The single supplement scandal needs to stop – here's how you can help
If there’s one issue that continues to exasperate Telegraph readers who travel solo, it is the iniquity of having to pay a single supplement for a holiday, especially when occupying a tiny single room or a single berth on a cruise ship.
Even when the supplement can be justified – for sole occupancy of a double room – single travellers regularly report they are given inferior rooms compared with those allocated to two people sharing.
Over the years, Telegraph Travel has taken tour operators to task to try to secure improvements, both in the transparency and pricing of single supplements and in the discriminatory practice of allocating the worst rooms to solo travellers on group holidays. It's a topic we've been addressing this year as part of our Safer Fairer Better campaign.
There has been some improvement, notably in the escorted tour and cruise sectors, as some operators and hoteliers have recognised the continuing growth in demand for single-occupancy rooms and the benefits of looking after this type of traveller – they now make up a quarter of all adult holidaymakers, even more on escorted adventure holidays and cultural tours.
But, as a whole, the travel industry is still letting down solo travellers. My own investigations and correspondence with readers have thrown up widespread failures.
Are supplements a rip-off?
From my research, it is not tour operators that are profiteering from single supplements. In the cases I looked at, they were simply passing on extra costs to their solo customers. The key issue is the attitude of hoteliers and cruise lines.
They argue that they have to charge a supplement because the fixed costs of cleaning and servicing a single room are similar to those for a double room. They also point out that solo travellers tend to spend less money in the restaurant and bar than couples.
But if the hotel or ship isn’t full, the claim that revenue is lost when a room is sold to a single person is simply not convincing. Hoteliers know perfectly well in which periods of the year they will have spare capacity, so why don’t they make more of an effort to attract singles, especially those who are prepared to book direct?
Buried away?
There have always been some hotels, cruise lines and operators that have seen the light and offer cheap or supplement-free deals for solos. But my investigation suggests it is getting harder to find them. The old-fashioned holiday brochure used to flag holidays with either a low or no single supplement – in a similar way to flashes advertising free child places. Now we are being directed to search for holidays online, they are much less visible. Finding them usually involves checking the price of each hotel using the tour operator’s clunky general “search tools”.
This is the case with Tui, one of Britain’s largest tour operators, which has the clout to negotiate good off-season rates for single travellers but buries them on its website. Why can’t it build a dedicated offers page for solos? A Tui spokeswoman says it does flag such offers from time to time, but has nothing at present. This smacks of complacency given that solo travellers are now such a key market.
Tui is not alone. Traditional package tour operators all fare badly and the new generation of online travel companies such as On The Beach and Travel Republic do no better. Their websites have helpful booking tools for families and couples but nothing for singles. It’s a similar situation with worldwide specialists.
Kuoni, for example, has an encouraging pop-up tab for solo travellers on its website. But there’s no follow-through. It claims to offer no-supplement departure dates on its group tours but I could not find any, only a banner saying: “Save up to ￡655 per couple”.
I contacted Kuoni’s (very helpful) call centre where an agent consulted an old-fashioned brochure – the best way to find no-supplement deals quickly, she said. But there weren’t any. Not good enough, Kuoni.
Contrast this to Saga Holidays, which deserves a rare bouquet among the brickbats. It has a dedicated solo traveller collection under its main Holidays tab with dozens of no-supplement offers on beach, cruise and touring holidays, including late-availability deals.
Inferior rooms
A final, long-standing bugbear is the issue of discrimination over the allocation of double rooms for single occupancy. There are no statistics on this, but we learn a lot from readers’ feedback. Take Judith Ross-Murphy’s experience of European coach touring holidays. “After staying in a succession of broom cupboards, I took the decision to pay a decent whack for sole use of a double room,” she says.
“Problem solved, you would think, but on a holiday in Italy last autumn I was given a miserable double room that seemed to be used for storage. It had an extra bed (on its side), two chests, and no wardrobe – just five hangers on a wall. This was at a four-star hotel. The room was changed – but only a day later after a firm complaint.”
This is not acceptable in any circumstances, let alone where a customer has paid a large supplement for sole occupancy of a double room.
Our campaign
It’s clear from our research that travel companies are paying lip service to accommodating the solo traveller. Far more needs to be done by operators to address their needs, and by accommodation providers to give meaningful discounts on rooms for sole use outside of high-demand periods. We will keep working to improve the lot of solo travellers.
It would be a great help if you could tell us your stories about iniquitous single supplements or substandard accommodation so we can investigate what went wrong and campaign for improvements.
Please continue to email me at [email protected]. In the meantime, here are answers to some of the questions we are regularly asked on the subject.
12 of your questions about solo travel answered
1. Why do I have to pay a single supplement?
It’s essentially a commercial decision by the hotelier or cruise line. They argue that the cost of servicing a single room is similar to a double room so they have to charge the same whether the cost is split between two or paid for by a solo traveller.
2. What kind of room will I get?
It depends on the country. In older resort hotels, especially those used by coach tour operators in Britain and Europe, there are still shoebox-sized single rooms tucked away in unfavourable corners of the hotel. Standards are much higher in hotels built or thoroughly renovated over the past decade where single rooms are often small doubles with a wider bed (sometimes a standard double) and a full-sized bathroom.
3. How can I avoid a broom cupboard overlooking the bins?
If you have particular concerns, contact the hotel direct and scroll through its online reviews. If using a web-based agent put a note under “special requests” asking for a room on a higher floor (more light, away from noisy public rooms). A mention of suffering claustrophobia can help avoid a wall-facing room on a group holiday. The tour manager should be given the list of rooming requests and work with the hotel.
4. How do I go about finding holidays with low or no supplements?
With great difficulty. Tour operator websites rarely flag up the best deals. It’s best to book early, look at departure dates in shoulder seasons and consider a destination that’s having a tougher time such as Turkey, Tunisia and Egypt.
5. Should I call the tour company to discuss rooming options?
Some tour companies are very helpful; others are clearly working on commission and will try to sell you a holiday without giving you time to research price comparisons or read hotel or cruise cabin reviews. Don’t fall for it. The deal will almost always still be available if you ring back after doing some more research.
6. Isn’t it cheaper to book direct with the hotel?
Funnily enough, it often isn’t. I looked at a range of tour-operator packages to the Mediterranean and Florida and found the operators could often undercut the cost of booking the elements individually. Take the popular Rubicón Palace Hotel in Lanzarote. The hotel itself offers sole occupancy of a double room in January for ￡1,538 all-inclusive (no payment up front); Thomas Cook offers the same grade of room and includes a flight and transfer for ￡1,591. Shopping around is essential: the same hotel package booked through Jet2 or On The Beach costs nearly ￡200 more.
7. What about using an online hotel booking agent; they claim to offer the cheapest rates?
Hoteliers get into trouble with online agents if they advertise discounts to direct customers. They get around this by offering extra services such as airport transfers or extra meals. Online agents offer a good choice of discounts for solo travellers but don’t rely on the images to assess the room on offer; they often show the wrong type.
8. How can I get a decent room?
Booking direct with the hotel may secure an upgrade (they pay online agents 15-20 per cent commission) as will a “pretty please”. Try not to turn up late in the day, as you may be given a room rejected by earlier arrivals. And if the single-occupancy discount is small you might as well book the room for two people.
9. Why are cruise supplements so high?
Because the solo cabins take up almost as much room as twin cabins yet generate half the revenue in drinks, excursions and other extras. You can expect to pay a 75 per cent supplement on the per-person cost on most ships.
The good news is that cruise ships are being built, or refitted, with more specially designed single cabins clustered around a dedicated lounge. Companies that are embracing the single traveller include Norwegian Cruise Line (0333 241 2319; ncl.com), P&O Cruises (03453 555111; pocruises.com), Fred Olsen Cruises (0800 078 3790; fredolsencruises.com) and Saga (0808 250 0948; saga.co.uk). Cruise & Maritime has set aside 150 twin cabins for single occupancy for a low 25 per cent supplement: 0844 998 2788, cruiseandmaritime.com.
10. Are there any cruises that offer no single supplements at all?
A departure advertising a no-supplement offer will sell out fast so sign up for cruise-company alerts. The website cruiseplum.com lists very low or no-supplement deals on unsold cabins on popular lines. Pandaw Cruises (020 8396 7320; pandaw.com) has no supplement cabins on many of its river cruises in India and south-east Asia.
11. Do coach touring companies always put singles in box rooms?
This may still happen on the cheapest tours, especially in the UK and places like the Italian lakes where hotels are old. It’s best to pay a bigger supplement to secure a decent room. Leger Holidays (01709 833316; leger.co.uk) works with hotels to secure attractive rooms for solos.
12. Any chance of finding a no-supplement departure on a cultural tour?
Jules Verne (020 3131 0512; vjv.com) is another company deserving a bouquet. There are no-supplement deals on selected departures on most of its tours, though you will be given a small double room without a view. Ace Cultural Tours (01223 849002; aceculturaltours.co.uk) will send out a list of tours with low supplements for single and single-use rooms.
