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Original poster

Is this email exchange with Responsible Travel holiday agency rude?

50 replies

Notresponsibletravel · 26/09/2018 18:54

I contacted Reaponsible Travel about a holiday I had seen advertised with them.

Me: What is a good minimum age for the Montenegro holiday please

Responsible Travel responded with a very long and generic email about the holiday.

Me: Thanks for the info but as far as I can see you haven’t answered my question!

I see 6 years old but I would like your thoughts on best minimum age

Responsible Travel: Sorry, I'm not sure what "best minimum age" means.

We would not accept bookings for children younger than 6 unless they could swim and walk 5km in one go. We have families with children of all ages across the summer; suitability depends more upon the kids themselves than their ages!

Me: I had been interested but given your response I’ll look elsewhere.

“I’m not sure what best minimum age means”

Seriously? I was asking for a bit of personal input, something I thought Responsible Travel would be able to offer. Clearly not.

Responsible Travel: You mean the response where I answered your question (twice) but asked for clarification about your wording?

Good luck in your ongoing holiday search.

I have cut and pasted the exact exchange.
The company prides itself on providing a personal service whereby its agents visit the countries and can really provide detail customers. I’m a single mum and I was hoping to get an idea of the best minimum age for this activity style holiday (putting aside the minimum age in terms of safety, which was clarified).

Am I right to be a bit disappointed? Anyone else used Responsible Travel before

I’m probably won’t daft!

OP posts:
Sirzy · 26/09/2018 18:57

Surely though beyond their h and s minimum age the rest is down to parental judgement for the individual child? I’m not sure exactly what you wanted from them.

Shampooeeee · 26/09/2018 18:57

I don’t see what your problem is. They didn’t understand the question, then they answered it (depends on the child more than their age).
You massively overreacted to a straightforward email exchange.

icelollycraving · 26/09/2018 18:57

You were pretty snippy, I kind of admire the person’s balls tbh.
Surely your question is such a personal opinion that they appear to have answered as best they could.

Interested in this thread?

Then you might like threads about this subject:

Holidays
Dljlr · 26/09/2018 18:59

You were rude, they weren't.

ny20005 · 26/09/2018 19:00

I wish I was allowed to respond to stupid customer questions like that lol

They answered & you were rude 🙄

Ffsnosexallowed · 26/09/2018 19:00

I have absolutely no idea what you were asking them?? What in earth is a "best minimum age"??

Caselgarcia · 26/09/2018 19:01

To be honest I wouldn't understand what 'best minimum age' meant. I think they were trying to explain that it would depend on a child's activity levels ie could they walk 5km comfortably rather than give a specific age.

WhenIWasAYoungWarthog · 26/09/2018 19:01

Wtf is a ‘best minimum age’ though? They have a minimum age for the holiday. They could probably tell you the best age - is it aimed at primary school kids, young teenagers etc.

If you make that much fuss about a perfectly rational response to an enquiry I’d be thanking my stars you weren’t booking with me.

mimibunz · 26/09/2018 19:02

I thought they answered the question quite well.

DickensianHysteric · 26/09/2018 19:02

I think they were more than reasonable. If it states that the minimum age is 6, what else do you expect them to say? They don't know your child. Confused

Nightmanagerfan · 26/09/2018 19:03

It’s probably a chat bot! So they won’t have had a pre programmed answer for that!

Cynara · 26/09/2018 19:04

You were very rude.

amyacq84 · 26/09/2018 19:08

I work in travel and train and assess our call centre agents. I can tell what you were asking and I think their response was impersonal and rude in the final reply. If our agents spoke to customers like that we would expect complaints!

For example, if a customer wants to go to Disney world, the minimum age is obviously zero as babies are allowed, however the minimum age you'd recommend to a customer based on personal experience would be more like 6 or 7 but ideally around 8 as then they will be more able to handle the pace of multiple days at Disney without turning into devil children cuz they're so wired!

PatriciaHolm · 26/09/2018 19:08

They did answer your question. Its for 6 and above, and "suitability depends more upon the kids themselves than their ages!"

Given you know what the holiday entails, only you can tell whether your kids would be able to do it and enjoy it.

Fiffyshadesofgreymatter · 26/09/2018 19:08

You were rude and snippy. They reacted the way we all want to when someone is rude and snippy.

They were quite clear. They say 6 because the child needs to be able to walk a fair distance and swim. Anyone under 6, in general, would struggle. But the rest of it is obviously parental judgement. You could have a child who is an incredible athlete or you could have one who only play video games and won't walk. They can't answer that. So they give you their minimum acceptable and inform you of the activities so you can make the call.

ItsLikeRainOnYourWeddingDay · 26/09/2018 19:09

You were very rude. Can you not see?

CherryPavlova · 26/09/2018 19:10

I think you were asking a daft question they couldn’t know the answer to in relation to your child. They said what the minimum age was. I think the tone was probably tongue in cheek and I wouldn’t call it rude. I would have smiled at my own silly question.

Original poster
Notresponsibletravel · 26/09/2018 19:11

Thank you all.

Yes I was snippy. I see that

But I am also not surprised by your response @amyacq84. . That’s what I thought.

OP posts:
Alwa · 26/09/2018 19:13

Eh? Best minimum age? Did you mean best age or minimum age?

Original poster
Notresponsibletravel · 26/09/2018 19:13

It’s an activity holiday and I had thought he may come back with something along the lines of...

“Child dependent of course but in our experience 8 and over get the most from the holiday”

Or similar

OP posts:
porky1000 · 26/09/2018 19:13

You were very rude. They weren't.

"Best minimum age" WTF?

Cel982 · 26/09/2018 19:15

You were so rude! So were they, but only in their final email, and you really pushed them to it. 'Best minimum age' is not a standard or universally-understood term, and they clearly tried to answer your question while explaining that they weren't 100% sure of what you were asking. Your tone is really very snippy.

WhenIWasAYoungWarthog · 26/09/2018 19:15

The thing is it is such a daft thing to get even slightly miffed about. They didn’t understand your phrasing (because ‘best minimum age’ is nonsensical), asked for clarification and gave some general information that you could use to determine whether it would be suitable for your children.

You sent a shitty reply back and started a thread about it on MN. I pity the poor travel agent you end up using.

AvonCallingBarksdale · 26/09/2018 19:16

You were v snippy and overreacted imvho. Also, what does this bean in your OP? “I’m probably won’t daft!”??

Original poster
Notresponsibletravel · 26/09/2018 19:17

“Very rude” “so rude”

Oh come on. Really? I was snippy and I should have reined that in but “very rude” I think not.

I was a prospective customer seeking advice. And in the last email he was snippy and rude.

OP posts: