Find out how they did last summer
THE average holiday brochure is enough to convince anyone they are about to book a trip to paradise.
Every page is packed with stunning photographs and flowery descriptions of the scenery and luxury accommodation on offer.
But what is the reality? Will the supposedly dream break live up to expectations or are you more likely to spend your precious fortnight’s vacation trapped in a gloomy resort that bears only a passing resemblance to what was promised?
It is certainly risky to rely on information provided by tour operators, says Jonathan Mitcham, senior researcher at consumer group Which?. Only by doing your own research, he says, can you improve your chances of success.
“Brochures can be economical with the truth as it’s the marketing department’s job to put the biggest spin on a resort or hotel,” he explains. “Even different editions of the same brochure from the same company can have different pictures and information.”
One way to avoid holiday heartache this summer is to listen to the advice of the new breed of computer-literate consumer champions who have set up websites to dispense honest, independent travel advice from around the world.
A great starting point is TripAdvisor (www.tripadvisor.com), one of the most popular sites around.
The inspiration of US software developer Steve Kaufer, it has grown rapidly since being launched above a pizza restaurant seven years ago, and now has more than five million reviews of hotels, attractions and restaurants.
But it’s not the only one. Your Money has surfed the internet to identify other useful online resources and tracked down the British entrepreneurs behind them to find out what motivates them and how they can help in your quest for the perfect holiday.
Holidays Uncovered
Since setting up his website almost eight years ago, chartered accountant Andrew Burton has assembled a crack squad of volunteers — including a dinner lady, courier and alarm installer — to keep it updated.
“I was on holiday in Fuerte-ventura in Spain and the hotel we’d picked wasn’t the best, although it had sounded fine in the brochure,” he says.
“It made me think how great it would be to let everyone share their views about holidays, hotels and destinations.”
But the married 41-year-old insists he never intended to create a complaints site.
“We wanted it to be a positive place where you could go to find a great holiday,” he explains. “Initially we had a trickle of reviews but then it rocketed and now there are more than 50,000. We’ve added links to reputable holiday companies so it is possible to research, find and book a holiday through the site.”
Burton clearly relishes his role as a consumer champion. “Over the past seven years we’ve had thousands of emails from happy users thanking us for helping them to find the perfect holiday,” he says. “It’s very satisfying.”
http://www.holidays-uncovered.org
Travel Rants
Darren Cronian, 34, launched Travel-Rants.com two years ago after a bad experience with a high-street travel agent. Now he advises holidaymakers on problems as diverse as packing their luggage to avoiding jet lag.
“Initially it was just a place for me to rant about single person supplements and poor customer care,” he explains. “However, I then started to receive e-mails from holidaymakers complaining about travel companies and booking holidays.”
Air passenger tax, holiday bonding with ABTA and poor customer care are examples of hot topics that have recently appeared on the site, which takes the form of an online diary (or blog) which is regularly updated.
“Holidaymakers can e-mail me a question and I will either try to help them myself, or forward their query to someone who can, by posting an article on the blog,” explains Cronian. “My hope is to build Travel Rants to be an essential guide for holidaymakers, ideally on the same level of popularity as TripAdvisor.”
Holiday Watchdog
It started off as an alternative to watching television in the evenings and has now become a full-time business for Chris Brown and his business partner, Chris Clarkson, who have recently been busy launching a string of sister websites.
“I felt many of the sites around at the time [June 2003] weren’t easy to navigate,” explains married father-of-two Brown, 28. “I worked out what I liked and disliked, and then built my own site based on those criteria.”
After joining forces with Clarkson, 32, the business took off and the pair ended up having to start hiring employees, including a number of website developers, to help run the site and develop new projects.
More recently the company has gone live with a number of other websites, including a comparison site for airport transfers (www.transfers.net) and one looking at different airlines (http://www.holidayjets.co.uk).
“We are funded by third-party advertising but we always put up every review, even if they adversely affect an advertiser,” insists Brown. “This policy is made clear to them before they advertise as it’s important that we are not biased.”
