Cancelled holiday due to lack of internet

[Rainingcatsandog]

We were due to go to the Highlands today for a week. The holiday company informed us that the internet isn't working due to a general issue on the area and they don't know when it will be fixed. I was offered £75 off or the chance to change the date .I took the latter.
I'm now feeling annoyed as I think we should have been offered a full refund.
Does anyone know my rights?

Do you find a lot of your time is spent being unable to speak?

Unless you are new to earth how can you not know that being able to use the Internet is something millions of us want to be able to do on holiday for whatever reason we choose

It’s perfectly possible to manage without lots of things that make life much easier and pleasant. It’s all well and good to research things before you go but then the weather changes, or you fancy doing something different, or you want to check opening times, or travel times to where you’re going. There are a million useful things done on the internet daily, many of which don’t involve doom scrolling, which might also be a legitimate choice on holiday.

I’d not trust there would be reliable phone reception either, having been caught out before.

But you could prepare for all of this in advance if you knew there would be no internet. Download media instead of streaming it, look up attractions before you leave, print off the weather forecast and directions...

And surely, at some point, you'd be going to a pub? Use that as an opportunity to re-check the weather and download more media if you need to.

We use the internet on holiday, but only because it is convenient. Not having it wouldn't be a deal breaker, especially if we knew in advance. We mostly use it to stream background music for when we're sitting on the deck in the evening, chatting, etc. Downloading a couple of playlists would work equally as well.

I saw 'Cancelled holiday due to....'

and clicked on the thread, fully expecting it to say 'having no cat sitter and my arsey neighbour won't help.'

😂

I’d use mobile if WiFi wasn’t available

The whole village and surrounding areas have no internet either

But what about the phone signal? That is the important bit of information. If phone data is still available the problem goes away.

I was thinking more that a more populated area would have a better 4/5 G signal than using the pub's Wi-Fi.

I don't know about the mainland but a lot of work was done to bring 4/5G phone coverage to the east coast of Harris.

Huge internet outage due to a storm unfortunately and given how widespread it is most places are looking into early next week before normal service resumes.

You need to get a grip of yourself if you’re cancelling a holiday due to the lack of internet. You barely get a service in the highlands anyway

And no 4/5g signal?

Surprised at so many suggesting phone as alternative. IME fast internet is much more prevalent than decent mobile signal.

We used to stay in a cottage we loved for the location, but the owner didn't provide broadband, and after a couple of stays, we decided to leave it, especially after lockdown when we had to book online for certain things and we didn't want to have to do all that before going. Now things have settled down a bit post covid, some attractions like zoos etc still encourage online booking and its cheaper to do it, so I think internet is needed more than it was 10 years ago. If its a problem affecting the entire village, I'd just move the date forward.

I suspect most of the “shock” expressed thus far is entirely fake.

it just makes some posters feel important, as if the internet is only for the terminally stupid underclass, to dismiss an entirely normal, broad activity as sad doom scrolling.

It’s ridiculous virtue signalling.

I agree. However where I live no internet means no tv, no security cameras and there’s no landline. We don’t Airbnb it but it would certainly be a different holiday.

Wow! I wouldn’t cancel. Our summer cottage in Finland doesn’t have electricity, water closet or hot water. Only cold water comes. Dc got their phones in the start of secondary so they were used to have no phones there. Now they are teens and are ok to leave their phones home because they can’t charge them there. Two weeks off line a year. I have battery packs so can charge my phone if we need to look or book something.

I don’t, particularly. Easy enough to do it day by day, especially if you are somewhere with variable weather.

And even if you have a guidebook to the place, opening times might be out of date, or you have a guidebook to Devon but pop over the border to Cornwall (or whatever) and want to find a cafe or a sight to see.

Or you are doing a drive around the Isle of Skye and look up a cafe to go to before you leave for your hols, but the road is closed and you are looking for other options for lunch on the new route.

Quite why many posters have assumed OP wants the internet for doomscrolling and social media, I don’t know. And downloading films to an external hard drive is a pain (and requires whatever TV is at the location to plug into that hard drive, if the family are all going to watch something)

On a post a while back posters were absolutely adamant that school staff with safeguarding roles MUST be checking their emails during the holidays! They certainly shouldn’t be allowed to go somewhere with no internet!
My children (when they were at school) always had homework to complete during the holidays and genuinely needed the internet. One time we discovered we’d accidentally booked somewhere with not only no WiFi but no cellphone coverage at all - we had to find an internet cafe at first and then a really nice family friendly pub with free WiFi.

Why are people coming up with all kinds of alternatives that would involve you having to plan exactly what you would be in the mood to watch and read in advance, and maybe spend money on a new hard drive?

If they told you that the water was off and wouldn't be available, you could equally 'just' take a bootful of bottled water with you; or if the electricity was going to be out, you could 'just' pack some candles; or if the toilet was going to be blocked and unusable, you could 'just' take a bucket with you.

The internet is nowadays considered an essential utility for the majority of people. Yes, you can manage without it, but why would people want to have to rough it on holiday more than they do at home?

I agree with PP: there are people on this thread who are actively choosing to spend their spare time on a frivolous chat with strangers that requires the internet to do so - berating OP for being so bothered about having access to the internet!!

The majority of TVs have Bluetooth now. I can stream data from my phone to both of the DDs TVs from a different part of the house, and I absolutely do not know this is possible because I occasionally amuse myself by sending gross earwax videos to their TVs while they're watching a movie.

You can also buy a mini usbC to HDMI cable for a few quid on Amazon.

And you choose that, which is fine. We used to holiday in landmark trust properties which deliberately have no TVs when the kids were small. But we certainly look for Netflix now they are teens, as most likely activity of an evening is picking a film to watch together.

WiFi wouldn't bother me but no phone signal would be a show stopper.

I was in the Highlands last week and coped fine with not WiFi but I did have to use my phone as a hotspot to get more books downloaded onto my Kindle.

It’s not all about doom scrolling. I’d never go anywhere without the internet.

Eh? There are no properly functional fixed digital-enabled phonelines in the Highlands, unlike in the rest of the UK?

Yes that's what we have done .