The 143 most INFURIATING things that can happen when travelling revealed - from check-in blunders to the most grating train announcements

From annoying 'influencers' to ridiculous light switches and passengers who recline their seats just as you are about to tuck in, there's no shortage of holiday bugbears...

Last month, we asked readers and travel writers what bothers them – and received an avalanche of answers.

So, we've gathered them in one place – in the hope that the travel gods might take notice.

• People being surly to security staff when going through the metal detectors. They're only doing their jobs (try saying 'thank you', they usually look astonished).
• Only a fraction of available check-in desks being manned, despite queues snaking out of the airport.
• The endless duty-free labyrinth you have to negotiate after passing security.
• The fresh water tap being hidden by the loos at the far end of the terminals, meaning you give up and buy a bottle of water.
• Check-in staff with no affiliation to the airline you're flying with. They seldom seem to care.
• People still unaware of the 100ml liquids rule when going through security (a restriction introduced in 2006).
• Passengers who hold up the security queue by not taking their coats off, emptying pockets, getting iPads and laptops out of their bags in advance.
• Not enough people working at passport control, when the authorities must know ten long-haul flights have just landed.

• Being kettled on draughty (or baking) stairwells, especially when you've paid for priority boarding.
• People who put bags up in the first overhead lockers when boarding, even though their seats are at the back of the plane.
• Passengers who don't get out their boarding pass until they're at the boarding gate.
• Being severely delayed on the runway, with literally nowhere to go and few announcements.
• Lengthy walks to departure gates and then finding yourself miles from food outlets/shops when delays are announced.

• Pushing back seats on long-haul flights while meals are served. Being woken up loudly to ask if you'd like breakfast, when you're clearly fast asleep.
• Freezing air-conditioning on planes that cabin crew say they can't turn down because it's faulty.
• Standing up as soon as the plane cuts its engines – exiting row by row during Covid was far quicker and less stressful.
• Cabin crew who look peeved when you press the call button to ask for a cup of tea or anything (scrap the buttons if they're not to be used).
• Being asked by cabin crew: 'How was your flight?' The late Duke of Edinburgh's response got it in one: 'Well you know how it goes up in the air, then goes along and then comes down again? Well it was just like that.'
• Pilot announcements, made at 20,000ft or so, stating that the plane will be landing 'momentarily' – one hopes not.
• Muffled announcements – yet when cabin staff announce duty-free offers you're deafened.
• Pilots who go all silent when the plane is being buffeted by turbulence.

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• Receptionists who turn the other way and answer the phone, rather than deal with the nuisance standing in front of them.
• Check-ins that require adding your name, number and email (usually already taken online).
• Being asked at check-in: 'How's your day been so far?' – when the dog has just been run over and your partner has eloped with the local estate agent. Loud and repetitive muzak.
• Display cases selling expensive, gaudy jewellery – lobbies are not shops.
• Hotel staff who can't advise on public transport, but they're not short of an expensive taxi firm recommendation or two.
• Late check-ins (after 4pm) and early check-outs (before 10am).
• Key cards that don't work, meaning you have to walk all the way back to reception to resolve the problem.
• Waiting ages in the hotel lobby as there clearly aren't enough lifts.
• Security staff who behave like nightclub bouncers.
• Valet parking teams acting like gangs and expecting big tips.

• Ghastly hotel marketing videos on the TV when you enter the room.
• TV messages that say: 'Welcome to your home in New York/Riga/Macclesfield' or wherever – the point is that it's not your home.
• Windows that don't open.
• Anti-theft coat hangers. Not enough hangers or space to put clothes (as if we all want to live out of a suitcase).
• Cupboards with low rails meaning your clothes drag where previous occupants have left their smelly shoes.
• When you're only given one proper chair.
• Hotels that don't offer twin-bedded rooms – so you have to share a double room with your friend.
• Ghastly tea and coffee trays with awful little sachets of sugar, milk and biscuits.
• Hotels that boast a beautiful location... and your view is of the car park.
• Smart hotels that line up posh cars on the forecourt - and quickly point drivers of lesser vehicles to the car park round the back.
• Rose petals on beds.
• Expensive hotels that don't have shoehorns in rooms.
• No flowers – a vase of seasonal or wildflowers makes all the difference.
• Lack of a master light switch by the bed, requiring traipsing round and working out where all the others are.
• No bedside reading lamp.
• Flashing lights on smoke detectors above your bed.

• Bottles of shampoo, shower gel and conditioner with writing so small that you can't tell which is which.
• Tiny hotel bathmats. Nowhere to put your washbag beside the basin.
• Bathrooms designed by men – i.e. the make-up mirror is too high up.
• Hairdryers that are put away each day by housekeeping rather than left where you want them.
• Unfathomable shower controls.
• Small bathrobes suitable only for munchkins – so embarrassing.
• Shower gels/shampoos/conditioners attached to walls in containers that don't squeeze out properly.
• Only one bar of soap in the bathroom of a 'luxury' hotel, that requires you to carry it from basin to bath to shower.
• That dreaded call of 'housekeeping!' just as you're about to step into the bath.
• Cold towel rails.

• Having to sign in with your email or date of birth for access to wi-fi – all for marketing purposes.
• Wi-fi codes that are neither offered at reception nor obvious when you're in the room.
• Plugs for chargers that you can only reach by diving under a desk or the bed.
• Room keys that operate the electrics, meaning nothing will charge when you're out.
• Confusing tablets that operate the lights.
• TV controls so complicated only techy boffins can fathom them.

• 'Sharing plates', especially when preceded by 'can we just explain the concept?'
• Leaving the tip field blank when a 12.5 per cent service charge has already been added.
• The question: 'Still or sparkling?' with no mention of good old tap water.
• Photographing every dish that's put before you because you're an 'influencer'.
• Minuscule portions at restaurants: surely 'nouvelle cuisine' went out of fashion years ago?
• Menus only available via 'QR' codes, not printed.
• Being rushed to give a restaurant order, then waiting ages when you ask for a little more time.
• Best tables in restaurants marked 'reserved', which are still unoccupied while you dine.
• Adults who play with, or allow their children to play with, buffet food.
• When waiters tell you the 'specials' but don't mention the cost.
• Young children being allowed to play with tablets at the dinner table. Restaurants that badger you to give them Tripadvisor reviews and ratings.

• That horrible napkin placed over a loaf of bread so that you can cut your own slice 'hygienically'.
• Infuriating conveyor-belt toasters that require at least three gos before they do the job.
• When 'breakfast included' is a mean 'continental' affair.
• Some hotels that, the night before, want to know when to expect you for breakfast.
• Having to pay extra for an espresso coffee or latte when staying at an expensive hotel.

• Hotels, particularly expensive ones, that charge for use of pools and gyms.
• Mini-bars where you only know the damage (£8 for a can of Coke) when checking out.
• Booking websites that don't make it clear whether breakfast is included or not (and how much it costs, if not).
• Local authority daily taxes that you weren't made aware of when booking.

• Car hire check-in: can nothing be done, with so much tech, to make this fast and straightforward... please?
• Rental car offices that are a bus ride away from the airport. Hard, unfriendly sells for extra insurance.
• Not being given a simple local paper map to get from the airport to the city centre.
• Cars that whiff of vomit and cigarettes.
• Having sometimes to produce your National Insurance number to hire a car in Scotland.
• Lack of a reasonably priced petrol station near airports for filling up on return.
• Charges for minor scratches that have nothing to do with you – staff strangely seem much keener to check for such marks on return than on departure.

• Unnecessary consultation forms.
• Pushy employees trying to get you to buy expensive products (after your 'relaxing' treatment).
• 'Relaxation rooms' where you're on loungers jammed next to strangers.
• The requirement, sometimes, to traipse in robes in a strange Roman-style manner across hotel lobbies to reach the spa.
• Being expected to add a tip on top of the service charge when signing for treatments.

• Those who pose incessantly for selfies at historic sites.
• Tour guides with too much to say – most could lose 75 per cent of the wibble.
• Being replied to in English, after you address someone in their language (this is rude).
• Every resort in the world in possession of a beach and a couple of palm trees referring to itself as 'paradise'.
• The way, in France and Italy and elsewhere, they won't fill your glass with beer to the brim.
• Not being able to get an ice cream during the interval of a show at any Broadway theatre.
• Specially designed Instagrammable settings such as heart-shaped gateways to a pier.
• Taxi drivers who have a special rate just because you're staying somewhere swanky.
• People who reminisce about how a destination/hotel/experience was better back in 1985.

• Snoring in shared dorms.
• Receptions that are closed until check-in time.
• Punch codes required to enter, but no actual staff.
• No facility to leave your bag.
• Cheap pillows that feel like they are stuffed with cement.

• The dreadful tipping culture in the US.
• The expectation to give a tip when going to a bar on a cruise.

• Single supplement charges.
• Being given a rubbish room when travelling alone.
• When you're clearly dining alone and waiters ask 'is it just you?' – then they whip spare cutlery and glasses away with great ceremony.

• Train managers who say 'we're now open and offering a wide selection of sandwiches, crisps, cakes, hot and cold drinks, beer and wine' – yes, we know what cafes sell.
• 'See it. Say it. Sorted.'
• Station messages of the unhelpful 'the next service is not stopping' variety.
• Inaudible announcements, which make you anxious there's a delay you're not aware of and that you'll miss a connection.
• Paying for toilets at stations.
• Unbelievably expensive last-minute fares.
• Narrow seats – three seats where, really, only two can fit.
• People who embark on salon-level grooming opposite you on trains – hair straightening, nail-painting and so on.
• Not taking bags off neighbouring seats (on buses as well). Grimy train windows obscuring the views.
• People who eat crisps loudly near you.
• Anyone listening to music or watching films without headphones on.
• UK train staff who say they can't help as they're with a different franchise to the one you're travelling with.
• Railway stations where there are no porters and no bar.

• Being charged extra for a shuttle bus into the city you should be visiting, according to the itinerary, but the ship is docked in a port miles away.
• Onboard signage that disappears en route – so you get lost.
• Freezing air conditioning in dining rooms, requiring a 20-minute round trip to your cabin to pick up a pashmina/jumper.
• Buffets with no trays.
• Having to sign a 20-page waiver to use the waterslides.
• Non-stop music from loudspeakers on pool decks.
• Overpriced excursions.
• Excursions cancelled because a minimum number of participants has not been reached – even if only one person wants to go, the trip should go ahead.

• Finding, after a good trip, that you need to take a rail replacement bus to get back for the last part of your journey.