to think a double booking is one of the worst things the owner of a holiday property can do?

[YoSaffBridge]

Without going into the boring ins and outs, how much response, contact or even compensation would you expect for a double booking at a holiday cottage, both for

Party A - the party that had to be put up in new accommodation, which was not up to the standard of the original property booked (hotel instead of self-catering) and not in quite the same location (next town over)

Party B - the party that stayed in the original accommodation, but spent several hours on their first evening with Party A in the property as new accommodation was sorted out.

If it matters, manager/owner did not live locally and so everything was sorted over the phone.

AIBU to think that a double booking is probably one of the cardinal sins for the manager of a holiday property, and the manager's reaction should at least acknowledge this?

Were the letters or their agent bonded to some sort of ombudsman? I'd be checking that. While it's worth putting a warning on tripadvisor it's had a very bad press for the last couple of years with malicious or invented posts - so I wouldn't use it anyway.

To paraphrase, the email said my email was poisonous, and said they were thrilled that I never want to come back.

I've been rereading my email to see if it was "poisonous" and I can't see it at all. It's strongly worded and explains that I felt we were left to deal with the situation without much support. I said that I was very disappointed because it put everyone involved in a very awkward situation and it was very strained that we were all there together for an hour or two.

Pleased to see that I'm not being too U to think that even as Party B we shouldn't be getting told to bugger off when complaining about the booking.

Poisonous?! That's very strong. They sound a bit unhinged. Probably not used to things going wrong!

aboslutely out of order-the owner shold be apologising for the inconvienience at least

im going away to a cottage next week am sincerely hoping this doesnt happen theres 7 of us including young kids and wont be arriving till midnight that would be interesting if someone else was there!

I would screen shot their email and your email and put it on trip advisor.

It could also have been very nasty if you had been out at dinner when Party A arrived - you'd have got back to discover strangers in amongst your stuff. You'd have assumed that the house had been broken into and had burglars in which would have been incredibly stressful and scary for everybody.

They would be freaking because they wouldn't know why there were strangers walking in on them when they were trying to unpack their things and discovering your things in the house.

Whoever left could have taken their stuff and accidentally or on purpose taken stuff that belonged to the other party. Or somebody could have claimed that their new iphone/camera/etc was taken even though it wasn't. Would have been a nightmare on insurance.

I think you're right, just because you weren't inconvenienced as much as the people that had to find alternative accommodation, you were inconvenienced and it was a horrible stressful start to a holiday which is never ideal. The fact that the other people were relatively reasonable and didn't attack you or steal anything or throw huge tantrums or otherwise behave badly is good for you - but you weren't to know that at the time.

As others have said, the response you've had has been shocking and they definitely deserve to be named and shamed on TripAdvisor (I'd put a picture of their email on there too, with names blacked out, so they can't pretend that you're exaggerating) and hope that the Daily Fail picked the story up too - they deserve it!

Thanks confuggled, that was what I was thinking re the actual evening itself. It really could have been a lot worse than it was and I'm annoyed the manager doesn't appreciate at least the potential for things to have been bad.

Their response is shocking, definitely leave honest reviews everywhere you can and keep complaining to owners, agents, regulators if you get no joy.

Of course the ones who had to leave were more affected. But you still had an evening of inconvenience and disruption and without your co-operation the other people would've been in a worse situation (stuck outside while sorting things out).

I would expect a sincere apology, probably a bottle of wine or vouchers for a meal out or something, but the apology is the main thing

You could totally do a Daily Fail 'Sad Face' story!

We really should. I could get DC to pose with their best hungry faces pointing at an empty fridge

DO IT!!

In all seriousness I would have definitely expected at least an apology, certainly not an aggressive reply.

I'm sure you're not being serious but I don't think you can really do a Fail sad face story if party A aren't going to.

No, I'm not being serious

But reassured to see that at the very least, an aggressive reply wasn't called for.

It's wrong that the owner didn't contact you before you did. They should have been in touch the following day to at least apologise. If they had any sense at all, even a bottle of bubbly costs nothing and could have diffuse the situation.

Trip advisor review, add picture of the emails (with contact details blanked out). Say what you have here, that you just wanted an apology. Also given you were only there for the weekend the couple of hours inconvenience actually affected a sognificant portion of your holiday.

That's really bad!! Hubby and I were double booked at a wee self catering holiday in the lake district a few years ago. Turns out the owners had gone out to Thailand to visit their very sick grandchild at the last minute and left the place in charge of a friend who hadn't realised she had to transfer bookings from one system to another. We were fine for the Friday night but the Saturday was double booked starting for a week.

She called us super early Friday morning when she realised and said we could cancel and get a full refund, come just for the Friday, or shed sort out a b and b for the Saturday as well. Even offered to drive us to the b and b if we'd not been taking the car, and asked our favourite colour of wine (you can guess why!)

In the end it worked out OK for us, and the b and b for the Saturday night was super nice but your situation sounds a lot worse! I'd be writing to the booking agents, copying in all your correspondence with the owner, and putting a nasty review on trip advisor. X

Shall I reply to the owner though?

I will probably do TripAdviser but am wary that the manager might just post something that will try and rubbish our review. No booking agents or anyone else to complain too.

I am tempted to respond to their email with an excessively polite one admiring their customer service skills and thanking for them taking the time to respond so thoroughly to my issues. Would that be wrong though?

I'd respond with excessive politeness too- it's the only way no point in getting into a row with them.

I would also post the picture of the email chain to trip advisor and write a factual review of the situation expressing disappointment not so much that it had happened but with the way they chose to deal with it.