According to this Los Angeles Times article, everybody is lying about their vacations.
In today’s social media-obsessed world, we understand why travelers might embellish or exaggerate to make their trip seem more interesting. We certainly understand why they’d leave out any bad things that happened.
Honestly, though, our favorite stories to hear (and to tell) revolve around travel mishaps. Sure, it’s not so fun when things go wrong, but with a little time, distance and perspective, those mishaps can become quite funny, providing entertainment for years to come.
Not to mention, challenges and mishaps often teach us the most … not only about the culture we’re visiting, but ourselves, too.
As travel advisors, it’s crucial for us to hear the WHOLE truth from our clients—the great, the good, the bad and the ugly—because honest feedback allows us to do our jobs better and make better recommendations for future travel.
If a certain hotel or airline or tour operator goes above and beyond and provides exceptional service, we want to know. If a certain hotel or airline or tour operator completely drops the ball or makes a mistake and does not handle it well, we want to know.
(Of course, if things go really wrong, our clients can contact us while they’re traveling so we can step in and try to help.)
The Ripple Effect
Not only does honest feedback help us, it helps our entire network. When we get noteworthy feedback, we share it with our network of travel professionals (while maintaining client confidentiality), and they do the same for us, creating a powerful ripple effect that helps the entire travel industry improve.
So if you're like the people in the LA Times article, and you're tempted to exaggerate the good or omit the bad, we encourage you to take a different approach and share the REAL.