Confessional

What your travel agent really thinks about you

I WORK for a well-known High Street travel agency and many of our customers are older people. I often book cruises or expensive hotel packages for them — and the better off the customer, the more hassle it is.

They want to know everything, from the type of hairdryer in the bathroom to how many starters there are at the buffet.

It can be frustrating, particularly when they ring me from their holiday to complain that their room isn’t as fancy as they were expecting.

The upside, though, is how grateful people are when they’ve had a good time. One middle-aged woman came in to book a five-star holiday to the Caribbean. She’d been through a divorce and illness, and I tried hard to find her a lovely hotel. When she got back, she came in with a box of chocolates to thank me and said she felt better than she had in years.

We do get to go on trips sometimes, to see hotels and destinations we’re selling. One well-spoken man came back from a resort I’d visited in Antigua saying it was ‘filthy’ and demanding a refund. It was spotless and I had my photos to prove it.

We all have our ‘not them again’ customers. A lot of hotel owners work incredibly hard and live in terror of a bad review. It makes me furious that some spoilt idiot can ruin their business with a few nasty words online.

My favourite customers are young, lesswell-off families. They’re always excited about their holiday and the kids are thrilled to be going abroad.