Holiday error/compensation

[Mumshotel]

I've arrived in spain for a holiday. Booked a house with a private pool via booking.com.
Arrived and it's shared pool with 6 other houses. The advert clearly said on 3 occasions it's private.

my daughter has body confidence issues and now won't get in the pool. Part of the reason for booking private.

I've complained to the management company who accepted that the booking.com advert is wrong. They have stated 'as its a minor error we will send a compensation pack'. We have just returned to the house and there is a basket of fruit and 2 bottles of wine. Would you be happy with this?

Private is not the same as “sole use”. As it was very important to you I think you should have asked them to clarify this prior to booking, sorry. In a complex it is very common fur there to be shared “private” pools as PP have said

I advertise my property on BDC and found that it was listed as having a private pool - BDC listings are created by AI, and there is actually very little that owners control. Fortunately we caught it before we had any bookings, but it may not be the owners/manager’s fault, sometimes BDC and Airbnb have glitches which create errors in listings. That said, that isn’t your problem. Decide what resolution you would like, do you want to cancel and try to find somewhere else? Partial refund? Something else? And then try to negotiate from there.

No. It's not enough.

I thought they might offer a partial refund. I do think the problem lies with bdc more so than the owner. The owner apologised and said I'm their first booking since using bdc

I'll definitely check this in the future xx

I agree that you were misled. There are two categories of pool on booking.com, Private or Shared. Private pool means sole use. I'd request a 50% refund as you wouldn't have booked a property with a shared pool. Or ask them to find you a house with a private pool so you can transfer to there.

I did search for probste pool but I did not clarify with owner.

Why is a 3 storey house described as a 2 bedroom apartment?

What is the layout so all the houses share the pool?

We got a refund from BDC a few years ago when our 2 bed apartment consisted of a bedroom and a sofa bed in the kitchen (there was also no sitting room - you had to sit on the sofa to eat at the table). So you may be lucky!

Could your daughter not swim in a tee shirt and swim shorts?

I booked a place in Turkey last summer though bdc.

The place was lovely but there were some issues.

Could not get anywhere with bdc.

The owner got in touch and was lovely. Once the issues were rectified they said they would be refunding their part of my payment.

I paid £800 to bdc, I can’t remember exactly what I was refunded but it was around £550 I think. Meaning the rest of it was bdc’s cut. And they were totally unwilling to refund.

Even though the issues had all been caused, and made worse, by them.

shameful. They rip of holiday makers and they rip off owners.

I’ve stayed in apartments with a private pool and it is always shared with other apartments, the private means it’s not a public pool like swimming baths are rather than exclusive use. Plenty of villas share pools too.

I know it’s ambiguous but I suspect at best booking.com now you gave highlighted will make the owners add the word shared to private pool. Remember booking.com are only a booking site, they rely on owners to be truthful, plus the owners do not always have good English. If a feature is important to you, you need to email the owner, we do re parking because we need secure parking not a “free” space in a public car park or on street, learnt the hard way.

I know your dd has confidence issues but surely there are times the other residents aren’t there

Private absolutely means sole use. You have been misled OP.

We have a villa booked in the summer. There is a pool which is shared by our villa and the next door apartments. The listing makes it very clear and says “1 swimming pool with outdoor furniture”. It does not say “Private” as that would mean it is for our use only.

It is a private pool - it's not open to the public, only guests so they can accurately describe it as a private pool. A 'sole use private pool' would be just for your party.

DD could try swimming early morning as that's likely to be quietest & likely to have it to herself.

The shared pool is in a shared garden area behind another house. It is open to the public road and has a bar opposite.

I know I tried later in the evening. I'll see if she wants to go in the morning with her t shirt on. It's not the end of the world as we have been doing other things and had a nice time. I just need to make sure I clarify things in the future. I've poured a glass of said wine now though and it's actually nice.
I'll just make sure it's sole use etc. The advert had mistakes but I have to take some responsibility for not clarifying now I've read all the responses
Thanks everyone. I just wanted advice on weather I was blowing it up a bit out proportions.

OP, if you get no joy with BDC, you could take them to the small claims court when you get back to the UK. You could also try the credit card company if you paid with credit card.
I do use them but I try and get reviews from other websites too. I usually try and book direct with the owners but unlike they say, sometimes it is cheaper with BDC.

An apartment is very unlikely to have a private pool.

They should have said shared pool but I would have asked about the pool situation before booking,

The owner is likely to argue they meant the pool is for the private use of all residents, which is what most people would assume when booking an apartment as opposed to the entire building, e.g, the whole villa.

I did use a credit card actually. We have usually stayed in hotels before but she's in them awkward teenage years and I just thought it would be nice for her. No one would bat an eyelid at her wearing shorts and t shirt I'm sure.

On bdc the categories for pools are "shared" or "private". This is clearly a shared pool, it was 100% misadvertised.

The only other thing was the advert had a photo of another pool that was private. Not a picture of the actual pool we can use. It was clearly fenced off at the rear of the property.

You are right. I recall searching for it

Good to know. Have never had problems with a booking, so use them a lot.

Good to know they are shit if you have a problem.
That will make me more careful with them going forward.

Thanks.

OP, that is a huge mistake.
If they refuse to play ball, would you consider going via X, and bring it into the public domain?

Trading standards?
Ombudsman?

This is the picture of pool on advert. I assumed taken with a drone or from next door.

Why would a house have multiple private pools?