Which? claims 30 replies are enough for survey

Which? has responded to attacks by tour operators that their survey is unfair, claiming it only needs 30 responses to rank travel firms.

Thomas Cook and Newmarket Holidays hit out at the travel watchdog after performing poorly in a survey entitled ‘The holiday firms you can rely on’, published in its June magazine.

They claim comparisons were not like for like and the sample size of respondents was too small.

Despite Which? claiming 3,576 responses, many of the tour operators were ‘rated’ by less than 50 holidaymakers.

Only five of the 26 operators featured had been judged by more than 100 holidaymakers – including Thomson getting 496 responses and Thomas Cook getting 266.

A Which? spokesperson said: "Our research is statistically sound and follows Which?’s standard approach of requiring a minimum of 30 responses to report on brands in its satisfaction surveys. Some of the best performing travel companies have sample sizes comparable to those ranked lowest.

"It is encouraging to see so many companies performing well in our survey and delivering the high
standards of customer service holidaymakers expect."

But operators like Shearings, Thomas Cook, and Newmarket Holidays who sat at the bottom of the table with below average scores of 62%, 60% and 57% respectively, claim the survey is flawed.

Simon Hibbs, managing director of The Newmarket Group, said: "We take all consumer feedback seriously, but this particular survey is somewhat flawed since our rating was based upon a sample size of just 42 people (despite the fact that we took 227,000 customers on holiday last year).

"Our company has been trading successfully for nearly 30 years, has built a hard-earned reputation for value-for-money, has a ‘repeat-factor’ of over 40%, and last year was voted ‘Best Coach Operator’ by the public at the British Travel Awards."

Ian Ailles, CEO of mainstream for Thomas Cook UK & Ireland, said: "It’s impossible to see how this survey offers consumers a like-for-like comparison when Which? is comparing tour operators with completely different products – from specialist, tailored itineraries to popular mass market holidays – that appeal to completely different customers."

Lorraine Barnes Burton, CEO of the British Travel Awards survey said: "I sympathise with the companies who take exception to the fact that they have been judged based on a poll of just 30 respondents to the Which? Travel survey. 

"Compared to the British Travel Awards survey , which last year received votes from over half a million households,  it would seem that results based  on the opinions of 30 people is pretty insignificant.   

"The results of The British Travel Awards voting survey across 75 travel categories are collated electronically and audited by Deloitte LLP, and our website details exactly how the voting process works – so that both the nominees and the public are completely aware of just how relevant the BTAs are.

"We ask people to only vote in the categories they have experience of, and even in the category which achieved the smallest number of votes, that number was still well in excess of 1,000 unique customers."

By Diane Evans

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