Crystal Ski Holidays said it has trebled the size of its call centre team and updated its website as a BBC TV Watchdog investigation highlighted severe delays in its response times.
The ski operator admitted it had fallen short of its “usual high standards of customer care” at the start of the 2021-2022 winter season.
The Watchdog report, aired on The One Show on Wednesday (February 2), showed consumers had spent hours trying to contact Crystal Ski to make changes or cancel bookings.
The Tui-owned operator conceded it had been “overwhelmed by call volumes” as holidaymakers tried to get to grips with the frequently changing travel rules for ski destinations pre-Christmas.
In a statement it said: “We’d like to sincerely apologise to those customers who experienced severe delays trying to contact us at the start of the season.
“We worked around the clock to respond to enquiries, trebled the size of our team and ensured we had up to the minute information on our website.
“However, we appreciate that we’ve fallen short of our usual high standards of customer care.”
The operator said call volumes had increased by 650% at the start of the ski season, and the length of calls increased by 240%.
During this period the company said its Travel with Confidence hub and up-to-date frequently asked questions were online while it also developed its website to allow as many customers as possible to make changes themselves. Its flexible changes policy was adjusted to allow clients to change their holiday dates or accommodation up to 14 days before departure to allow customers travelling up to the end of February more flexibility.
The Watchdog report also highlighted problems holidaymakers had endured to secure a refund from the company within 14 days.
Crystal said that while the “majority of customers” were reimbursed in the time period, a “small number” took longer because of incorrect account details.
The company added: “We aim to give our customers the very best ski holiday experience possible, from start to finish, and are very sorry this has not been the case for everyone this season.”
The operator said that all issues raised by the report had now been resolved.
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