Caution in booking a holiday break is advised

As travel agents reported a bumper business in package holiday sales yesterday, holidaymakers were warned to be cautious if they did not want to have a "holiday-from-hell" experience.

The Consumers' Association said it was concerned that people were rushing to book holidays before reading the fine print.

And the European Consumer Centre reminded people that the package holiday legislation applied to all holidays, even those bought cheaply in a January sale.

Mr Michael Kilcoyne, the Consumers' Association chairman, said people should ensure that the package on offer included all the necessary details and that they were fully covered by travel and medical insurance.

If a holiday should go wrong, people should bring home as much evidence as possible, including receipts and photographs.

The most common holiday complaints to the Consumers' Association concerned the noise level in apartments, as well as the quality of accommodation.

Mr Kilcoyne also encouraged consumers to be careful when swapping houses with an overseas family.

His association has dealt with complaints from consumers where the overseas accommodation was not all it promised, and where the person's own home was not treated well.

Complaints about holidays account for about 10 per cent of queries to the European Consumer Centre in Dublin (www.ecic.ie).

The centre gets many complaints about building work at resorts as well as about noise from night-clubs or from boisterous holiday-makers.

If a holiday should go wrong, people should always discuss their problems with the tour representative before they leave the resort, a spokeswoman said.

"If you don't do this, you could even nullify your case," she said. "It's very important to give them an opportunity to remedy the situation or minimise your loss."

Once you return home, you have 28 days to send a written complaint to the travel company.

Despite the downturn in the economy, most people are planning two or more holidays this year, according to travel agents.

In a Budget Travel survey of customers, 84 per cent said they would take at least two holidays this year. The Irish Travel Agents' Association (ITAA) has reported the same trend.

"It's shaping up to be a very good year," Mr Brendan Moran, the ITAA chief executive, said. Short-haul destinations were very popular as more people were taking two holidays a year.

Budget Travel began its sale yesterday morning by giving free holidays to 22 people who had been camping outside its Baggot Street, Dublin, shop for the past week.

It included a grandfather, Mr John Behan, who got a free holiday to Florida after queueing since St Stephen's Day to bring his wife and grandchildren away.

Budget Travel had already sold 28 per cent of its summer programme before Christmas, Ms Niamh Hayes, marketing ma'nager, said.

She expected that up to 20,000 bookings would have been taken by close of business last night.

Some family packages in areas such as the Costa del Sol and Majorca are already fully booked for July and August.

Meanwhile, the Irish Travel Agents' Association expects members to sell about 40,000 skiing holidays this winter.

Mr Moran encouraged people to check the availability of snow in the regions before booking and said snow would be less plentiful at the beginning and end of the season.

"If there is no snow, there's not much you can do about it. It's the risk you take," he said.