit. They bemoan the merchandise they bought abroad and had shipped home. . . only to find that what arrived wasn’t what they’d purchased. They lament the cruise they were forced to cancel because, since they didn’t spring for trip-cancellation insurance, they can’t get their money back.
We’ve seen too many travelers land in the same sorry predicaments, so we thought we’d boil our years of Ombudsman guidance down to ten fundamental dos and don’ts. After all, no matter how complicated or outrageous a travel disaster may seem, or how badly a travel company has screwed up, when the ituation is stripped to its bare bones, usually one of these ten golden rules has been broken. To wit:
Don’t Trust the Brochure
Several years ago, Mark Rudnitzky of New York City furiously recounted to me the story of his ill-fated rilla rental on Tortola. The British Virgin.Islands Tourist Board had shown him a photo brochure of paradise House, a brand-new, fully furnished villa with pool and daily maid service. Rudnitzky paid he tourist board a $900 rental fee and booked the property for the week of December 24.
When he and his girlfriend arrived at Paradise -Iouse, what they discovered instead was an uninhabitable construction site. They took photos of he cinder blocks and rubble and spent the week at a hotel. When the tourist board wouldn’t send Rudnitzky a refund, he came to us.
We discovered that the tourist board had alsa ented this supposedly “private” villa to another party for the same time. When the other party arrived, they too took snapshots and left for a hotel.
After getting nowhere with the tourist board, we reported these incidents to the acting governor of Tortola. Alarmed, he reimbursed the full $5,160 cost of Rudnitzky’s entire vacation, as well as the other party’s $3,000 villa payment and $3,998 hotel bill. We have not received any complaints about the BVI Tourist Board since.
The moral of the story: Verify what’s in the brochure by calling the property and asking specific questions about its location and facilities. If a hotel is undergoing construction or renovation, its promotional materials may tout amenities that don’t yet exist. And, of course, glossy photos taken with a wide-angle lens can make a broom closet look like a bedroom.
Use the Right Travel Agent
Another way to navigate the wonderful world of brochures is to use a good travel agent who knows places and properties.
Unfortunately, many agents steer travelers astray-as when Zave Aberman of Montreal was talked into a cruise on the Radisson Diamond. A travel agent assured his family and another family, the Perzows, that the ship would be great for children. But the kids were miserable.
Bad weather prevented the ship from deploying its retractable marina, so they could not do the promised water sports.
Nor were they allowed to play in the pool or ride the elevator without adults. The cruise director even asked the families why they had brought children on such a cruise. They spent a total of $25,000 and were sorely disappointed.
Radisson explained to Ombudsman that the kids were ordered not to ride the elevators alone after they nearly knocked over an elderly guest while doing so, and that it was forced to curtail their pool activities when guests complained about their spIashing and ball-throwing. The Radisson Diamond simply does not offer the children’s facilities and programs that many larger and less elegant cruise ships provide. As a gesture of goodwill, Radisson offered the four parents a weeklong cruise for only $700 per person.
lt’s important to find a travel agent who specializes in the particular type of trip you have in mind. Asking an agent whose specialty is European country inns to book you on a South Pacific cruise is like asking an ophthalmologist to perform an appendectomy.
Get it in Writing
When booking a trip, get written confirmation of all the details (and scrutinize the restrictions and exclusions). If a hotel or cruise line won’t send written acknowledgment of a special request you ‘ve made-say, for a particular room or dinner seating-put it in writing yourself and fax the company a copy. And if your trip goes awry and a front-desk clerk or car-rental agent promises a refund or a waived fee, get it in writing.
This may be easier said than done, as Brett Schlaman of Los Angeles could tell you. He and his wife rented a car in Germany, intending to return it in Paris and paya $95 drop-off fee. In Paris, they called Avis to ask if they could return the car somewhere else later and were told they could drop it off anywhere in France for the same fee. But when they returned it in Nice, they were charged a drop-off fee of $430. They asked if they could drive the car to Paris and pay the original fee, but the agent said she had closed out the contract when she printed their bill; if they wanted the car back, they would have to re-rent it. So they had to pay the $430 charge.
Ombudsman could not persuade Avis to give Schlaman a refund, since he had no documentation to back up what he said the Paris agent had told him. Schlaman should have walked into the Paris office with his rental documents in hand and gotten the amount of the new drop-off fee in writing.
Travelers often complain of misinformation given over the phone, but if they have no proof of what they were told, companies frequently won’t give them the benefit of the doubt.
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