Why booking a holiday by phone could mean you get ripped off

A simple way to save money on hotel bookings is to look at the price online, then phone up to see if you can get a better deal.

In 2023, we found that 15 out of 30 hotels would give us a better price over the phone than we could get if we booked online.

However, beware when trying to book other kinds of travel by phone, such as flights and some cottage stays – as you could be hit with an unexpected fee of up to £50. It’s a charge that’s likely to particularly affect people who are less able to book online, such as blind or older travellers.

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Holiday cottage phone booking charge

We found a one-bedroom Sykes Cottage in Looe, Cornwall, priced at £436 for a seven-night stay.

But when we phoned up to book it, Sykes told us it would cost £445. Only when we asked if it was cheaper online did staff admit there’s a £9 charge for booking through the call centre.

We couldn’t find this charge mentioned on its website. Sykes told us that its customer services team are able to remove the phone booking fee ‘where appropriate’. So if you do want to book a cottage over the phone with Sykes, remember to ask them to remove the fee. 

No other cottage firm that we looked at charged for booking by phone, although Cottages.com and Hoseasons charge £20 extra for making changes to your booking by phone - if they can be made online.

Blind and disabled travellers – ripped off by Ryanair

Lots of people, including those less comfortable with technology, the blind or otherwise disabled, might feel uncertain about making a booking on the computer, but all too often they’ll be charged a premium for their disadvantage.

Ryanair charges an astonishing £50 for booking by phone, which it says is to encourage people to book online and allow it 'to avoid unnecessary costs that we then pass on to customers in lower fares'. When we challenged this, it told us that blind people can use screenreaders on Ryanair.com, or get somebody else to make the booking.  

We put this to accessibility consultant Adi Latif, who is himself blind, who told us: ‘Not all blind people have someone to help them, or feel comfortable to ask.’

He said that he tried to make a booking using his screenreader on Ryanair’s app but couldn’t: ‘The results page is just full of unlabelled graphics, making it impossible for me to know what’s going on.’ He has faced similar experiences with other airline apps and websites.

Some firms say they charge a fee for phone bookings but that they waive it for disabled people. Cottages.com and Hoseasons say that they waive their charge for making changes to a booking over the phone, if the customer has accessibility issues such as sight problems. Ryanair hasn’t made this promise. None of our Which? Recommended Provider cottage firms or airlines, charge for booking by phone.

Other airlines phone fees

British Airways, easyJet and KLM all charge a fee for phone booking, but they all said they waive this for disabled travellers if they can't book online. BA and easyJet both said that they provide a separate, free, customer support telephone service for passengers requiring special assistance, which can also provide booking assistance.

Ryanair, easyJet and British Airways all also have additional fees, on top of the standard fee, for making changes to your booking over the phone.  

Fees for booking by phone

*Additional fees are charged for making changes to your booking by phone, on top of standard admin fees.

How to avoid fees for phone booking

If there is a fee for booking by phone, then always ask the call handler if that can be removed. In the case of a disabled person who’s not able to book online, we think removing the fee should be a legal obligation.

The Equality Act 2010 says that firms have to make ‘reasonable adjustments’ to make sure disabled people are not disadvantaged in accessing a service. What’s ‘reasonable’ is, according to the law, up to firms themselves to decide. We think this should include waiving fees for blind, or otherwise disabled people, to book over the phone.