Dumbing down travelers

Never underestimate the ignorance of the traveling public. That’s the painful, but inevitable, conclusion I’ve arrived at after more than a decade of solving other people’s travel problems.

Simply put, there are more clueless people on the road, at the airport, and staying in our hotels, than ever.

Call it the dumbing down of the American traveler.

Preparing for a trip is out of fashion. More than one-quarter of all vacations are now planned at the last minute – between 24 and 48 hours in advance – according to the Travel Industry Association of America. Travelers are forgetful (a recent survey by London’s Royal Garden Hotel found guests left everything from phone chargers and toupees to false teeth in their rooms when they checked out). They’re also helpless when it comes to resolving our travel troubles.

And that’s apparently how the travel industry likes it.

Ill-informed travelers are easy to control, manipulate and even scam. They are more profitable, according to the conventional wisdom. In fact, it may not be an exaggeration to say that airlines, hotels, cruise lines and car rental companies are counting on our collective lack of knowledge for a money-making summer travel season.

The travel industry would prefer us to remain unaware of the agencies and trade groups that ensure they conduct business ethically (see a full list of groups here). Many vacationers know about the American Society of Travel Agents, which represents 20,000 travel professionals. But what about tour operators, which have a trade group called the United States Tour Operators Association?

Does anyone know that car rental companies are represented by the Association of Car and Truck Rental Independents and Franchisees? Or that hotels are fronted by the American Hotel & Lodging Association, and cruise lines by the International Council of Cruise Lines? Few travelers do.

Having a third party to take up the cases of travelers worries people in the industry. But what really keeps them awake at night is the thought that when these organizations fail to protect travelers – as they sometimes do – customers will discover agencies with real teeth, like the Federal Trade Commission or the Department of Transportation’s Aviation Consumer Protection Division.

They might even call me.

The travel industry doesn’t want their customers to know how to complain, either. It wants them to think they can write a letter after a trip is over and get an apology and a full refund. Instead, a lucky few get useless vouchers that have expired before they can think about planning another trip. The rest get form letters – and nothing else.

Travel companies would rather their guests not address a problem as it happens. They don’t want them to call a manager if the experience is less than satisfactory. But if travelers do speak up, they’re ready to deny them, because seminars on how to say “no” are part of every travel company’s management training program.

They don’t want travelers to know about the rules, so they hide the terms of transportation deep within their Web sites, making them inaccessible to travelers who don’t install Adobe Acrobat readers on their computers. But in the unlikely event that customers find the fine print, and are able to refer to it in a dispute with a travel company, they’re often told that the rules simply don’t apply.

How silly of us traveling dummies to think we could actually decipher a contract, they suggest.

The travel industry doesn’t conspire to dumb the traveling public down. It doesn’t have to. It’s always been understood that less-informed consumers make better consumers – more docile and easier to separate from their money. Travel companies will stop at nothing to turn us into traveling idiots. I think it’s in their nature, unfortunately.

Maybe that’s why there are no industry-wide initiatives to create smarter travelers. Any effort to reverse the trend – such as the Consumer Reports Travel Letter or the public radio show The Savvy Traveler – eventually dies. Why should the industry support anything that could hurt its earnings?

Maybe it’s why I get busier every year, handling an increasing workload of grievances from travelers who often just don’t know any better.

Too bad, because the travel business would benefit even more from dealing with an enlightened traveler – someone who knows the rules, understands the industry, and is aware of how the system works.

Imagine all the frivolous complaints the airlines, hotels and car rental agencies wouldn’t have to process. Imagine how much smoother the travel experience would be. Imagine the profits generated by the tens of thousands of customers who would get out more often, instead of staying home and avoiding the travel experience altogether.

Until then, thanks for keeping me in business.

Christopher Elliott is the author of Scammed: How to Save Your Money and Find Better Service in a World of Schemes, Swindles, and Shady Deals. Critics have called it “eye-opening” and “inspiring” — it’ll “grab your attention and won’t let go.” Order your copy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble or iTunes.

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