At the end of the day, one of the best ways to evaluate a travel company must be down to the way in which it deals with its disgruntled customers. You can investigate the Travel PR as much as you want, this will not tell you how good a company they really are until you travel with them and something goes wrong.
Having worked within and written on the travel industry for around 14 years, I would say I am in a good position to pass an informed opinion on this issue. For the most part, my overall opinion would be that the majority of travel companies have a deplorable track record when it comes to dealing with holiday complaints.
I have tended to find, over the last ten years or so, that as the demand for no frills holidays has grown, the average level of customer service has taken a massive nose-dive at the same time. Within the travel industry, never has it been more pertinent to state that you really do get what you pay for.
When this no frills travel novelty first came on the scene, I was one of the first people in the queue to test out these value packages. Personally, it took no time at all to fully appreciate that these types of packages were not for me. They lacked a basic level of acceptable service and were not even worth what I paid for them.
The lo-cost airlines should take the vast majority of the blame for the abundance of unacceptable holiday packages that exist today. For a better level of service and a holiday that most comes close to what you expect, you do have to pay a little more and steer clear of the terrible no frills packages.