As you’ll recall, there was some industrial issues at Air Canada last week with check-in staff and call centre people. That has now been resolved. So Air Canada sent an e-mail to its customers thanking them for their understanding.

In the US holidays of a week are common. Here the week or fortnight is more like the norm. In winter some seniors go away for a couple of months. But how do you fancy a year long holiday? All in the one place.
One of Sydney’s Sunday newspapers, The Sun-Herald, has reported today that a couple, Chris and Sally Allison, from the Sydney suburb of Mosman liked the place so much that they have booked accommodation for a whole year at a B&B in Rhyl in North Wales.

In just under 5 hours the last ever service by the Wrexham & Shropshire railway will leave London’s Marylebone station on its final journey. Why get so concerned by a train service you might ask. After all, Virgin Trains run a direct service down to London even if it is only once a day.
The concern is because this little railway achieved so much in its short 3 year life. The satisfaction ratings given to it by passengers were better than anything ever seen since the ratings began. At 99% you can’t really get any better. And I doubt whether other train lines will. The service was good too. The staff would come through the train, address and treat you politely and then be there when you got off to thank you for travelling (at least on the few times I travelled with them.) And that’s part of the problem. I used them a few times; how often did others?

This isn’t the way that that the authors of a US report on hotels worded their announcement. They said that the satisfaction levels of hotel visitors had increased over the last year. Does it mean the same thing? But if hotel guests are more satisfied surely that comes as a result of feeling that they are being treated better?
The next question is whether we should believe what we read. After all how many of us have stayed at a place after checking reviews and then decided that the reviews must have been written by someone who was not too observant? Or as blind as a bat. The same applies with research. If we understand it then we can accept or reject it.

The media are fixated by best and worst lists, top 10 lists and anything that seems to imply a rating. Some are just the works of individuals, some have research behind them and some are people adding their thoughts to a website. And if one person says this destination is the best thing since sliced bread do you believe them?
In their July issue Which? have published the results of their survey into short-haul airline routes based on what their members think

It is unusual that customer satisfaction gets mentioned by a government. It merits interest especially if it looks as though there is genuine interest rather than lip service in what passengers think.
Lord Bradshaw who worked for various parts of British Rail in his career asked whether additional measures of customer satisfaction would be added to the requirements when companies bid for new rail franchises.
Since 1999 passengers have been asked twice a year on behalf of the rail consumer watchdog, Passenger Focus, a series of questions including being asked to rate satisfaction with a number of elements of the service provided.

Looking out of the window at the large dollop of snow that has fallen overnight, it is easy to think of warmer parts of the world and getting away from the cold and bleak view I see. Where to go is one issue but who I go with is another.
You could be forgiven for thinking, after seeing the Which? Holiday report on tour operators that you should avoid the big companies like Thomson, First Choice, Thomas Cook, Cosmos and Virgin because they haven’t done very well in the report.
You would be wrong.
This is not to say that the survey is wrong.

As you might gather, I have been back on the road as we look at the entrants for our 2010 Tourism Awards, (More about that in a few days time,) so I have been staying in hotels again.
The current hotel is a fairly old fashioned 3 star hotel, conveniently located right in the centre. You [...]

This is the time of the year when the National Customer Service Awards are announced. In any industry service is important. Good service leads to satisfaction. Satisfaction can lead to loyalty and repeat business. No customer likes being ill treated, ignored, patronised or fobbed off with meaningless official waffle so awards that support good service are welcome. But travel and tourism doesn’t seem to have done to well in this year’s awards. Is that because they didn’t enter or they did but weren’t shortlisted for the final?

That’s the conclusion from a company called Collinson Latitude. This company specialises in finding other ways for airlines to make money out of you other than just from ticket sales. It can be travel insurance or entry into airport lounges or a host of other things. The important thing is that they are successful in developing these services for travel companies.

So when they say that two thirds of airlines around the world have systems to increase revenue but that they still don’t focus on the customer you are inclined to believe them. If we take one airline, the one that says it is the favourite airline of Europe, Britain, Ireland and probably countless other places earns a lot of extra money from passengers. It would say that helps keep fares low. It would say that is what it has done for the passenger.

According to Sabre, who operate booking systems for the travel industry, airlines now consider customer loyalty and retention as the most important issue at the moment. You might be forgiven for thinking it was fuel or staffing but no. From 90 airlines across the world Sabre says the customer is king at the moment.

This week, Which? Holiday has released the results of its survey on holiday satisfaction. The good news is that just over half of us are happy with the holiday and the service we received. When it comes to those taking holidays in the UK, the level of satisfaction rose to about 60%.
Now why should that be?

People are satisfied with the airlines for a whole number of reasons; reliability, punctuality, easy check-ins, cabin crew service, the quality of how passengers are made to feel and a host of other things. Marrying no frills airlines to high customer satisfaction isn’t easy but some airlines, not many, achieve it. After all, the premise of a no frills airline is that if the fare is cheap enough, passengers come to the airline and nothing else matters.

More of us are booking accommodation online. No surprise there for anyone, I’m sure. No surprise either that most people expect online booking to increase. But how satisfied are you with online booking?A company called iPerceptions has started a new quarterly study that will measure how satisfied we are with such booking sites and [...]