I have spent a huge amount of time on the island and taken my family on a number of occasions, it is very sad when I consider Rangalli was my Honeymoon destination. If you consider trying to cash in some of my millions of unused Hilton Honours points as “looking for a freebie” then that reaffirms the disconnect between your marketing department and the revenue managers who really did not want anyone at reduced rates.

If it is any consolation, we haven’t cashed in a single Hilton Honours point since and although I am a very valued client of the Waldorf (part of the Hilton Group), I can’t see myself venturing back to the Hilton Hotel / Conrad Hotel Rangali Island in the near future.

Sadly people can misconstrue “being direct” and expecting and open and frank discussion as “rude.” For a company that messed up our travel arrangements on a number of occasions, I think I was incredibly patient. It is still one of the wonders of the world though and I’d recommend anyone to go there.

I am sure they will be very happy that Mr Jones will not be returning!

I too have fallen foul of big brands not delivering.

You need to try flying with Thomson. I recently flew as a Platinum customer to Egypt but this level made no difference whatsoever. I am still writing my letter of complaint to them.

There was no one at the airport to tell us we didn’t have to queue at the normal check-in on our outbound flight we found this out 1 week later. Then whilst away we used what we thought was a great idea, their new 24/7 text service. The text ability is great but then they inundate you with sales text afterwards which we didn’t even want, I was already on holiday with them! I still need to work out if we paid the roaming fee to receive these! Then when we tried to call them on the number they gave to book extra leg room seats the number was invalid. I rang four other numbers/departments and no one knew who I should contact, so it was back to the text service and I had to request that they call us.

We booked the extra leg room seats, at a shocking £50 but on the return flight boarded to see we didn’t have them. As you can imagine we were not happy and it dampened what was a lovely holiday. We then had to endure the small, oldest looking plane for a six hour flight in tiny seats, with no in-flight entertainment (apparently they can’t restart films thousands of feet in the air) and the rudest staff ever. Everyone on the plane was complaining and said it was the worst flight ever I would make me think about flying with or using them again.

At a time when the travel industry is losing money more than ever you would think that brands such as Thomson and Hilton would be doing everything to keep customers happy, maybe I’ll see you in Malaysia or Barbados next year!

This is a great point Lawrence, all too often there is poor service from large, often well known organisations. There is no excuse for it and especially not in today’s current economic climate. I am not aware of how Hilton Group is doing financially but I am sure they can not afford to be upsetting one of their regular customers!

The Conrad Rangalli is meant to be one of the most luxurious and stress free places to go on holiday, surely this means from the minute you pick up the phone to book your room to the second you touch down at Gatwick on the way home, you shouldn’t have a care in the world.

So when the Conrad Rangalli were so reluctant to respond or sort out the problem as efficiently as expected, I was stunned. For the amount of money it costs to visit this paradise, there shouldn’t be a single mistake. Let alone ones they are not quick off the mark to rectify.

It looks like I’ll be booking Marriot for company stuff from now on!