We’ve also made our recommendations more useful to holidaymakers. At first companies were simply rated as ‘poor’, ‘average’, or ‘above average’. Then in 2005 we introduced the customer score - a combination of satisfaction and likelihood to recommend – along with star ratings for important elements like customer service, or cleanliness for hotel chains and the quality of accommodation provided by package holiday operators.
But it wasn’t until 2011 that Which? Recommended Providers (WRP) first graced our pages. These are the companies that not only score very well in our surveys, but also meet our own consumer-focused criteria. For example, an airline with poor punctuality figures, or that flouts the law on rerouting, is automatically excluded from our WRP process (hence the limited number of recommended airlines in recent years). Similarly, any WRP tour operator that puts the price up after a customer has booked will be unceremoniously stripped of their status.
In short, Which? Recommended Providers really are the very best companies, with the very best customer care. They’ve come and gone over the years, but over the next few pages, you’ll find the current WRPs that we’ve recommended the longest – companies that you can comfortably rely on for your next holiday.
National Trust Holiday Cottages
First recommended: 1975Current customer score: 84%The National Trust was founded in 1895 to look after the nation’s historic sites and green spaces. But it wasn’t until the 1930s that tenant farmers on National Trust land began offering bed and breakfast to visitors, and so the holiday arm of Europe’s largest conservation charity was born.
For more than 80 years it has offered self-catering holidays in historic homes, be it a 1930s Art Deco villa, or a 12th-century Norman Hall, that otherwise might have been lost to the ravages of time. And the money it makes from renting cottages allows the National Trust to restore 10 additional buildings in England, Wales and Northern Ireland each year.
We first recommended National Trust cottages in 1975, noting that members were ‘particularly satisfied’ with their stays. We’ve become rather more effusive over the years, bestowing WRP status in 2013; which it has retained to this day. In 2021 we made it Which? Travel Brand of the Year in recognition of its exemplary customer service. In a year of staycations, it promptly refunded customers caught up in the chaos of Covid cancellations, while many other cottage companies outright refused.
And in our most recent survey, it was one of just three companies to get five-star ratings across the board, including for accommodation quality, cleanliness, customer service and value for money. It’s consistency like this that has allowed us to recommend National Trust cottages for nearly 50 years.
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Inghams
First recommended: 1976Current customer score: 81%The ‘man who took Britain skiing’, Walter Ingham, advertised his first Christmas Party Ski Holiday to Austria in the Daily Telegraph in 1934. It was a roaring success, not least because Walter realised that by taking a party of 15, he could get a free rail ticket and hotel room for himself.
Further ski holidays followed, and the company soon expanded into summer walking holidays across Europe. Walter organised transport, food, accommodation, equipment hire and instruction, and in doing so was a pioneer not just of the ski holiday, but also the package holiday. Nearly 90 years later, Inghams still offers holidays in the great outdoors to Austria, France, Italy, Switzerland, Slovenia and Andorra.
The firm appeared in our first tour operator table in the launch issue of Which? Travel in 1974 and was recommended as ‘significantly better than average’ just two years later. It mostly remained in the top half of our table in the subsequent decades, but it wasn’t until 2019 that Inghams finally met our WRP criteria.
It retains that status today for its lake and mountain ‘stay and walk’ resort holidays. Surrounded by stunning scenery, travellers can choose to walk, cycle, or just relax and see the sights. There’s no set itinerary, but many resorts offer optional small-group hikes, led by a professional guide. Customers rated the accommodation, customer service and organisation of these holidays as five-stars, and were particularly impressed with the in-resort reps.
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Kuoni
First recommended: 1983Current customer score: 84%A truly pioneering company, Kuoni had been selling holidays in Switzerland for nearly 60 years by the time it set up shop on London’s Bond Street in 1965. Not content with introducing the UK’s first charter flight when it took visitors to the Expo 1970 exhibition in Japan, it was also an early exponent of the computerised reservations system in 1980, and the first UK tour operator to offer online booking in 1999.
Kuoni first appeared on our pages in 1975, just a year after it had launched its first long haul tour operation. It reached the ‘first division’ of tour operators, as they were known then, in 1983 when it ‘did not have one dissatisfied customer’ in our survey.
In the 90s it was consistently one of the best performers for long-haul holidays, and today it tops our table of family holiday providers and shares the pole position for beach/resort holidays with Jet2 Holidays.
Superb customer service is what sets Kuoni apart. Customers consistently tell us that its agents really listen to what you want, and do everything they can to tailor-make your perfect trip. Years of laudatory reviews from readers suggest it’s the best option for long-haul luxury.
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Brittany Ferries Holidays
First recommended: 1989Current customer score: 81%How many successful travel companies can claim to have been founded by, and are still owned by, a group of cauliflower farmers? Probably just this one.
With Britain’s entry into the common market in 1973, Breton farming families saw an opportunity for easy access to UK consumers and jointly purchased their own freighter. They soon realised that as well as transporting fresh produce north, they could also bring British tourists south to St Malo and Roscoff, thereby creating the company we know today.
It wasn’t long before it began offering ferry-inclusive package holidays to France and Spain. And throughout the 80s and 90s, it was a regular presence in the top half of Which? Travel’s tour operator table. In 1989 it was lauded as the very best choice for holidays to Spain.
But as the popularity of flight-inclusive packages rose, so the number of survey respondents reporting on ferry packages dwindled, and Brittany Ferries disappeared from our survey. However, last year, as the company passed its own 50-year milestone, it reappeared as a WRP in our assessment of holiday lets abroad.
Brittany Ferries’ properties are all near the company’s ports of call in France and northern Spain. You can choose from rustic cottages and chalets to villas with pools and family-friendly apartment complexes. Not only do these packages allow you to take your own car (sailing from Portsmouth, Poole and Plymouth), they also offer great value for money. Customers told us they paid just £44pp a night on average including the ferry crossing and great quality accommodation.
Sunvil
First recommended: 1997Current customer score: 83%Family-owned Sunvil began life as a property company, selling villas and apartments in Cyprus. But in 1973 it hit upon the idea of organising self-catering holidays so that buyers not only got a holiday home, but also a guaranteed income. The success of this venture helped establish the self-catering villa market in Cyprus, and the company soon expanded to holidays in Greece.
In 1976 Sunvil also became a founder member of the Association of Independent Tour Operators (Aito) – a group of specialist UK travel companies that monitors and maintains high standards of customer care across the industry.
We’ve not always received enough reports of holidays from readers to include Sunvil in our surveys, but it did regularly appear in the late 90s and 2000s as one of the top operators for Greece and for beach breaks. And today, still fiercely independent, it’s a WRP in our new small/independent holiday companies category.
Readers are particularly impressed by its accommodation, organisation and customer service – all rated four stars. And while it’s still a big player in Greece (featuring 61 Greek islands in its 2024 portfolio), Sunvil has expanded across Spain, Italy, Portugal and even Latin America. It says its aim is to introduce guests to the ‘real country’, favouring lesser-known destinations where travellers stay among the locals.
source https://www.which.co.uk/news/article/which-holiday-companies-a9FbJ2u2WOeV