September 16th, 2010
We are all usually so excited to go on holiday that we sometimes have unrealistic expectations of how perfect it will be. Sometimes the weather doesn't co-operate or the gift shop doesn't stock our brand of chocolate, but most of us embrace the break from our norm.
Unfortunately, some travellers are never satisfied, but this does make for great entertainment for the rest of us. So sit enjoy - we've found the most ridiculous traveller complaints of all time!
Top 10 most ridiculous complaints:
1. Briefly after checking in, a woman returns to the reception desk clutching a travel brochure. She then proceeds to point out that the bedspread in her room does not match the one in the brochure. Even when she was informed that the hotel had recently been refurbished with all new accessories, the woman was not satisfied until an old matching bedspread was found to replace the one in her room.
2. A man took the time to write in and complain that no one had informed him that there were fish in the sea, and his children had been caught unaware and were now extremely frightened.
3. An African safari is usually an amazing experience, but not for one honeymooning couple. The man complained that the lodge overlooked a watering hole where elephants could often be spotted. Sounds lovely, doesn't it? Apparently not, after one of the elephants became aroused, the man was left feeling inadequate for the rest of his holiday, ruining his honeymoon.
4. For some people it is the terribly unfair commute that upsets them. One couple sent a formal complaint to the airline stating that it was unacceptable that it took them nine hours to fly home from Jamaica to England and it only took the Americans three hours to get home.
5. Apparently many women have also had their romantic holidays ruined. A young woman left an unhappy comment upon leaving a beach resort claiming that all topless sunbathing on the beach should be banned. Apparently her holiday was a complete waste because her husband spent all day looking at other women - and it was all the resort's fault.
6. Lots of people are disappointed with their holiday destination. Heading to the seaside, many complain that the beach is too sandy, while on safari it is ridiculous that no ones warns you that mosquitoes bite. When heading to a water park destination, apparently it is unacceptable not to inform guests that they need to bring swimming costumes and towels. The food is also often unacceptable - one man found the soup to be too strong and thick, but luckily it was ideal as the gravy it was intended to be. Another traveller was disgusted to find that on a trip to Goa in India, almost every restaurant served curry. Their dislike for spicy food was apparently the country's problem.
7. Staff at a well-known hotel thought it was odd that a woman never left her room, but they didn't interfere. Eventually the woman emerged and stormed to reception shouting that she was going to call the police - the irresponsible staff had locked her in her room and ruined her whole holiday! In reality, she had simply mistaken the "Do not disturb" sign for a warning to stay in the room.
8. Many people experience some teensy weensy problems when they get home - and directly blame their holiday accommodation. One couple were horrified to be placed in a double-bedroom instead of the twin-bedroom that they had booked. They now hold the hotel directly responsible for the fact that the woman is pregnant. Apparently it would never have happened if they had been put in the room that they had booked.
9. The pregnant couple were not the only ones to be dissatisfied with their accommodation. After comparing her one-bedroom apartment to her friend's three-bedroom apartment, one woman wrote to demand to know why her accommodation was so much smaller.
10. Other people complain before even getting to their destination. One woman was irate that she was not allowed to take her three-piece suite onboard with her. Yes, that was no typo - suite - as in couch and chairs. The family heirloom could not be put in the hold as cargo and she could not understand why she couldn't have it with her. Perhaps the size of the aeroplane doors had something to do with it?
Have you ever heard someone complain while on holiday? Do share in the comment section below!
Read our article on insane travel insurance claims for a few more laughs.
User Comments
Does it really matter whereSubmitted by Anonymous on Tue, 09/21/2010 - 08:37. |
Does it really matter where Kelly gets the content from??? Don't we all forward e-mail / smses daily, which is not our words/ideas. Thanks for a good laugh |
Use the telephoneSubmitted by journalist on Mon, 09/20/2010 - 11:42. |
I do think Mz Stealer should have taken the time to pick up the phone and ring, for example the media liaison person at Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife, or SanParks or any number of SA tourism organisations to give this weak and borrowed story some local oomph. Like the woman in Hluhluwe's Mpila reserve who complained about crocodiles in her room - they were geckos. A real anecdote told to Jeff Gaisford from KZN Wildlife and told in turn to me. Much better than some gunk from the Telegraph. We South Africans are used to travel and bush experiences etc, so to get SA anecdotes would be automatically a better read. |
Spiders and antsSubmitted by Bev on Mon, 09/20/2010 - 10:45. |
A dutch family on their "safari" holiday in SA were very keen on staying in the Treehouse accommodation near Knysna, but demanded their money back when there were spiders and ants in the room!! |
I read this last year. C'monSubmitted by De Ja Vu on Thu, 09/16/2010 - 18:27. |
I read this last year. C'mon Kelly, why not write something else... |
CringeSubmitted by Jay on Thu, 09/16/2010 - 16:57. |
Heard a couple in Paris complaining VERY loudly that their steak wasn't properly cooked ie. cremated. Waiter smiled and took it back to the kitchen for ritual burning. |
You get what you pay forSubmitted by Gatvol on Thu, 09/16/2010 - 16:47. |
Get over yourselves. You want Watergate investigative journalism on a Travel site you getting for free? Get over yourselves and go and BUY a travel magazine if you want 100% original content! |
Scary how stupid people are.Submitted by Brakkenjan on Thu, 09/16/2010 - 16:43. |
Scary how stupid people are. They indeed live between us and they breed. |
BravoSubmitted by VAD on Thu, 09/16/2010 - 14:09. |
Delightful read |
Amazing how assumptions canSubmitted by Anonymous on Thu, 09/16/2010 - 14:03. |
Amazing how assumptions can ruin so many things, and make people believe that life (the world) owe them something! Great article! |
thank youSubmitted by Anonymous on Thu, 09/16/2010 - 14:00. |
I needed to read this, it really made me laugh out loud. AGAIN! Thank you. |
THIRD time reading this!Submitted by jp on Thu, 09/16/2010 - 11:54. |
Wow I think Kelly Wheeler was only hired to post the same article over and over and over and over.. with adequate time intervals in between. |
Can you believe it!Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 09/16/2010 - 11:53. |
What a bunch of idiots your are!! Every single one of you complaining about this article - which was purely for entertainment - you are EXACTLY like the people spoken about in the article. Nothing is ever good enough for you and all you can do is complain. But maybe looking at your lifes there is so little to get excited about that you rather see how nasty you can be to others. Pathetic loosers! |
Also 2nd time reading it.Submitted by Again? on Thu, 09/16/2010 - 11:16. |
Also 2nd time reading it. Opened the article because I thought it would be something new or a sequel. Pls publish some fresh stuff. |
blah blahSubmitted by Henry on Thu, 09/16/2010 - 10:43. |
This is now the second time im reading this article on news24... Seriously running out of ideas? Pathetic! |
Seriously...Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 09/16/2010 - 10:09. |
When printing this stuff one should add the names to the stories. I seriously cannot IMAGINE that there are people this ignoprant and plain stupid out there.Seriously. |
holiday complaintsSubmitted by Anonymous on Tue, 04/20/2010 - 22:03. |
While on holiday in Portugal, I heard a British couple complaining that their waiter couldn't speak English! |
seriously?Submitted by simplylovetravelling on Tue, 04/20/2010 - 15:32. |
I had to comment....Are you people serious?? I didnt see it as any writer trying to take responsibility for any article, it was merely someting to give us all a giggle. Take it for what it is and quit complaining...Perhaps the next article might be about people like you. |
Noisy Beach houseSubmitted by Anonymous on Tue, 04/20/2010 - 13:24. |
I have a rental business. After renting out a beach house 10m from the ocean to Americans (they requested it), I received a call at 1am in the morning on their first night. The complaint was two fold, firstly the bedlamp is out and I need to come to the house and swop it with a working one located in the desk below it, secondly, the ocean is too loud and can I do something about it? They are clients, so I replaced the lamp but told them I would see what I can do about the ocean... |
Loud lionsSubmitted by Loud lions on Mon, 04/19/2010 - 09:12. |
I have my own travel business, and one of my first clients was a very precious American woman who went to Namibia on holiday which we organised. After her first night at a 5-star safari lodge, she called to say she wanted to move lodges because... the lions roared too loudly and she couldn't sleep. Go figure! |
Material related to this articleSubmitted by Karel on Sun, 04/18/2010 - 15:10. |
I downloaded this PDF almost a year ago. If you can't be original in your work, go find something else to do. We as readers are looking for fresh, stimulating content - not rehashed (and badly at that) content that someone else has taken the time and trouble to compile. I have the file still on my computer, and can mail it if you don't believe me. Stop wasting our time - off course, we all would like to read something like this - only to find that it is a review of someone else's article (which you do not acknowledge) is an insult to your readers. That is also why I will never buy this paper again. Second degree journalism is something of the past - live up or drop out... |
AmazingSubmitted by jenna on Sun, 04/18/2010 - 10:41. |
Just wanna say thanks for the laugh. |
Great articleSubmitted by CJ on Sat, 04/17/2010 - 14:09. |
Thx for this article awesome gave me something to smile about keep it up!! |
Traveler complaintSubmitted by Leon on Fri, 04/16/2010 - 18:26. |
Funny |
missed the pointSubmitted by @ Fiction Submitted by Eish on Fri, on Fri, 04/16/2010 - 16:43. |
Clearly "Eish" you are the one that's going on about negativity, who even mentioned anything in my comments about crime...the country etc., It's you that's bringing it into this. It evident that you see the world through these translucent crime/negativity eyes and project that onto other people. you said :"yes, travel can also be fictional and funny, serious, dangerous, adventorous" : what does serious, dangerous, adventorous have to do with "fictional" in this context? you're just stringing things together for the sake of a weak argument. then you go on to say :"No I am not immature," When clearly you're asking me questions about "Whether my mother told me to be nice"???? It seems you do not always live in the realm of reason. My comment was on the authenticity of the article and the fact that Kelly "Stealer" passes this off without so much as any credit to the people who's taken the time to write/compile it. No one is saying the article must be serious, just whatever Kelly Stealer writes about, when she uses ideas and words that are obviously not hers, she shouldn't pretend nor make make excuses that it is hers. That's just bad journalism (travel or not). That's a factually based CRITICISM on this piece of work, not negativity. |
@ FictionSubmitted by Eish on Fri, 04/16/2010 - 16:08. |
Not every single article on travel can be serious, you sometimes need a little lighter side to every side of life, so yes, travel can also be fictional and funny, serious, dangerous, adventorous...... there as so many sides to any subject, we not a little fictional or funny..... No I am not immature, I think you guys are, with your negative comments ! I try and not be negative, as if there is not enough of that going around in our country, everything about us is always negative, the crime, the goverment, the this, the that....o my sould, everywhere you turn it's negativity. I am so sick of it, and here you guys find the time and the space to bring some more negativity into the world, I cannot believe it, with a simple little article on travel and how people complain and one again, how people are negative, when in fact they should be blessed because they have the time, money and health to travel, so many others don't have that luxuray, but still they find time to complain, even take the time to wright to complain and be negative..... You see the word that featurs most "negative" I am done with this, I have better things to do than even read this NEGATIVE comments, I can choose to read what I want, and then take something good out of it, not try and find something wrong with it, or belittle it, but just take something good from it...... Maybe you should try that, stop trying to be so mature all the time. Have a great weekend |
@ FictionSubmitted by Anonymous on Fri, 04/16/2010 - 15:53. |
"If you want to go read serious non light fiction, what the hell are you doing on a travel website ? ?" -- Reading articles related to Travel, can that be more obvious??? NOT works of fiction on travel. "If you don't have anything nice to say, then shut up, did your mom never teach you that ?" -- Are you 10 years old? Why such immature comments. Please control your impulsive behaviour and have a adult conversation. If you don't agree with me simply state your argument, don't resort to this immature behaviour. |
@ FictionSubmitted by Eish on Fri, 04/16/2010 - 15:49. |
If you want to go read serious non light fiction, what the hell are you doing on a travel website ? ? Go read your serious non fiction articles on the serious non fiction websites. Since when has this become a debate on Journalistic Plagiarism ? ? ? ? Why so serious ? ? Lighten up, it's Friday, take a chill pill..... If you don't have anything nice to say, then shut up, did your mom never teach you that ? Cheers :) |
lol....Kelly StealerSubmitted by Anonymous on Fri, 04/16/2010 - 15:47. |
lmao......Kelly "Stealer" ...bet that's going be you new office nick name!!! |
FictionSubmitted by Ann on Fri, 04/16/2010 - 15:39. |
@get over it : Are news24, travel24 and wome24 , publishing media houses/medium for works of fiction? NO. Sure we all do find fiction interesting, we do when we read books. Does that mean we should "just get over it", simply because it's "fun". This isn't a site for works of fiction. There are tons on the internet for that. But still this doesn't address the problem of Journalistic Plagiarism. Heck then why don't we follow Kelly's example copy and paste all the interesting "fun" articles from other websites label it light reading and say it's "ok then" . Then this site can become a hive writers like Kelly. On a Lighter note I do find the fiction part "Kelly Stealer" rather assuming. That you can publish!! |
get over itSubmitted by eish on Fri, 04/16/2010 - 15:14. |
I cannot believe that people actually take the time out to post comments like this..... o my word ! ! ! ! So what if she got the article somewhere else, have you people not got anything better to do than leave these silly negative remarks..... get a life ! ! ! ! ! I enjoyed reading this, it might have been the first time or the 10th time reading it but I still enjoyed it. If you don't like news24 or travel24 or woman24, then don't read it ! |
@Reading..Submitted by Sammy on Fri, 04/16/2010 - 14:22. |
So does this mean that because you label it light reading, you can just make up anything, pull from unreliable sources, steal other peoples work? This is how it starts. Sorry but miss Kelly "Stealer" as others have so apply named her, should either join the likes of "Mad Magazine" comic book if this is her writing style. There are many ways to have humour, without plagiarism i.e. "Kelly Stealing". |
Reading...Submitted by Shane on Fri, 04/16/2010 - 13:35. |
Where any of you who had complained the sources for this information? No..? Then why are you complaining...? |
Get over the hysteriaSubmitted by Regular Reader on Fri, 04/16/2010 - 13:27. |
This kind of article is a collection of apocryphal stories and has been passed around from site to site - it's not like Kelly nicked someone's dissertation. In fact, the links provided by you-all, those sites probably garnered this info from each other. Get a hobby. |
Travellers complaintsSubmitted by Robert on Fri, 04/16/2010 - 12:43. |
At my companies annual business conference one year, we were asked by our management what we thought about the venue. One woman complained that the meals served were too large. The fact that meals were buffets apparently had no bearing... |
Plagiarism Idea : Kelly StealerSubmitted by Ryan on Fri, 04/16/2010 - 12:31. |
here's an Idea Kelly, everytime you want to publish something you Plagiarise, use the nom de plume KELLY 'STEALER'. Then use your real name for original work. |
@KellySubmitted by @Kelly on Fri, 04/16/2010 - 12:13. |
Thanks Plagiarism, To Kelly - Sorry, may this may officially be the worst piece of 'Stealer' and hopefully last 'Stealer' work you ever do! OK, Back to Malema ("_") !!! |
Journalistic PlagiarismSubmitted by Sammy on Fri, 04/16/2010 - 12:04. |
reply to PH: Pointing out Journalistic Plagiarism isn't 'spreading negativity'. Kelly "Stealer" needs to be corrected. -Sammy |
WOWSubmitted by PH on Fri, 04/16/2010 - 11:55. |
Ijo, it seems most people have done well in crediting their sources when they where writing their dissertation at varsity? People, please stop it, its football friday, and yes we are out of recession so you are able to go out this afternoon. Have a happy weekend and please try not to spread your negativity around. |
Lol: Kelly "Stealer"Submitted by Anonymous on Fri, 04/16/2010 - 11:52. |
Kelly "Stealer"..lol I think that can become a new internet theme for "Plagiarism" |
Copy,Change and Paste = Kelly Wheeler = Kelly Stealer.Submitted by Anonymous on Fri, 04/16/2010 - 11:49. |
Is Kelly junior writer here? how come she can just get away with copying and pasting other peoples work. It's things like this that make people now want to read your articles again. |
KellySubmitted by Anonymous on Fri, 04/16/2010 - 11:43. |
Kelly if you want you aggregate parts of other peoples articles , please have the journalistic integrity to credit them. Either you are simply LAZY or just simply don't care about your credibility. |
Well done you copy catSubmitted by Copy cat on Fri, 04/16/2010 - 11:12. |
Kelly are you seriously claiming this to be your article. Who exactly did you steal this from. Not exactly cutting edge journalism.. |
Woops, just postedSubmitted by Anonymous on Fri, 04/16/2010 - 11:08. |
Dear Kelly, My apologies: http://forums.speedarena.com/zerothread?id=4555065 The date has just been changed. My comments about Health and Womand24 still stands, though. I was overhasty in accusing here. Best Regards Me |
StealingSubmitted by Anonymous on Fri, 04/16/2010 - 11:04. |
The whole group of 24 websites steals from other websites and sometimes put there own names under it (Health and Woman24, I mean you). Copy and paste a whole sentence into Google and then search that. They sometimes copy and then remove one or two points, but these lists are normally always copied That is fine, just credit the source! |
Plagiarised!!!Submitted by The truth on Fri, 04/16/2010 - 10:33. |
Stop stealing dailyrecord articles...http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/editors-choice/2009/07/18/revealed-tourists-crazy-and-outrageous-complaints-86908-21529003/ |
PlagiarismSubmitted by plagiarism on Fri, 04/16/2010 - 10:27. |
Kelly, You didn't put together this collection, The Telegraph newspaper did. They had the decency to credit Thomas Cook and ABTA for supplying the original material. Here's a link to the original article published in March 2009. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/picturegalleries/5005019/20-ridiculous... |
I've read this exact articleSubmitted by Ground hog article on Fri, 04/16/2010 - 10:07. |
I've read this exact article before. Actually this is the third time I'm seeing it. Can't you find some original material?? |
A viewSubmitted by hothotterhottest on Fri, 04/16/2010 - 09:41. |
Brilliant, such arb complaints. Really people, the hospitality industry is one of the most difficult when it comes to service excellence and customer satisfaction. From a R5000 - R50 000 client, they all think they deserve more than they are getting at any point in time. Sigh... |
Great stuff!Submitted by Nerine on Sun, 09/20/2009 - 21:48. |
What a laugh. I work in a hotel. And deal with stuff like this every day! Thanx so much for a great read!! |
ElephantitusSubmitted by Banana on Tue, 09/08/2009 - 15:54. |
Wow Mark - you are the type that this article is about - the type who complains about everything...time for a holiday me-thinks, but choose wisely...somewhere in the Saraha perhaps? maybe too hot though for the likes of you. Thanks for the laughs Kelly...likes the one about the elephant on safari - comparing yourself to an elephant LOL thats ambitious! But complaining because your wife may have been sizing the elephant up-- is quite worrying. |
