re. Villa disaster

[Jewels234]

I know you lot will be able to sort this one.

DFiance and I booked a villa with 10 other friends. The place looked amazing on the photos, and we were really excited. We were all on separate flights, with the final 5 of us arriving at 12.30am tonight. We are a mixed group of singles and couples, with one girl having done all the leg work of arranging and booking (not me).

So, turns out the only beautiful parts of the villa are the bits shown in the photos. The rest of it is a dump. Most importantly, only 2 out of the 6 bedrooms are liveable in. The rest are horrendous. And by horrendous I mean scraps of foam on the floor with dirty, old sheets have been provided as 'beds'. The toilet doesn't flush. There are no doors between some of the bedrooms. There's no running water in one part of the place with one of the bathrooms (it's an annex which is separated so can't use the other bathrooms.) Doors don't lock, I don't feel safe. Two of the 'beds' are so bad that the two people supposed to be sleeping in them have gone to sleep on the sofas.

I'm so angry. Especially as the first people in bagged the only decent rooms, and are now staying v quiet about what to do.

All the local hotels are booked out. There's one, but it looks basic. So the options are:

1. WIBU to book into the local rubbish hotel with DFiance, and ask for our money back on the villa? It means that the others would have to stump up more money, but It also solves a problem for them in that there are two people who wouldn't have to sleep on sofas any more, so they would all at least get a 'bed'. They can then agree between themselves whether they rotate beds, or just charge people in the better rooms more. We could then join them for nights out.

1. Book a nice hotel further away (12km), as per the arrangement above; but don't really see the rest of the group again.

1. Suck it up. Laugh about it in a few months. Rotate beds each night so it's fair (but you end up sleeping on someone's sweaty sheets and having a night on a sofa)...

1. Or suck it up, and ask that the people who got the best rooms pay more for their stay. By better rooms I mean 2 rooms have king sized beds, en suites, lounge areas and are beautifully decorated. Compared to us sleeping on a fold out sheet of foam on the floor, with 4 to a tiny room, with a bathroom with no water.

I'm 29 but I feel like I'm in the Inbetweeners!

No way would I accept that. Get your money back if you can and go to the basic hotel - at least it will have a clean bed and a bathroom!

How horrible! Surely everyone is on board with making a complaint? If people won't rotate rooms then I think you are well within your rights to leave and find somewhere else. As for the payment that is tricky but there is no way you should be paying the full whack, it sounds vile.

I think you need to get together with the rest of the group and discuss all those options together.

I can't really blame the first ones there for taking the best rooms, so try to leave the emotions of that out of the equation - start from where you are now.

Get in touch with the agents/owners and demand that the entire group get provided with appropriate accommodation immediately. It could be worth contacting lawyers specialising in holiday claims. And take lots of photos as evidence.

1. You get in touch with the holiday company or person you booked with as a group and demand they refund or arrange alternative accommodation. It is not the responsibility of the rest of the group to refund your money how would you feel if one of the others demanded you pay up.

Take photos.
Email travel agent/villa management company/owner.

Did you get travel insurance/ATOL/ABTA?

it's a group problem and should really be a group solution. Dumping the others with a higher cost is not fair.
Did the person who did all the organising provide you with exact details of the property in advance - things like there being no doors between bedrooms should have been specified in the description. It's up to the travel co to sort it out if there is one, rather harder if it's owners direct sort of thing.

One for all etc! Complain whilst there- take pictures, write it all down. You all need to be in this together and not dump them in it by asking for money back from other guests - money back from villa!!

take pictures with the date on. put everything in writing and then call them. list what is wrong and what you want them to do. if there's no running water, then these sound like issues that are going to take more than a day to fix. So as a group you either need to agree to accept this - with the owner trying to put it right - or you have to ask for them to organise replacement accommodation.

Make it clear that if this isn't sorted by end of today (or whenever you think is acceptable) you will be claiming not only the accommodation costs, but the rest of your holiday costs, loss of enjoyment, loss of wages and anything else that your lawyer suggests. Hopefully you have booked this through an agent or someone in the UK?

we were in a place in wales that was dirty and the well know pemrokeshire letting agency took 3 days to put the things right. wasn't nearly as bad as yours so i feel for u

who was the villa booked through? was it a company or directly with the owner? If directly with the owner ask them to come out. take lots and lots of pictures and video. if its through a company send them the pictures. ask to be moved at their expense if possible but if not then ask for a refund. you wont get the full amount but decide what you think is reasonable. does the villa have a tripadvisor page. if it does make sure when this is all sorted you post your photos and warn others. was it really cheap? I would just suck it tbh and buy cheap sleeping bags and rotate the beds. not ideal but if you move out then the group holiday idea has kind of gone and it could affect future friendships.

Was this through something like owners direct? I think you should all get a refund - don't dump the others in it. Also the Times has an excellent Q&A travel help on Saturdays - look online. I would get the details from the editorial travel department today and get them involved too. Do you have travel insurance?.

i'm not convinced that travel insurance would cover this, unless it was taken out to specifically cover this type of eventuality.

if this was via an agency then i would be asking if they have alternative properties on their books they can move you to. get them to show them to your before you accept and make it clear that you will accept ones of a comparable or better standard/location only

1. You could book the alternative hotel, but can't ask for your share of the money back. How would you feel If one of the other couples did this and left you paying more for a shitty accom?
2. You could do this. Your friends might not think much of you though. As other posters have said, 'one for all'.

3.the most logical option, so long ad you are pursuing a complaint while you 'suck it up'.

1. I don't think you can renegotiate shares at this stage.

Why aren't you discussing how to make your complaint and finding a solution you are all happy with?

What a horrible start to your holiday. There is no way I would stay somewhere like this! I'm surprised that you haven't had a discussion as a group about what to do next though. Are the others happy to stay here?
I would move to the local hotel, and take lots of pictures before I did. Was it booked through 0wners Direct Op or something similar?

you can't expect your money back at the expense of the others there....thats VU and really mean of you. You should ALL be getting your money back.

Options 1, 2 or 4 are appalling, I could never suggest any of them. And I surprised you think they would meet you for nights out after you made any of them!

It's too hard to give the right advice without knowing how the villa was booked. Easier to resolve probably if an agent was involved, trickier if it was direct with the owner especially as you paid up front.

It's clearly been grossly misrepresented as you're fully entitled to expect the whole villa to live up to the standard depicted.

Definitely take lots of photographs of the conditions and try to find some recompense now rather than waiting until you return home.

I also agree that it's a group problem, not just individuals who're the dissatisfied guests. Rotating around won't actually solve the issues you have with what you've booked and paid for.

I think it comes down to how much you are willing to suck it up. If you (and everyone else) are willing to make the best of it then go for it. Take photos, make a complaint and then get on with enjoying your holiday.

If everyone is getting antsy about what is 'fair' and who got the best rooms first so the atmosphere is awful or you really can't face staying in those conditions then cut your losses and leave. Better that than spending your holiday fuming about it all and falling out with everyone.

But whatever you choose to do I don't think you can demand your money back from the others on the trip.

The girl who booked it needs to take it up NOW with the owner/agent. Leaving it will just make it easier for them to claim it wasn't that bad. Assuming the contract is in her name, she needs to take photos and tell them immediately that it is not acceptable, and you are expecting, at least, clean sheets and a plumber, as well as someone to sort the locks. Failing that, a significant refund. Do it today.

No way should your friends have to refund you so you can go elsewhere and/or be compensated for having a awful room - it's no more their fault than it is yours!

The owners/agents need to be contacted. If it was booked by credit card the credit card company should be able to advise too. Were the people it was booked through ATOL/ABTA protected? They should be able to arbitrate in the event of a dispute.

I think you all need to sit down tomorrow and sort it out. And agree with pp that someone needs to contact the agent / owner asap.

You can't ask others there for your money back, especially since you said its most of the rooms which are awful.

You all need to work towards a group solution of being moved/getting some money back.

A 'make the most of it' attitude from everyone would help rescue the holiday, and those with the nice rooms should really offer to swap round. Or they should be made to by the group!

Get the agent/owner round as-fucking-ap and deal with the immediate problems like dirty sheets.

After one too many villa holidays where there have been one or two god awful room/bed situations in an otherwise amazing villa we now don't book anything without floor plans and seeing photos of ALL rooms. One year we had a bedroom which was actually a tent. In Spain. In summer. Another year there was a bed for FOUR people. We are not swingers. After that we got really picky!

You see, I always seemed to be the one that people get to organise these things, therefore I always seem to be the one to have to sort out all the shite!

With people saying "I'm not paying, you tell them this, you tell them that" everyone has a different opinion and always knows best and will be so able to tell you how to deal with it and how you MUST demand this and MUST demand that.

As a PP said, the person organising it must deal with this NOW! Really, but it is the organisers holiday as well, she has also been "duped", she will be under massive pressure to please everyone wth their ridiculous demands of "oh I am staying in a hotel and you lot are paying" Really??

On the flip side, if the Villa had been above and beyond expectation and you felt that the price you paid was below the anticipated cost, based on negotiations from the organiser, would you be handing over a percentage to her for a job well done?

I no longer organise this type of thing for exactly the reasons in your original post.

This is the owner of the villa/holiday company at fault NOT the holiday organiser!

Agree with Charlie - no way can you blame the organiser and that you even consider asking the others who are in the same situation as you for more money so you can swan off and leave them to it.

Get together as a group and sensibly discuss what you are going to do.

So the people who got there first-what did they do?

Just bag the best rooms?

Did they warn anyone else or start any complaints/