Whether your trip of a lifetime turns into a fantastic experience or a nightmare, is all in your own hands. Or is it just about luck? There are a lot of unexpected problems that can pop up even during the best planned trips.

We’ve currently conducted a survey on TOP international travel problems based on our personal concierge services from locals to travelers. The main criteria were world travelers’ extra expenses and time spent on solving the issues. So these are the top problems we’ve spotted:

• Online booking and reservations (accommodation, flights tickets, cars, concert tickets and so on);
• Transport (trains, buses, taxes and so on);
• Services by travel agencies;
• Information search for different needs;
• Technology-related issues.

The research was based on responses we received from more than 1000 world travelers aged 18–65 who traveled for leisure or business needs with MeetnGreetMe in 2015-2016.

Online Booking

Everything that you need abroad – from accommodation and flights, to renting a car and concert tickets – now can be booked online. Despite the obvious convenience, online booking is on top of the travel troubles list, according to the results of our survey.

A great number of travelers said they faced that negative aspect of traveling. The most common problems with booking online are usually connected with:

• inability to check out the accommodation of your choice and communicate with the hosts;
• difficulty fixing problems and misunderstanding with the local services upon arrival;
• the language of the website and support team where you are trying to book something.

Transport

During our research we found out that the second problem is connected with driving to destinations, renting a car and performing personalized delivery. The main problems related to transport in every city of the world are usually the following ones:

• being overcharged for the trips;
• local drivers don`t know the right route;
• drivers don’t speak your language.

Bear in mind the fact that people who provide transport services see the difference between a foreigner and a local, that`s why they are interested in making more money on international guests, frequently overcharging them or taking the wrong routes.

Travel Agencies

The third common problem for travelers is connected with travel agencies – a problem affecting 2 in 10 travelers. The most frequent problems travelers faced were:

• a large amount of reservation mistakes;
• higher rates and hidden fees;
• expectations do not match the reality.

Searching for some specific information

The forth problem in our survey was having troubles searching for information. No surprise that Google.translate can’t help you understand information present on every website and you can’t know all the languages in the world yourself. That’s why having a MeetnGreeter abroad can help a Guest:

• find business contacts;
• do the needed research on a specific topic;
• help organize events, conferences, meetings, etc.

Technology-related issues

And finally, all countries are different in terms of technological advancement. The trend in international tourism is that people are willing to go to less popular and less crowded destinations. As a rule, such places happen to have such problems connected with technology:

• devices incompatibility;
• poor Wi-Fi connection;
• necessity to buy a new SIM-card.

Knowing your Guests’ fears, possible problems and troubles can help you prepare better for their visits, see to all the probable issues in advance and give your Guests the peace of mind upon their arrival. Good luck!

So, what are other the most common issues people have when travelling?

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Have an amazing day!