To want my holiday admin fee waived?

[NecesitoDormir]

I am so angry right now. I booked and paid, in full, for a family holiday in April. At the time of booking the resort was getting 5* reviews and had lots of positive feedback. Since booking the hotel services have gone downhill, to the extent that armed security now patrols the pool area to stop fights from breaking out between the local customers and holiday makers. Issues that have been reported are:

1. The pool being used as a toilet for both wee and poo.
2. Buffet queues being jumped with children being pushed over.
3. Fights breaking out between locals and holiday makers about sun loungers and access to services.

I am not happy with having my DCs in such an environment and have changed my booking. I contacted the company arguing that as far as I am concerned this is definitely not a 5* resort and I would hope that they could therefore waive the admin charge of £200 to change us. Basically they have got back to me and told me its tough luck. They are denying any issues at the hotel and are still marketing it at the same rating.

AIBU to want this charge waived? DH thinks just leave it but I am so angry to be using our spending money on admin fees when its clearly not the holiday I booked. I wouldn’t mind if this was just a one off but I keep reading more and more reviews from holiday makers who are all suffering the same and feel angry that the problems are persisting and that this company are not dealing with it.

Well op now it's plastered all over MN, things have a habit of 'taking off'

They might go bust between now and Xmas? Not helped by MN identifyin them. Would you be put of pocket then ??

Why did you book it? It had really bad press as far back as a year ago. Findable in a few keystrokes. Sorry, DM link.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2358688/Holiday-hell-Britons-stage-sit-luxury-resort-rowdy-locals-super-cheap-deals-use-pool-toilet-urinate-sun-loungers-steal-food.html

I do feel for you, but I think you should just be glad that you are not actually staying there.

I don't think any of the DR hotels have good reviews. Pay mega budget prices and manage expectations and you'll probably have a nice holiday. If you are paying quite a lot then it won't live up to expectations.

If these problems existed before you booked(and it looks like they did and were well documented) then I think YABU.

We were meant to go there 2 years ago and I changed my booking for the same reasons. Lots of the reviews are good but quite a few do mention the resort being overrun with local people at the weekend. We were going at Easter so when I checked the previous year and Easter seemed like a particularly bad time because of the bank holidays so I paid the 50 pp and booked somewhere else. I didn't realize it was advertised as 5 star resort though.

OP you've been unlucky, but you're now forewarned. I don't know how much you spent on your holiday but £200 may be the price you have to pay to move to somewhere you feel comfortable with.

That's what we did. We went to Samana which is still in the Dominican Republic instead. It was beautiful.

We've transferred to Samana instead. It looks like I should be pleased that it's only cost me £200 rather than a ruined holiday.

I'm just annoyed they are advertising it as something it's not.

Can't reply in detail at the moment as I'm on my phone.

Hersetta We booked and paid in full as we had the money available and just wanted to forget about our booking.

EarthwindFire At the time of booking these issues were not as visible as they are now. The Thomson website used to link to the trip advisor site for its reviews but it was linking only to the good ones so had filtered the results. I have queried this with them as I had not realised. It feels like they purposefully mislead customers. That is my fault for not checking that they had done so. Incidentally the website no longer carries the Trip Advisor ratings for this hotel whereas others in the search criteria do come up so it leads me to believe they are still misleading potential customers.

Coconutty Exactly, It is booked with the same company so I would have thought that as a goodwill gesture they could waive the admin fee associated with it. I think that £50 admin per person is high anyway but that's an aside.

turbowithakick The company is not going to go bust based on one bad review. They have several bad reviews on trip advisor and it has not dented them in the slightest. I know people think MN has power but its not likely to bring down a company.

PrimalLass As soon as I noticed an increase in the bad reviews I googled the hotel and certain keywords. At that point I noticed that it has indeed got a history. I feel duped by Thomsons as this is obviously known and still not been addressed adequately. As such it shouldn't be advertised at the rating it is until these issues have been appropriately addressed.

Santaslittlemonkeybutler I have written directly to the CEO. I was fobbed off with a standard response. In which none of my concerns were addressed. I have re-written to them asking for a detailed response to my queries. I hope they are more detailed this time.

Whois We have travelled extensively and I agree that generally you get what you pay for. I am happy to ignore lots of minor complaints but these are more serious. We have also been referred to the DR by friends who suggested that despite it's poverty it is actually a beautiful country. I was hoping to experience that. It may not be tens of thousands of pounds but it was expensive and irrespective it should be what it advertised.

Thanks all for taking the time to respond. I think I will chalk it up to experience this time but I will certainly be much more cautious when booking with Thomson in the future. It is a shame as we regularly book with them and I feel that they have broken this customers trust in them. :(

Who did you book with?

I'd find out the name of the CEO and his number - cut and paste some of the reviews and then fax them directly to him, asking him if he would be happy to stay there. (I certainly wouldn't be). You're not asking for a refund only to change your holiday.

It was booked with Thomson. I have today sent my second letter to the CEO. I might go down the faxing route if I do not get an adequate response this time. The last reply was worse than useless.

I went here back in 2001 or 2002. I've told the story on here before about how bad it was at the weekends when the locals came in (the woman with a handbag full of bacon, the chef chasing a woman with a machete in his hand) although we were told it was a result of a radio competition, not a regular thing. Back then the hotel was brand new - the Bachata had only just been built and the other two were only a couple of years old. The hotel itself was lovely, great rooms, good food and entertainment but the weekend situation was diabolical. It didn't help that 'regular' guests seemed to fall ill as soon as the locals left - I got an ear infection and DH (who never gets ill) had a bad case of the 'tourists'

I loved the Dom Rep especially the diving. We had always said we would love to take DD, but as great as we usually find Riu hotels, this complex was dire.

You've done the right thing cancelling I think, and I agree that the admin fee is a disgrace. Thomson are pretty shit at the moment. One of our fave hotels has just refused to take any more Thomson and First Choice guests as the companies constantly delayed paying their bills. Maybe there is trouble ahead?

Is it the www.riu.com/en/Paises/dominican-republic/puerto-plata/clubhotel-riu-merengue/

Overall reviews quite good

EveDallas I am looking forward to diving there. We have stayed at a Riu before and had no issues. Its a shame that this continues, all this time later, to suffer from the same issues. I am glad that I have changed and that we could afford to do so. DH is correct that I should chalk it up to one of those things.

Daffy It seems that without the 'local' (and I hate that word and all the connotations that come with it) issues the resort is fine. If you are unlucky enough to experience those issues it appears terrible.

I had a lovely time there in 2005, it was recommended to us and we just had a fantastic holiday.
It's sad whats become of it now.

To all those saying 'email the CEO', all you are doing is adding time to your complaint being received by the complaints team and being treated. CEOs of large companies do not deal with complaints themselves - they have internal policies in place that they must follow.

OP, I'm glad you decided to switch to a different hotel and have peace of mind. However, if you are right about the Travel agent filtering TA reviews and only linking to good reviews, this could well be a case of false and misleading advertising. I would think that money columnists from national newspapers (eg Sunday Times' A question of money) would be interested in that.

Necesito , if the hotel you have changed to in Samana is the Bahia Principe El Portillo, you should have no problems. As ChickenF says, it is a beautiful unspoilt area. We have stayed twice at El P, once as a couple and once with all our family and would happily have taken the Grandkids there this summer had not Thomson changed the airport and we did not want to subject the kids to a four hour transfer.

I admit I was worried last year having read those reviews, but there was no problem at all, probably because the hotel is a long way from the urban areas from where the locals 'pour in' at weekends during school holidays.

FYI thomson has a number of Twitter handles. The one that seems to respond is @thomsoncares. We booked with them for the first time this year and I haven't been impressed so far.

It is terrible i would never gi but not much i know what tidk about it

TrickyDecision Yes we have moved to Samana. It was our original choice but the 4hr transfers put us off. I will just pack more snacks and gear the kids up for an adventure when we disembark.

MinkyWinky I will tweet them if they don't address the letter satisfactorily this time.

Coconutty The new holiday was slightly more (£22). We paid the difference and have no qualms doing so. It's just the admin fees nonsense that I disagree with. I agree that usually the CEO deals with things but despite waiting over 14 days for a response I was eventually called by someone who denies all issues surrounding the hotel and states that there has never been a problem.

Primafacie I did speak to someone on customer services who told me that despite agreeing with my complaint she was helpless to do anything about it. I think she might have even been a Mumsnetter based on a response she gave when I asked her outright if I was being unreasonable!