Ruined Holiday, how to claim compenstation?

[Queenofheart]

We have just returned from a holiday where the hotel was in a horrendous state, absolute filth and nothing like what was advertised.

Whilst there I contacted the holiday company to tell them about the issues and that I would be writing to them on my return, I was just contacting them to log the complaint. I didn't want them to contact the hotel whilst there due to possible repercussions from the staff that were quite agressive when I asked to move rooms.

I have written a three page letter and sent nearly 40 images of the issues. I have been offered £171 and £100 off my next holiday with them which I have told them is unacceptable, due to the holiday being completely ruined and them being in breach of contract.

They have come back to me and said they are unable to consider my request for further reimbursement.

I want to take this further as we spent 10 days at a place that was not fit for purpose, a lot of the facilities advertised where not available, it was completely ruined.

I thought I could complain to ABTA but they can’t award compensation, or require their members to offer compensation in disputes.

Has anyone got any advise on how I take this further, am I looking at a small claim court?
thank you

Thanks. This was a package that included flights and accommodation with food only I paid separately for transfers.
I don’t expect to get the full amount back because like you say flights were provided and no issues, the only complaint I have is with the state of the hotel and the fact that they breached their contract because of missing facilities
haven’t said that the facilities that weren’t available didn’t matter because we spent very little time in the hotel anyway

That’s disgusting .

Yeah that’s gross
what star is this? Wow

I’m not expecting to be compensated for things I didn’t like at the hotel, I’m expecting compensation for the disgusting state of the hotel and elements of things that were advertised and were not provided.

I reckon if your holiday was £2k, your accom was probably around 1/3 of this, so let’s just say even at most maybe £900 (the rest will be flights, air taxes, accom taxes baggage fees etc)
they’ve probably offered you less than 1/5 of your accommodation costs back plus £100 off your next holiday which obviously you said you won’t use
its not great but it’s a starting point
is it a senior complaints team member who’s responded ? If not ask for a senior member /supervisor to look at it again
best of luck it looks awful

Supposedly 4*
yes it was gross
I actually got some cleaning supplies and cleaned the room the best I could myself
in 10 days the cleaner came into our room once
I was helping myself to towels and sheets off the trolley in the corridor 😐

Thank you

The first letter was signed just someone’s name no title the second one didn’t even have anybody’s name
I spoke to citizen advice today and they’ve told me who to contact at the holiday company and write to them and if I don’t get anywhere to go back to them, they’ve logged my complaint. Not sure what they can do but I’m going through the process.

Unfortunately citizens advice can’t really ‘do’ anything. It’ll be follow the complaints procedure with the company (escalate to highest level) and if still not happy then ABTA. It costs the holiday company around £200 if you go to ABTA so sometimes they will up the compensation so you don’t do that
its worth a shot
otherwise did you pay on credit card? May be worth getting the ball rolling on a chargeback.

You’ll need to ask them for a final response to the complaint and then take that to ABTA to prove you’ve followed the complaints process with the company
as I said the other option credit card chargeback, worse than can happen is it gets declined might be worth a shot.

Ah right, I’ll leave CAB then as I’m spending a lot of time so trying to sort this as it is. There’s been some good suggestions here of how to try and progress this , I appreciate it mumsnetters thank you

Yes I’ve been advised of who to contact now I have not got anywhere with the complaints department, so I’m going to do that tomorrow
Happy to contact ABTA , however they can’t award compensation, or require their members to offer compensation in disputes, so not sure it’s worth it
I didn’t pay on credit card I paid on my debit card so no come back there

Good luck OP I think it’s positive you e got a starting point of somerhing
believe me 90%+ of complaints will get nothing. So shows they are accepting some liability x

Visa offer a non statutory chargeback option on their debit cards:

www.visa.co.uk/chargeback.html

Oh wow thank you very much I’ll read into that

That is shocking!! I would want to be paid 2k to use that bathroom. Def as others said the papers! 4 star my hole!! Sometimes the papers pick these stories up on Mumsnet. Post a few more photos get yourself trending. I would fight this to the end.

If you are going to take it to small claims or arbitration, focus more on what was advertised and what was not delivered.

Not a three page rambling rant.

Shower screen, stains on mattress, I'll fitting sheet are fairly minor things that could be summarised in 'poor level of general cleanliness '.

Failure to provide what was included in their own descriptions, leaking sewage etc will get across your points better.

Go through your letter and number or group them into categories under each of the 'not as advertised ' categories.

Dean Dunham is a consumer lawyer and has a show on LBC radio (think it's Sunday evenings). He's pretty much the best there is when it comes to consumer law.

I would called / text in and ask for advice. I think he may have a website as well.

I got a full refund from Tui for a holiday about 13yrs ago. 3 days before we were due to go we were told our hotel was having extensive works done on the pool so it wasn’t possible for us to go. They moved us to another hotel, but put us in a duplex apartment with very steep stairs. We didn’t know this until we got there, but they knew I was disabled. We, also, lost our free child place so had to pay extra to go there. We asked to move straight away but they had no where to put us so I spent the whole time going up and down stairs on my backside.

The icing on the cake was when we got to the airport to fly home and the senior rep told me I “wasn’t disabled enough” to sit in the medical seats which had been pre booked in the UK a year before. They moved me up the plane and sold the seats as extra legroom.

I complained to them when we got back, they rejected it straight away so I wrote back saying I didn’t accept what they were saying so they escalated it to a manager. She offered us £250 in compensation. Her phone number was on the letter so I rang it and explained exactly what had gone on, how I’d been discriminated against and how I’d take it further. She asked what she could do? So I said a refund at least. I ended that phone call with a refund and £500 in compensation.

They always knock you back straight away because they hope people accept their first offer. Just stand your ground.

That's entirely wrong. It's not like you just can walk out and go home, like at a restaurant. Even if you could get flights or an alternative hotel, you'd have to pay in full, and that may not be possible.

Have a look at the T’s and C’s - I can almost guarantee there will be a clause along the lines that some of the facilities described may not be available at all times.

Of your holiday cost a big proportion will be in relation to the flights, which you used so cannot form part of the compensation claim. Ditto an element for the food / drink you used. So you are left with the element of the cost related to the hotel element. The nearly £300 you have been offered is likely to be a large proportion of that value and therefore a reasonable offer you are unlikely to better by taking it to court (and could in fact be worse off).

Not a lawyer.

I would say that the company may argue that cleanliness is subjective - the photos you have posted are pretty bad but what is clean and what is acceptable can't be easily quantified.

However if you went expecting nightly entertainment and the choice of 3 pools (because that's what it said on the website) and you found that entertainment was only every 4 days and 2 pools were closed, then those are absolute facts.

Thanks yes, I have checked the facilities on their site this morning and there's quite a few listed that were not available when we were there, so i will be concentrating on those more taking this forward.

I have gone right through their T&Cs this morning and searched for this and there's nothing.

I know £271 might sound a good deal but £100 of that is a voucher to use on their site, if I don't use them again that's no good.

I understand the court scenario, I won't be going down that route as it probably won't be worth it.

What do the ts and cs say about dispute resolution?