Travel companies are a soft touch when it comes to dolling out freebies as a whopping 47% of customers who admitted to telling fibs to get something for nothing succeeded in their aim.
The survey by the price comparison website hotelscan.com found that 38% got free bottles of fizz, a fifth were given room upgrades, 18% got free food and 10% were given free spa treatments after falsely claiming it was their birthday, wedding or anniversary.
Airlines were less generous – or possibly less gullible than hotels – with only 5% of those who fibbed admitting to have received a free upgrade.
The 53% who failed to blag freebies said the excuses they received for the rejections ranged from staff claiming there was nothing they could do, or that there was no availability.
A third of the 2,432 respondents to the hotelscan.com survey admitted they had lied to get travel freebies, with 43% requesting hotel upgrades, 37% a flight upgrade, 34% asking for free bubbly, 29% trying to blag spa treatments and almost a quarter asking for free food.
The most common lie was "it’s my anniversary", used by 39%, followed by "it’s my honeymoon" (22%), and "it’s my birthday" 17%).
