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Thomson have "downgraded" our room 6 weeks before holiday, what to do?

46 replies

DarkBlueEyes · 29/06/2016 07:32

We are were booked into a hotel with separate bedrooms for us and the children - a sliding partition between the rooms so we both have privacy. Yesterday I got an email from Thomson which says the following:

We've been advised that the features for your chosen room type were loaded incorrectly. Unfortunately, this means that your room will not have a sliding partition.

They then state they wanted us to know so that there would be no confusion when we travel.

I am mightily annoyed, as we were deciding between several hotels and this is a key criteria for us when booking. I didn't book a one bedroom hotel, I booked, and paid, for a two bedroom one!

I tried to call them yesterday but they were experiencing "high demand" probably from all the pissed off people who were ringing to complain

Any advice as to what I can do or how I should approach this?

OP posts:
Scarydinosaurs · 29/06/2016 16:23

Yes, how much time do you have? When do you fly?

Why does it take them days to sort out??

Scarydinosaurs · 29/06/2016 16:24

I would wait for them to come back to you and THEN use the above to negotiate if you're not happy.

Marthacliffscumbag · 29/06/2016 16:25

I dont suppose this is a sensatori hotel by any chance?!

DarkBlueEyes · 29/06/2016 16:26

No it's not. It's one of the platinum ones.

OP posts:
Marthacliffscumbag · 29/06/2016 16:48

If you go on the Facebook page for your hotel you'll probably find lots of people in your position. I know this has been the case with hundreds of travellers booked into sensatori hotels over the summer.
Unfortunately not one person has had the original room reinstated or given a refund for the difference, the only thing Thomson have allowed them to do is cancel and get a full refund.
Unfortunately it's in the small print that they are allowed to do this.

prh47bridge · 29/06/2016 19:48

Unfortunately not one person has had the original room reinstated or given a refund for the difference

Under the Regulations Thomson's MUST refund the difference in price if the consumer accepts a substitute package of lower quality. They cannot override this in their small print. Indeed, they don't attempt to do so. Their Terms and Conditions for package holidays state, "we will always refund the difference in price if the replacement holiday is of a lower standard and price, at the date of the change".

DarkBlueEyes · 30/06/2016 07:56

Hi Lizzie, it's in the thread title, we go in about 6 weeks, so yes, I'll wait. I've looked on the hotel Facebook page and nothing. There are lots of complaints on the Thomson page (some very amusing) but nothing about this one. It seems they just delete posts like that. I'll check out their Twitter feed, that is good advice.

First world problem I know, but it's been an unbelievably stressful year for us (won't bore you with the details) and I was so looking forward to a holiday!

At least we didn't book Turkey I suppose. Those poor people Sad.

OP posts:
dementedpixie · 30/06/2016 08:01

Does it not mean that there are still separate rooms but without a sliding partition I.e. It is open plan with no doorway in between or have they stated that it is just one room?

dementedpixie · 30/06/2016 08:03

P.s. We are going to turkey on Saturday but to an airport 440 miles away form the one targeted the other day. Still makes you worry but the FCO hasn't said not to go so no way to change it now without losing all our money.

jammyraspberry · 30/06/2016 08:07

Are you going to Crete as I had the exact same problem. I have to say that they were very helpful and we are now going 3 days earlier and have a suite rather than family room but took some time and me repeatedly says one room wasn't acceptable.

Search online for alternative dates if you can do this and get them to change it for you.

DarkBlueEyes · 08/07/2016 15:09

Hi all. I finally got through on Wednesday 29th June and was told it would be sorted out in 3-4 days. No surprises there and I've lost the piece of paper I wrote the agent's name down on (parking stub. Stupid me). Anyway, I've emailed them with this, hopefully it might make some difference:

^Dear Thomson

I have lost the will to live trying to get through to your change team by phone. I have been emailed by the Change Team to advise of a change in our room:

We've been advised that the features for your chosen room type were loaded incorrectly. Unfortunately, this means that your room will not have a sliding partition.

Whenever I book a summer holiday, I ALWAYS choose a room that has separate bedrooms for my husband and I and our children, so that we can read in bed, watch TV, whatever, so downgrading us is absolutely unacceptable as we would not have booked this holiday had we known that it was one bedroom for four people.

I have looked on the website and see that this category of rooms is still available so there is no reason why you cannot allocate us the correct category of room. Last Wednesday 29th June, I spoke to one of your agents who assured me he would contact your in-resort team and have us allocated to the type of room we have booked. He said this would take 3 – 4 days but, unsurprisingly, I have not had any response and would now like to escalate this to someone more senior.

I believe that your action in downgrading our room category is a unilaterally imposed and unwanted change in one of the essential terms of the contract we have with you and is covered under Regulations 12 and 13 of the Package Holidays, Package Travel and Package Tours Regulations 1992.

We would prefer not to exercise our rights to compensation and/or a partial or full refund under this legislation at this time. We simply wish to have the category of room we have booked – which is one with two separate sleeping areas at an equivalent or higher standard than the room we booked. We are sure that it is within your abilities to resolve this issue quickly and without further ado.

We would like to give you an opportunity to put this right in one of the following ways:
• Allocate our family to a room with a sliding partition or separate bedrooms like the room we originally booked
• Allocate two rooms with interconnecting doors of a standard no less than that we originally booked
• Allocate us a superior room with two bedrooms
• Offer us equivalent accommodation at an equivalent (platinum) standard of resort with all the features of the one we have chosen (please note the use of OFFER so we can research whether or not it is acceptable).

We have booked several holidays with Thomson and have never had a problem like this. Unfortunately if this cannot be resolved this will be the last time we book with your company.

Please can you acknowledge this email and outline the action you intend to take to resolve the problem so that I can be confident there is no need to escalate this further. Our departure date is 10th August and if we do not have a satisfactory resolution in a week then I consider further action.^

OP posts:
DarkBlueEyes · 08/07/2016 15:10

OMG I've just had an auto response. They aim to respond "within 14 days"

FFS!

OP posts:
takingsooty · 20/07/2016 00:07

Did you get a response Op?
I'm hoping you're in a 2 bed suite right nowWink

DarkBlueEyes · 20/07/2016 11:09

Hi takingsooty after I posted the earlier comment I got on the phone panicking and after six attempts and being on hold for half an hour I got through and spoke to the agent I'd originally spoken to. He had read the email! And had found an alternative resort for us with partitioned rooms. So we are now going to be near Ayia Napa, not Paphos, in a higher spec hotel allegedly and the additional £600 we would have paid for the package has been covered by Thomson. Flights are with EasyJet dammit but you can't have it all. So all in all I am happy and I don't think I could have done it without Mumsnet!

Sadly not in a suite, we go in a few weeks and it's not a 5* holiday so my expectations are pretty realistic I think. Fingers crossed!

OP posts:
takingsooty · 20/07/2016 14:34

That's such great news, well done and have a great hols.

Scarydinosaurs · 20/07/2016 14:36

Great news have a good holiday!

DarkBlueEyes · 20/07/2016 16:20

I'm sure the tweets I sent didn't hurt either....

OP posts:
sashh · 20/07/2016 16:32

if they are booked out then they are booked out? what do you expect them to do? magic one out of thin air?

Thompson will have other accommodation available, some hotels have flats/bungalows as well as rooms. Some have suits as well as rooms.

Another hotel might have adjoining rooms in the same resort.

OP

Just seen the update - hope you have a fab time.

kaileyG · 26/04/2017 10:31

DarkBlueEyes
i know this was a while ago but what was the outcome of this?
this has just happened to me yesterday and i am furious we booked a family room with partition door and a cot booked it in August last year and paid £437 for the upgraded room got a email yesterday saying infants are not longer aloud in that room, spoke to hotel and have transcript proof that they are unsure why thomsons have stated this as this is a family room and infants are welcome in all rooms in the hotel.
thomsons have said they will refund us £50 !!!

nauticant · 27/04/2017 10:52

His response was that he will email the in-resort team as there is no more availability for this type of room

I went through this with Thomson. It wasn't true because the hotel in my package was still bookable on the Internet for the relevant dates. What they were meant, while crossing their fingers, was in the allocation of rooms for that hotel to Thomson there was no availability.

Keep a record of every single communication you have with Thomson. They are willing to lie through their teeth about anything. When my case ended up in front of a judge she mentioned their lying in her judgement in my favour.

kaileyG · 28/04/2017 10:56

We have had to down grade our hotel to get a suitable room for us! It would have been better to cancel whole booking and rebook by about £200 but we had pre booked leg room seats so would have lost these also one girl stated they would refund us the leg room money as well and the second girl then said she is not willing to do we have changed hotel and been refunded money but still lost out as if we would have booked it ourselves 😔 And it seems a complaint can't go in until returning from holiday

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