Hotel staff from Europe's top holiday destinations have been revealing what they really think of international holidaymakers, and Brits abroad get a big thumbs up.

British holidaymakers came out on top as the world's friendliest guests in the survey, conducted by beach holiday specialist On the Beach.  More than a third (35%) of hotel staff named them the friendliest of all international guests, with Irish (27%) and Swedish holidaymakers (10%) taking second and third places.

It seems travellers from France and the USA make something of a colder impression on their trips to the sun – the nations were named the least friendly guests, according to hotel staff.

To tip or not to tip

The survey also revealed the most and least generous tourists.  Whilst hotel staff work hard to ensure we enjoy our holidays, helping attend to our every need whilst we have fun in the sun, not all holidaymakers are happy to tip hard-working staff. 

Perhaps surprisingly, the survey revealed British holidaymakers to be the most generous guests, with 27% of international hotel staff naming Brits as the most likely to tip staff during their stay.

Holidaymakers from Germany and the USA, a nation well-versed in the art of tipping, grabbed joint second place with 19% of votes, followed by the Irish (13%) and Norwegians (8%).

Hotel staff named holidaymakers from France the least generous, along with guests from Denmark, Finland and Italy.

Parlez-vous anglais?

The survey also revealed that, contrary to popular belief, British holidaymakers do try to speak the local language whilst on holiday. More than one in five hotel staff (22%), named Brits – out of all nations - as the guests who make the most effort to embrace the local lingo during their stint in the sun.

According to hotel staff, only holidaymakers from Germany make more of an effort (23%), whilst those from Ireland (8%), Italy (6%) and France (5%) don't bother trying to speak the local language.

Not all good news for Brits abroad

Whilst British holidaymakers are considered the friendliest and most generous, it's not all good news.  According to hotel staff, British kids are the unruliest, with only 4% of staff naming them the best behaved.

Children from Germany were named the most well-behaved, with 37% of the vote.  According to the survey, kids from many other parts of the world are also better behaved than their British counterparts, with little ones from Sweden (26%) and Norway (9%), grabbing second and third places respectively.

Boozy Brits were also named the biggest holiday drinkers, gaining a whopping 64% of the vote, well ahead of the Irish, who came in second place with 17%.

Whilst Germany is considered one of the beer capitals of the world, the survey revealed that during their holiday, Germans tend not to hit the bars as much as their British counterparts, with only 6% of hotel staff naming them the biggest drinkers. Russians (5%) and holidaymakers from Scandinavia also appear to have greater control on holiday when it comes to alcohol, with just 1% of the vote.

Fun-loving Brits were also named the greediest guests, with 22% of staff saying British holidaymakers eat more during their stay than any other nation, just ahead of Spanish guests who came in with 18% of the votes.

Brits abroad were also named the noisiest guests (44%), ahead of Spanish customers (33%), and the messiest holidaymakers, least likely to maintain a tidy hotel room.  German holidaymakers were considered the cleanest guests (42%), followed by those from Sweden (18%) and Norway (8%).

And the overall winner is…

Despite lagging behind in some categories, British holidaymakers came out on top to be crowned hotel staff's overall favourite holiday guests, taking a third of the vote (33%), ahead of Germans (17%), Irish (13%) and Swedes (8%).

Alan Harding, Marketing Director at On the Beach comments:

“Whilst we Brits enjoy letting our hair down during our well-earned holidays, we are incredibly popular guests amongst international hotel staff."

“We're a fun-loving, friendly and generous bunch, and it's heartening to see that Britons make such a positive impression on our travels abroad.”     

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For further information, please contact Jamie Wortley at:  jamie@jpwcommunications.com, or call 07877 589910

About On the Beach

Founded in 2004 and listed on the London Stock Exchange in 2015, On the Beach is the UK's leading beach holiday specialist.  With more than 60 million website visitors this year, over 1.5 million customers found, booked and enjoyed their perfect On the Beach holiday. Book online at www.onthebeach.co.uk, or by calling the UK call centre on 0871 474 3000.