Travelcare slams misleading brochure prices

It is “virtually impossible” for holidaymakers to judge which companies are offering the best deal and if they are getting value for money according to Travelcare.

According to the independent agent’s Holiday Report 2002 “constantly moving prices and a fiendishly complex system of discounts” are confusing customers.

A survey carried out by Travelcare last month shows that two thirds of people do not believe the large discounts offered on some holidays, feeling that they end up paying for them in some other way.

While just under 40% believe that a £1000 holiday reduced to £500 is only worth £500 – a similar number actually think it is worth £1000.

And a massive 85% of people believe that the price you see in the brochure should be the price you end up paying. But as Travelcare points out this clearly is not happening because some operators are “artificially raising holiday prices in their mass market brochures so they can show big discounts at peak selling times.”

The company uses examples of prices it found for customers this summer to illustrate its point. For example it uses the example of a seven night holiday flying from Manchester to the Hotel Sol Mastines/Chihuahuas in Majorca travelling on July 20. The Cosmos brochure price of £679 is discounted to £499 – supposedly saving the customer 27%. Similarly the JMC brochure price of £789 is discounted by 34% to £521. But Libra – which does not discount – also offers the customer the best deal as its brochure price of £492 is cheaper still.

Amanda Williams, Head of Sales at Travelcare, commented: “Consumers trying to find a good holiday deal have never had it so bad. Our research shows that many are confused by discounts and what’s more the latest industry figures show they’re being given less choice than ever before by big travel agents.”

In March, the Trading Standards Institute accused operators of creating an “unhealthy cocktail of confusion” for consumers following the breakdown of talks aimed at making brochure prices more realistic.

However the Travelcare report also contained some good news. For the first time Airtours and First Choice supplied official complaints figures – although jmc, Inghams, Style (part of jmc), Kuoni and Virgin continued to refuse to do so.

And the agent’s figures for the Summer 2001 season (1 May – 31 October) show a 14% reduction in complaints, at a time when its passenger numbers increased by 24%.

See our previous story:

11 Mar 2002: Trading Standards slams operators over pricing