To complain to Thomson/tui about this holiday situation.

[PrettyLittIeThing]

This isn't for me it's for my sister but she asked me to post. She has a holiday booked for July with them. She's paid the majority of it off and still has till may to finish paying it off. However she received a call from Thomson (or whatever it's called now) and they said she couldn't stay at the hotel she had booked anymore and she could either pay £250pp (it's her and her friend going) to stay at another hotel or have a refund. Has anyone had this happened to them? Is it worth a complaint?

Complete fuckers. Hope you get it sorted!

Weren't Thompsons in the news last year for very bad reasons ????

I remember thinking at the time they'd be lucky to stay in business ?

We had this earlier this year with Virgin. Our holiday was paid for in full and a month before we went I had a call from them and was told that the hotel we'd booked was closing for refurbishment when we should've been staying (they reckoned that they'd only just been told) and the only hotel they could offer us at the same rate was a lower star rating and much further away from where we wanted to be, to stay anywhere else would cost us £220 each.
We argued with them and eventually we were upgraded to a slightly more expensive hotel at no extra cost.

They can also change flights times in a minor way i.e 8 hours difference which does make a nice early start to your holiday carefully chosen by you something where we don't get to resort to nearly midnight!

If you have a to get a connecting ferry like we are in a few months that makes a big mess of your holiday plans.

I haven't had anything change this year but you never know!

They did it to us a few years ago only it was 10 days before we were due to travel. We lost our free child place and the holiday cost £400 more.

When we got to the resort we found they had put us in a duplex apartment and I couldn’t do the stairs. I had to crawl up and down them on my backside. When we came to fly home the arrogant rep told me I wasn’t disabled enough to travel in the medical seats and sold them on as extra legroom.

Needless to say as soon as I was able I complained and we got a full refund plus compensation. We have used them since and they’ve been fine.

Crystal (part of TUI) did this to us last year. We'd booked in April for a March ski holiday package, so 11 months notice. They downgraded us to a much smaller apartment, meaning we'd have to sleep on sofa beds and have no living room space, and offered peanuts by way of compensation.

We had the last laugh though. As it was a major change, we were allowed by law to drop the accommodation part of it (with full refund of what that would have cost) and keep the flights and transfers. The cheap deals on the flights and transfers were dependent on using their accommodation when we booked, but of course if it was no longer available through no fault of our own, they still had to honour the cheap flights and transfers.

End result - we found an incredibly swanky apartment twice the size available last minute for a full thousand pounds less than the accommodation refund we received. So we saved a large percentage of our holiday costs and ended up in a very fancy place!

For what it's worth, once I got through the "gatekeepers", the higher up lady I was dealing with was extremely helpful and apologetic and did a very good job of processing the refund promptly and looking into other options.

The less said about the other shenanigans around it all (including when we arrived in resort and got stranded because our lift passes didn't work!) is another matter.

We did DIY this year and won't look back ;-)

I suggest you see if there is anything else available for you to book yourself locally and put this to them. Sometimes they can book it themselves for you, or they may leave it up to you and refund your accommodation as happened with us.

Forgot to add - they did this to us with about a week left before we travelled. Clearly they have form for this judging by this thread

Interesting they can find the vast sums of money a rebrand and new logo required, plus driving us all insane for months with that advertising campaign featuring the 'Ain't Nobody' woman drippily waving her arms around - yet still the same shitty service.

I would complain
We were on an AI holiday a couple of years ago, lovely resort in the Caribbean. Another family were there, had booked through Thompson thought they were AI and discovered half way through their stay that Thompson had changed it's contract with the hotel and they were now half board but no one had told them.
To say the man of the family went bat shit down the hotel lobby phone to Thompson would be an understatement. I am not sure how they resolved it but the next few days of their holiday seemed stressful.
After that I would never use Thompson
After one Ski trip I would never use Crystal again either.

incy I imagine the shock and the stress was because they had been merrily consuming as if everything was included and the hotel wanted to bill them for lunches, drinks, ice creams etc?

That's shocking service.

We had previously booked a holiday with Thomas cook. They called me as the hotel we were booked in was now having structural work so they moved us to a slightly better hotel at a more central location FOC. Also with the same holiday we got an extra night in that hotel as they moved my flights by one day in my favour. Again we didn't pay a penny.

If it's their mistake they should be paying for it.

Years ago something similar happened to me self catering apartment wasn’t actually finnished .

Thomas Cook were excellent
They arrange a upgraded hotel at half board ( we were self catering ) and giving us 150 pounds each compensation.

I agree that if it’s their mistake they should be paying for it

We found out our hotel was not even built approx 3 days before we were due to fly with them. It was May half term too so everything decent booked up. The alternatives they offered were rubbish. We ended up booking another holiday through someone else (at vastly increased cost) and sued them thru Abta. We did finally win but it was stressful and took ages and we didn't get massively more than a full refund once fees were taken out.

I've only been on holiday twice with Thomson/Tui and I don't think I'd do it again.
First was one of their Sensatori hotels, and while everything was gorgeous there, the level of 'all inclusive' wasn't great. You literally got meals in the buffet, pool snacks (packets of crisps) and local drinks and that was it. The hotel down the road had a free laundry service and gave guests all free premium drinks, meals in all of its restaurants, as many towels as you wanted round the pool, and other things. I wish we'd have booked there and that wasn't a Thomson one. And there were things that were just .. shall we say 'off'. like the amount of food poisoning at the hotel. And the way that the balconies of the rooms were all joined so you had no privacy outdoors.

The second one was a Tui Family resort. Which while it was a great holiday (the AI was better) the room was shocking. The beds were like a mattress topper on a bed base, 2 singles pushed together. DD's 'bed' was a couch that was rock hard and right under the air con unit so freezing. She ended up in bed with us every night. And there was black mould all over the bathroom ceiling and the tops of the walls. We asked them to clean the room but nothing was ever done.

We've booked Majorca for June, and gone through Teletext holidays. Got AI in a gorgeous hotel, right on the beach, good room in a hotel that's all recently been refurbished and has excellent reviews. And about £500 cheaper than the last Tui holiday. I can't wait!!!

Shit we're book with TUI for July

Tui are terrible to deal with. I say that as a travel agent for an independent agency (who books through hundreds of different tour operators) and who has to spend countless hours on the agent's number, on hold, to deal with them with regards to customer complaints/problems. They do not give a shit, and are very, VERY reluctant to ever offer any kind of goodwill gesture.

I would advise your sister to contact ABTA for advice, and then to fight her corner - maybe accept the offer of the new hotel but refuse to pay any extra. She hasn't arsed up, they have. If the hotel has been overbooked then they will be chancing their arm with every client that's booked in there and hoping someone will move. Regardless, no-one should be having to pay. For every travel agent I've worked for, when you screw up, you have to pay (ie the agent, not the client!). Once the client has paid in full, that's it - their holiday is guaranteed at that price as far as I know.

Tui's customer service is appalling and they don't seem to care about causing upset. With all these large agents it's all about the money, but you'd think they'd want to keep their customers sweet and pay for any changes, so their customers would book with them again.

Recently I had a client who were advised by Jet 2 that they had found out there would be an issue with the hotel they had booked - they offered them an upgrade to a MUCH more expensive one at no extra cost, or a full refund if they didn't want to move. On top of this they were getting £50 pp as way of compensation, whether they took the new hotel or the refund. They are great and easy to deal with, and genuinely seem to care about keeping their customers happy.

Just so you all know - Thomas Cook and Jet 2 are broadly speaking less expensive and have better customer service than Tui. I only really book them for clients if they're the only ones who have the hotel required, otherwise I try to avoid them. There's more complaints about them than anyone else, and it's me that ends up having to sort their shit out!

TUI famously cancelled our honeymoon about 3 months out, we had to rebook flying from a different airport and didn't get the 'special' room etc etc.

Took many years before I'd book with them again

Wow thanks for all the comments. Wasn't expecting so many similar stories (I haven't been on holiday in years so no experience with tui!) the advice is all very useful so I will pass it on to her now. Thanks again.

I wonder if the Paper that Supported the Blackshirts will cover this thread? Or do their travel writers not want to upset TUI?

Pretty sure it was Thomson who did this to me a few years ago. Booked a room well over a year in advance for me, my ex and our 2 kids, 1 who was under 2 and requested a cot for the youngest with no issues until literally 3 days before when we got a call saying we had to pay £250 for a room upgrade as the room we had booked didn’t have space for a cot. Or accept a refund. Ex had booked time off work, we were packed and eldest DC was excited about our holiday and where we would be staying. We paid. Was still pissed off though.

@Barbara yes I imagine that did cause the stress, I really felt for them the hotel prices weren't cheap which is why we went AI and it was miles from anywhere so to even go out and eat would cost a fortune. I felt really bad, because up until then they seemed to be having a lovely time.

I've had a few years of lovely holidays with Tui/Thomsons But this year have booked with Jet2, they have £100 per person off holidays at the moment. Have a look OP.