New Year's Resolutions for 2024 for the Travel Industry

David J. Danto

Travel thoughts in my own, personal opinion

eMail: ddanto@IMCCA.org Follow Industry News: @NJDavidD on all

New Year’s Resolutions I’d Like To See – December 2023

New Year’s Eve is that wonderful time of year when we can throw logic to the wind and be optimistic about what we can accomplish in the brand spanking new year. Whether it’s quitting a bad habit we’ve never been able to tackle before or improving our lives by some extraordinary measure, our ability to follow-through on the promise is seemingly irrelevant. It’s all about the joy of hoping we’ll get there. In that spirit, as I have done sometimes in years past, I present the New Year’s Resolutions I wish the travel industry would make.

· Airlines: We resolve to make it up to all the formerly loyal customers who we promised benefits to and then ‘bait and switched’ them to something else. We will grant the lifetime status we promised to our million milers, reserve half the first-class cabins for the upgrades we promised to deliver, and clear those upgrades at time of booking.

· Airlines: We resolve to publish a schedule of take-offs and aircrafts that limits us to only those services we can provide with reliability and excellence. We will stop overbooking flights and overloading airport slots.

· Hotels: We resolve to return to the days of providing a clean room when the guest arrives (not sometime later in the day) and having that room cleaned and serviced every day.

· Hotels: We resolve to set a standard rate for our rooms and services, and not vary it based upon how much we think we can get due to circumstances or events.

· Automobile Rental Firms: We resolve to actually have a car available for every reservation we take. We resolve to let the drivers choose their preferred vehicle – either on our lot or in our app.

· Automobile Rental Firms: We resolve to offer ‘preferred service’ that understands it means that the customer will never have to stand in a line waiting when they arrive at our facilities.

· All Industry: We resolve to pay our people a living wage, and pay them for every minute we expect them to be on the job, not just when a plane is in-flight or when a guest has arrived. We resolve to make our employees happy in their jobs, knowing their happiness will translate to our customers’ happiness.

· All Industry: We resolve to understand that we exist to serve our customers, not our shareholders, because we have chosen to be in a customer service industry.

· All Industry: We resolve to STOP ROUTINELY LYING to customers about delays, availability, upgrades – heck, everything.

Also, p

I don’t actually expect any of the above to happen, but I always wonder what would if they did. I firmly believe that a travel industry firm that based its operations on stellar customer service instead of penny-pinching would leave all the others in the dust.

From my family to yours, have a happy, safe and prosperous new year.

This article was written by David Danto and contains solely his own, personal opinions.

All image and links provided above as reference under prevailing fair use statutes.

++++++++

As always, feel free to write and comment, question or disagree. Hearing from the traveling community is always a highlight for me. Thanks!