One of the UK’s leading independent online travel agencies has released its annual data of the funniest and most absurd complaints received from customers.
The first complaint that caught the team at sunshine.co.uk’s attention came from a lady who had travelled with her friend to Dubai. On arrival to the airport in the UK, when asked to present their passports, the ladies found themselves in a sticky situation as they claimed they were not reminded to bring them and thought that they didn’t need them.
On a trip to the Canary Islands, Lanzarote more specifically, a lady who took her family of four on holiday put in a complaint about their beach experience. She claimed that, due to the warm weather, the sand was too hot and her children could not walk down to the sea for a swim.
Next, a man who went abroad to the Costa del Sol complained that there was too much food to eat from the buffet in his all-inclusive hotel. As a result, he put on ‘at least 5lbs’ during his trip, which he wasn’t too pleased about. Another male tourist, this time on holiday in Majorca, claimed that the number of bikini-clad women on the beach caused a fall-out between him and his wife, as he was caught ogling them ‘on more than one occasion.’
A couple who had spent two weeks in Marmaris, Turkey, said that their holiday had been a disappointment because there were ‘too many English people around’ and the main reason they went to Turkey in the first place was to experience somewhere ‘more exotic.’ In September 2010, a man wrote to sunshine.co.uk to express his unhappiness about the fact that he had not been able to fully enjoy his holiday to Portugal. His hotel bed was ‘too comfy’ meaning that he overslept on more than one occasion when he would have ‘preferred to be up early and making the most of it.’
Next on the list of funniest complaints from the past year was a group of young adults who had travelled to Ayia Napa in Cyprus. One of the group claimed that the 24 hour reception in their hotel made them feel like they were being ‘judged’ for returning back to their room late, despite the resort being renowned for partying and late nights. The young female in question claimed they would have preferred the reception to be ‘without staff.’
A man who had been to Tenerife complained that the Prada sunglasses he had purchased from a street seller for €4.50 were in fact fakes, whilst another male holidaymaker claimed his fear of heights had prevented him from enjoying his flight to Mauritius. Finally, a man who had been with his wife to Bulgaria said that the couple in the room next door had been loud in their lovemaking, which subsequently made him feel ‘pressured’ into initiating sex with his own wife.
Chris Brown, co-founder of sunshine.co.uk, said:
“As an online travel agency, our top priority is making sure our customers have the best holiday possible and we ensure that there is always a high level of transparency between ourselves and the people booking with us. We really appreciate it when customers get in touch to let us know about their holiday and feedback is important to us.
“More often than not, the feedback we get is to tell us what a great time they have had. Occasionally though, some very funny, if not slightly obscure, complaints reach our customer service team. We are more than happy to deal with any issues that arise, but we regret that we cannot be held responsible for the temperature of the sand, weight gain as a result of the amount of tasty food on offer or the number of fellow English tourists in the vicinity.”
