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Exploring the beauty of a foreign country, flying to exotic locales in luxury, sampling outlandish foods, and opening yourself up to new experiences are the best parts of travel. However, reality can sometimes fall short of our expectations, and there are valid situations when travelers need reimbursement for mistakes or setbacks.
If you travel frequently, you're bound to run into situations where the quality of the product or service you receive doesn’t meet your expectations — or what was promised in the first place. But when a company fails to deliver on its promise, what is the most effective way of communicating your complaint so you receive fair compensation for the inconvenience or missed service?
If you're wondering how to get fair compensation for a bad hotel stay or a problematic flight, follow these nine steps.
Page Contents
- 1. The Golden Rule for Hotel or Airline Compensation
- 2. Pinpoint the Issue
- 3. Know Your Rights
- 4. Offer a Potential Solution
- 5. Make Your Complaint Specific and Concise
- 6. Know When To Ask for a Supervisor or Manager (or Not)
- 7. Taking the Matter Higher or to Social Media
- 8. Get Travel Insurance
- 9. Receive Additional Compensation From a Credit Card Provider
- Final Thoughts
1. The Golden Rule for Hotel or Airline Compensation
Before we touch on the specifics of chasing compensation, we want to nail down one simple but overarching rule that should be at the forefront of your mind when voicing your complaints: Be nice.
In other words, try to treat others the way you would want them to treat you. Remember, there's a human at the other end of the customer service center. Or at least we can hope there is. If it's a bot, high emotions definitely won't get you anywhere.
Most people want to help
When dealing with another person, you will get a better outcome if you are calm and polite, show patience, and treat staff respectfully. You don’t have to be cheerful or happy; you can express your displeasure at whatever situation led to your complaints. Yet if you want the best result with staff helping you reach a good outcome, manners and patience will get most of the job done.
Another side of this is that you can be angry but target your anger at the situation, not at the person trying to help you. For example, “I didn't get the room upgrade you promised me” probably won't work well. Instead, try, “It's frustrating that rooms are rarely designed for someone as tall as me; I'm really counting on the room upgrade with the larger bed.”
Finding a common agreement will go a long way toward getting compensation from airlines and hotels.
2. Pinpoint the Issue
One of the most important things you can do is document the issue. Record all the details, such as the time, location, anyone involved, and the precise nature of your complaint. For example, if you’re complaining about a meal or service in a hotel restaurant, take down the employee's name, your table number, the time and date, and a brief description of events.
If you arrive at your hotel and find dirty sheets or the hotel has placed you in a smoky room when you booked a non-smoking one, record the details and take photos of evidence you can find with your phone. This will help when you try to have the issues addressed.
Collecting evidence
If the complaint is about the service on a flight, a delay or cancellation, or even a rude gate agent, record the details as soon as the incident happens. It's a lot easier to recall the facts when you've noted the details. This also adds credibility to your claim and gives the employee fielding your complaint something to copy if the issue cannot be addressed immediately.
But be careful about openly recording a staff member on your phone. This can exacerbate the situation and is outright illegal in some countries. Also, this is a personal matter, not something to blast on social media.
3. Know Your Rights
Many companies (but not all) focus on customer care and have policies in place to prioritize it. Thus, situations like delayed flights, hotel rooms that are not prepared upon arrival, or poorly cooked restaurant meals likely have scripted responses.
Many airlines offer hotel rooms, meals, vouchers, and/or cash payouts for delayed flights. Hotels often offer a room upgrade if the room assigned to you is not ready at check-in time. Many restaurants offer a voucher or free item if they send out a dish that is underprepared or otherwise inedible.
You should also be informed about the compensation an airline or hotel naturally offers for mistakes or misfortunes. In these situations, receiving fair compensation likely won't require any effort beyond bringing it to the company's attention. Sometimes, there's a form to fill out that you can do yourself — or you can use a service like AirHelp to help you navigate the claims process.
Related: Claiming Compensation for a Delayed, Overbooked, or Canceled Flight in the US and EU
4. Offer a Potential Solution
It’s also important to know how you want the problem rectified before making a complaint. Focus on a realistic action or compensation from the provider proportionate to the issue you’re presenting.
Does one cockroach warrant a free room? Probably not. If the hotel has mistakenly placed you in a room reeking of cigarette smoke, are you within your rights to ask for another room? Absolutely. Receive a free drink at the bar while your room is prepared? That's certainly fair. After all, as the saying goes, you don't get what you don't ask for.
But if you charge in commanding more than the issue warrants, you come across as entitled and demanding. This also destroys any goodwill or motivation the agent dealing with the problem may have towards you.
Expected airline compensation
In the case of delayed or canceled flights in Europe — and coming to the U.S., too — chances are you're entitled to monetary compensation and possibly food, transport, and a hotel for longer delays.
However, if your complaint is about in-flight service, that's a different matter. You’ll want to record the flight details, time, names if you have them, and the events that took place. Present these to the onboard supervisor when your flight reaches its destination — even something as simple as a broken in-seat entertainment screen.
Take a quick video that you can show a supervisor later. This is also valuable when communicating your complaint via email or even social media.
5. Make Your Complaint Specific and Concise
Make your complaint specific, and stick to the topic. If a reservation agent copped a bad attitude, don’t complain that you received “bad service from the reservation team.” Call out the specific staff member and what they said. “Janine from reservations was abrasive and complained that I sounded like another rude traveler when she thought she had put me on hold.” Be specific.
Furthermore, try to avoid expressing opinions. Stick to the facts. This will shorten the conversation and make it easier for the customer service team to respond.
Have a plan
It also pays to stick to the point. If you have a laundry list of complaints, don’t let them all out in a single, long-winded breath. Shorten your complaints into bullets and include how you want each particular problem addressed — or provide one solution to all the issues presented if they all fall under the same general topic.
Moreover, countless travelers apply for airline or hotel compensation, often resulting in stressed and overworked staff. Anything you can do to make their job easier will go a long way toward resolving the situation.
6. Know When To Ask for a Supervisor or Manager (or Not)
Give the person in front of you the opportunity to fix the problem before asking to see a senior staff member. Experienced front desk agents are often empowered to rectify situations. In these cases, a supervisor or manager doesn't need to step in, and asking for one might just slow things down.
Moving or upgrading rooms and free food and drink at an onsite restaurant — a front desk employee can handle these complaints more often than you might expect.
If you feel the front desk did not adequately address your concerns, ask to speak to a manager. Remember to document your conversations with each employee so there are no misunderstandings. This will give you a clear trail to follow if you need to escalate your complaint.
7. Taking the Matter Higher or to Social Media
If you don’t feel the staff satisfactorily addressed the issue, you have a couple of options. In extreme cases, you could call for the hotel's general manager or the airline's station manager. Ask them to revisit the solution if you don’t feel the outcome was fair.
This is where having neat and concise notes detailing the issue, who you’ve spoken to, and any agreements made can come in handy — not just for you but also by providing the manager with a tidy overview of the issue. When multiple people are involved, managers may not receive these details from hotel or airline staff.
The last resort (seriously, don't abuse this)
As a last resort, you can air your concerns on the company’s social media channels, such as X/Twitter and Facebook, detailing the specifics of your complaint. From experience, pushing issues into the public arena often gives the service provider added motivation to address the problem. This is particularly true when you are specific in your requests and have notes to back them up.
Strangely, some customer service centers seem to focus solely on social media. I've felt bad the couple of times I tweeted about how customer service ignored requests for help. However, customer service quickly got in touch, and the matter was immediately and fairly resolved. Apparently, that's the approach some companies take. Then again, they're often just as likely to respond to a DM as to a public tweet.
8. Get Travel Insurance
Travel insurance is a good way to get airline or hotel compensation beyond what the company offers. Of course, travel insurance doesn't cover every situation where you could need it, but it does cover many of the most common ones.
The above steps should resolve grievances where you didn't get what you expected or what was promised. However, larger matters that the company can't or is unwilling to resolve can sometimes be compensated through travel insurance.
Nowadays, some countries require travel insurance. But regardless, travel insurance is a good thing to have. It may not compensate for a bad hotel stay because the room had a weird odor or because you didn't like the receptionist, but it can be especially helpful for medical issues during your travels.
9. Receive Additional Compensation From a Credit Card Provider
It’s worth noting, particularly for airline issues such as canceled or delayed flights and baggage problems, that the travel insurance included with many credit cards could cover you for thousands of dollars. That's why it's important to consider the not-as-flashy under-the-hood benefits when you consider applying for a new card.
For example, cards like the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card and Chase Sapphire Reserve® feature differing levels of trip and baggage insurance. These cards enable passengers to claim expenses when their flights are delayed or canceled, or their bags never arrive at their destination.
- Earn 100,000 bonus points + $500 Chase Travel℠ promo credit after you spend $5,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.
- Get more than $2,700 in annual value with Sapphire Reserve.
- Earn 8x points on all purchases through Chase Travel℠, including The Edit℠ and 4x points on flights and hotels booked direct. Plus, earn 3x points on dining worldwide & 1x points on all other purchases
- $300 annual travel credit as reimbursement for travel purchases charged to your card each account anniversary year.
- Access over 1,300 airport lounges worldwide with a complimentary Priority Pass™ Select membership, plus every Chase Sapphire Lounge® by The Club with two guests. Plus, up to $120 towards Global Entry, NEXUS, or TSA PreCheck® every 4 years
- Get up to $150 in statement credits every six months for a maximum of $300 annually for dining at restaurants that are part of Sapphire Reserve Exclusive Tables.
- Count on Trip Cancellation/Interruption Insurance, Auto Rental Coverage, Lost Luggage Insurance, no foreign transaction fees, and more.
- Get complimentary Apple TV+, the exclusive streaming home of Apple Originals. Plus Apple Music - all the music you love, across all your devices. Subscriptions run through 6/22/27 - a value of $250 annually
- Member FDIC
- Rates & Fees
- 8x points on all purchases through Chase Travel℠
- 4x points on flights and hotels booked directly
- 3x points on dining worldwide
- 1x points on all other purchases
Even if you pay for the travel with your card or pay the taxes and fees if you're using points/miles, the credit card benefits should cover you — but you'll want to confirm your coverage before you book. Check out our best credit cards for free travel insurance and best credit cards for baggage coverage. This coverage is in excess of (and separate from) the hotel compensation you may get for a bad hotel stay after speaking with customer service from the hotel brand.
Final Thoughts
Having a realistic idea of how negative situations can be rectified and proactively addressing issues when they arise can greatly impact your overall travel experience. It's not uncommon for things to go wrong if you spend enough time on the road or in the air. Learning how to ask for fair airline or hotel compensation is vital when things don’t go your way.
Be sure to follow up with the company's corporate office and provide feedback on how well (or how poorly) the hotel or airline staff handled the situation. Again, use your notes with full names, dates, and details. This will allow you to remember all the details well after the fact. Presenting details respectfully will help you move toward a solution much more efficiently.
Have any tips or tricks for getting fair compensation from a hotel or airline? We’d love to hear from you in the comments!
For rates and fees of the cards mentioned in this post, please visit the following links: Chase Sapphire Reserve® (Rates & Fees)
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