What were agents’ least favourite thing about 2017?

Upset crying girl sitting and hugging her knees surrounded by the dislike symbols / editable flat vector illustration, clip art

So we’ve covered all the good stuff from 2017, the favourite agent products, and the most ridiculous requests, and now it’s time to take a turn to the darkside.

What exactly did agents loathe in 2017? Well, we gave you a few options to choose from, and you voted on what made you maddest last year.

Let’s dive in for a sneak peek.

Coming in at first place is the ever-annoying, constantly challenging and disrupting – it’s the OTAs! With a whopping 33 per cent, the option of ‘OTAs – they’re so obnoxious (we’re looking at you Webjet!)’ was voted worst thing about 2017.

In second place, with 19 per cent, was the category of ‘Technology’, namely the part that mentioned, ‘I can’t work the damn things!’ We hear ya, agents.

Third place for most hated thing of 2017 was ‘Lack of new & interesting products – we’ve all heard of all-inclusive cruises’.

Ooft, agents, you so harsh! Just kidding – we were a bit disappointed with the offerings ourselves!

The final few gripes of 2017 kind of all mushed into one big gripe, such was the closeness of votes, so we’ll just list those bad boys here.

And of course, if you think of any more – don’t hesitate to leave a comment and let us know your thoughts on 2017.

  • “Boring clients – yes, we know you love Bali”
  • “Prices going up – I’m too broke for this!”
  • “The new so called team leader at flight centre, I am now at Escape travel”
  • “Qatar Airways ADM’s , charging for churning on customers enquiries/ tentative bookings who in the end did not even book, complete lack of advice to the industry prior to charging”
  • “Airlines and their GDS abuse, restrictive name change policies and ridiculous 24 hour ttls. Makes it very hard to finalise an itinerary before either flights cancelling or prices going up or getting an ADM.”

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