I’m in holiday hell is it even worth complaining to TUI?

[Thisisnotaholiday]

We are currently on holiday at a H10 hotel in Spain booked via TUI. It has been the holiday from hell and we are counting down the days until we can go home. We paid 5.5k for a weeks all inclusive at a 4 star hotel for me, DH, and DC who are 14 and 16. We saved up
for this holiday, read all the trip advisor reviews (rated 4.5 out of 5) and were looking forward to it after an incredibly stressful few months but it’s been the worst holiday ever.

We booked it as a family of 4 under one booking but when we arrived were told we’d be in 2 separate rooms, both on opposite sides of the hotel. We explained at reception we needed adjoining rooms or rooms at least near each other. We were told no. We did consider one adult sharing with 1 of the DC but both rooms only had double beds and what teenager wants to sleep with their parent. And why should they? Eventually reception said if we paid 200 euros we could have 2 rooms on the same corridor which we felt forced to do. I was not comfortable leaving my 14 and 16 year old in a foreign hotel room miles away from me.

DH and I were given a room overlooking the service entrance which means we are woken at 5am every morning by delivery trucks. At 7 am the sewage truck arrives and they spend hours pumping shit into the truck. The noise is horrendous and obviously from 5am we get no sleep. Can’t sit on balcony as view is of delivery trucks all day. Complained at reception and told TUIs contract with the hotel is for the worst located rooms and people booking through TUI are put in the non refurbished rooms. A reminder this is meant to be a 4 star beach hotel and we paid thousands to stay there.

The hotel is about 50% German and 50% Italian. We are the only Brits here it seems who booked via TUI. As a result there is no TUI rep here and we were told the rep is at another hotel about 30 minutes away. We walked there to find the German rep who was horrified and said she’d talk to the hotel. The outcome was that they could move our DC next to us but we said no as their room is on the opposite side of the hotel away from the service entrance we face and I didn’t want them being woke up from 5am too.

I could go on with the other horrendous things that have happened but would be here all day. Is it even worth complaining to TUI, will they even care? It seems like TUI have a shit contract with this hotel where the very few guests they send there way have the worst rooms but still paying expensive prices.

Of course it was. All the posters castigating her for racism! 🤦🏼‍♀️

Definitely luck of the draw, although the 5am sewage thing is particularly bad luck. But I'm sure lots of us have booked the street view room only to find we're over the bins, or the housekeeping trollies are wheeled along cobbles right outside our window first thing etc. Difficult for a hotel to fully hide all that goes into running them.

Really felt for the couple at our last holiday who paid for the pool view but were literally next door to the bar, so there was zero privacy for them sitting on their terrace playing a game of cards.

It's the nature of big hotels that some rooms will be better than others.

@JenniferBarkley
indeed

we got the shit room at a premier inn earlier this year, just next to a colossal extractor fan that was switched on when the kitchens opened at 5am.

to be fair to premier inn, I complained and got all my money back.

It would be worth finding out if you can also upgrade your room as this would solve the 5am wake-ups.

I’m afraid I don’t get the concern with a 14 and 16 year old being further away in the hotel or the rep not being at the hotel. You have phones - you don’t need to see them in person.

Finally is there no vegetarian food at all - this seems unusual.

that’s what I thought

but not sure it follows these days. Place we went to portugal to with Jet 2 had quite a lot of British families yet no rep within miles. The contact number given was in the UK! We didn’t have any complaints but learnt on the way home that only the busiest hotels have a actual rep service

I’m afraid I don’t get the concern with a 14 and 16 year old being further away in the hotel or the rep not being at the hotel. You have phones - you don’t need to see them in person.

neither do I. Obvs not for younger kids but then you get family rooms for them. There’s a point when you are happy for kids to have their own room surely. Ideally it’s close by but if the hotel is full then it’s difficult.

I don’t understand why people feel the need to have a UK rep permanently stationed at the hotel.

’Abroad’ isn’t that scary

It's a bit of a working class thing I think, same with AI generally- a bubble of familiarity whilst abroad.

Even in the days before mobiles, wi-fi and whatsapp the tour operators wouldn't have a rep permanently stationed in a hotel. Tour operators would have a rota and there would be a notice in reception that the TUI (or Thomson as it was) would be there 9-11 on a Monday and 2-4 on a Wednesday or whatever.

The last two years we have been away with Jet2 and apart from the reps in the airport directing you to transport we never saw any company representative in the hotel at all. If you wanted help, you used the app to contact staff in the UK, or there was a WhatsApp number to contact local staff. It really shouldn't be an expectation to see a rep in person every day.

It’s nothing to do with class. Mumsnet has to make everything about class. 🤦🏼‍♀️

I like to have a rep at the hotel if possible as I have chronic multiple disabilities, as does Ds, and if either of us were to have issues it’s very helpful to have someone who works for the company we booked with, who speaks both languages fluently (usually) who knows the health services in the area and can help us. That’s one of the reasons a lot of people like a rep at the resort.

I don't comprehend why anyone books a package holiday. You can get better choices, better prices, better standards by doing it yourself. If you can use the Internet to post on mumsnet surely that person can book an hotel/villa overseas, book their flights/ferry and sort out a transfer.

Maybe, but op is there now... She can't exactly book a ticket on the wayback machine.

I have worked as a rep for another company - always take photos, always keep a log of who and when you spoke to hotel staff or reps and use social media as a way of making them listen. I'm sure they have FB and Insta so I would go dow that route especially if you have exhausted all other avenues. Good luck !

Better consumer protection, transfers included (thus no need to hire a car or figure out car seats in a taxi), decent baggage allowance, tours will be of a reasonable quality, and very often cheaper than booking the same holiday yourself.

We've done both over the years, and had great holidays both ways. These days with small DC it'll be a package every time for the logistical ease.

Totally agree with the protection - we have done both methods of booking independently and organising a package and package is the lower risk option. Especially in 2021/2022 when there were still covid restrictions. Did you miss the news about Easyjet cancelling loads of flights earlier in July? If you've booked all elements of your holiday separately and the flights are cancelled then you get the flight money back but not the accommodation, car hire, trips and excursions you've pre-paid.

As per usual on MN the "I don't understand" really means "I sneer and disapprove".

Yup, pretty sure that with the recent Greek wildfires, those on packages were able to cancel for a refund as their accommodation was unavailable, but those who were flights only weren't able to do so as the flights were still running.

I wonder if part of the problem stems from your insistence that you had rooms close to the teenagers? Tui may argue that the rooms originally allocated to both you and your teenagers were not over the service entrance and that you chose to make the swop?

The lack of any vegetarian food is unacceptable however!

So they don’t have to walk 30mins in order to be able to put in a formal complaint?

If the TUI complaint escalation route is hotel -> Rep -> head office, she needs to follow the steps or as people have said upthread, she risks the complaint being dismissed because she didn’t raise it locally.

@JenniferBarkley did you miss the email about the shambolic TUI communication. It is possible.to insure against such losses. In my experience, airlines are usually very supportive to individual travellers - they can find a space for small numbers of people or more easily suggest an alternative connection. "There isn't space on the flight to Nice until Wednesday but I can get you on a flight to Marseille leaving in 90 mins and it's an easy train journey from Marseille to Nice." For example.

One thing the Rhodes issue brought into focus for me was hire a car. It gets you further from danger faster and provides some overnight shelter and somewhere for your buggy/belongings.

I think the Op was making the point about there not being a rep as there wasn’t enough British clientele to make it worthwhile. Not that there was anything wrong with other the nationalities.

It depe ds I suppose on your confidence and familiarity with a country and language.

To me Spain is very easy so I would never think of booking a package deal there.

To be fair I have only been
on one package holiday - Kos when I was in my early twenties and I suspect that was at tbe cheap and cheerful end of the market. We worked out quickly rhat most of the "excursions" could be done cheaper using local public transport and being dependent on a third party for flight times and transfers pissed me off so I have never booked one since.

Every chance you're missing out. We picked a hotel in Sorrento and it was miles cheaper on a package even before considering transfers. Always worth checking.

Maybe. But often the hotel is not the key thing about a holiday for us. Clean and basic is usually fine.

@RosesAndHellebores

You are really comparing booking flights hotels transfers separately to writing on Mumsnet.