Complaint about UK hotel

[Georgyporky]

Is there an overall governing body for UK hotels?
Who gives accreditation? What defines a 3 hotel etc?
Can't seem to find the answers.

Background, we stayed at an independent hotel, allegedly 3*.
Their website described it as a "luxury hotel", & we paid extra for a "de luxe" room. It was not good - many things were wrong. Manager was rude & unhelpful.

The website contained errors/lies - as well as deliberate omission of important information.

I'd let it go & put it down to experience, but we paid a lot of money to stay in this awful place.

www.which.co.uk/reviews/uk-hotel-chains/article/hotel-star-ratings-explained-a0bgV3M8kfx2

You could also maybe try Trading Standards . What was wrong with it qnd what lies did they tell.

Tell us more?

consumerarbitration.co.uk/how-to-complaint-about-a-hotel/

Trading standards don't deal with individual complaints.

Unless the hotel is part of one of the arbitration schemes, if you're looking for money back you'd need to go to small claims. What are your complaints?

Fleas, that scheme is only available for hotels that subscribe to the scheme.

Oh, who can you complain to then if the staff are not interested.

There are various schemes I think, each with is own criteria.

It should say on their website who they are accredited by, I.e. AA, Visit England etc.

From there you can work out what their stars mean.

I wouldn't personally expect too much for 3 stars though

You’ll need to see what the criteria for three stars are. It used to be more about facilities than luxuriousness, for example.

What are some examples of what their website said vs the reality?

What are the reviews like on tripadvisor?

Hotels are outrageously expensive at the minute due to demand. I wouldn't expect a 3 star to be amazing.
Best way would be to have complained to the hotel at the time, but even then unless there was something abjectly wrong with the hotel. We got moved to a better room once when our room was like an oven and then the shower didn't work, but if it just wasn't as fancy as you would have liked then probably little grounds for complaint.

I wouldn't expect much of a 3 star hotel.

What are the complaints ?

I also wouldn’t expect much from a 3 star hotel, I wouldn’t expect luxury from it

You could try a chargeback on your credit card. I have just done that for a very disappointing stay at a glamping site that bore no relation at all to their website. They can appeal against the chargeback, but you can then appeal their appeal.

If you didn't pay by credit card you can try Small.Claims but you do need proof- photographs etc.

Thanks for all your replies. I now know where to direct my complaints.

I agree that I wouldn't normally expect much from a 3* hotel, but they described it as "luxury". Utter rubbish.
TA reviews were variable, but closer inspection shows the good reviews were posted by people who had only made 1 review !