Thomas Cook takes action after hotel ‘boghole’ complaint goes viral
Thomas Cook has acted swiftly to appease an unhappy customer whose complaints quickly went viral on social media.
The operator sprung into action yesterday after the holidaymaker posted pictures of her hotel room in Hisaronu, Turkey, describing it as a ‘boghole’ and saying she had been ‘fobbed off’ after complaining in resort.
But by the time the issue had been resolved, the post had been shared by over 55,000 people – as far as Sydney – and had received over 10,000 comments, most of them disparaging towards the travel giant.
Joanna Longbottom’s initial Facebook post, on Wednesday afternoon, said she’d paid well over £2,000 for the 10-night holiday with her husband and 12-year-old child.
She refrained from naming the hotel but said: "This ‘family’ room has a campbed that is a) too short for a 12 year old b) requires a tetanus injection to go near it and c) is louder than a freight train when any movement is attempted on or near it."
She also complained the balcony was only big enough for one chair and that she’d been kept awake by the noise of staff rearranging sun loungers at 4am, followed by the sound of wolves.
Encouraging her friends to publicly share the post, Ms Longbottom said she had previously private emailed Thomas Cook threatening a Facebook post but was told ‘you can do what you like’.
"Oh dear Mr Cook … could that have been a monumental error on your part ?? Dick Turpin had the common decency to wear a mask, you can’t even be bothered to do that," she continued.
TravelMole contacted Thomas Cook earlier today when the post was shared on Travel Gossip and was told the family had been shown alternative hotels, but had eventually decided to stay put.
Ms Longbottom later posted an update saying Thomas Cook and the hotel have taken this ‘VERY seriously today’.
"I have spent the morning with 2 TC managers and had a phone call with the TC social media team," she said.
"Both Thomas Cook and the hotel admit our room is not fit for purpose. I am, however, well aware their level of urgency was elevated significantly because of the negative press through social media.
"Today, Thomas Cook have taken us to 3 hotels but none of them (room wise) were suitable size wise for a family of 3 (Thomas Cook agreed with us). The hotel we are currently in have miraculously found us a slightly larger room with 3 proper beds (same size balcony though) and given that their pool is great, the food not bad and the staff pleasant, we will be moving to this better room (I have also negotiated a part refund of the holiday)."
She added: "I guess this goes to show the power of social media in the customer service arena."
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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