Travellers taken for a ride

With regard to travelling, the Maltese consumer is still being taken for a ride.

Noel Farrugia, in his article Amitex And The Intelligent Traveller (April 25) mentioned hotels. But just browse in all the brochures and not one of them mentions the hotel that one will be staying in. They say three-star central, four-star refurbished, etc. If they have contracted the hotel, they should know the name. Why not publish it so that the "intelligent consumer" can look it up on the internet and decide if that is what he wanted after all? Why is it that he has to ask for this important information?

Mr Farrugia is quite right: Hotels in the city centres cost more than hotels out of town or, as I normally say, "in the middle of nowhere". Same as hotels in Fatima cost much less, leaving clients who take a one-week holiday to Fatima with plenty of time on their hands and nothing much to do. This instead of planning a stay comprising Fatima and Lisbon with a hotel in Fatima and another one in Lisbon.

In the last three years pricing has become so complex that one needs a calculator to come to the final price. We see a price (the "come-in" price) and then, of course, one has to add taxes, surcharges, service charges and insurance. Over and above one finds optional excursions and dinner supplements. But the trick with the "come-in price" is that if one does not take all the optional excursions and dinner supplements, then the published price is not valid since one has to pay an additional supplement. May I ask: So are the excursions optional or not? And if I want to eat out of the hotel, must I pay the dinner supplement and then forget about the hotel meal?

How many times have we seen the label "Free excursion"? But is it really free? Nothing comes free, not even in this case. In all cases that I know of, the free excursion is really the transfer from the airport to the hotel or back. I have also seen programmes charging for the transfer back to the airport, under the guise of an "excursion". What happens if the client does not want to take this excursion? Easy: An additional supplement is requested "since the client did not take all the optional excursions"!

Some time back I saw an advert selling a Caribbean cruise for a fantastic price. I enquired and the salesgirl told me that I was correct, that was the price, but I had to add the return flights to the US, plus additional overnight stays, plus visa, plus airport charges etc.

This has just scratched the surface of the problem. I do believe that some control is needed to really protect the consumer and to show him how he can really go for the best choice.