Small claims or chargeback for disastrous holiday ?

[Allatseatoday]

Hi All,

Grateful for any advice

I booked a holiday for 9 nights long haul for my 80 year old mum's birthday

Had stayed in the hotel before , they sell premium sea view rooms, premium.rooms, standard rooms and basic rooms a nearby annex over a main road. Priced in descending order.

Couldn't afford premium sea view so splashed out and got premium room as a special occasion.. All booked through a well known online travel agent.

Got there, on check in our holiday company had booked us an annex room with no balcony , overlooking a main road, no terrace just a window , pretty basic. Yet taken my cash and confirmed a premium room to me, big price difference. Asked hotel to show me what travel agent had sent them and they had indeed booked us a basic annex room

Spent first 3 days of the holiday trying to get travel agent to resolve, through linkedin mails to emoloyees , Facebook page and email.

No joy, they told me.they had booked me a premium room in the annex, the hotel however does not by its own admission have premium rooms in the annex.

Hotel pretty sympathetic as annex is a long walk away from facilities of hotel and my mum in the heat not loving the walking to restuarant and pool and no Wi-Fi in annex

On day 3 afternoon hotel realising that holiday company not doing anything offered me a very cheap rate to a premium room which I took up

How pissed would you be and would you do a chargeback or a small claims.? Have all evidence and can prove spent 9 hours emailing , on calls , linkedin, chat etc trying to resolve

If it wasn't my mum's birthday I.might have left it but so wanted her to have a great time after recent health scare !

I don't think you can do a chargeback without trying to contact them first. So I would send one email telling them that you want a refund and if not you will submitting a chargeback by x date and take it from there. Also do they have any official complaints procedure you can follow? And was it under the limit for small claims? I would definitely pursue it especially as you had extra costs while there to upgrade and all the wasted time on holiday

I think you will need to follow the companies complaints procedure first. Have you looked on facebook to see if there is a group such as Holiday Company Complaints/Unhappy Customers etc. There are quite a few there depending on what company it is.

There is a good advise on some (not all) the posts about the complaints procedures/where to send complaint etc. A friend of mine got some good advice in one of these groups and eventually got a full refund and a voucher for a disaster of a holiday.

Yes have told them I want a partial.refund and extra costs refunded and no reply !

also told them.i was giving them 3 days to resolve or I would pay hotel direct for the room I had booked and go to small claims to recover
No response

You need to follow the complaints process first, are they abta registered?

Yes they are

I think ABTA have their own complaints procedure.

www.abta.com/help-and-complaints/customer-support