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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

Holiday accommodation from hell! AIBU?

91 replies

Weekendfromhellll · 18/03/2022 21:06

NC for this.

My partner, myself and our toddler have gone on a weekend away five hours from home. We picked a lovely lodge with a hot tub. Well, we’ve arrived and it’s awful. It’s not a lodge, it’s a cottage which is also fine but not as advertised. But that isn’t the issue - the hot tub is around the side of the building with the jets not working, the cot they’ve put in the bedroom is broken, there is dust absolutely everywhere and the bathroom is filthy (last persons toilet stains still there), no plug for the bath, there’s an upstairs bit with flimsy railing so I don’t want my toddler upstairs, the oven is broken, there is a random freezer in the living room and the Wifi doesn’t work. I might seem to be overreacting here (and please tell me if I am) but £400 for this, and that’s a lot of money to us. We wanted a relaxing weekend away with local things to do for our toddler - which there thankfully is - but I just want to go home. I’ve contacted the owner who is rejecting my calls and has ignored my message, I’ve contacted the third party we booked through who are telling me to get in touch with the owner, and it’s too late to travel back home now. AIBU to leave tomorrow and ask for a full refund, or shall I just suck it up and get on with the weekend?

OP posts:

IsThisNameTaken · 19/03/2022 19:22

Did you pay by credit card OP? We had a similar thing with an apartment booked through booking.com last summer - both the agent and booking.com refused to refund so I went to the credit card company and did a section 75 (i think that's what it was called) claim.

Newschapter · 19/03/2022 21:52

@Weekendfromhellll

Oh I know the road noise is on me, I totally should have checked. Haven’t complained to Hoseasons about that. We left this morning after awaiting to hear back from the owners as advised by Hoseasons who said they had only taken over the properties in December and were aware the walls were bad but hadn’t had the opportunity to decorate yet. They said they’d cleaned before we arrived but upon fixing the cot (which my toddler didn’t sleep in and which still isn’t fixed) found more cobwebs in there. They didn’t realise the jets weren’t working. We’ve been waiting on a call back from Hoseasons who have informed us the park have told them we ‘refused a reclean’ and ‘refused to show them where the dirt is’ (none of which is true) and therefore will not offer any form of refund. Hoseasons have said they are not liable and it is to the discretion of the park - they have asked however that we write in once we arrive home with all images attached (I have already done this but they said they now need to treat it as a post-holiday complaint) and wait up to 28 days for a response from the owner. Ultimately we’re £400 out of pocket and a nice break has turned into 10 hours of driving, being accused as liars and a sour taste left. Want to cry.

Do they have proof you refused to let them reclean and refused to show them where the dirt is?

TheWitchersWife · 20/03/2022 08:40

We had this with a hoseasons property. We ended up leaving early because it wasn't enjoyable or safe.
We'd booked 7 nights and stayed 3.
They originally offered us 10% off our next stay 🤨
We turned it down. We explained all the issues in full, with photographic evidence. The people who owned the place we stayed in did admit that everything I had complained about was correct, and that they had recently spent alot of money on refurbishments but not in either of the cabins we stayed in (that's right, the first one we was put in with a 2 and 4 year old didn't have working heating in December!).
They eventually came back with a 50% refund, which we accepted.

Maves · 20/03/2022 11:11

I've had this turned up it was the wrong cottage filthy dog hair every where. I did send pics after she got defensive though so I showed dates/times on pics luckily for me I'd paid half up front before I went they were meant to take half on arrival but didn't do fuck them. People make out it's amazing blah blah but in reality it's a shit state

ninnynonny · 20/03/2022 11:22

We had this in 2012. I actually posted about it on mumsnet and got threatened by the agency and had to take it down. It was grim and we complained from day 1.
The responses I got were along the lines of 'you've made our cleaner cry' (well maybe she should have cleaned the place); 'your kids broke the bed by jumping on it (no they didn't, they nearly got badly injured when it broke underneath them' we've never had any complaints before' (threats must have worked those times); and much more nastiness.
I went through the small claims court (even though the owner said I was making him ill with the stress!) and we got about 85% back.
It was awful

PriamFarrl · 20/03/2022 11:25

Oh poor you.

Did anyone at the park make any contact with you? How can they say you refused a clean if they didn’t speak to you?

Ragruggers · 20/03/2022 11:28

We spent a week in a so called 5 star house in November.5 bedrooms slept 10.3 bathrooms but you could only use 1 at a time as there was no water pressure,great fun in the morning with 6 children.The tumble dryer was so old it didn’t turn it’s self off.The dishwasher tripped the electric,again old.Dining chairs were past it and some were broken.Bunkbed mattresses needed replacing.In the summer this £4.300 a week.Yes ,Cornwall.

Gonnagetgoing · 20/03/2022 11:38

A couple of years ago I went to a cottage in north Wales (booked through an external company) with partner, it was unsafe, wires exposed etc. Hot tub like yours, not working.

We found a b&b in next village that had space luckily (miles away from hotel!) and then went to small claims court and got almost all of the money back. We did take lots of photos, emailed to owners who tried to make out we were being picky etc. Ours wasn’t £400 I think £300.

Gonnagetgoing · 20/03/2022 11:41

@IsThisNameTaken I think ours was via booking.com too and we did the same claim as you as booked via credit card, either got all or most of money back. Like you said, booking.com didn’t want to know either despite us saying it was unsafe!

fairgame84 · 20/03/2022 11:42

Im surprised that hoseasons are being so shitty about it, normally they are pretty helpful.
I hope you manage to get a full refund, it sounds awful.

maddiemookins16mum · 20/03/2022 11:49

Who is your contract with? Hoseasons or a direct owner?

LookItsMeAgain · 20/03/2022 11:50

My advice is to follow the advice above, and to send your information into BBC Watchdog too. Alert as many people as you can to this type of behaviour. Hoseasons don't get to shirk their responsibilities as the company that took on this property (or properties) as they should have made sure that it was safe, if nothing else from a health and safety perspective. This clearly wasn't safe. Or habitable. They also missold a holiday. They sold it as one with a hot tub (and you'd have to make a huge leap to guess that the hot tub wasn't working) and this one had a non-working hot tub.

I really hope you manage to get your money back (and possibly compensation for a wasted trip).

Flowersandhearts · 20/03/2022 11:53

Our whole family once fell sick with Norovirus from staying in a similarly disappointing holiday rental (there was diarrhoea on the loo brush when we arrived) and nothing had been cleaned. So definitely ring Hoseasons several times stating that you wish for them to contact the owner as you have tried to contact her several times to no avail, state that there are health and safety issues with the holiday rental and that you think that it has been falsely advertised (totally Hoseasons problem whether they agree with you or not!!).

Mummyoflittledragon · 20/03/2022 12:13

The park would need to show paperwork to prove you refused a clean, surely? It should be signed or have been emailed to you seeing as you left. Otherwise this is just your word against theirs.

Did you even contact the park? And itemised bill of calls made that day from all phones will show whether you called or not if they claim you didn’t go to reception.

To back up you claim, maybe take a screenshot on your phone of all the times you tried to call the owner, keep any messages and write down your understanding of any conversations.

You may indeed need to go to small claims. 😤

PotterHead1985 · 20/03/2022 12:16

Grim.

Why was I not surprised to find you had booked through Hoseasons though!? Check out the boycott Hoseasons page on the book of faces and you will find you are far from alone.

LakieLady · 20/03/2022 12:26

We once managed to somehow book a room on Booking.com that turned out to be in a bail hostel

Sorry, @Hellocatshome, but this really made me lol. It must have been awful, but I'm mystified as to how someone effectively sublet a bail hostel room. They're usually staffed, ime.

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