But what if something does ruin your trip? Would you know what to do?  Your complaint could be about anything from bad service, cancelled flights, or perhaps a hotel which wasn't as the brochure promised.

Michelle, a student at City University London, saw her holiday with friends get off to a bad start when the hotel didn't have their room ready and told them to expect a wait of five hours.  "They told us we could put our suitcases in another room, but we had just come and we wanted to settle down and go to the pool or around town."

Sean Tipton from the Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA) says that who you complain to depends on how you booked your holiday:

• If you booked a package holiday, you have a contract with your tour operator. If things go wrong, it is up to them to put it right. If there are any problems, complain to them and you may get compensation.
• If you booked it yourself, you will have to take up any issues with the individual place e.g. your hotel in Spain.  If they don't provide satisfactory assistance, you might have to go as far as taking them to a Spanish court.

A lot of young people go on cheap holidays, so often don't think they can expect too much.  However, it is important to remember that whatever you paid for it, your room has to be clean and safe.  So if you walk into a room and it's dirty or has wires showing, even if you only paid £99 it's not acceptable.

Generally you can trust what's in brochures, but bear in mind that they are trying to sell you a holiday and aren't going to show a hotel from its worst side on a rainy day.  If what you get bears no relation, complain there and then, and request to be moved.  If this isn't possible, take photos and videos.  If others are experiencing similar problems, get their names and addresses.  If you approach your holiday rep and they aren't helpful, all tour operators have an emergency number to reach their UK offices.

When faced with a problem, some people will grin and bear it and put off complaining until they get back to the UK with the intention of suing the travel company.  This is a bad idea.

• You will have a terrible holiday
• You have a legal obligation to 'mitigate your loss' - if you don't give the holiday company a chance to sort it out, they might have been able to sort it out there and then, so you can't then later say you want your money back.

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Updated: 17/10/2011