Looking at the attendee list it should be an interesting night with plenty of discussion and networking.

Speakers

Joining me will be:

Murray Harrold – Advantage Travel
Joel Brandon-Bravo – Frommer’s
Guillaume Thevenot – Hotel Blogs
Eva Keogan – Lastminute.com

Moderating the evening will be Kevin May from Tnooz who are this year’s media partner.

Gold sponsor

Sunshine.co.uk

Silver sponsors

I Wanna Go There
Cheapflights
Accor
Essential Travel

World Travel Market

I am travelling down to London on Monday, I have plans for Monday night and Tuesday, but I will be at ExCeL on Wednesday for World Travel Market, if anyone wants to meet up for a coffee, just drop me an email. Thursday I plan to do a little bit of sightseeing before heading back up North.

Fantastic support

Unfortunately, registration has now closed and I am confident that we could have filled the room twice over but I want to keep the BlogCamp to a small enough size that there’s enough time to network and for the audience to join in the talks.

I would like to thank all of the sponsors, partners and the speakers who have all been fantastic.

Let the BlogCamping commence!

This post was syndicated from the Travel Rants Blog.

Countdown to Travel BlogCamp 2009

Making flying greener

While my main gripe is that the revenue generated from air passenger duty has never gone to help make flying more greener. I will continue to take my holiday abroad. Why? Well, there are a lot of reasons but primarily when I go on holiday I want a change of scenery and some sunshine would be nice too.

Maybe I am the reason why the government continues to hike up Air Passenger Duty.

Bailing out greedy banks

It would be nice to see the airlines and travel industry being more proactive and giving solid facts to the government why it is not a good idea to increase flight taxes, but the part of me knows that will just fall on deaf ears as the money is bailing out greedy banks.

Why can’t the airline and travel industry come together as a group, is this too much to ask for?

Air passenger duty increases

Flying in an economy seat, within Europe you will have to pay £11; flying to the USA will cost £45. For those flying to South Africa or Australia will pay £50 or £55. The group that will be hit the hardest are families who already have to put up with the ridiculous price hikes during the school holidays.

Flight tax poll says we’ll stay at home

Travelmole reported on a poll today from the World Travel Market which said that 52% would reduce their overseas breaks out of the 1,030 people polled. I would like to know what you think; are you going to stop travelling abroad or reduce the amount of flights you make each year.

Those of you who might fly into the UK, is the increase in flight taxes putting you off visiting.

This post was syndicated from the Travel Rants Blog.

Flight taxes rise again but are consumers really bothered

Looking at travel from another perspective

Some people have been very critical that I am always writing about the negative aspect of travel which confuses me because surely there’s so much nice positive content out there that you need someone to look at it from a different perspective.

Keeping busy

You may have noticed that I have not written much around here lately. I’ve been busy in the day job, and planning Travel BlogCamp, but tonight I am sat here thinking how I can take this blog forward and keep it useful for consumers and the travel industry.

My goals

In the four years that I have written this blog I have learnt a lot of skills and if you want to create a successful blog you have to learn them quick. I am not stroking my ego here but; I’ve won a travel award, been featured in the national media, filmed for TV, spoke at a travel event, but where do I go from here.

Sure, my goal is to work for myself full-time and travel more, but that’s another story.

Help me plan the future of Travel Rants

My readers are important to me and I value your opinions. I’d love to hear about the type of topics that you would like me to write about. What features would you like me to add to the blog? So readers, let this post be your chance to help me plan the future of Travel Rants.

This post was syndicated from the Travel Rants Blog.

Shaping the future of Travel Rants

Website error so holiday cancelled

Most of us spend a lot of time reading reviews and researching the location before booking so it must be incredibly frustrating when after you have booked, the tour operator or travel agency move you in to another hotel, one that you are not happy with, or the option of a refund is thrown at you.

Consumer compensation

The company thinks that all is fine because they have refund the price of the holiday. This is simply not good enough. Not when all concerned are excited about the holiday and you have booked the time off work. From a quick search on Google this appears to be a problem for many consumers.

Ski holiday hotels

I am sure it is just coincidence but two of the emails that I have received are relating to skiing holidays, different companies and destinations. Both consumers booked ski holidays online to be told that the accommodation should not have been available for booking.

Another consumer had booked a hotel online to be told that it was not available for the period she had booked it, and it should not have been available online. The alternative was inadequate and they received a full refund. The kids weren’t happy that their Christmas trip was cancelled.

As usual the booking terms and conditions were referred to when all of the consumers complained.

Lost customer service

When you are forced to change your plans then in my mind the company concerned should surely, offer some form of compensation. It is alright saying you’re getting a refund, so what you moaning about, that’s not the point, you are inconvienced, and it’s not their fault the website was out of date.

If travel companies cannot publish available accommodation online, something simple, then that’s worrying. Please feel free to add your thoughts, questions, and if you have had a similar issue with hotel changes or cancelling your well researched holiday accommodation.

This post was syndicated from the Travel Rants Blog.

Consumers should receive compensation for hotel changes

Sporting equipment extra fee’s

When the customer contacted the airline and asked if it would be a £20 fee because they have booked a single journey the airline confirmed that it would still be £40. Thinking that this was a little unfair I contacted Thomas Cook via Twitter to see if they could shed some light on it.

Customer confusion with wording

While the support was excellent (speedy!) the response back was the same, that it was a set fee, regardless of it being a one way flight. I think the website is not very clear and needs changing to remove the word ‘return’ with ‘set fee’ as I think this could cause some confusion.

I am interested to hear if you have been affected by sporting equipment extra fee’s with airlines.

This post was syndicated from the Travel Rants Blog.

Airline sports equipment fees confusion